WWE: Why CM Punk's Title Run Has Been a Success

The critics have continuously blasted CM Punk’s current reign as WWE Champion for a wide range of reasons.

They’ve said things like this: “Man, Punk’s title reign has sucked. He hasn’t even main-evented a pay-per-view yet this year.”

Or this: “Punk’s feud with Jericho was such a letdown. It could have been so much better.”

Or this: “Punk’s so boring as a babyface. Now that he’s WWE Champion, he’s just like John Cena.”

It’s OK to criticize and critique Punk’s title reign.

After all, that’s what we wrestling fans love to do, and never in history has a World champion had a perfect title reign.

But even though I would have done some things different during Punk’s current title run, there’s still only one word I’d use to describe it: Successful.

Although we can look at the negatives all day if we want to, there have been so man positives that have accompanied Punk’s nearly 10-month long WWE Championship reign.

Punk was a star in the making last summer, but there’s no doubt in my mind that he wouldn’t be considered “the best in the world” if this title reign wasn’t one giant way to put him over.

Because—make no mistake about—that’s exactly what this reign has done for Punk.

Sure, he was very popular prior to last summer and prior to winning the WWE Championship at Survivor Series 2011, developing a bit of a cult following, especially on the Internet.

He was not, however, a consistent main-eventer or someone that the WWE had faith in as a full-time top guy.

Punk’s WWE title reign has changed that.

The list of WWE superstars he’s defeated during his current run as WWE Champion reads like a “who’s who” of pro wrestling.

He’s successfully defended his title against the following superstars: Alberto Del Rio, Big Show, Chris Jericho, Daniel Bryan, Dolph Ziggler, John Cena, Kane, Kofi Kingston, Mark Henry, The Miz and R-Truth.

That doesn’t even take into consideration all of the other big non-title victories he’s picked up along the way over guys like Rey Mysterio.

In other words, Punk has beaten just about every WWE star that he’s crossed paths with over the last 10 months.

How can that be a bad thing? How can someone look at that and not be impressed by it?

A few years ago, no one would have imagined that Punk would run through that list of superstars like he’s done, much less do it by beating just about every one of those guys 100 percent cleanly.

But Punk’s title reign has said a lot about how much faith Vince McMahon, the creative team and other company officials have in him, and regardless of how the rest of his championship run plays out, that makes the last 10 months of Punk’s career a huge success.

It’s been about more than just putting Punk over, though.

Go back to November 2011, and think about how many fantastic TV and pay-per-view matches Punk he has had since then.

He had a phenomenal series of TV and pay-per-view matches with Daniel Bryan that resulted in “Match of the Year” contenders at both Over the Limit and Money in the Bank.

He also had great PPV matches at WWE TLC (against The Miz and Alberto Del Rio), the Royal Rumble against Dolph Ziggler, WrestleMania 28 and Extreme Rules against Chris Jericho and a number of memorable TV matches with guys like Kane, Ziggler and even Mark Henry.

Had Punk spent the last 10 months away from the World title scene, there’s almost zero chance that he would have had the run that he’s had.

We all know that the midcard has been next to nonexistent in recent years, so if Punk wasn’t the WWE Champion all this time, he likely never would have been given the opportunity to shine.

But shine is exactly what Punk has done.

He’s consistently beat some of the biggest names in the industry, and along the way, he’s delivered great promos and, most importantly, great matches that will be talked about for years.

If I told you that your WWE Champion would constantly deliver in the ring and on the mic and that he’d beat that list of stars in title matches, would you genuinely be able to call that reign unsuccessful?

Well, if you say yes, then you’re just hard to please.

Punk’s reign as WWE Champion has been a bona fide success, especially when you compare it some of the crappy runs we’ve seen in recent years.

But hey, if you think that Punk’s reign has sucked, then we can always go put the belt back on Del Rio for a couple of months.