And so begins CM Punk's title reign!

WWE Survivor Series 2011: CM Punk vs. Alberto Del Rio

First of all, Punk having The Fink as his personal ring announcer for the match ruled. The match itself is overall very good, but it also had a pretty dry and dull middle-section w/ Del Rio on top. He just didn't grab me at all with his work, and it sounded like the crowd would agree with me, because they went pretty dead for that section of the match. I definitely can appreciate the fact that he went after the arm though -- even if his work over it was EXTREMELY basic & uninteresting, it's always nice to see stuff that makes sense, ya know. What helped that tremendously was the fact that Punk's selling was absolute top class. Made it feel so much more important & better than it was. Things thankfully also really picked up after Del Rio's heat segment is done, and the last third of the match is legitimately pretty great. I'd say that the thing had a good start, dull middle, and then a great last third to cap it off. ***1/2

WWE RAW 11/21/11: CM Punk vs. Dolph Ziggler

A good TV-match. Ziggler actually controls most of it, and the whole dynamic of him, as a hot mid-card act pushing the new World Champ to the limit, was fun. Such good energy surrounding the whole thing & the action is solid from start to finish. I'd say the highlights for me were Ziggler's GTS counter, and then a bit later on Punk paying him back w/ that Fameasser counter. ***

WWE TLC 2011: CM Punk vs. Alberto Del Rio vs. The Miz

Everything from when ADR first handcuffs Punk on is such awesome action. They use all of the gimmicks well with a couple of great, big table spots, ladder smacks + ADR going crazy w/ the chairs during his little (awesome) rampage run. I also really love the finishing stretch w/ Miz handcuffing Punk again -- it's some creative, very good stuff. Definitely a quality TLC bout. ***3/4