Survivor Series results: CM Punk wins the WWE championship

The WWE championship is still a veritable hot potato.

That's because it changed hands yet again last night (Sun., Nov. 20, 2011) at Survivor Series in New York, as CM Punk used the Anaconda Vice (when he did he get that back, by the way?) to submit Alberto Del Rio.

The match itself was fairly fun. They cut a solid pace and exchanged credible offense, each man making the other look as good as they were supposed to.

What stuck out more than anything was how over Punk was with the crowd at Madison Square Garden. As Sean Waltman noted after the match, "If you're that over in the Garden then you 100-percent have arrived."

Can't argue with that.

Another interesting thing to note here is the historical significance of Punk's title victory in this particular venue. Sean Grande brought it up on Twitter last night:

How big a win for CM Punk? He's the 10th man to get the WWE title at MSG, and just the 4th since 1984. Bigger honor than an ice cream bar.

For the record, there had been 40 WWE title changes since the last one at MSG nine years ago. Including 10 wins in that time by John Cena, none of which have been at MSG.

Here are the 11 men who've won the title at MSG in its 49 years of existence.

Bruno Sammartino- 1963 & 1973
Ivan Koloff - 1971
Pedro Morales - 1971
Bob Backlund - 1978
Iron Sheik - 1983
Hulk Hogan - 1984
Bret Hart - 1994
Kevin Nash - 1994
Pyscho Sid - 1997
Big Show - 2002
CM Punk - 2011

That list does not include world heavyweight title wins, just the WWE championship. And it's quite the illustrious list, Nash, Sid and Show notwithstanding.

Now the question becomes how long exactly Punk will hold onto the title. No one has been able to keep it around their waist for longer than a few short months recently. Will he buck the trend and go for an extended reign? My guess is no.

What's yours?