(WARNING: SmackDown spoilers ahead for viewers in the US)
CM Punk’s rivalry with John Cena took a unique approach on tonight’s episode of SmackDown.
The June 27 edition of SmackDown suffered a technical snag, leading to an outage in Netflix’s live broadcast for nearly the first thirty minutes of the show. However, the promotion bounced back soon and completed the latest episode of the Friday-night show on a positive note.
In the main event of the show, Punk and John Cena engaged in a promo battle, which began hilariously. Countering Cena’s ‘reverse pipebomb’ from last week, The Second City Saint debuted a brand new gimmick of ‘Punk Life.’ Coming out dressed as a younger John Cena’s version of ‘Dr.Thuganomics,’ Punk proceeded to cut a promo on Cena in the form of a rap.
Roasting Cena, The Voice of the Voiceless, continued to take several digs at the champion, including his former girlfriend, Nikki Bella. The segment raked in massive positive reviews on the web, as Chief Content Officer Triple H also reacted to it. As soon as the episode finished, The Game shared his statement on X(Twitter):
PunkLife…
It’s basic thuganomics.”
PunkLife…
It’s basic thuganomics…#Smackdown tonight
— Triple H (@TripleH) June 27, 2025
In less than 24 hours, Punk is scheduled to collide against John Cena for the Undisputed WWE Title at Night of Champions. Also, during the rap segment, CM Punk brutally roasted both Cena and The Undertaker.
CM Punk Pays Tribute To An Injured Liv Morgan
Earlier this month, during his appearance on Fanatics Fest, CM Punk heaped praise on an injured Liv Morgan and called her his MVP for 2024.
Shoutout to Liv Morgan who recently got injured, she was like my MVP for the year. I look at people like Liv who probably started right after I left, 2014-ish, and just from the time I’ve been around her and been able to see her work, just the way she’s developed this last year and just broken out of her shell and turned into this little worker, it kinda warms my heart.”
In other news: The latest episode of SmackDown witnessed an attempted Money in the Bank cash-in.