All Six AEW World Champions Ranked

Sixth

CM Punk

2 reigns for 90 total days.

He is listed as having held the belt for 90 total days, with his first run being credited with 87 days.  But, let’s face the cold hard facts, he never defended the belt in his second run, and his first run went on hiatus after only 10 days when he announced his injury.  The truth of the matter is this, Punk has done more to hurt the legitimacy of the belt then help it.

He couldn’t control the fact that he got hurt during both title wins, I understand that, but his nonstop antics out of the ring both times, simply made things worse.  When he was forced to merge the belts and lose to Moxley last summer, he did it with the agreement that he would be winning it right back weeks later in a “Rocky III” scenario, which made little to no sense. His post match media scrum, made the company look awful.

The bottom line is this when it comes to Punk, he can cut a good promo still, but outside of just running his mouth and creating drama, what else has he done to elevate the World Championship?  With the sole exception of an incredible title victory over Hangman Page, he has been a total flop as champion during both “reigns”.

My last thought on Punk is this, had he not gotten hurt in his second World Title Championship win over Jon Moxley at All Out 2022, would Tony Khan still have had the balls to strip him of the belt?  I highly doubt it. Now had he carried the belt and went on a massive rein after that, clearly, he’d be much higher on this list, and not dead last.  Tell me, when I’m telling lies….