CM Punk is WWE Champion again after the wildest nine day title reign in recent memory

[Thomas_69]

Sami Zayn's fairytale WWE Championship win at Night of Champions lasted exactly nine days before Gunther brutally took out Cody Rhodes backstage on Raw, forcing SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis to find a replacement opponent

That replacement turned out to be CM Punk, who walked out to a deafening reaction in his hometown of Chicago and beat Zayn with a Helluva Kick followed by a Go To Sleep to capture his eighth world title in the company

The storyline logic is that Aldis, still technically suspended, found a loophole to book the match on Raw instead of SmackDown, which quietly one upped Raw General Manager Adam Pearce in the process

This is Punk's first title win since losing at WrestleMania 42, and it lands almost exactly twenty years after his original WWE debut back in 2006, which is the kind of full circle booking that only really works when the crowd is already primed to explode

Rumours are already swirling that Punk will defend the title against Cody Rhodes at SummerSlam, which would give Rhodes a shot at redemption after Gunther's attack cost him his opportunity in the first place

Major title changes hands on WWE Raw - WWE News, WWE Results, AEW News, AEW Resultswww.wrestleview.com

[ECWAlex98]

Nine days is genuinely one of the shortest meaningful title reigns I can remember, Zayn barely got to enjoy his moment before it was ripped away

[DarkLantern]

The Chicago crowd reaction to Punk's music hitting must have been insane, that is exactly the kind of moment WWE needs more of

[Dylan]

Aldis using a loophole to book Raw while technically suspended is a fun wrinkle, give credit to the writers for at least trying to make the GM drama matter

[Andy99]

Punk winning his eighth world title twenty years almost to the day after his debut is the kind of storytelling detail that makes wrestling worth watching even when the logic gets silly

[Henry10]

Poor Zayn, that felt like his one chance at a proper reign and it got sacrificed for a bigger star's comeback story

[Panther21]

Punk vs Rhodes at SummerSlam writes itself at this point, Gunther attacking Rhodes was clearly setting up exactly that revenge match

[Context Kayla]

I actually liked that Gunther was the one who caused all this chaos, he has been booked as a legitimate wrecking ball all year

[BeckyLynch]

The Bloodline stuff with Rollins and Knight getting dragged into the same show is a lot to juggle alongside the title change, hope it does not get lost in the shuffle

[BlackMamba]

Punk's eighth world title is wild when you think about how long his hiatus from the company was at one point, real redemption arc for him personally