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CM Punk Breaks Silence On Suddenly Ending Sami Zayn’s Undisputed WWE Title Reign

By Gaurav Singh • Published Jul 13, 2026 08:09 EDT
CM Punk Sami Zayn
CM Punk beat Sami Zayn (Image Source-WWE.com)

CM Punk finally opened up on ending Sami Zayn’s Undisputed WWE Championship reign after just nine days.

After more than two months of absence, CM Punk made his return on RAW last Monday in his hometown, Chicago. He challenged Sami Zayn for the Undisputed WWE Championship as a replacement for Cody Rhodes, as Cody was attacked backstage. After a great main event, Punk captured the title from Zayn, ending his title reign in just nine days.

Many people on social media expressed their disgust towards Sami Zayn’s reign being too short and how CM Punk defeated him right after his return after a hiatus. Meanwhile, Punk finally addressed the reaction to him defeating Zayn.

CM Punk on beating Sami Zayn on RAW last Monday

Speaking with Stephanie McMahon on the What’s Your Story? podcast, CM Punk first opened up on the coincidence of winning the WWE title almost 15 years later since his iconic title win at Money in the Bank 2011:

I’m flabbergasted at that, Just how we drew it up. Just how we planned it. Yeah, what a coincidence. People say that there’s no such thing as coincidence but, that’s pretty remarkable. That’s interesting.”

Punk further countered the negative reactions to his title win on RAW, stating he beat the 41-year-old Sami Zayn clean to win the WWE Championship:

Oh. I won the title. Clean. I beat that 41-year-old youngster fair and square in the middle of the ring. I’m guilty of doing what I — what was it?”

Punk also addressed the AI-generated fake tweets of his fellow WWE stars complaining about him beating Sami, which were being circulated:

This is why I don’t f*ck with social media. This is like A.I. generated. These are fake quotes. Seth (Rollins) did not tweet this, Becky (Lynch) did not tweet this. This is a double-edged sword about most people in our business but especially me, and I do not say this lightly, these are mentally ill people.”

I couldn’t imagine making up fake tweets… But I think the problem — and it’s not just in our business — I think it’s a societal thing is people will instantly see that and they believe it, and I don’t know how to change people’s minds about that, which is why I lean into ‘I don’t care about changing anybody’s mind about that.’” [h/t Fightful]

Meanwhile, CM Punk is slated to defend his Undisputed WWE Championship against Cody Rhodes at SummerSlam 2026.

Also read: Possible Spoiler On Sami Zayn’s Future After Losing Undisputed WWE Title To CM Punk