JBL's title run VS CM Punk's title run

May 2024 ยท 3 minute read
So in your oponion, who had the best title run? JBL held it through most of 04 and leading into Wrestlemania 21 where he lost his title to Cena. Punk held his for about a year before dropping it to Dwayne.

I'd have to go with JBL for three reasons:

1. Wrestling in general was so much better then.
2. I loved the manner in which JBL retained his title (the fluke victories, crawling under the ring, etc.).
3. Punk main evented very few PPVs during his run and the ending to it was abysmal.

What do you lads reckon?


1. Actually, if you believe the IWC scuttlebutt, '04 was roughly around the time of the post-Attitude Era Dark Ages, at a time when stars were dropping right out and developmental talent wasn't ready yet to retake the reigns. It's easy to say it's better than today's wrestling because it's DIFFERENT from what you're seeing now, but all in all, your claim is debatable.
2. In short, it was a Heel reign along the lines of Honky Tonk Man's IC run in 87-88, a reign very much designed to make you HATE the guy and greatly desire his comeuppance. That was really one of the things JBL did well.
3. Punk got screwed in this regard because he was still underneath John Cena's shadow. Cena didn't get a genuine opponent until Chris Jericho because Cena got stuck in a feud with Kane and then went up against the Rock in a feud that lasted for over two years. Jericho was good, but while he was having a rematch with the guy, Brock Lesnar went about destroying Cena. Then Punk entered a program with Daniel Bryan and eventually Kane while John Cena was fighting for the WWE by putting John Laurantis out on his ass. By the time of Summerslam Punk was being converted to heel status so he could presumably be sacrificed for the culmination of the Cena/Rock feud next year.

And while Punk's ending was really distasteful in the grand scheme of things, JBL didn't exactly go out in a blaze of glory either. Did you watch his match with John Cena in WM 21? Or the follow up "I Quit" match on Judgment Day? The first was shockingly boring, while the rematch wasn't going to elevate Cena any further than he already was.

Is it true that JBL deliberately toned down his ring work to constantly look worse than his opponents and build up his heel persona? If so, then he actually did Cena a disservice because the match was textbook SuperCena; 90% of the offense was JBL doing VERY boring stuff in the ring, until Cena goes beserk in the final two minutes and explodes into his finishing sequence to take it. It needed to go two other ways; either JBL upped his game and made the match better, or Cena should've just SQUASHED him. Remember how Ultimate Warrior stomped all over Honky Tonk Man in Summerslam 88?

At the end of the day though, I'd have to go with Punk by default. He largely did what he could with the deck he was given to work with, made quality matches with just about any opponent he was slated to work with, and had to juggle a Heel turn at a point where few actually wanted him to be a Heel.

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