The 2012 TWB 100 Slow Release: #2

Punk locking his signature Anaconda Vise on John Cena Photo Credit: WWE.com

2. CM Punk
Points: 4889
Ballots: 51
Highest Vote:1st Place (Collin Borell, Philip Rosenbaum, George Murphy, Frank McCormick, Martin Bentley, Samantha Allen, Mike Pankowski, Dave Maes, Paolo Chikiamco, Scott Holland, Luke Starr, Robert Dorman, Joe Drilling, David Shoemaker, Joey Odorisio)
Last Year's Placement: 1st Place

TH: CM Punk was not the best in the world in 2012, but he was close. He had a nagging, annoying tendency to seem like he was phoning in matches on RAW in the middle of the summer (I can't ascertain to his effort level because I don't know him enough to be able to ask him frankly), as his title reign transitioned from anti-heroism into straight villainy. However, other than that, it was all positives for him again in this frame. His peaks were among the highest in the country. Even though he wasn't in the last match on a given pay-per-view until Night of Champions, he made every pay-for-play match feel like it should have closed the show.

For starters, he made Dolph Ziggler look like an absolute star in January in a series of matches for his WWE Championship. Punk did more to elevate Ziggler than anyone else in the company, even Cena, and Ziggler actually won a PPV main event against him. Then, he moved onto Chris Jericho, against whom he pulled Y2J's two best matches in that return tour. Twice in three weeks, he and Mark Henry went hard to the mat, and that segued into Punk vs. Daniel Bryan in a feud that at least in the ring was the tongue-wagging wet dream of everyone who followed them from ROH into WWE. And of course, when he and John Cena get into the ring with each other, you know the results are going to be good.

His greatest achievement, actually, was helping to get Ryback over as a legit threat. In two pay-per-view main event matches, Punk bounced around the ring like a racquetball for the hulking slab of walking meat. It was amazing to see him ease from triumphant babyface wrestler who got to make comebacks and do all the things usually reserved for John Cena into bump-happy heel. Not only did he make the 180 switch within the calendar year, he did it excellently. There are threads you can tug on to try and unravel Punk, but none of them will change the fact that in terms of go-to wrestlers in 2012, very few stood on his level, and even fewer rose above him.

Punk dragging Daniel Bryan back to the ring Photo Credit: WWE.com

Cewsh: Um, CM Punk is great. Is anybody even debating that at this point? The only question when it comes to 2012 is whether CM Punk was amazing or the MOST amazing. I’ll go with the first one, but it’s close.

Jesse Powell: Have you ever once worried about Punk not delivering an awesome match? Once? I didn’t think so.

Justin Daley: Punk carried the WWE belt the entire year. 'Nuff said. But I will go on. Punk has the unique ability to have ring chemistry with any of his opponents. (Although when you have a few matches with Jericho, that will make it easy on anyone). My only critique of him is his finisher, the GTS. But besides that there is nothing you can take away from Punk.

John Rosenberger: Some wrestlers have lots of dazzling, flashy moves. Some don’t have huge repertoires but a few moves that look better than anything out there. CM Punk isn’t the flashiest wrestler, nor do any of his moves particularly blow me away, but he is one of the most solid, consistent and expressive wrestlers in the WWE or anywhere else for that matter.

Punk kicking Mark Henry in the breadbasket Photo Credit: WWE.com

Mike Pankowski: While his character was not as great in 2012 as it was in 2011, I still feel that CM Punk brought it the best while in the ring. It wasn’t just that Punk was great at wrestling and storytelling last year, but that he also did it against a variety of opponents. Hey, he even got a respectable match out of an inexperienced Ryback. The WWE asked Punk to have a big 20-30 minute match at just about every pay-per-view and he always delivered a fine match. On top of that, he was a part of the main event in just about every Monday Night Raw. The ability to continue to rise to the occasion every week is what puts CM Punk above all the other wrestlers this year.

Lee Spriggs: I love Punk; I don't think he has bad matches. The ones with Jericho and Bryan this year were a whole lot of fun, and you can't really ask for a better set of opponents than he had in 2012. Punk has been masterful at reinterpreting what it means to be a champion wrestler, adapting and borrowing from various sources to keep his style fresh. He's a truly intertextual wrestler, who knows that he's capable of changing the WWE style and is taking advantage of that.

Punk drops the elbow on Chris Jericho Photo Credit: WWE.com

Joey O: What a year for the self-proclaimed Best In The World! How to follow up his next-level 2011? Obviously, you start with holding the WWE Title for the entire calendar year, a feat unheard of in this day and age. Months of amazing matches against his peers Chris Jericho and Daniel Bryan. A mid-run heel turn to build up to the feud with The Rock. More great matches against John Cena, the man who has become perhaps his greatest in-ring rival. Injuries and part-time opponents have kept his first quarter of 2013 from being as outstanding (and I hope he is actually getting some much-needed time off to heal post-Mania), but any time Punk is on my TV screen, it's can't miss television.

Dave Musgrave: CM Punk was always a joy to watch as both a heel and babyface champion in 2012. Watching him this year it really felt like you were part of something.

Punk about to GTS the boss Photo Credit: WWE.com

Dylan Hales: Maybe Punk benefits from opponents as some have said. Maybe Punk is a guy who can't carry dead weight or work a match around another guys limitations as some have said. Maybe Punk is a guy who looks disinterested at times and phoned it in on occasion on TV as some have said. But at the end of the day, in 2012, I couldn't leave CM Punk out of my top five. I thought about it because I understand some of the criticisms and I get the fact that there are more consistent guys out there.

Still the guy has a deep resume of matches and performances. Chris Jericho was DOGSHIT AWFUL in 2012 (he's actually been very solid this year surprisingly) and Punk managed to have pretty good matches with him. Punk added to the Flair/Steamboat level rivalry with Cena in 2012 and had an excellent run of matches with Daniel Bryan both on TV and PPV, all of which were worked differently. The Henry TV matches in April were excellent and among the best TV matches all year. He bladed in a Raw cage match where he got to work one of his heroes Jerry Lawler. He had one of Dolph Ziggler's three or four best matches of the year. His match with Vince McMahon was an incredible sports entertainments spectacle, with Punk as the ultimate sniveling shit heel. Maybe he couldn't carry Ryback to a miracle match, but Punk had plenty of depth and plenty of high end matches in 2012.

Typical ROH Fan: A year as champ which meant a bunch of very good matches for the title. Punk proved a lot in 2012 and added a factor to the belt that made me remember the Bret Hart/Shawn Michaels days which is a great compliment for anything involving match quality. (Favorite 2012 match: vs. Daniel Bryan at Money In The Bank)

Punk swinging for the fences against The Ryback Photo Credit: WWE.com