CM Punk has named one of his matches with John Cena as his perfect match.
The bout in question occurred on the February 25th, 2013 episode of Monday Night Raw. The match was to decide who would face The Rock at WrestleMania 29 for the WWE Championship.
It is remembered as one of the best matches in the history of Raw. The bout became infamous for CM Punk hitting Cena with a piledriver, because the move had been banned for over a decade at that point.
CM Punk appeared on the No-Contest Wrestling podcast, where he was asked to pick the three best matches of his career. Quick as a flash, he named the Raw match against John Cena as one of his best. CM Punk compared it to Michael Jordan’s “flu game” because he was “sick and tired” putting on that bout in the build-up to WrestleMania 29.
“I think it’s easy to pick number one, and it’s me and John Cena from Houston, leading up to WrestleMania. It was on a Monday Night Raw. Easily, I think it was our best televised match. We might have had better matches on house shows, but that is my ‘flu match,’. Like Jordan’s Flu Game. I was sick, and boy, was I sick and tired at that point. That match is the essence of CM Punk at that moment. Hurt, tired, pissed off, with a chip on my shoulder.”
CM Punk: If I Had A Perfect Match, That Would Be It
CM Punk continued. He explained how the match was “the essence of what he was” back then. Additionally, he added that the planets aligned, and that the match was perfect.
“Me and John went out there, and the planets aligned. It was magic. If I could ever say I had a perfect match, that would probably be it. I’m talking about the lead-up, the story, the character stuff for both guys, the action, the crowd, being able to manipulate the crowd how you wanted, listening to them—everything. And I’ve got to give a shoutout to Michael Cole on commentary, too, because he’s been the voice of so many epic moments in my career. This is the match where I hit the pile driver on John.”
