CM Punk vs. John Cena match on Raw happened despite sickness and jet lag

The match that CM Punk and John Cena had in the main event of this past Monday night's (Feb. 25, 2013) episode of Raw has received enough accolades to last a lifetime. On this very site, we've referred to it as quite possibly the greatest match in the history of the show.

But we're not done praising it just yet.

That's because some new information has come to light, thanks to Hall-of-Fame announcer Jim Ross in his latest blog. Get in on this:

"One thing that was buzzing back stage in OKC was the amazing match that closed the Raw broadcast Monday night in Dallas between John Cena and CM Punk. Two points on this tremendous, main event, 1. Cena added some new wrinkles to his game that might silence some of his narrow minded critics for a few days and 2. Punk was working with the flu and hampered by jet lag from a long flight to Dallas from Istanbul on the last day of a grueling, three day international tour. I watched the match live on TV and it is the first match in a long time that I've gone back and watched again on DVR."

Emphasis mine. Ladies and gentlemen, we've been hyper critical of Punk for his perceived shortcomings and insecurities in the past, and we've been overly complimentary for the many things he's done to make WWE so much more entertaining than it would have been otherwise.

But this is an entirely new level of awesome.

CM Punk had a 21-minute four-and-a-half star classic match with John Cena on a Raw show -- that's free TV, everybody -- while he was stricken with the flu and dealing with jet lag.

LEGEND.

If you missed the match or just want to enjoy it again, in its entirety, click here.