CM Punk

Phillip Jack Brooks (born October 26, 1978), better known by the ring name CM Punk, is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his time in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) from 2005 to 2014, and in All Elite Wrestling (AEW) from 2021 to 2023. Brooks began his professional wrestling career in 1999 on the independent circuit, mainly with Ring of Honor (ROH), winning the ROH World Championship once. He signed with WWE in 2005 and won the WWE Championship twice, the World Heavyweight Championship three times, and the WWE Intercontinental Championship and the ECW World Heavyweight Championship once each. Brooks also won the World Tag Team Championship, becoming WWE's 19th Triple Crown Champion; the fastest wrestler to do so, in 203 days. The only back-to-back Money in the Bank ladder match winner, he won Superstar of the Year at the 2011 Slammy Awards, and was voted PWI Wrestler of the Year in 2011 and 2012 by readers of Pro Wrestling Illustrated. After becoming disillusioned with WWE, Brooks acrimoniously departed the company and retired from professional wrestling in 2014. He returned to professional wrestling in 2021 by signing with AEW; his time with the company was marked by great success, with two reigns as AEW World Champion, but also by controversies, most notably his involvement in two legitimate backstage brawls, eventually resulting in his termination in 2023. Brooks has used the CM Punk moniker for his entire professional wrestling career. His character has been consistently portrayed as outspoken, confrontational, sharp-tongued, anti-establishment, straight edge, and iconoclastic, most of which are inspired by his real-life views and personality. Depending on his alignment as a hero or villain, Brooks has emphasized different aspects of the straight edge lifestyle to garner the desired audience reaction. After his initial retirement from professional wrestling, Brooks pursued a career in mixed martial arts and signed with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in 2014. A welterweight, he had his first professional fight at UFC 203 in 2016, losing via submission to Mickey Gall. He then lost his second fight to Mike Jackson via unanimous decision at UFC 225 in 2018 (later overturned to a no-contest), and was subsequently released. Brooks also appeared as a color commentator for Cage Fury Fighting Championships and a pundit on WWE Backstage. As an actor, he starred in the 2019 horror films Girl on the Third Floor and Rabid.