CM Punk Beats Bron Breakker to Retain WWE World Title on Historic Raw on Netflix

CM Punk defeated Bron Breakker on the first WWE Raw episode of 2026 to retain the World Heavyweight Championship.

Punk became world champion in November, and it was indirectly thanks to Breakker, whose actions led to the title becoming vacant.

On the post-Crown Jewel episode of Raw in October, Breakker shocked the WWE Universe by taking Seth Rollins out with a spear. Rollins had handpicked him to be part of The Vision, but Breakker turned on Rollins much more quickly than most anticipated.

Bronson Reed joined Breakker in attacking Rollins, and Paul Heyman decided to remain loyal to Breakker and Reed rather than helping Rollins out of the situation.

With Rollins on the shelf due to an injury, he had to relinquish the world title, leading to a match between Punk and Jey Uso for the championship on the Nov. 1 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event.

Punk was victorious, instantly putting him in the crosshairs of Breakker and The Vision since they wanted to bring the World Heavyweight Championship back to the group.

At Survivor Series, Punk and Breakker were on opposing WarGames teams. A masked assailant interfered during the match and hit Punk with a stomp, allowing Breakker to pin him.

That essentially made Breakker the No. 1 contender for the World Heavyweight Championship, and it wasn't long before a title bout between him and Punk was made official for the Jan. 5 episode of Raw.

On the Dec. 15 Raw, Austin Theory revealed himself as the mystery attacker, and Breakker took advantage by hitting Punk with an emphatic spear.

The odds were stacked against Punk since Breakker had so much potential backup to lend a helping hand, but Punk managed to retain on Monday, denying Breakker his first world title win in the process.