After Months of Getting Screwed, CM Punk Must Win the Big One at WWE SummerSlam 2025

CM Punk will challenge for the World Heavyweight Championship Saturday night at SummerSlam when he squares off with Gunther in one of the weekend's biggest matches.

It is a matchup between two of the most prominent stars on WWE Raw, as well as a contest originally scheduled for WrestleMania 41, as revealed on WWE Unreal, the new documentary series on Netflix.

It was one of several instances of Triple H and WWE Creative initially booking Punk to be in a significant spot, only to have him taken out of the equation and slotted in somewhere else.

He was the consensus favorite to win the men's Royal Rumble match before one or two opinions shifted to Jey Uso. He was one of two names discussed for a men's Elimination Chamber victory.

In each instance, he was pushed to the background in favor of someone else and while he still got to achieve his childhood dream of competing in the main event of WrestleMania, it's hard not to notice he has been in a lot of must-win matches over the last year and earned victory in only a few of them, making his SummerSlam bout with The Ring General that much more important.

While Punk is a massive star on the back end of his career and putting others over is admirable, WWE cannot afford one of its biggest draws becoming someone whose connection suffers with audiences because he cannot win the big one.

At some point, all of his extraordinary promos ring hollow if he continues to falter on the biggest stages, no matter the circumstances of those losses.

Monday represented another banner night for The Straight Edge Superstar as he expressed his need to defeat Gunther for the world title.

It was a guttural response and one that fans immediately connected with based on their reaction to his words. If Punk does not get the job done, regardless of whether he loses clean or there is chicanery involving Paul Heyman or even a hobbled Seth Rollins, that connection weakens.

The fans have seen him get screwed over far too often, whether it was Rollins or Drew McIntyre holding him down. Punk needs the win and WWE must pay off the audience's patience and willingness to hang in there with its favorite wrestler through his trials and tribulations.

In an era when there are few stars who transcend the WWE bubble and have proved to be big names in popular culture, Punk is one of them. Tarnishing how brightly his star shines to continue getting other acts over instead of celebrating this renowned competitor by paying off his journey to the top is a creative misstep that will do more harm than good in the long term.

The time is now to provide Punk and his fans the moment that has been teased since late last year and ensure he stands tall as the new world heavyweight champion Saturday night at MetLife Stadium.