3 Superstars CM Punk namedropped during his Punkanomics promo on WWE SmackDown

Following a whirlwind of controversy in the past 24 hours–yes, even for one of the most controversial men in the business–CM Punk confronted John Cena in the most bizarre way possible on last night's SmackDown. This happened just one night before what could be their last match ever at Night of Champions.

Walking out to what many believed would be a hostile Saudi Arabia crowd, CM Punk shockingly came out to Basic Thuganomics, dressed in a Chicago Cubs jersey, a backwards hat, knuckles that read "Drug Free," basically channeling Cena's entire Dr. of Thuganomics schtick. Following Cena's parody Pipebomb last week, Punk returned the favor tonight with a savage freestyle diss rap, funnily enough, on the 14th anniversary of his original Pipebomb.

Punk referenced several WWE Superstars and dropped jaw-dropping Easter eggs during his rap with varying degrees of subtlety, with his shots at John Cena leaving him speechless on SmackDown. With Riyadh completely behind him as they chanted his name and sang Cult of Personality to close the show, CM Punk once again displayed that there are very few people who can work a crowd like he can.

To keep up with these mentions and references, the video has been embedded above for the reader. In this article, we will look at three WWE Superstars Punk explicitly name-dropped in his debut hip-hop single on Friday Night SmackDown.

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#1. CM Punk namedropped mutual rival: The Undertaker

The first WWE Superstar Punk mentioned during his rap was none other than The Undertaker. Punk compared Cena to the WWE Hall of Famer in the most disagreeable way possible while also responding to Cena's accusations during Cena's 'Pipebomb: Plagiarized Edition' on last week's SmackDown.

CM Punk said, "John Cena has buried more talent than The Undertaker" in response to the multiple real-life instances of Cena "burying" rising wrestlers. Funnily enough, Cena himself had poked fun at this with hilarious irony during his promo on last week's SmackDown, where he accused Punk of "stepping on other people's necks" before "breaking the fourth wall" and name-dropping Claudio Castagnoli, Nic Nemeth, and Matt Cardona, as can be seen at the 3:01 mark in the video below.

The choice of these names actually stirred up a slew of rumors and conspiracy theories behind the deeper meaning, with some people diving so deep to find meaning that they could not pick up on the irony of the comment itself.

#2. CM Punk namedropped a close friend: Batista

During his rap, Punk went after not just John Cena's wrestling career and rapping career, but also his acting career. Despite acknowledging Cena's success in the industry, he poked fun at his role in DC as well as the failure of The Marine movies that he led.

However, it wasn't just the commercial aspect of Cena's acting career that CM Punk went after. Punk unfavorably compared Cena to his good friend Batista, who is widely regarded as the best wrestler-turned-actor in terms of pure acting ability. Basically, Punk barely left any part of John Cena's life immune from the bars he dropped on SmackDown.

CM Punk's exact words were, "But hey, he gets good movie roles; that much is a fact. But then we see Batista act, and we realize that John ain't that."

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#3. CM Punk namedropped WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan

CM Punk initially made only a subtle reference to Hulk Hogan, saying, "If you never said your prayers, ate your vitamins, or fixed your bald spot, you wouldn't be a pro wrestler; you'd be a Boston mall cop." Following this line, he went to the aforementioned diss on his acting abilities, where he namedropped Batista.

Punk then stated, "Same shirt, same hat; man, your persona has stayed tragic. You're like a fish-belly-white Hulk Hogan, but somehow more problematic."

This line was obviously in reference to John Cena being touted as the modern-day Hulk Hogan when it comes to a lot of aspects of wrestling: carrying the company for years, being a traditional white-meat babyface, one of the most influential and polarizing figures in wrestling, but also someone who has had the same on-screen act for 20 years, with Cena retaining a lot of it even during this heel run.

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Edited by Sanchari Bhattacharya