Jeff Hardy committed a cardinal WWE sin. He mentioned he who shall not be named during an exclusive Raw interview.
After Team Extreme and Finn Balor teamed up on Raw to defeat Elias Samson and Raw Tag Team Champs, Sheamus and Cesaro, Hardy made note that the last time he was in LA with the WWE, it was to face CM Punk.
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“First of all, I haven’t been back here since I was here in ’09. I think I wrestled CM Punk at SummerSlam and to come back here seven, eight years later it was such a good experience to team with Finn Balor and to jam out to that music live was the best.”
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Hardy and Punk had the culmination to their memorable World Championship feud in the summer of 09 and it culminated in a brutal TLC match at SummerSlam. Punk, the straight edge superstar, would routinely use Hardy’s addiction problems in his promos to further his heel turn. The match is remembered for The Undertaker’s return as he would emerge after Punk won the belt to set up a new program between the two.
Hardy would leave the company soon thereafter.
The timing of Hardy mentioning Punk’s name couldn’t be more apropos, as today is the 6th anniversary of CM Punk’s legendary Pipebomb on Raw.
June 27th 2011. 6 years ago today @CMPunk dropped his infamous “pipebomb” live on RAW, a classic WWE moment. #WWE @WWE pic.twitter.com/01egst8g6V
โ WWE Today In History (@WWE__History) June 27, 2017
Punk closed out the June 27, 2011, episode of Raw with a promo that fired shots at John Cena, Hulk Hogan, The Rock, Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon and Vince’s “doofus son-in-law” Triple H. Punk was soon to be leaving the company and the rant felt as real as anything WWE fans had seen since the Montreal Screw Job. Punk’s mic was cut off mid-promo and WWE then deactivated Punk’s Facebook and WWE.com profiles.
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It was a brilliant creative move that turned Punk into the Best In The World and the most talked about WWE star of the time. Sadly, 3 years later their relationship would be broken beyond prepare and Punk would drop real pipebombs on the WWE’s mistreatment of he and other workers in the company.
As any wrestling fan knows, never say never on if a disgruntled ex-employee will return to the company, but we’re certainly not holding our breath that we’ll be hearing “Cult of Personality” anytime soon.
Of course, the same could have been said about the Hardy Boys a few years ago and they’re having one of the best comeback runs in company history, so anything is possible.