#21 CM Punk
What’s in a name? A hell of a lot, as it turns out. Just ask Steve Austin. Back before he was the biggest thing in WWE, the tough Texan was a Million Dollar Man protégé glumly named “The Ringmaster.” When Austin told WWE brass he wanted a new moniker, they came back with pitches like “Ice Dagger” and — we kid you not — “Chilly McFreeze.” It wasn’t until Austin’s wife told him to drink his tea before it got “stone cold” that the Superstar hit upon a name that fit his developing personality of a callous badass.
No competitor has held onto a name as tightly as CM Punk. Back when The Straight Edge Superstar began his pursuit of sports-entertainment glory as a scrawny Chicago teen, he teamed up with a dude named CM Venom in a tag team known as The Chick Magnets. Somewhat impossibly, the handle stuck, from the armories of the independent wrestling scene to the stadiums of WrestleMania. Since then, Punk has made a running gag out of “CM.” What do the letters stand for? “Chicago Made,” he’ll tell you. Cookie Monster. Charles Montgomery. Truth is, the meaning changes with The Second City Saint’s mood — perfect for a Superstar as unpredictable as Punk.
