CM Punk's Top 6 Greatest Wrestlers of All Time: A Closer Look

So who else is on Punk’s list? Eight-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion Harley Race, the ‘80s wrestling icons Roddy Piper and Dusty Rhodes, Hardcore Legend Terry Funk, and “Latino Heat” Eddie Guerrero.

It’s worth mentioning his connection to these names. First, in 2001, Punk was in a match for Mid-American Wrestling, and the special guest referee was none other than Harley Race. Bret Hart would also be a special guest referee for two of Punk’s matches in 2011. One was a dark match, while the televised match was on the May 23, 2011, episode of WWE RAW, where Hart was the referee for Punk and R-Truth versus John Cena and Rey Mysterio.

Punk would face Terry Funk in three matches in his career. Two of those matches were during the early days of TNA Wrestling. On February 2, 2004, Punk teamed with Julio Dinero to defeat both Funk and the Sandman, while on February 18, 2004, Raven and Funk defeated Punk and Dinero. Nearly a year before these matches, Punk faced Funk in September 2003, at the Ring of Honor Glory By Honor II event.

Roddy Piper and Punk’s history together is simply as entrants in the 2008 Royal Rumble match. Like Piper, Dusty Rhodes has one connection in the ring. He was an opponent in 2005 at the WrestleReunion event. There, Dusty, his son Dustin Rhodes, and Mike Graham defeated Punk, Kevin Sullivan, and Abdullah the Butcher.

Last but not least is Eddie Guerrero, who worked with Punk in 2002, not in WWE but in the indie wrestling scene. After Guerrero had been fired by WWE in 2001, he found himself working with Punk in two independent promotions — International Wrestling Cartel and IWA Mid-South. Between the two promotions, they had five matches total. In past interviews, Punk has talked about how Guerrero taught him a lot about the business.

CM Punk Will Be In Action This Weekend

So it’s interesting how Punk has a connection to each of his picks. Anyway, Punk is set to team with his wife, AJ Lee, to face WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins and WWE Women’s Intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch this Saturday, September 20, at Wrestlepalooza.

Rollins has been the bane of Punk’s existence for some time now. It got worse at SummerSlam, when Punk finally held the World Heavyweight Title, but not for long, because Rollins cashed in the Money in the Bank briefcase. Since then, Rollins and now his wife, Becky, have been getting the best of him. Though with AJ Lee by his side now, he has a better chance.