Phil Brooks (born October 26 1978), better known by his ring name CM Punk, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) on its Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) brand where he is the reigning ECW Champion.

Punk initially came to prominence through his career on the professional wrestling independent circuit, primarily as a member of the Ring of Honor (ROH) roster where he was an ROH Tag Team Champion, ROH World Champion, and the first head trainer of the ROH wrestling school. Along with Samoa Joe and Homicide, he was considered to be one of the three icons of ROH. Punk later accepted a contract from WWE and spent a year in their developmental promotion Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) during which time he won every championship in the promotion. When the ECW brand was revived in 2006 Punk was brought into the brand's roster where he had several successes including being undefeated in singles competition for the six months after his debut and ultimately winning the ECW Championship in September 2007.

Throughout his career, Punk has consistently used the gimmick of being straight edge, a lifestyle he follows in real life. Depending on alignment as a face or heel, different aspects of the culture are emphasized to encourage the desired audience reaction.

Punk's first venture into wrestling was a stint in a backyard wrestling federation called the Lunatic Wrestling Federation with his friends in the mid-late 1990s. He first started using the ring name CM Punk when he was put into a tag team named the Chick Magnets with CM Venom after another performer skipped out on the card. Unlike his friends, Punk genuinely wanted to be a wrestler and saw it as more than simple fun. After leaving the federation, he enrolled as a student at the "Steel Domain" wrestling school in Chicago, where he was trained by Ace Steel, Danny Dominion and Kevin Quinn to become a professional wrestler. As part of the training, he wrestled at St. Paul's Steel Domain Wrestling. It was in the Steel Domain that he met Scott Colton, who soon adopted the stage name Colt Cabana. Punk and Cabana became best friends and spent most of their early career together working in the same independent promotions, as opponents or allies. In the independents Punk, along with fellow Steel Domain graduates Colt Cabana, Chuckie Smoothe, Adam Pearce and manager Dave Prazak, formed a stable named the Gold Bond Mafia. The Gold Bond Mafia (CM Punk, Colt Cabana and Chris Hero) wrestled The Black T-Shirt Squad (Mike Quackenbush, Reckless Youth and Don Montoya) in the main event of CHIKARA's debut show. The BTS won after Reckless pinned Cabana following a Northern Light's Bomb 2k4.

Punk's home promotion for his early career is usually considered to be Independent Wrestling Association: Mid-South (IWA:Mid-South). During Punk's time in IWA:Mid-South he had high profile feuds with Colt Cabana and Chris Hero while also rising to the top of the roster winning the IWA Mid-South Light-Heavyweight Championship twice and the IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Championship on five separate occasions. Notably his feud with Hero included a 55-minute TLC match, a 93-minute two out of three falls match and several 60-minute draws. Punk's matches with Cabana led him to being hired by Ring of Honor promotion. During his time in IWA:Mid-South he would also meet, wrestle against and become a friend of Eddie Guerrero. From February 2003 until May 2004 Punk refused to wrestle for IWA:Mid-South. Punk claims that this was in protest to Ian Rotten's treatment of Chris Hero; however Hero himself has stated he believes there were other reasons and Rotten's treatment of him was just an excuse by Punk to stop working for the company. Eventually Punk returned to IWA:Mid-South and continued to perform as a wrestler and commentator for them until 2005 when he was signed to World Wrestling Entertainment. His last appearance in IWA:Mid-South was on July 2 2005 in which he competed in a sixty-minute time limit draw against Delirious.

Punk joined Ring of Honor initially as a babyface, but was quickly turned heel in a feud with Raven that featured numerous variants of no disqualification matches. At the same time Punk joined the wrestling promotion NWA Total Nonstop Action (TNA), where he was paired with Julio Dinero as, ironically, members of Raven's TNA stable The Gathering.

Punk started climbing the ranks of ROH with notable achievements including coming second at the Second Anniversary show during the tournament to crown the first ROH Pure Champion, losing to A.J. Styles in the finals, and winning the ROH Tag Team Championship twice with Colt Cabana as the Second City Saints, both times defeating the Briscoe Brothers to win the championship. Circa October 2003 Punk was hired as the first head trainer of the Ring of Honor wrestling school, having previously been a trainer for the Steel Domain and Primetime Wrestling. Meanwhile in TNA on February 25 2004 Punk had a physical scuffle with Teddy Hart that was broken up by Sabu outside of a restaurant shortly before a TNA show stemming from an ROH show in which Hart performed three unplanned spots putting several other wrestlers in danger of injury. Around the same time as the scuffle Punk and Dinero stopped appearing on TNA shows leading to speculation he was fired for the incident. However, Punk has stated that the scuffle had no bearing on his TNA career and that the reason he and Dinero stopped appearing on TNA pay per views was that TNA officials believed that he and Dinero had not gotten over as heels, having recently turned heel with Dinero by attacking Raven forming a tag team managed by James Mitchell leading to the officials deciding to put the angle on hold indefinitely and thus had no use for Punk or Dinero. Punk officially quit TNA in March 2004 during the Rob Feinstein controversy after having a dispute with the TNA offices over his ability to compete in ROH following a TNA order that their contracted wrestlers were to no longer wrestle in ROH.

In ROH Punk faced off against ROH World Champion Samoa Joe for the championship in a famous three match series. The first match, on June 12 2004 at World Title Classic in Dayton, Ohio, resulted in a 60 minute time-limit draw when neither Punk nor Joe could pin or cause the other to submit in the sixty minutes. The second match between Samoa Joe and CM Punk was planned to have occurred on December 4 2004. However, because Steve Corino was pulled from a match with Samoa Joe by Pro Wrestling ZERO-ONE the second match was hastily rescheduled on October 11 2004 for October 16 in Punk's hometown of Chicago, Illinois. At Joe vs. Punk II on October 16 they wrestled to a second 60 minute draw. In addition to becoming Ring of Honor's best selling DVD at that point, the match received the first 5-star rating by Dave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer Newsletter for a match in North America since 1997. Joe ended the series by defeating Punk in the third and final match on December 4 2004 at All-Star Extravaganza 2 in which there was a no time limit stipulation.

In June 2005, Punk accepted a deal with World Wrestling Entertainment, after a try-out match against Val Venis on its Sunday Night HEAT show. Even though he had accepted the deal, Punk went on to defeat Austin Aries to win the ROH World Championship on June 18 2005 at Death Before Dishonor III with the Pepsi Plunge.

Immediately after the match Punk proceeded to turn heel and started an angle where he threatened to bring the ROH World Championship to WWE with him. For weeks, Punk teased the ROH locker room and the ROH fans as well as mocking the championship he possessed, going so far as to sign his WWE contract on it. A notable part of this angle was Mick Foley making several ROH appearances, attempting to convince Punk to do the right thing and defend the title on his way out.

On August 12 2005 in Dayton, Ohio Punk lost the ROH World Championship to James Gibson in a four corner elimination match consisting of himself, Gibson, Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels, who re-debuted after a year and half long absence. Gibson countered Punk's Pepsi Plunge with a Super Tiger Bomb. His final scheduled match in Ring of Honor took place at Punk: The Final Chapter on August 13 2005 against long-time friend Colt Cabana in a 2 out of 3 falls match, which he lost. In his last match, he was visibly crying, and was showered with streamers when he posed in the middle of the ring.

Punk made a special appearance at the ROH show Unscripted II on February 11 2006, when the original card had to be scrapped due to Low Ki leaving ROH the week prior along with most of the ROH roster contracted to TNA being pulled from the show due to a snowstorm that TNA officials thought might prevent performers from reaching a pay per view scheduled the next day. In the main event, Punk teamed with Bryan Danielson to wrestle and ultimately defeat Jimmy Rave and Adam Pearce in a tag team match.

Punk was assigned to Ohio Valley Wrestling, a WWE developmental territory. On September 26 2005 in his OVW television debut, Punk suffered a ruptured eardrum and broken nose at the hands of Danny Inferno, after he was hit by an overly stiff right hand. Despite the injury, Punk finished the match and quickly recovered.

On November 9 2005, Punk became the OVW Television Champion after defeating Ken Doane. This led immediately to a feud between Punk and Brent Albright, who had previously been feuding with Doane for the television championship and had lost his chance to wrestle Doane after Punk had hit him with a chair so he himself could wrestle Doane. This led to a series of matches, including one which ended in overtime with Albright having Punk submit to Albright's finisher, the Crowbar, however Punk was able to keep the championship as he had not agreed to the extra time. On January 4 2006, Punk lost the OVW Television Championship during a three way dance between himself, Albright and Doane. Doane was injured halfway through the match and could not continue and was replaced by Aaron "The Idol" Stevens. Punk submitted to Albright's Crowbar and was eliminated but after interference by Punk, Stevens was able to get the pin on Albright to become the new OVW Television Champion. The feud continued after a short period in which Albright and Punk were a tag team, but they became opponents again after Albright wanted the respect of Punk who would never give it to him and instead proceeded to "punk out" (get the better of) Albright repeatedly. This continued for weeks with Punk always getting the better of Albright until a double turn occurred on February 1 2006 when Albright turned heel during a tag match allowing The Spirit Squad to beat Punk and, in doing so, turning Punk face.

During this time CM Punk had a minor appearance at WrestleMania 22 on April 2 2006 as one of the gangsters who rode a 1930s era car to the ring before John Cena's entrance.

When Matt Cappotelli vacated the OVW Heavyweight Championship due to a brain tumor, a tournament was held to crown a new champion. The finals were Brent Albright vs CM Punk with Albright defeating Punk to become the new champion. Punk and Albright continued their feud with Albright becoming more and more unstable and paranoid about maintaining his championship after several close call matches against Punk, resulting in acts such as threatening Maria. On May 3 2006, Punk finally defeated Brent Albright in a strap match to win the OVW Heavyweight Championship. As champion, Punk retained the title in matches against opponents such as Shad Gaspard, Ken Kennedy, Johnny Jeter, and Mike "The Miz" Mizanin.

On July 28 2006 Punk and Seth Skyfire defeated Shad Gaspard and the Neighborhoodie to win the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship at a house show. With the victory Punk became the second OVW wrestler to have held each of the promotion's three championships, following Brent Albright, and along with Skyfire the first to hold two championships simultaneously. They would lose the Tag Team Championship on August 2 2006 to Deuce Shade and "Domino" Cliff Compton after an injured Skyfire tagged in an already injured Punk.

This led to a feud between Punk and Skyfire after a rematch for the Tag Team Championship on August 7 2006 in which a healthy Punk purposefully tagged in an injured Skyfire to be beaten by Shade and Compton. On August 30 2006 a match was scheduled to take place between Punk and Skyfire for the OVW Heavyweight Championship. However, prior to the match Skyfire was attacked by Charles "The Hammer" Evans, who Skyfire had also been feuding with, and was replaced in the match by Chet Jablonski (Chet the Jet) who pinned Punk to win the OVW Heavyweight Championship. As Punk no longer possessed the championship OVW no longer required him. He was removed from the roster and brought up to the WWE roster full time. He continues to make sporadic appearances for the company such as at the 400th episode of OVW on television.

On June 24 2006 Punk made his ECW debut during a house show at the former ECW Arena, defeating Stevie Richards. He made his TV debut on the July 4 episode of ECW on Sci Fi, cutting a brief pre-taped face promo about his straight edge lifestyle emphasizing the disciplinary aspects of being drug and alcohol free. Although he had retained the straight edge gimmick, he now had a Muay Thai training background. Punk made his TV wrestling debut on August 1 2006 at the Hammerstein Ballroom, defeating Justin Credible. CM Punk established himself in ECW by going undefeated, defeating opponents such as Christopher W. Anderson, Stevie Richards, and Shannon Moore.

Soon after, Punk began feuding with Mike Knox after Knox's girlfriend, Kelly Kelly, was seen to have feelings for Punk. Punk defeated Mike Knox in their first singles match (qualifying for the Extreme Elimination Chamber at December to Dismember in the process) as well as the rematch, after which Kelly Kelly celebrated CM Punk's victory over her boyfriend. Punk then went on to team with D-Generation X and The Hardy Boyz in their Survivor Series match against Rated-RKO, Knox, Johnny Nitro and Gregory Helms, a match where all the participants on DX's side survived elimination. At ECW December to Dismember, Punk participated in the Extreme Elimination Chamber for the ECW World Championship, however was the first person eliminated. Following this, Punk entered into a feud with Hardcore Holly, who ended Punk's six month unbeaten streak in singles competition on January 9 2007. Punk went on to feud with Matt Striker, who gave him his second singles loss since being in ECW on January 30. Following this Punk qualified for the Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania 23 by defeating Johnny Nitro, being the only member of the ECW roster to qualify. In the final week leading up to WrestleMania 23 Punk made appearances on both RAW and SmackDown! defeating Kenny Dykstra and former World Heavyweight Champion King Booker respectively. At WrestleMania 23 Punk competed in, but did not win, the Money in the Bank ladder match being knocked off the ladder just seconds before the winner, Mr. Kennedy, claimed the briefcase.

On the April 10 edition of ECW on Sci-Fi, Punk officially joined the New Breed stable, after several weeks in which both the New Breed and the ECW Originals had attempted to recruit him. However two weeks later Punk betrayed the New Breed during a four on four elimination match between the New Breed and ECW Originals by kicking New Breed leader Elijah Burke in the back of the head costing them the match. After the match Punk proceeded to deliver his finisher, the Go To Sleep, on Burke before leaving the ring alone. WWE.com later confirmed that Punk was no longer a member of the New Breed. At Judgment Day 2007, Punk wrestled and defeated Elijah Burke in his first singles match on a pay-per-view. Punk would then go on to One Night Stand 2007 and team up with Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman in a Tables match to defeat the New Breed.

Due to the drafting of ECW World Champion Bobby Lashley to RAW the ECW World Championship was declared vacant and a mini-tournament was announced to declare a new champion between Punk, Elijah Burke, Marcus Cor Von and the recently drafted Chris Benoit. Punk defeated Marcus Cor Von on the June 19 edition of ECW on Sci-Fi. By doing so CM Punk was meant to face Chris Benoit at Vengeance 2007 for the vacant ECW World Championship, however Benoit was hastily replaced by Johnny Nitro when Benoit no-showed the event due to what was described on-air as "personal reasons". Nitro subsequently defeated Punk at Vengeance for the vacant championship. Punk won another shot at the title at The Great American Bash against Johnny Nitro, who had changed his moniker to John Morrison at this point, however Punk was defeated again by Morrison. Punk the next week would challenge Elijah Burke and Tommy Dreamer in a triple threat match to determine the next competitor in John Morrison's 15 Minutes of Fame Challenge, in which Punk came out victorious. A week later Punk would defeat Morrison with the G.T.S. to earn an ECW Championship title match at SummerSlam. At Saturday Night's Main Event CM Punk would team up with Boogeyman to take on and defeat Morrison and Big Daddy V. CM Punk lost to Morrison for the ECW Championship when Morrison used the ropes for leverage at SummerSlam.

At the September 1, 2007 ECW taping in Cincinnati, Ohio, in a "last chance" title match, Punk defeated John Morrison for the ECW Championship. The match aired on the Sci-Fi Network on September 4.

*Finishing moves **G.T.S. – Go To Sleep (Fireman's carry dropped into a knee strike to the face) **Anaconda Vise (Anaconda vice or arm triangle choke) **Pepsi Plunge (Top rope double underhook facebuster) **Shining wizard *Signature moves **.45 Special (Reverse Indian deathlock surfboard) **Crooked Moonsault (Split-legged moonsault) **Devil Lock (Cloverleaf with armlock) **Devil Lock DDT (Hammerlock legsweep DDT) **Inertia DDT (Springboard tornado DDT) **Jackie Chan (Sitting in corner grasps the top rope with one hand on each side, when opponent attempts to pull Punk off ropes by his legs Punk performs a backflip landing on his feet) **Pepsi Twist (Jumping hammerlock short range lariat) **Punk-Handle Piledriver (Pumphandle reverse piledriver) **Welcome to Chicago, Motherfucker (Double underhook backbreaker) **Arm twist ropewalk legdrop **Arm wrench followed by stepping a leg over the wrenched arm and performing a mule kick with the leg below the opponent's face **Corkscrew blockbuster **Knee strikes, followed by an Irish whip to the corner then performing a charging high knee to the standing opponent while catching the opponents head to perform a bulldog **Repeated slaps, backhand chops and a spinning reverse slap, followed by a roundhouse kick to the side of the head, occasionally followed by a uranage which is then usually followed by the Anaconda Vise **Slingshot somersault senton **Springboard flying clothesline *Managers **Tracy Brooks **Alexis Laree **Lucy **James Mitchell **Dave Prazak *Theme music **Full Impact Pro ***South of Heaven – Slayer **Major League Wrestling ***Shitlist – L7 **IWA: Mid-South ***99 Problems – Jay-Z ***Gainesville Rock City – Less Than Jake ***Miseria Cantare - The Beginning – AFI ***People = Shit – Slipknot ***When Will They Shoot? – Ice Cube **Ohio Valley Wrestling ***Miseria Cantare - The Beginning – AFI **Ring of Honor ***A Call for Blood – Hatebreed ***Cult of Personality – Living Colour ***Miseria Cantare - The Beginning – AFI ***Night Train – The Bouncing Souls **St. Paul Championship Wrestling ***¡Olé! – The Bouncing Souls **World Wrestling Entertainment ***This Fire Burns – Killswitch Engage

*Independent Wrestling Association Mid-South **IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Championship (5 times) **IWA Mid-South Light Heavyweight Championship (2 times) *International Wrestling Cartel **IWC Heavyweight Championship (1 time) *Mid-American Wrestling **MAW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) *NWA Cyberspace **NWA Cyberspace Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Julio Dinero *NWA Revolution **NWA Revolution Heavyweight Championship *Ohio Valley Wrestling **OVW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) **OVW Southern Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Seth Skyfire **OVW Television Championship (1 time) **OVW Triple Crown Champion (1 time) (Second) *Revolution Championship Wrestling **RCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) *Ring of Honor **ROH World Championship (1 time) **ROH Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Colt Cabana *St. Paul Championship Wrestling **SPCW Northern States Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time) *Steel Domain Wrestling **SDW Northern States Television Championship (2 times) *World Wrestling Entertainment **ECW Championship (1 time, current) *Wrestling Observer Newsletter ** 5 star match; vs Samoa Joe (ROH Joe vs. Punk II, October 16, 2004)

Punk has adopted his real-life following of the straight edge movement as his professional wrestling gimmick, but the gimmick uses different elements of Punk's personality and the beliefs of the straight edge movement depending on his alignment. While portraying a face, the gimmick tends to be that of Punk's normal personality, largely indifferent to others who drink alcohol, smoke tobacco, partake in recreational drug use or have promiscuous sexual behavior, but emphasizing the social discipline involved with abstinence. Conversely, his heel personality tends to be that of one who is militantly straightedge, exemplifying the elitist attitudes and superiority complexes - defined by Punk's common mantra during heel promos that, because he is straight edge, he is "better than you". Regardless of alignment, Punk performs the straight edge symbol of crossing his arms in an X formation while having the letter X written on the back of his hands, usually drawn on his wrist tape.

The meaning of the CM portion of Punk's ring name is a source of discussion as to its meaning and origins. Originally, the CM stood simply for "Chick Magnet" as it related to his original backyard wrestling tag team. However, Punk would later state that CM had multiple meanings and would give different answers and stories when asked, such as "Cookie Monster", "Crooked Moonsault", "Chuck Mosley", "Charles Montgomery" and "Charles Manson".

An integral part of Punk's gimmick is that of the numerous tattoos that adorn his body, some of which have come to become symbols associated with Punk as well as mantras and declarations that have been integrated into his gimmick. The tattoos as a whole, due to their large quantity and variety, have also become an attribute identifiable to Punk. The most important of the individual tattoos in Punk's character, whether through association, symbol, or mantra, are: *A Pepsi logo on his left shoulder which inspired the names of two of his signature moves which also became a symbol of Punk himself, wearing the logo on his ring gear in the independent circuit as well as a slightly modified Pepsi logo being used as part of his TitanTron entrance video. He got the tattoo as a joke, as many fraternity members in his school were getting beer logos tattooed on their body, so Punk, a keen Pepsi drinker, chose to receive a Pepsi tattoo to emphasize his straight edge beliefs. The tattoo is also a reference to former Minor Threat guitarist Brian Baker, who had a Coca-Cola tattoo and explained this by saying "I like Coca-Cola". When people inquire about Punk's Pepsi tattoo, he often replies "I like Pepsi" in a similar fashion. *The words "Straight Edge" are spelled out on his stomach. This tattoo is one of Punk's oldest tattoos and has been referred to by Punk as his identity. *The four aces on his left arm. He got the tattoo as a tribute to Ace Steel. *A sleeve tattoo on his left arm entitled "luck is for losers", a mantra used on some of the choices for Punk's first ECW T-shirt, that features twists on numerous symbols of good luck. *His knuckles spell out "DRUG FREE" when placed together, "DRUG" on the right knuckles and "FREE" on the left. This tattoo is often used in wrestling as a taunting gesture to the crowd and opponents. *A Cobra Organization logo tattoo on his right shoulder, with the word "SPITFIRE" above it. *A tattoo on the back of his left hand reading "No gimmicks needed". Punk's character and gimmick have been parodied by the wrestling federation CHIKARA with the character CP Munk, the straight edge chipmunk. The character is simply a chipmunk mascot costume which includes references to Punk such as X marked wrist tape, a Pepsi logo on the costume's left shoulder, and a high-pitch version of Punk's best-known independent circuit theme song Miseria Cantare - The Beginning, as performed by the band AFI. Punk has stated on the Q&A section of his website that some days he can laugh about CP Munk, and other days it makes him a bit angry.

Punk was born, raised and lived in Chicago, Illinois with a father with alcohol problems, his mother, two younger sisters and a brother. His brother grew up to also be a professional wrestler, using the ring name Mike Broox; however, Punk and Mike had a falling out after Mike embezzled several thousand dollars from the Lunatic Wrestling Federation. Punk first wished to pursue a career in professional wrestling after watching Roddy Piper crack a coconut over Jimmy Snuka's head during an edition of the Piper's Pit. While viewing his alcoholic father and reading that alcoholism may have been hereditary Punk made an agreement with himself to abstain from drinking alcohol to prevent the situation from occurring. During high school Punk discovered the hardcore punk music genre, most importantly for him Minor Threat, and by extension found the hardcore subculture which in turn lead to the discovery of the straight edge culture, which Punk himself adopted. After high school and beginning his wrestling career Punk moved out of the family house and lived for a time with fellow professional wrestler Allison Danger. Punk later moved into an apartment with Ace Steel; however, since then Punk has made reference to living alone in Chicago. Punk worked other jobs to support himself in his early career, the last of which was as a laboratory technician for Underwriters Laboratories until he was fired due to poor conduct and work ethic in October 2002.

In relationships Punk has made reference to two ex-girlfriends in his early career and later was romantically linked to professional wrestlers Shannon Spruill and Tracy Brookshaw, both of whom had managed him in ROH. Punk also dated Maria Kanellis, however they have since ended their relationship.

CM Punk made an appearance on the February 16 2004 episode of Monster Garage, "Box Truck Wrestling Car", performing a short match with Samoa Joe. On October 31 2006, CM Punk joined The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) to shoot the Sci Fi Channel special Ghost Hunters Live, which was a six-hour show broadcast live Halloween night from the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. Initially skeptical about what he might find, Punk claimed to have heard children giggling and footsteps when there were not any children booked into the hotel. During his time there he made reference to Colt Cabana, claiming a friend of his "lost a toe once" in reference to a story about Cabana having lost a toe in a car crash when he only bruised it, and Samoa Joe.

*Official Site *WWE Profile *