Roman Reigns Beats CM Punk for WWE World Title in Historic WrestleMania 42 Main Event

Roman Reigns defeated CM Punk in the main event of Night 2 of WWE WrestleMania 42 on Sunday to win the World Heavyweight Championship.

And boy was it a battle:

Reigns won the second men's Royal Rumble of his career in January, earning him the right to challenge either Punk for the world heavyweight title or Drew McIntyre for the Undisputed WWE Championship on The Grandest Stage of Them All.

However, Punk put himself firmly in Reigns' crosshairs.

On the Raw after Royal Rumble, Reigns' promo was interrupted by Punk. It initially seemed as though The OTC wanted to take his time with his WrestleMania decision, but The Best in the World got under his skin to the point that he chose him as his opponent on the spot.

Punk and Reigns had a war of words on multiple occasions during the build to WrestleMania, but none were more intense than the one Punk punctuated by declaring that he would bury Reigns next to his dead father, WWE Hall of Famer Sika of The Wild Samoans.

Reigns was clearly perturbed by the comment, and he wasn't the only member of the Anoa'i family to take issue with it.

The next week on Raw, The Usos confronted Punk and demanded an apology. The Second City Saint was defiant, though, opting instead to apologize to them for the fact that Reigns used them and didn't apologize for his own actions.

Unsatisfied with Punk's response, Jimmy punched him, adding another layer to the Reigns vs. Punk rivalry.

In the weeks that followed, Reigns and Punk came to blows on multiple occasions, but they both spoke their truths on the go-home episode of Raw, setting the stage for what was arguably WrestleMania's most highly anticipated match.

Punk and Reigns have a ton of history, as Punk was responsible for bringing Reigns and The Shield into WWE from a storyline perspective. They both have complicated pasts with Paul Heyman as well.

Their relationship with Heyman was a key part of the build toward their Triple Threat match also involving Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 41 last year, and in the end, Heyman turned on both of them to side with Rollins.

The Reigns-Punk saga continued Sunday night at WrestleMania 42, and with The OTC's victory, he is now a seven-time world champion during his illustrious WWE career.