Against all of the odds, CM Punk overcame The Shield and managed to get the win in what was a very fun opener to WWE TLC 2013. It wasn’t the best match in the world by any stretch, but it has a legitimate case to being the best match on the show in some people’s opinions. As for what happens next, everyone knows about Punk’s famous walkout the night after the 2014 Royal Rumble, but the work between Punk and The Shield towards the end of his WWE run at the time was some of Punk’s best work in the company for a while. It really is a shame that Punk wasn’t around during the mid 2010s when Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, and Roman Reigns really came into their own because singles feuds between them in this era would have likely been great.

While Punk would leave the company, creating a gaping hole in the main event scene in the process, this would actually be a blessing disguise for The Shield as they were quickly turned babyface in early 2014 and had a number of great matches with The Wyatt Family. “The Hounds of Justice” even pulled some good matches out of Evolution which was seen as a borderline miracle at the time. It was that eventual face run that made The Shield one of the most popular factions of all time, which provided the springboard for all three men to become Hall of Fame level talents in the years to come, and that might not have happened without Punk leaving WWE.

Since Punk has returned to wrestling, now that he’s having a proper singles feud with Reigns, he has had rivalries with all three members of the faction he introduced to WWE. Punk feuded over the AEW World Championship with Ambrose, now more commonly known as Jon Moxley, which may have only been brief but it was certainly memorable, and Moxley is now seen as one of the faces of AEW and one of the company’s greatest wrestlers ever. Once he returned to WWE and dealt with the thorn in his side that was Drew McIntyre, Punk would have a lengthy feud with Seth Rollins that lasted basically all of 2025, and you get the sense that it might pick up steam again when Rollins returns from his most recent injury.

As for the story with Reigns, the man Punk brought into WWE is wildly different to the man that exists now. As “The Tribal Chief,” Reigns has reached an unparalleled level of success in WWE and is one of the reasons for the company’s boom period that may or may not still be going on depending on who you ask. They were both involved in the WrestleMania 41 night one main event, but that was more of a Punk/Rollins story match that it was Punk/Reigns. What might the future hold Punk and Reigns on the road to WrestleMania 42? We’ll just have to tune in and see.