CM Punk broke out his Pepsi Plunge finisher to beat Samoa Joe and retain his “Real” AEW World Championship on Sunday afternoon at AEW’s All In pay-per-view. Punk and Joe famously had a trilogy of matches in the early days of Ring of Honor back in the mid-2000s, two of which ended in hour-long time-limit draws while the third saw Joe finally win to retain his ROH World Championship. The two finally clashed again for the first time in over a decade earlier this summer during the Owen Hart Cup tournament, which Punk won via a roll-up. Unsatisfied with how the match ended, Joe immediately choked Punk out and repeatedly stalked him for a rematch. Punk would eventually accept after Joe cost him and FTR the chance at winning the AEW World Trios Championships on an episode of AEW Collision.
“Just experience, a treasure trove of experience,” Joe said in a recent interview with Under The Ropes while discussing the reignition of his feud with Joe. “When we first locked up, we were very new in the industry and still very much a journeyman learning. You never stop learning, but at the same time, we definitely knew a hell of a lot less back then.”
Punk and Joe opened the All In main card with a bloody encounter, one that ended with Punk breaking out his original finisher to keep the “Samoan Submission Machine” down for a three-count.
PUNK WINS WITH THE PEPSI PLUNGE
What a homerun of an opener.pic.twitter.com/201K7fPLGp
