On June 27th, 2011, CM Punk came out and laid down the Pipebomb promo. It was a promo unlike any in recent memory.
After suffering a loss, a wounded John Cena began to slowly make his way to his feet. While battered and bruised, Cena laid there until CM Punk came out.
Dressed in his ring gear and a very fitting Stone Cold Steve Austin T-Shit, Punk crossed his legs and sat on the stage at the top of the rampway. What followed was CM Punk and the infamous Pipebomb promo, which is as follows.
The Pipebomb
John Cena, while you lay there, hopefully as uncomfortable as you can be, I want you to listen to me.
I want you to digest this because before I leave in three weeks with your WWE Championship, I have a lot of things I want to get off my chest.
I don’t hate you, John, I don’t even dislike you, I do like you and I like you a hell of a lot more than I like most people in the back, I hate this idea that you’re the best.
Because you’re not. I’m the best. I’m the best in the world. There’s one thing you’re better at than I am and that’s kissing Vince McMahon’s ass.
You’re as good as kissing Vince’s ass as Hulk Hogan was. I don’t know if you’re as good as Dwayne though. He’s a pretty good a**kisser. Always was and still is.
Whoops! I’m breaking the fourth wall!
[Punk waves to the camera]
What was happening here? Within the first couple of minutes, fans began to stop and take notice. He wasn’t just calling himself the best but doing so by taking direct jabs to Cena, McMahon, Hogan, and The Rock all at once.
I am the best wrestler in the world.
I’ve been the best ever since day one when I walked into this company. And I’ve been vilified and hated since that day, because Paul Heyman saw something in me that nobody else wanted to admit.
That’s right, I’m a Paul Heyman guy. You know who else was a Paul Heyman guy? Brock Lesnar. And he split just like I’m splitting.
But the biggest difference between me and Brock is I’m going to leave with the WWE Championship.
I’ve grabbed so many of Vincent K. McMahon’s brass rings that it’s finally dawned on me that they’re just that, they’re completely imaginary.
The only thing that’s real is me and the fact that day in and day out, for almost six years, I have proved to everybody in the world that I am the best on this microphone, in that ring, even in commentary! Nobody can touch me!
As we weave in a few more minutes into this promo, we have him inciting terms such as ‘brass rings’, ‘the fourth wall’, and that he’s a Paul Heyman guy. He even goes as far as to mention Lesnar’s departure years earlier and distance from the promotion.
He is going beyond just stating details that many had heard about, believed but now it wasn’t a whisper it was being shouted for all to hear!
And yet no matter how many times I prove it, I’m not on your lovely little collector cups. I’m not on the cover of the program. I’m barely promoted. I don’t get to be in movies.
I’m certainly not on any crappy show on the USA Network, I’m not on the poster of WrestleMania, I’m not on the signature that’s produced at the start of the show and I’m not on Conan O’Brian.
I’m not on Jimmy Fallon. But the fact of the matter is, I should be.
And trust me, this isn’t sour grapes. But the fact that Dwayne is in the main event at WrestleMania next year and I’m not makes me sick!
Oh hey, let me get something straight. Those of you who are cheering me right now, you are just as big a part of me leaving as anything else.
Because you’re the ones who are sipping on those collector cups right now. You’re the ones that buy those programs that my face isn’t on the cover of.
And then at five in the morning at the airport, you try to shove it in my face so you can get an autograph and try to sell it on eBay because you’re too lazy to go get a real job.
I’m leaving with the WWE Championship on July 17th. And hell, who knows, maybe I’ll go defend it in New Japan Pro Wrestling. Maybe…I’ll go back to Ring of Honor.
[Punk looks at the camera and waves]
Hey, Colt Cabana, how are you doing?
Just when we feel Punk couldn’t say anything else he mentioned other promotions and his best friend at the time and former WWE superstar Colt Cabana.
He addresses marketing and fans that can be in talent’s face and not respecting their distance and privacy.
The reason I’m leaving is you people. Because after I’m gone, you’re still going to pour money into this company. I’m just a spoke on the wheel. The wheel is going to keep turning, and I understand that.
Vince McMahon is going to make money despite himself. He’s a millionaire who should be a billionaire. You know why he’s not a billionaire?
Because he surrounds himself with glad-handed, nonsensical, d*****bag (censored) yes men, like John Laurinaitis, who’s going to tell him everything he wants to hear, and I’d like to think that maybe this company will be better after Vince McMahon is dead.
But the fact is, it’s going to be taken over by his idiotic daughter and his doofus son-in-law and the rest of his stupid family.
Let me tell you a personal story about Vince McMahon, alright? We do this whole [anti] bully campaign…
[Microphone cuts off]
I’ve been silenced!
CM Punk & this Pipebomb promo still lives in infamy today. As a promo peeled back the layers of what many believed online for some time.
Whether it was true or not, the statements, emotions, and names mentioned certainly put forth a number of scathing comments that we are still talking about it today.
