After reading the crowd in Chicago tonight, there was no other way it could be.
As Kaleb did a magnificent job covering in his liveblog post, CM Punk is the new WWE Champion. And he's gone.
Topping off one of the greatest PPVs in company history was possibly the most heated match in said company since the Sgt. Slaughter vs Iron Sheik "Boot Camp Match" at Madison Square Garden 27 years ago. With the crowd going nuts for his every move, CM Punk got caught in John Cena's STF. Vince McMahon and John Laurinaitis (who had walked into the entrance way a few minutes earlier) immediately tried to call for the bell, but Cena broke the hold, punched out Laurinaitis, and told McMahon he wasn't winning that way. He went back into the ring, got nailed with the Go 2 Sleep, yup, CM Punk is your new WWE Champion.
McMahon grabbed a headset and sent Raw Money In The Bank match winner Alberto Del Rio to the ring. Punk immediately wasted him with the high kick before the referee could ring the bell, looked around, ran out of the ring with the belt, ran into the crowd, blew a goodbye kiss to McMahon, and scaled the stairs in the seats of the former Rosemont Horizon. As he entered the concourse, he saluted the fans, and the show went off the air as McMahon looked on in shock. After the show went off the air, McMahon punched out Laurinaitis himself.
P.S. John Cena is fired. I guess he is badly in need of time off to heal his zillion injuries.
With an incredibly hot crowd that spontaneously chanted Punk's name throughout, this was just an amazing show. Both ladder matches delivered in a big way. The women's match was in and out quick. Mark Henry defeated and injured Big Show in a very good short match. Christian winning the World Heavyweight Championship from Randy Orton thanks to his special DQ rule after a low blow was a great match with a great angle afterwards as Orton laid Christian out and won over the crowd who was booing him. The only real blemish on a superbly booked and wrestled PPV was that it came off ridiculous that Daniel Bryan didn't cash in his newly won Smackdown Money In The Bank contract here.
There is no way to describe the main event with anything other than superlatives. The crowd was nuts, sounding like they were at a major college football game. The match was fantastic both in terms of action and story. The finish and post-match were perfect.
Over the course of a few weeks containing the performances of his life, CM Punk has made himself the biggest star in the wrestling business and turned a theoretically "B level" PPV into what felt like Wrestlemania.
How the hell did people ever doubt this guy?