title: Louisiana

text: The first case of COVID-19 in Louisiana was announced on March 9, 2020. Since the first confirmed case as of October 27, 2020, there had been 180,069 confirmed cases; 5,854 people have died of COVID-19. Louisiana entered phase one of re-opening the state on May 15. On June 4, Governor John Bel Edwards signed an order moving to phase two. Gov. Edwards extended phase two until September 11, and phase three began with speculation on October 9.


title: Louisiana

text: Louisiana is bordered to the west by Texas; to the north by Arkansas; to the east by Mississippi; and to the south by the Gulf of Mexico. The state may properly be divided into two parts, the uplands of the north (the region of North Louisiana), and the alluvial along the coast (the Central Louisiana, Acadiana, Florida Parishes, and Greater New Orleans regions). The alluvial region includes low swamp lands, coastal marshlands and beaches, and barrier islands that cover about . This area lies principally along the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River, which traverses the state from north to south for a distance of about and empties into the Gulf of Mexico; also in the state are the Red River; the Ouachita River and its branches; and other minor streams (some of which are called bayous).


title: Louisiana

text: The breadth of the alluvial region along the Mississippi is 10–60 miles (15–100 km), and along the other rivers, the alluvial region averages about 10 miles (15 km) across. The Mississippi River flows along a ridge formed by its natural deposits (known as a levee), from which the lands decline toward a river beyond at an average fall of six feet per mile (3m/km). The alluvial lands along other streams present similar features.


title: Louisiana

text: The higher and contiguous hill lands of the north and northwestern part of the state have an area of more than . They consist of prairie and woodlands. The elevations above sea level range from 10 feet (3m) at the coast and swamp lands to 50–60 feet (15–18m) at the prairie and alluvial lands. In the uplands and hills, the elevations rise to Driskill Mountain, the highest point in the state only 535 feet (163m) above sea level. From 1932 to 2010 the state lost 1,800 square miles due to rises in sea level and erosion. The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) spends around $1billion per year to help shore up and protect Louisiana shoreline and land in both federal and state funding.


title: Louisiana

text: Besides the waterways named, there are the Sabine, forming the western boundary; and the Pearl, the eastern boundary; the Calcasieu, the Mermentau, the Vermilion, Bayou Teche, the Atchafalaya, the Boeuf, Bayou Lafourche, the Courtableau River, Bayou D'Arbonne, the Macon River, the Tensas, Amite River, the Tchefuncte, the Tickfaw, the Natalbany River, and a number of other smaller streams, constituting a natural system of navigable waterways, aggregating over long.


title: Louisiana

text: The state also has political jurisdiction over the approximately -wide portion of subsea land of the inner continental shelf in the Gulf of Mexico. Through a peculiarity of the political geography of the United States, this is substantially less than the -wide jurisdiction of nearby states Texas and Florida, which, like Louisiana, have extensive Gulf coastlines.


title: Louisiana

text: The southern coast of Louisiana in the United States is among the fastest-disappearing areas in the world. This has largely resulted from human mismanagement of the coast (see Wetlands of Louisiana). At one time, the land was added to when spring floods from the Mississippi River added sediment and stimulated marsh growth; the land is now shrinking. There are multiple causes.


title: Louisiana

text: Artificial levees block spring flood water that would bring fresh water and sediment to marshes. Swamps have been extensively logged, leaving canals and ditches that allow salt water to move inland. Canals dug for the oil and gas industry also allow storms to move sea water inland, where it damages swamps and marshes. Rising sea waters have exacerbated the problem. Some researchers estimate that the state is losing a landmass equivalent to 30 football fields every day. There are many proposals to save coastal areas by reducing human damage, including restoring natural floods from the Mississippi. Without such restoration, coastal communities will continue to disappear. And as the communities disappear, more and more people are leaving the region. Since the coastal wetlands support an economically important coastal fishery, the loss of wetlands is adversely affecting this industry.


title: Louisiana

text: The Gulf of Mexico 'dead zone' off the coast of Louisiana is the largest recurring hypoxic zone in the United States. It was in 2017, the largest ever recorded.


title: Louisiana

text: The Gulf of Mexico did not exist 250 million years ago when there was but one supercontinent, Pangea. As Pangea split apart, the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico opened. Louisiana slowly developed, over millions of years, from water into land, and from north to south. The oldest rocks are exposed in the north, in areas such as the Kisatchie National Forest. The oldest rocks date back to the early Cenozoic Era, some 60 million years ago. The history of the formation of these rocks can be found in D. Spearing's "Roadside Geology of Louisiana".


title: Louisiana

text: The youngest parts of the state were formed during the last 12,000 years as successive deltas of the Mississippi River: the Maringouin, Teche, St. Bernard, Lafourche, the modern Mississippi, and now the Atchafalaya. The sediments were carried from north to south by the Mississippi River.


title: Louisiana

text: In between the tertiary rocks of the north, and the relatively new sediments along the coast, is a vast belt known as the Pleistocene Terraces. Their age and distribution can be largely related to the rise and fall of sea levels during past ice ages. In general, the northern terraces have had sufficient time for rivers to cut deep channels, while the newer terraces tend to be much flatter.


title: Louisiana

text: Salt domes are also found in Louisiana. Their origin can be traced back to the early Gulf of Mexico when the shallow ocean had high rates of evaporation. There are several hundred salt domes in the state; one of the most familiar is Avery Island, Louisiana. Salt domes are important not only as a source of salt; they also serve as underground traps for oil and gas.


title: Louisiana

text: Louisiana has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification "Cfa"), with long, hot, humid summers and short, mild winters. The subtropical characteristics of the state are due to its low latitude, low lying topography, and the influence of the Gulf of Mexico, which at its farthest point is no more than away.


title: Louisiana

text: Rain is frequent throughout the year, although from April to September is slightly wetter than the rest of the year, which is the state's wet season. There is a dip in precipitation in October. In summer, thunderstorms build during the heat of the day and bring intense but brief, tropical downpours. In winter, rainfall is more frontal and less intense.


title: Louisiana

text: Summers in southern Louisiana have high temperatures from June through September averaging or more, and overnight lows averaging above . At times, temperatures in the 90s°F(), combined with dew points in the upper 70s°F(), create sensible temperatures over . The humid, thick, jungle-like heat in southern Louisiana is a famous subject of countless stories and movies.


title: Louisiana

text: Temperatures are generally warm in the winter in the southern part of the state, with highs around New Orleans, Baton Rouge, the rest of southern Louisiana, and the Gulf of Mexico averaging . The northern part of the state is mildly cool in the winter, with highs averaging . The overnight lows in the winter average well above freezing throughout the state, with the average near the Gulf and an average low of in the winter in the northern part of the state.


title: Louisiana

text: On occasion, cold fronts from low-pressure centers to the north, reach Louisiana in winter. Low temperatures near occur on occasion in the northern part of the state but rarely do so in the southern part of the state. Snow is rare near the Gulf of Mexico, although residents in the northern parts of the state might receive a dusting of snow a few times each decade. Louisiana's highest recorded temperature is in Plain Dealing on August 10, 1936, while the coldest recorded temperature is at Minden on February 13, 1899.


title: Louisiana

text: Louisiana is often affected by tropical cyclones and is very vulnerable to strikes by major hurricanes, particularly the lowlands around and in the New Orleans area. The unique geography of the region, with the many bayous, marshes and inlets, can result in water damage across a wide area from major hurricanes. The area is also prone to frequent thunderstorms, especially in the summer.


title: Louisiana

text: The entire state averages over 60 days of thunderstorms a year, more than any other state except Florida. Louisiana averages 27 tornadoes annually. The entire state is vulnerable to a tornado strike, with the extreme southern portion of the state slightly less so than the rest of the state. Tornadoes are more common from January to March in the southern part of the state, and from February through March in the northern part of the state.


title: Louisiana

text: Owing to its location and geology, the state has high biological diversity. Some vital areas, such as southwestern prairie, have experienced a loss in excess of 98 percent. The pine flatwoods are also at great risk, mostly from fire suppression and urban sprawl. There is not yet a properly organized system of natural areas to represent and protect Louisiana's biological diversity. Such a system would consist of a protected system of core areas linked by biological corridors, such as Florida is planning.


title: Louisiana

text: Louisiana contains a number of areas which, to varying degrees, prevent people from using them. In addition to National Park Service areas and a United States National Forest, Louisiana operates a system of state parks, state historic sites, one state preservation area, one state forest, and many Wildlife Management Areas.


title: Louisiana

text: One of Louisiana's largest government-owned areas is Kisatchie National Forest. It is some 600,000 acres in area, more than half of which is flatwoods vegetation, which supports many rare plant and animal species. These include the Louisiana pinesnake and red-cockaded woodpecker. The system of government-owned cypress swamps around Lake Pontchartrain is another large area, with southern wetland species including egrets, alligators, and sturgeon. At least 12 core areas would be needed to build a "protected areas system" for the state; these would range from southwestern prairies, to the Pearl River Floodplain in the east, to the Mississippi River alluvial swamps in the north. Additionally, the state operates a system of 22 state parks, 17 state historic sites and one state preservation area; in these lands, Louisiana maintains a diversity of fauna and flora.


title: Louisiana

text: Historic or scenic areas managed, protected, or otherwise recognized by the National Park Service include:


title: Louisiana

text: Louisiana contains 308 incorporated municipalities, consisting of four consolidated city-parishes, and 304 cities, towns, and villages. Louisiana's municipalities cover only 7.9% of the state's land mass but are home to 45.3% of its population. The majority of urban Louisianians live along the coast or in northern Louisiana. The oldest permanent settlement in the state is Nachitoches. Baton Rouge, the state capital, is the second-largest city in the state. The most populous city is New Orleans. As defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, Louisiana contains nine metropolitan statistical areas. Major areas include Greater New Orleans, Greater Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and Shreveport–Bossier City.


title: Louisiana

text: Louisiana is the second-most populous of the South Central United States after Texas. The majority of the state's growing population lives in southern Louisiana, spread throughout Greater New Orleans, the Florida Parishes, and Acadiana, while Central and North Louisiana have been losing population. At the 2020 United States census, Louisiana had an apportioned population of 4,661,468. Its resident population was 4,657,757 as of 2020. The United States Census Bureau estimated that the population of Louisiana was 4,648,794 on July 1, 2019, a 2.55% increase since the 2010 United States census. In 2010, the state of Louisiana had a population of 4,533,372, up from 76,556 in 1810.


title: Louisiana

text: According to immigration statistics in 2018, approximately four percent of Louisianians were immigrants, while another four percent were native-born U.S. citizens with at least one immigrant parent. The majority of Louisianian immigrants came from Mexico (16%), Honduras (15%), Vietnam (10%), the Philippines (5%), and Guatemala (4%). Among the immigrant population in 2014, an estimated 64,500 were undocumented; Louisiana's undocumented immigrant population earned more than a billion U.S. dollars and paid $136million in taxes. The undocumented immigrant population increased to 70,000 in 2016 and comprised two percent of the state population. New Orleans has been defined as a sanctuary city.


title: Louisiana

text: The population density of the state is 104.9 people per square mile. The center of population of Louisiana is located in Pointe Coupee Parish, in the city of New Roads. According to the 2010 United States census, 5.4% of the population age5 and older spoke Spanish at home, up from 3.5% in 2000; and 4.5% spoke French (including Louisiana French and Louisiana Creole), down from 4.8% in 2000.


title: Louisiana

text: Several American Indian tribes such as the Atakapa and Caddo were the primary residents of Louisiana before European colonization, concentrated along the Red River and Gulf of Mexico. At the beginning of French and Spanish colonization of Louisiana, white and black Americans began to move into the area. From French and Spanish rule in Louisiana, they were joined by Filipinos and Germans, both slave and free, who settled in enclaves within the Greater New Orleans region and Acadiana.


title: Louisiana

text: By the 19th and 20th centuries, the state's population fluctuated between white and black Americans; 47% of the population was black or African American in 1900. The black or African American population declined following migration to states including New York and California in efforts to flee Jim Crow regulations.


title: Louisiana

text: At the end of the 20th century, Louisiana's population has experienced diversification again, and its non-Hispanic or non-Latino American white population has been declining. Since 2020, the black or African American population have made up the largest non-white share of youths. Hispanic and Latino Americans have also increased as the second-largest racial and ethnic composition in the state, making up nearly 7% of Louisiana's population at the 2020 census. As of 2018, the largest single Hispanic and Latino American ethnicity were Mexican Americans (2.0%), followed by Puerto Ricans (0.3%) and Cuban Americans (0.2%). Other Hispanic and Latino Americans altogether made up 2.6% of Louisiana's Hispanic or Latino American population. The Asian American and multiracial communities have also experienced rapid growth, with many of Louisiana's multiracial population identifying as Cajun or Louisiana Creole.


title: Louisiana

text: At the 2019 American Community Survey, the largest ancestry groups of Louisiana were African American (31.4%), French (9.6%), German (6.2%), English (4.6%), Italian (4.2%), and Scottish (0.9%). African American and French heritage have been dominant since colonial Louisiana. As of 2011, 49.0% of Louisiana's population younger than age1 were minorities.


title: Louisiana

text: As an ethnically and culturally diverse state, pre-colonial, colonial and present-day Louisianians have adhered to a variety of religions and spiritual traditions; pre-colonial and colonial Louisianian peoples practiced various Native American religions alongside Christianity through the establishment of Spanish and French missions; and other faiths including Haitian Vodou and Louisiana Voodoo were introduced to the state and are practiced to the present day. In the colonial and present-day U.S. state of Louisiana, Christianity grew to become its most predominant religion, representing 84% of the adult population in 2014 and 76.5% in 2020, during two separate studies by the Pew Research Center and Public Religion Research Institute.


title: Louisiana

text: Among its Christian population—and in common with other southern U.S. states—the majority, particularly in the north of the state, belong to various Protestant denominations. Protestant Christians made up 57% of the state's adult population at the 2014 Pew Research Center study, and 53% at the 2020 Public Religion Research Institute's study. Protestants are concentrated in North Louisiana, Central Louisiana, and the northern tier of the Florida Parishes. According to the 2014 study, Louisiana's largest Protestant Christian denominations were the Southern Baptist Convention, National Baptist Convention USA, National Baptist Convention of America, Progressive National Baptist Convention, American Baptist Churches USA, non/interdenominational Evangelicals and mainline Protestants, the Assemblies of God USA, Church of God in Christ, African Methodist Episcopal and Christian Methodist Episcopal churches, and the United Methodist Church.


title: Louisiana

text: According to a prior study by Association of Religion Data Archives in 2010, the Southern Baptist Convention had 709,650 members, and the United Methodist Church had 146,848; non-denominational Protestant churches had 195,903 members. In another study by the Association of Religion Data Archives in 2020, the Southern Baptists remained the state's largest Protestant denomination (648,734), followed by the United Methodists (128,108); non-denominational Protestants increased to 357,465. National Missionary Baptists reported 67,518 members, and the National Baptist Convention USA had a statewide membership of 61,997, making them the largest historically and predominantly African American church bodies in the state. In this study, Pentecostals were the largest Protestant traditions outside of the Baptists and Methodists; the Assemblies of God USA (45,773) was the state's largest Pentecostal body followed by the Church of God in Christ (32,116). The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America had 23,922 members, and the remaining largest Protestant denominations were the Churches of Christ (22,833), Progressive National Baptists (22,756), National Baptists of America (22,034), and Full Gospel Baptists (9,772).


title: Louisiana

text: Because of French and Spanish heritage, and their descendants the Creoles, and later Irish, Italian, Portuguese and German immigrants, southern Louisiana and Greater New Orleans are predominantly Catholic in contrast; according to the 2020 Public Religion Research Institute study, 22% of the adult population were Catholic. Since Creoles were the first settlers, planters and leaders of the territory, they have traditionally been well represented in politics; for instance, most of the early governors were Creole Catholics, instead of Protestants. As Catholics continue to constitute a significant fraction of Louisiana's population, they have continued to be influential in state politics. The high proportion and influence of the Catholic population makes Louisiana distinct among southern states. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans, Diocese of Baton Rouge, and Diocese of Lafayette in Louisiana are the largest Catholic jurisdictions in the state, located within the Greater New Orleans, Greater Baton Rouge, and Lafayette metropolitan statistical areas.Outside of Christendom, Louisiana was among the southern states with a significant Jewish population before the 20th century; Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia also had influential Jewish populations in some of their major cities from the 18th and 19th centuries. The earliest Jewish colonists were Sephardic Jews who immigrated to the Thirteen Colonies. Later in the 19th century, German Jews began to immigrate, followed by those from eastern Europe and the Russian Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Jewish communities have been established in the state's larger cities, notably New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The most significant of these is the Jewish community of the New Orleans area. In 2000, before the 2005 Hurricane Katrina, its population was about 12,000. Dominant Jewish movements in the state include Orthodox and Reform Judaism; Reform Judaism was the largest Jewish tradition in the state according to the Association of Religion Data Archives in 2020, representing some 5,891 Jews.


title: Louisiana

text: Prominent Jews in Louisiana's political leadership have included Whig (later Democrat) Judah P. Benjamin (1811–1884), who represented Louisiana in the U.S. Senate before the American Civil War and then became the Confederate secretary of state; Democrat-turned-Republican Michael Hahn who was elected as governor, serving 1864–1865 when Louisiana was occupied by the Union Army, and later elected in 1884 as a U.S. congressman; Democrat Adolph Meyer (1842–1908), Confederate Army officer who represented the state in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1891 until his death in 1908; Republican secretary of state Jay Dardenne (1954–), and Republican (Democrat before 2011) attorney general Buddy Caldwell (1946–).


title: Louisiana

text: Other non-Christian and non-Jewish religions with a continuous, historical presence in the state have been Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. In the Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area, Muslims made up an estimated 14% of Louisiana's total Muslim population as of 2014. In 2020, the Association of Religion Data Archives estimated there were 24,732 Muslims living in the state. The largest Islamic denominations in the major metropolises of Louisiana were Sunni Islam, non-denominational Islam and Quranism, Shia Islam, and the Nation of Islam.


title: Louisiana

text: Among Louisiana's irreligious community, 2% affiliated with Atheism and 13% claimed no religion as of 2014; an estimated 10% of the state's population practiced nothing in particular at the 2014 study. According to the Public Religion Research Institute in 2020, 19% were religiously unaffiliated.


title: Louisiana

text: Louisiana's population, agricultural products, abundance of oil and natural gas, and southern Louisiana's medical and technology corridors have contributed to its growing and diversifying economy. In 2014, Louisiana was ranked as one of the most small business friendly states, based on a study drawing upon data from more than 12,000 small business owners. The state's principal agricultural products include seafood (it is the biggest producer of crawfish in the world, supplying approximately 90%), cotton, soybeans, cattle, sugarcane, poultry and eggs, dairy products, and rice. Among its energy and other industries, chemical products, petroleum and coal products, processed foods, transportation equipment, and paper products have contributed to a significant portion of the state's GSP. Tourism and gaming are also important elements in the economy, especially in Greater New Orleans.


title: Louisiana

text: The Port of South Louisiana, located on the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, was the largest volume shipping port in the Western Hemisphere and 4th largest in the world, as well as the largest bulk cargo port in the U.S. in 2004. The Port of South Louisiana continued to be the busiest port by tonnage in the U.S. through 2018. South Louisiana was number 15 among world ports in 2016.


title: Louisiana

text: New Orleans, Shreveport, and Baton Rouge are home to a thriving film industry. State financial incentives since 2002 and aggressive promotion have given Louisiana the nickname "Hollywood South." Because of its distinctive culture within the United States, only Alaska is Louisiana's rival in popularity as a setting for reality television programs. In late 2007 and early 2008, a film studio was scheduled to open in Tremé, with state-of-the-art production facilities, and a film training institute. Tabasco sauce, which is marketed by one of the United States' biggest producers of hot sauce, the McIlhenny Company, originated on Avery Island.


title: Louisiana

text: From 2010 to 2020, Louisiana's gross state product increased from $213.6billion to $253.3billion, the 26th highest in the United States at the time. As of 2020, its GSP is greater than the GDPs of Greece, Peru, and New Zealand. Ranking 41st in the United States with a per capita personal income of $30,952 in 2014, its residents per capita income decreased to $28,662 in 2019. The median household income was $51,073, while the national average was $65,712 at the 2019 American Community Survey. In July 2017, the state's unemployment rate was 5.3%; it decreased to 4.4% in 2019.


title: Louisiana

text: Louisiana has three personal income tax brackets, ranging from 2% to 6%. The state sales tax rate is 4.45%, and parishes can levy additional sales tax on top of this. The state also has a use tax, which includes 4% to be distributed to local governments. Property taxes are assessed and collected at the local level. Louisiana is a subsidized state, and Louisiana taxpayers receive more federal funding per dollar of federal taxes paid compared to the average state. Per dollar of federal tax collected in 2005, Louisiana citizens received approximately $1.78 in the way of federal spending. This ranks the state fourth highest nationally and represents a rise from 1995 when Louisiana received $1.35 per dollar of taxes in federal spending (ranked seventh nationally). Neighboring states and the amount of federal spending received per dollar of federal tax collected were: Texas ($0.94), Arkansas ($1.41), and Mississippi ($2.02). Federal spending in 2005 and subsequent years since has been exceptionally high due to the recovery from Hurricane Katrina.


title: Louisiana

text: Louisiana is home to many cultures; especially notable are the distinct cultures of the Louisiana Creoles and Cajuns, descendants of French and Spanish settlers in colonial Louisiana.


title: Louisiana

text: The French colony of "La Louisiane" struggled for decades to survive. Conditions were harsh, the climate and soil were unsuitable for certain crops the colonists knew, and they suffered from regional tropical diseases. Both colonists and the slaves they imported had high mortality rates. The settlers kept importing slaves, which resulted in a high proportion of native Africans from West Africa, who continued to practice their culture in new surroundings. As described by historian Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, they developed a marked Afro-Creole culture in the colonial era.


title: Louisiana

text: At the turn of the 18th century and in the early 1800s, New Orleans received a major influx of White and mixed-race refugees fleeing the violence of the Haitian Revolution, many of whom brought their slaves with them. This added another infusion of African culture to the city, as more slaves in Saint-Domingue were from Africa than in the United States. They strongly influenced the African-American culture of the city in terms of dance, music and religious practices.


title: Louisiana

text: Creole culture is an amalgamation of French, African, Spanish (and other European), and Native American cultures. Creole comes from the Portuguese word "crioulo"; originally it referred to a colonist of European (specifically French) descent who was born in the New World, in comparison to immigrants from France. The oldest Louisiana manuscript to use the word "Creole", from 1782, applied it to a slave born in the French colony. But originally it referred more generally to the French colonists born in Louisiana.


title: Louisiana

text: Over time, there developed in the French colony a relatively large group of Creoles of Color ("gens de couleur libres"), who were primarily descended from African slave women and French men (later other Europeans became part of the mix, as well as some Native Americans). Often the French would free their concubines and mixed-race children, and pass on social capital to them. They might educate sons in France, for instance, and help them enter the French Army for a career. They also settled capital or property on their mistresses and children. The free people of color gained more rights in the colony and sometimes education; they generally spoke French and were Roman Catholic. Many became artisans and property owners. Over time, the term "Creole" became associated with this class of Creoles of color, many of whom achieved freedom long before the American Civil War.


title: Louisiana

text: Wealthy French Creoles generally maintained town houses in New Orleans as well as houses on their large sugar plantations outside town along the Mississippi River. New Orleans had the largest population of free people of color in the region; they could find work there and created their own culture, marrying among themselves for decades.


title: Louisiana

text: The ancestors of Cajuns immigrated mostly from west central France to New France, where they settled in the Atlantic provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, known originally as the French colony of Acadia. After the British defeated France in the French and Indian War (Seven Years' War) in 1763, France ceded its territory east of the Mississippi River to Britain. After the Acadians refused to swear an oath of loyalty to the British Crown, they were expelled from Acadia, and made their way to places such as France, Britain, and New England.


title: Louisiana

text: Other Acadians covertly remained in British North America or moved to New Spain. Many Acadians settled in southern Louisiana in the region around Lafayette and the LaFourche Bayou country. They developed a distinct rural culture there, different from the French Creole colonists of New Orleans. Intermarrying with others in the area, they developed what was called Cajun music, cuisine and culture.


title: Louisiana

text: A third distinct culture in Louisiana is that of the Isleños. Its members are descendants of colonists from the Canary Islands who settled in Spanish Louisiana between 1778 and 1783 and intermarried with other communities such as Frenchman, Acadians, Creoles, Spaniards, and other groups, mainly through the 19th and early 20th centuries.


title: Louisiana

text: In Louisiana, the Isleños originally settled in four communities which included Galveztown, Valenzuela, Barataria, and San Bernardo. Of those settlements, Valenzuela and San Bernardo were the most successful as the other two were plagued with both disease and flooding. The large migration of Acadian refugees to Bayou Lafourche led to the rapid gallicization of the Valenzuela community while the community of San Bernardo (Saint Bernard) was able to preserve much of its unique culture and language into the 21st century. This being said, the transmission of Spanish and other customs has completely halted in St. Bernard with those having competency in Spanish being octogenarians.


title: Louisiana

text: Through the centuries, the various Isleño communities of Louisiana have kept alive different elements of their Canary Islander heritage while also adopting and building upon the customs and traditions of the communities that surround them. Today two heritage associates exist for the communities: Los Isleños Heritage and Cultural Society of St. Bernard as well as the Canary Islanders Heritage Society of Louisiana. The Fiesta de los Isleños is celebrated annually in St. Bernard Parish which features heritage performances from local groups and the Canary Islands.


title: Louisiana

text: According to a 2010 study by the Modern Language Association among persons aged five years and older, 91.26% of Louisiana residents speak only English at home, 3.45% speak French (standard French, French Creole, or Cajun French), 3.30% speak Spanish, and 0.59% speak Vietnamese.


title: Louisiana

text: Historically, Native American peoples in the area at the time of European encounter were seven tribes distinguished by their languages: Caddo, Tunica, Natchez, Houma, Choctaw, Atakapa, and Chitimacha. Other Native American peoples migrated into the region, escaping from European pressure from the east. Among these were the Alabama, Biloxi, Koasati, and Ofo peoples. Only Koasati still has native speakers in Louisiana (Choctaw, Alabama and possibly Caddo are still spoken in other states), although several tribes are working to revitalize their languages.


title: Louisiana

text: Starting in the 1700s, French colonists began to settle along the coast and founded New Orleans. They established French culture and language institutions. They imported thousands of slaves from tribes of West Africa, who spoke several different languages. In the creolization process, the slaves developed a Louisiana Creole dialect incorporating both French and African forms, which colonists adopted to communicate with them, and which persisted beyond slavery. In the 20th century, there were still people of mixed race, particularly, who spoke Louisiana Creole French.


title: Louisiana

text: During the 19th century after the Louisiana Purchase by the United States, English gradually gained prominence for business and government due to the shift in population with settlement by numerous Americans who were English speakers. Many ethnic French families continued to use French in private. Slaves and some free people of color also spoke Louisiana Creole French. The State Constitution of 1812 gave English official status in legal proceedings, but use of French remained widespread. Subsequent state constitutions reflect the diminishing importance of French. The 1868 constitution, passed during the Reconstruction era before Louisiana was re-admitted to the Union, banned laws requiring the publication of legal proceedings in languages other than English. Subsequently, the legal status of French recovered somewhat, but it never regained its pre-Civil War prominence.


title: Louisiana

text: Several unique dialects of French, Creole, and English are spoken in Louisiana. Dialects of the French language are: Colonial French and Houma French. Louisiana Creole French is the term for one of the Creole languages. Two unique dialects developed of the English language: Louisiana English, a French-influenced variety of English in which dropping of postvocalic /r/ is common; and what is informally known as Yat, which resembles the New York City dialect sometimes with southern influences, particularly that of historical Brooklyn. Both accents were influenced by large communities of immigrant Irish and Italians, but the Yat dialect, which developed in New Orleans, was also influenced by French and Spanish.


title: Louisiana

text: Colonial French was the dominant language of white settlers in Louisiana during the French colonial period; it was spoken primarily by the French Creoles (native-born). In addition to this dialect, the mixed-race people and slaves developed Louisiana Creole, with a base in West African languages. The limited years of Spanish rule at the end of the 18th century did not result in widespread adoption of the Spanish language. French and Louisiana Creole are still used in modern-day Louisiana, often in family gatherings. English and its associated dialects became predominant after the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, after which the area became dominated by numerous English speakers. In some regions, English was influenced by French, as seen with Louisiana English. Colonial French, although mistakenly named Cajun French by some Cajuns, has persisted alongside English.


title: Louisiana

text: Renewed interest in the French language in Louisiana has led to the establishment of Canadian-modeled French immersion schools, as well as bilingual signage in the historic French neighborhoods of New Orleans and Lafayette. In addition to private organizations, since 1968 the state has maintained the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL), which promotes use of the French language in the state's tourism, economic development, culture, education and international relations.


title: Louisiana

text: In 2018, Louisiana became the first U.S. state to join the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie as an observer. Since Louisiana joined the Francophonie, new organizations have launched to help revitalize Louisiana French and Creole, including the Nous Foundation.


title: Louisiana

text: Louisiana is home to over 40 public and private colleges and universities including Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in Lafayette, and Tulane University in New Orleans. Louisiana State University is the largest and most comprehensive university in Louisiana; the University of Louisiana at Lafayette is the second largest by enrollment. The University of Louisiana at Lafayette became an R1 university in December 2021. Tulane University is a major private research university and the wealthiest university in Louisiana with an endowment over $1.1billion. Tulane is also highly regarded for its academics nationwide, consistently ranked in the top 50 on "U.S. News & World Report's" list of best national universities.


title: Louisiana

text: Louisiana's two oldest and largest HBCUs (historically black colleges and universities) are Southern University in Baton Rouge and Grambling State University in Grambling. Both these Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) schools compete against each other in football annually in the much anticipated Bayou Classic during Thanksgiving weekend in the Superdome.


title: Louisiana

text: Of note among the education system, the Louisiana Science Education Act was a controversial law passed by the Louisiana Legislature on June 11, 2008, and signed into law by Governor Bobby Jindal on June 25. The act allowed public school teachers to use supplemental materials in the science classroom which are critical of established science on such topics as the theory of evolution and global warming.


title: Louisiana

text: In 2000, of all of the states, Louisiana had the highest percentage of students in private schools. Danielle Dreilinger of "The Times Picayune" wrote in 2014 that "Louisiana parents have a national reputation for favoring private schools." The number of students in enrolled in private schools in Louisiana declined by 9% from circa 2000–2005 until 2014, due to the proliferation of charter schools, the 2008 recession and Hurricane Katrina. Ten parishes in the Baton Rouge and New Orleans area had a combined 17% decline in private school enrollment in that period. This prompted private schools to lobby for school vouchers.


title: Louisiana

text: Louisiana's school voucher program is known as the Louisiana Scholarship Program. It was available in the New Orleans area beginning in 2008 and in the rest of the state beginning in 2012. In 2013, the number of students using school vouchers to attend private schools was 6,751, and for 2014 it was projected to over 8,800. As per a ruling from Ivan Lemelle, a U.S. district judge, the federal government has the right to review the charter school placements to ensure they do not further racial segregation.


title: Louisiana

text: The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development is the state government organization in charge of maintaining public transportation, roadways, bridges, canals, select levees, floodplain management, port facilities, commercial vehicles, and aviation which includes 69 airports.


title: Louisiana

text: In 2011, Louisiana ranked among the five deadliest states for debris/litter-caused vehicle accidents per total number of registered vehicles and population size. Figures derived from the NHTSA show at least 25 persons in Louisiana were killed per year in motor vehicle collisions with non-fixed objects, including debris, dumped litter, animals and their carcasses.


title: Louisiana

text: Six Class I freight railroads operate in Louisiana: BNSF Railway, Canadian National Railway, CSX Transportation, Kansas City Southern Railway, Norfolk Southern Railway, and Union Pacific Railroad. A number of Class II and Class III railroads also carry freight.


title: Louisiana

text: Amtrak, the national passenger railroad, operates three long-distance rail routes through Louisiana. All three originate at New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal. The "Crescent" serves then runs northeast to via , , , and The "City of New Orleans" stops at before continuing north to by way of and . The "Sunset Limited" serves , , , and on its route west to via , , , and . Before Hurricane Katrina, the "Sunset Limited" ran as far east as .


title: Louisiana

text: Predominantly serving New Orleans, the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority is the largest transit agency in the state. Other transit organizations are St. Bernard Urban Rapid Transit, Jefferson Transit, Capital Area Transit System, Lafayette Transit System, Shreveport Area Transit System, and Monroe Transit, among others.


title: Louisiana

text: During the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition, there was a gondola system built to go across the Mississippi River, called Mississippi Aerial River Transit, but was closed less than a year later.


title: Louisiana

text: The Louisiana Transportation Authority (under the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development) was created in 2001 to "promote, plan, finance, develop, construct, control, regulate, operate and maintain any tollway or transitway to be constructed within its jurisdiction. Development, construction, improvement, expansion, and maintenance of an efficient, safe, and well-maintained intermodal transportation system is essential to promote Louisiana's economic growth and the ability of Louisiana's business and industry to compete in regional, national, and global markets and to provide a high quality of life for the people of Louisiana."


title: Louisiana

text: Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY) is the busiest airport in Louisiana by an order of magnitude. It is also the second lowest-lying international airport in the world, at just above sea level. There are six other primary airports in the state: Baton Rouge Metropolitan, Shreveport Regional, Lafayette Regional, Alexandria International, Monroe Regional, and Lake Charles Regional. A total of 69 public-use airports exist in Louisiana.


title: Louisiana

text: The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway is an important means of transporting commercial goods such as petroleum and petroleum products, agricultural produce, building materials and manufactured goods. In 2018, the state sued the federal government to repair erosion along the waterway.


title: Louisiana

text: In 1849, the state moved the capital from New Orleans to Baton Rouge. Donaldsonville, Opelousas, and Shreveport have briefly served as the seat of Louisiana state government. The Louisiana State Capitol and the Louisiana Governor's Mansion are both located in Baton Rouge. The Louisiana Supreme Court, however, did not move to Baton Rouge but remains headquartered in New Orleans.


title: Louisiana

text: The current Louisiana governor is Democrat John Bel Edwards. The current United States senators are Republicans John Neely Kennedy and Bill Cassidy. Louisiana has six congressional districts and is represented in the U.S. House of Representatives by five Republicans and one Democrat. Louisiana had eight votes in the Electoral College for the 2020 election.


title: Louisiana

text: The Louisiana State Penitentiary, Angola - located near the border to Mississippi - is the largest maximum-security prison in the United States.


title: Louisiana

text: Most parishes have an elected government known as the Police Jury, dating from the colonial days. It is the legislative and executive government of the parish, and is elected by the voters. Its members are called Jurors, and together they elect a president as their chairman.


title: Louisiana

text: A more limited number of parishes operate under home rule charters, electing various forms of government. This include mayor–council, council–manager (in which the council hires a professional operating manager for the parish), and others.


title: Louisiana

text: The Louisiana political and legal structure has maintained several elements from the times of French and Spanish governance. One is the use of the term "parish" (from the French: "paroisse") in place of "county" for administrative subdivision. Another is the legal system of civil law based on French, German, and Spanish legal codes and ultimately Roman law, as opposed to English common law.


title: Louisiana

text: Louisiana's civil law system is what the majority of sovereign states in the world use, especially in Europe and its former colonies, excluding those that derive their legal systems from the British Empire. However, it is incorrect to equate the Louisiana Civil Code with the Napoleonic Code. Although the Napoleonic Code and Louisiana law draw from common legal roots, the Napoleonic Code was never in force in Louisiana, as it was enacted in 1804, after the United States had purchased and annexed Louisiana in 1803.


title: Louisiana

text: While the Louisiana Civil Code of 1808 has been continuously revised and updated since its enactment, it is still considered the controlling authority in the state. Differences are found between Louisianian civil law and the common law found in the other U.S. states. While some of these differences have been bridged due to the strong influence of common law tradition, the civil law tradition is still deeply rooted in most aspects of Louisiana private law. Thus property, contractual, business entities structure, much of civil procedure, and family law, as well as some aspects of criminal law, are still based mostly on traditional Roman legal thinking.


title: Louisiana

text: In 1997, Louisiana became the first state to offer the option of a traditional marriage or a covenant marriage. In a covenant marriage, the couple waives their right to a "no-fault" divorce after six months of separation, which is available in a traditional marriage. To divorce under a covenant marriage, a couple must demonstrate cause. Marriages between ascendants and descendants, and marriages between collaterals within the fourth degree (i.e., siblings, aunt and nephew, uncle and niece, first cousins) are prohibited. Same-sex marriages were prohibited by statute, but the U.S. Supreme Court declared such bans unconstitutional in 2015, in its ruling in "Obergefell v. Hodges". Same-sex marriages are now performed statewide. Louisiana is a community property state.


title: Louisiana

text: From 1898 to 1965, a period when Louisiana had effectively disfranchised most African Americans and many poor whites by provisions of a new constitution, this was essentially a one-party state dominated by white Democrats. Elites had control in the early 20th century, before populist Huey Long came to power as governor. In multiple acts of resistance, blacks left behind the segregation, violence and oppression of the state and moved out to seek better opportunities in northern and western industrial cities during the Great Migrations of 1910–1970, markedly reducing their proportion of population in Louisiana. The franchise for whites was expanded somewhat during these decades, but blacks remained essentially disfranchised until after the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century, gaining enforcement of their constitutional rights through passage by Congress of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.


title: Louisiana

text: Since the 1960s, when civil rights legislation was passed under President Lyndon Johnson to protect voting and civil rights, most African Americans in the state have affiliated with the Democratic Party. In the same years, many white social conservatives have moved to support Republican Party candidates in national, gubernatorial and statewide elections. In 2004, David Vitter was the first Republican in Louisiana to be popularly elected as a U.S. senator. The previous Republican senator, John S. Harris, who took office in 1868 during Reconstruction, was chosen by the state legislature under the rules of the 19th century.


title: Louisiana

text: Louisiana is unique among U.S. states in using a system for its state and local elections similar to that of modern France. All candidates, regardless of party affiliation, run in a nonpartisan blanket primary (or "jungle primary") on Election Day. If no candidate has more than 50% of the vote, the two candidates with the highest vote totals compete in a runoff election approximately one month later. This run-off method does not take into account party identification; therefore, it is not uncommon for a Democrat to be in a runoff with a fellow Democrat or a Republican to be in a runoff with a fellow Republican.


title: Louisiana

text: Congressional races have also been held under the jungle primary system. All other states (except Washington, California, and Maine) use single-party primaries followed by a general election between party candidates, each conducted by either a plurality voting system or runoff voting, to elect senators, representatives, and statewide officials. Between 2008 and 2010, federal congressional elections were run under a closed primary system—limited to registered party members. However, upon the passage of House Bill 292, Louisiana again adopted a nonpartisan blanket primary for its federal congressional elections.


title: Louisiana

text: Louisiana has six seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, five of which are currently held by Republicans and one by a Democrat. Though the state historically flips between Republican and Democratic governors, Louisiana is not classified as a swing state in presidential elections, as it has consistently voted for the Republican candidate by solid margins since backing Democrat Bill Clinton in 1996. The state's two U.S. senators are Bill Cassidy (R) and John Neely Kennedy (R).


title: Louisiana

text: Louisiana's statewide police force is the Louisiana State Police. It began in 1922 with the creation of the Highway Commission. In 1927, a second branch, the Bureau of Criminal Investigations, was formed. In 1932, the State Highway Patrol was authorized to carry weapons.


title: Louisiana

text: On July 28, 1936, the two branches were consolidated to form the Louisiana Department of State Police; its motto was "courtesy, loyalty, service". In 1942, this office was abolished and became a division of the Department of Public Safety, called the Louisiana State Police. In 1988, the Criminal Investigation Bureau was reorganized. Its troopers have statewide jurisdiction with power to enforce all laws of the state, including city and parish ordinances. Each year, they patrol over 12 million miles (20 million km) of roadway and arrest about 10,000 impaired drivers. The State Police are primarily a traffic enforcement agency, with other sections that delve into trucking safety, narcotics enforcement, and gaming oversight.


title: Louisiana

text: The elected sheriff in each parish is the chief law enforcement officer in the parish. They are the keepers of the local parish prisons, which house felony and misdemeanor prisoners. They are the primary criminal patrol and first responder agency in all matters criminal and civil. They are also the official tax collectors in each parish. The sheriffs are responsible for general law enforcement in their respective parishes. Orleans Parish is an exception, as the general law enforcement duties fall to the New Orleans Police Department. Before 2010, Orleans Parish was the only parish to have two sheriff's offices. Orleans Parish divided sheriffs' duties between criminal and civil, with a different elected sheriff overseeing each aspect. In 2006, a bill was passed which eventually consolidated the two sheriff's departments into one parish sheriff responsible for both civil and criminal matters.


title: Louisiana

text: In 2015, Louisiana had a higher murder rate (10.3 per 100,000) than any other state in the country for the 27th straight year. Louisiana is the only state with an annual average murder rate (13.6 per 100,000) at least twice as high as the U.S. annual average (6.6 per 100,000) during that period, according to Bureau of Justice Statistics from FBI Uniform Crime Reports. In a different kind of criminal activity, the "Chicago Tribune" reports that Louisiana is the most corrupt state in the United States.


title: Louisiana

text: According to "The Times Picayune", Louisiana is the prison capital of the world. Many for-profit private prisons and sheriff-owned prisons have been built and operate here. Louisiana's incarceration rate is nearly five times Iran's, 13 times China's and 20 times Germany's. Minorities are incarcerated at rates disproportionate to their share of the state's population.


title: Louisiana

text: The New Orleans Police Department began a new sanctuary policy to "no longer cooperate with federal immigration enforcement" beginning on February 28, 2016.


title: Louisiana

text: The judiciary of Louisiana is defined under the constitution and law of Louisiana and is composed of the Louisiana Supreme Court, the Louisiana Circuit Courts of Appeal, the district courts, the Justice of the Peace courts, the mayor's courts, the city courts, and the parish courts. The chief justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court is the chief administrator of the judiciary. Its administration is aided by the Judiciary Commission of Louisiana, the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board, and the Judicial Council of the Supreme Court of Louisiana.


title: Louisiana

text: Louisiana has more than 9,000 soldiers in the Louisiana Army National Guard, including the 225th Engineer Brigade and the 256th Infantry Brigade. Both these units have served overseas during the War on Terror. The Louisiana Air National Guard has more than 2,000 airmen, and its 159th Fighter Wing has likewise seen combat.


title: Louisiana

text: Training sites in the state include Camp Beauregard near Pineville, Camp Villere near Slidell, Camp Minden near Minden, England Air Park (formerly England Air Force Base) near Alexandria, Gillis Long Center near Carville, and Jackson Barracks in New Orleans.


title: Louisiana

text: Louisiana is nominally the least populous state with more than one major professional sports league franchise: the National Basketball Association's New Orleans Pelicans and the National Football League's New Orleans Saints.


title: Louisiana

text: Louisiana has 12 collegiate NCAA Division I programs, a high number given its population. The state has no NCAA Division II teams and only two NCAA Division III teams. As of 2019, the LSU Tigers football team has won 12 Southeastern Conference titles, six Sugar Bowls and four national championships.


title: Louisiana

text: Each year New Orleans plays host to the Bayou Classic, and the New Orleans Bowl college football games, while Shreveport hosts the Independence Bowl. Also, New Orleans has hosted the Super Bowl a record eleven times, as well as the BCS National Championship Game, NBA All-Star Game and NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship.


title: Louisiana

text: The Zurich Classic of New Orleans, is a PGA Tour golf tournament held since 1938. The Rock 'n' Roll Mardi Gras Marathon and Crescent City Classic are two road running competitions held at New Orleans.


title: Louisiana

text: As of 2016, Louisiana was the birthplace of the most NFL players per capita for the eighth year in a row.


title: CM Punk

text: Phillip Jack Brooks (born October 26, 1978), better known by the ring name CM Punk, is an American professional wrestler, sports commentator, actor, and retired mixed martial artist currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Best known for his time in WWE, Brooks' 434-day reign as WWE Champion stands as the sixth longest in the championship's history.


title: CM Punk

text: Brooks began his professional wrestling career in 1999 on the independent circuit, mainly with Ring of Honor (ROH), winning the ROH World Championship once. He signed with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in 2005 and won the WWE Championship twice, the World Heavyweight Championship three times, and the Intercontinental Championship and the ECW World Heavyweight Championship once each. Brooks also won the World Tag Team Championship, becoming WWE's 19th Triple Crown Champion; the fastest wrestler to do so, in 203 days. He is also the only back-to-back Money in the Bank winner, has headlined several WWE pay-per-view events, won Superstar of the Year at the 2011 Slammy Awards, and was voted Wrestler of the Year in 2011 and 2012 by readers of "Pro Wrestling Illustrated". After becoming disillusioned with WWE, Brooks acrimoniously departed the company and retired from professional wrestling in 2014. After much speculation, he joined AEW in 2021 and has since become a two-time AEW World Champion.


title: CM Punk

text: Brooks has used the CM Punk moniker for his entire professional wrestling career, and his character has been consistently portrayed as outspoken, confrontational, sharp-tongued, anti-establishment, straight edge, and iconoclastic, most of which are inspired by his real-life views and personality. Depending on his alignment as a hero or villain, Brooks has emphasized different aspects of the straight edge lifestyle to garner the desired audience reaction.


title: CM Punk

text: After his initial retirement from professional wrestling, Brooks pursued a career as a mixed martial artist and signed with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in 2014. A welterweight, he had his first professional fight at UFC 203 in 2016, losing via submission to Mickey Gall. He then lost his second fight to Mike Jackson via unanimous decision at UFC 225 in 2018 (later overturned to a no-contest) and was subsequently released. Brooks has also appeared as a color commentator for Cage Fury Fighting Championships (CFFC) and was an analyst on "WWE Backstage". Brooks had his first lead acting role in the animated film "" (2015) and has received praise for his performance in the horror film "Girl on the Third Floor" (2019).


title: CM Punk

text: Phillip Jack Brooks was born in Chicago on October 26, 1978, the son of a housewife and an engineer. He grew up in nearby Lockport, where he attended Lockport Township High School. He has five siblings. His father struggled with alcoholism, which inspired Brooks to follow a straight edge lifestyle from an early age; his mother had bipolar disorder, causing him to become estranged from her.


title: CM Punk

text: Brooks' first venture into wrestling was a stint in a backyard wrestling federation called the Lunatic Wrestling Federation with his brother Mike and their friends in the mid-late 1990s. He had his debut match on March 13, 1999. 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; the CM stood for "Chick Magnet". Unlike his friends, Punk genuinely wanted to be a wrestler and saw it as more than simple fun. When the promotion started taking off while doing shows out of a warehouse in Mokena, Illinois, Punk found out that his brother had embezzled thousands of dollars from the small company, causing them to become estranged. They have not spoken since.


title: CM Punk

text: Punk soon left the federation and enrolled as a student at the Steel Dominion 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 began wrestling at Steel Domain Wrestling in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1999. It was in the Steel Domain that he met Scott Colton, who soon adopted the ring name Colt Cabana. Punk and Cabana became best friends and spent most of their early career together working in the same independent promotions, as both opponents and tag team partners. In the independents, along with fellow Steel Domain graduates Colt Cabana, Chucke E. Smooth, Adam Pearce, and manager Dave Prazak, Punk formed an alliance named the Gold Bond Mafia.


title: CM Punk

text: In 2002, Punk became the International Wrestling Cartel (IWC) Heavyweight Champion, in Monroeville, PA. Punk would compete in the company's Super Indy tournament, but never won the championship. Punk's home promotion for his early career was considered to be the 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, beating wrestlers like A.J. Styles, Cabana, and Eddie Guerrero in matches for the heavyweight championship. Punk's feud with Hero included a 55-minute Tables, Ladders, and Chairs (TLC) match, a 93-minute two out of three falls match and several 60-minute time limit draws. From July 2003 until May 2004, Punk refused to wrestle for IWA Mid-South, explaining this as a protest to Ian Rotten's mistreatment of Chris Hero in the company. However, Hero 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. Punk eventually returned to IWA Mid-South and continued to perform as a wrestler and commentator for them until July 2005.


title: CM Punk

text: Punk's matches with Colt Cabana led him to being hired by the Ring of Honor (ROH) promotion. CM Punk made his in ring debut on ROH at ROH All Star Extravaganza on November 9, 2002, in a gauntlet match involving five participants, that was won by Bryan Danielson. Initially, Punk joined ROH as a face, but quickly turned heel in a feud with Raven that featured numerous variants of no disqualification matches. Their rivalry was rooted in Punk's straight-edge lifestyle, with him likening Raven to his alcoholic father; it lasted most of 2003 and was considered one of ROH's top feuds of the year. Their rivalry was settled at The Conclusion in November 2003, where Punk defeated Raven in a steel cage match.


title: CM Punk

text: Punk started climbing the ranks of ROH, including coming in 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 (Punk and Cabana defeated the Briscoe Brothers to win the championship both times). 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.


title: CM Punk

text: In 2004, Punk faced off against ROH World Champion Samoa Joe for the championship in a three-match series. On June 12 at World Title Classic, the first match resulted in a 60-minute time limit draw when neither Punk nor Joe could pin or cause the other to submit in the 60 minutes. On October 16 at Joe vs. Punk II, they wrestled to a second 60-minute draw. In addition to "Joe vs. Punk II" becoming Ring of Honor's bestselling DVD at the time, the match received a five-star rating by famed wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer of the "Wrestling Observer Newsletter". It was the first match in North America to receive a five-star rating in seven years, the last one being the Hell in a Cell match between Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker at in 1997. Joe ended the series by defeating Punk in the third and final match on December 4 at All-Star Extravaganza 2 in which there was a no-time-limit stipulation.


title: CM Punk

text: After a try-out match on May 9, 2005, which aired May 15, where he lost to Val Venis on the "Sunday Night Heat" show, Punk accepted a deal offered by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in June. Though he had accepted the deal, Punk defeated Austin Aries to win the ROH World Championship on June 18 at Death Before Dishonor III. Immediately after the match, Punk proceeded to become a villain and started a storyline 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 and mocked the championship he possessed, going so far as to sign his WWE contract on it. During the storyline, referred to by ROH as the "Summer of Punk", Mick Foley made several ROH appearances, attempting to convince Punk to do the right thing and defend the title on his way out. On August 12, Punk lost the ROH World Championship to James Gibson in a four corner elimination match which also involved Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels. Punk's final scheduled match in ROH took place at Punk: The Final Chapter on August 13, against long-time friend Colt Cabana in a two out of three falls match, which he lost.


title: CM Punk

text: 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. In addition, most of the ROH roster contracted to TNA were pulled from the show because of a snowstorm that TNA officials thought might prevent performers from reaching the TNA's Against All Odds event scheduled the next day. In the main event, Punk teamed with Bryan Danielson to defeat Adam Pearce and Jimmy Rave in a tag team match.


title: CM Punk

text: Due to his work with the promotion, Punk was inducted into the ROH Hall of Fame as part of the 2022 inaugural class.


title: CM Punk

text: While wrestling for Ring of Honor, Punk joined the wrestling promotion NWA: Total Nonstop Action, now known as Impact Wrestling, in which he was paired with Julio Dinero as members of Raven's TNA alliance The Gathering.


title: CM Punk

text: Shortly before a TNA show on February 25, 2004, Punk had a physical scuffle with Teddy Hart outside of a restaurant that was broken up by Sabu. The scuffle reportedly stemmed from an ROH show in which Hart performed three unplanned spots putting several other wrestlers in danger of injury. Around the time of the scuffle, Punk and Dinero stopped appearing on TNA shows, leading to speculation he was fired for the incident. However, Punk said the scuffle had no bearing on his TNA career. Brooks said the reason he and Dinero stopped appearing on TNA's pay-per-view events was that TNA officials believed that he and Dinero had not connected with the fans as villains, having turned against the popular Raven and instead formed a villainous tag team managed by James Mitchell. The officials decided that since the team was not working as villains, the storyline would be put on hold indefinitely, and thus had no work 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.


title: CM Punk

text: In September 2005, Punk was assigned to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), a WWE developmental territory. He made his debut as a heel on September 8 in a dark match, where he, Nigel McGuinness and Paul Burchill were defeated by Deuce Shade, Elijah Burke and Seth Skyfire. On September 26 in his OVW television debut, Punk sustained a ruptured eardrum and broken nose after Danny Inferno hit him with an overly stiff right hand. Despite the injury, Punk finished the match and quickly recovered.


title: CM Punk

text: On November 9, Punk became the OVW Television Champion after defeating Ken Doane, Immediately after, Punk began to feud with Brent Albright, who had previously been feuding with Doane for the Television Championship and had lost his chance to wrestle Doane after Punk hit him with a chair so he could wrestle Doane. They wrestled in a series of matches, including one that ended in overtime with Albright having Punk submit to Albright's finisher, the Crowbar, but 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 among himself, Albright and Doane. Doane was injured during the match and was replaced by Aaron "The Idol" Stevens, who won the match and became the new OVW Television Champion. After Matt Cappotelli vacated the OVW Heavyweight Championship because of a brain tumor in February, a tournament was held to crown a new champion. Punk lost to Albright in the finals. Punk and Albright continued their feud, with Albright becoming 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, Punk defeated Albright in a strap match to win the OVW Heavyweight Championship. As champion, Punk retained the title in matches against opponents such as Ken Kennedy, Johnny Jeter, and Mike "The Miz" Mizanin.


title: CM Punk

text: On July 28, Punk and Seth Skyfire defeated Shad Gaspard and the Neighborhoodie to win the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship at a house show. They lost the tag team championship on August 2 to Deuce Shade and "Domino" Cliff Compton. Later that month, Punk also lost the OVW Heavyweight Championship when he was defeated by Chet Jablonski. Punk continued to make sporadic appearances for OVW until WWE and OVW ended their developmental partnership on February 7, 2008.


title: CM Punk

text: On June 24, 2006, Punk made his ECW debut during a house show at the former ECW Arena, defeating Stevie Richards. He made his television debut on the July 4 episode of "ECW", cutting a brief pre-taped 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 television wrestling debut on August 1 at the Hammerstein Ballroom, defeating Justin Credible. Punk established himself in ECW by going undefeated, defeating opponents such as C. W. Anderson, Stevie Richards and Shannon Moore.


title: CM Punk

text: Soon after, Punk began feuding with Mike Knox after Knox's on-screen girlfriend Kelly Kelly was seen to have romantic feelings for Punk. Punk defeated Knox in their first singles match on the November 7 episode of "ECW" as well as a rematch the following week, after which Kelly Kelly celebrated Punk's victory over Knox. At Survivor Series, Punk had his first pay-per-view match when he teamed with D-Generation X (Shawn Michaels and Triple H) (D-X) and the Hardy Boyz (Jeff and Matt) in their Survivor Series match against Rated-RKO (Edge and Randy Orton), Knox, Johnny Nitro and Gregory Helms, a match in which all the participants on D-X's side survived elimination. On December 3 at December to Dismember, Punk participated in the Extreme Elimination Chamber match for the ECW World Championship, but he was the first person eliminated by Rob Van Dam.


title: CM Punk

text: On the January 9, 2007, episode of "ECW", Punk had his first loss in ECW against Hardcore Holly, ending his six-month unbeaten streak in singles competition. He also participated on the Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania 23, WWE's biggest PPV, but lost the match. On the April 10 episode of "ECW", Punk was involved in the feud between the New Breed, a group of young wrestlers and ECW Originals, the group of veteran wrestlers from the original ECW. Punk joined the New Breed after several weeks in which both the New Breed and the ECW Originals had attempted to recruit him. However, two weeks later he betrayed the New Breed during a four-on-four tag team match between the New Breed and ECW Originals by kicking New Breed leader Elijah Burke in the back of the head and costing them the match, after which Punk proceeded to deliver his finisher, the "Go to Sleep". On May 20 at Judgment Day, Punk defeated Burke in his first singles match on a WWE pay-per-view event. Punk then went on to One Night Stand on June 3 and teamed up with Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman in a tables match to defeat the New Breed and end the storyline.


title: CM Punk

text: When ECW World Champion Bobby Lashley was drafted to Raw and stripped of the championship, a tournament to declare a new champion was held. On June 24, Punk was scheduled to face Chris Benoit in the finals at , but Benoit was replaced by Johnny Nitro due to Benoit no showing because of the double murder and suicide he committed that same weekend. Nitro subsequently defeated Punk for the vacant ECW World Championship. During the following months, Punk faced Nitro (who later changed his ringname to John Morrison) for the title at The Great American Bash, and SummerSlam, where he lost to Morrison both times.


title: CM Punk

text: On the September 4 episode of "ECW", Punk defeated Morrison in a last chance title match to win the ECW Championship. In the following months, Punk went on to have successful title defenses against the likes of Elijah Burke at Unforgiven, Big Daddy V via disqualification at No Mercy, and The Miz at Cyber Sunday. On the November 6 episode of "ECW", Punk retained the ECW Championship in a match against Morrison following Miz's interference. On November 18 at Survivor Series, Punk retained the title in a triple threat match against Miz and Morrison. On the January 22, 2008, episode of "ECW", Punk lost the ECW Championship to Chavo Guerrero Jr. in a no disqualification match after Edge performed a spear on him, ending his reign at 143 days.


title: CM Punk

text: On March 30 at WrestleMania XXIV, Punk won the Money in the Bank ladder match after defeating Carlito, Chris Jericho, John Morrison, Montel Vontavious Porter, Mr. Kennedy and Shelton Benjamin. At Judgment Day on May 18, Punk teamed with Kane to unsuccessfully challenge John Morrison and The Miz for the WWE Tag Team Championship.


title: CM Punk

text: On June 23, Punk was drafted to the Raw brand during the 2008 WWE draft. In his first night on "Raw" the following week, Punk cashed in his Money in the Bank contract after Batista beat down World Heavyweight Champion Edge and won the title, making his first defense later that same night against John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL), who had challenged him shortly after his win. Punk continued to hold and defend the title (against the likes of Batista at The Great American Bash and the July 21 episode of "Raw", and JBL at SummerSlam) until Unforgiven, when he was attacked by The Legacy and Randy Orton finished the assault by punting Punk in the head before the Championship scramble match on September 7, ending his reign at 69 days. Punk could not participate in the match due to the attack and so forfeited the title, being replaced by Chris Jericho, who won the match and the title. On the September 15 episode of "Raw", Punk received his title rematch, but he failed to regain the title in a steel cage match against Jericho.


title: CM Punk

text: On the October 27 episode of "Raw", Punk and Kofi Kingston defeated Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase to win the World Tag Team Championship. The duo were members of Team Batista at Survivor Series, where their team lost to Team Orton on November 23 as Punk was eliminated by Rhodes. Punk then entered in a number one contender Intercontinental Championship tournament, defeating Snitsky and John Morrison in the first two rounds. Punk and Kingston lost the World Tag Team Championship to John Morrison and The Miz on December 13 at a live event. The next day at Armageddon, Punk defeated Rey Mysterio in the tournament finals. On the January 5, 2009, episode of "Raw", Punk received his title match against William Regal, which ended in a disqualification when Regal grabbed the referee's jersey. Due to this, Stephanie McMahon awarded Punk a rematch the following week on "Raw", but this time Punk got disqualified. McMahon awarded him another rematch, a no disqualification match on the January 19 episode of "Raw", where Punk defeated Regal to win the Intercontinental Championship. With this win, Punk became the 19th WWE Triple Crown Champion and the fastest to accomplish the feat, shattering Kevin Nash's old record at 203 days. Punk lost the Intercontinental Championship on the March 9 "Raw" to John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL). On April 5 at WrestleMania 25, Punk won the Money in the Bank ladder match and became the first person to win the match twice. On April 13 during the 2009 WWE draft, Punk was drafted to the SmackDown brand. In the period after the draft, Punk feuded with Umaga over Umaga's repeated surprise attacks while Punk was attempting to cash in his Money in the Bank contract, ultimately resulting in a Samoan strap match at Extreme Rules, which was won by Punk.


title: CM Punk

text: Later that night, Punk cashed in his Money in the Bank contract to defeat Jeff Hardy for the World Heavyweight Championship right after Hardy won the title from Edge in a ladder match. Punk made his first successful title defense in a triple threat match against both Edge and Hardy on the June 15 episode of "Raw". On June 28 at The Bash, Punk retained the title even though he lost to Hardy by disqualification (because titles do not change hands on a disqualification) after kicking the referee. As part of the storyline, Punk injured his eye and said that he could not see the referee, but Hardy called his eye injury into question, believing it to be feigned, with Punk turning heel and claiming to be the moral superior of those who support Hardy due to his drug-free lifestyle. On July 26 at Night of Champions, Punk lost the World Heavyweight Championship to Hardy. Their feud continued through SummerSlam on August 23, when Punk regained the title in a TLC match only to be attacked by The Undertaker.


title: CM Punk

text: On the August 28 episode of "SmackDown", Punk concluded his feud with Hardy and achieved his booked goal of excising him from WWE, defeating Hardy in a steel cage match to retain the World Heavyweight Championship wherein the loser agreed to leave the company. On September 13 at Breaking Point, Punk defeated The Undertaker in a submission match to retain the World Heavyweight Championship. Undertaker originally won the match with his "Hell's Gate" submission hold, but SmackDown general manager Theodore Long restarted the match after stating that the ban that former SmackDown general manager Vickie Guerrero had placed on the move was still in effect and Punk won the match with his "Anaconda Vise" when referee Scott Armstrong called for the bell despite Undertaker never submitting (reminiscent to the Montreal Screwjob, which took place in the same venue in 1997). The feud between the two continued and on October 4 at Hell in a Cell he lost the World Heavyweight Championship to The Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match. Punk lost two subsequent rematches for the World Heavyweight Championship against The Undertaker on the October 23 "SmackDown" and on October 25 at Bragging Rights in a fatal four-way match also involving Batista and Rey Mysterio.


title: CM Punk

text: His character took on a more sinister direction on the November 27 episode of "SmackDown" when Punk revealed that he had converted Luke Gallows, who had previously been portrayed as the mentally incompetent wrestler Festus, to the straight-edge lifestyle which had rid him of his mental troubles. Through January 2010, Punk began to convert planted members of the audience to a straight-edge lifestyle, making them take a pledge of allegiance to him and shaving their head as a sign of renewal and devotion. After converting many people who were not seen again, convert Serena began accompanying Punk and Gallows to form The Straight Edge Society. As well as leading this alliance, Punk was also the mentor of "NXT" rookie Darren Young who flirted with the idea of becoming straight edge before refusing just before his head was to be shaved. Punk also gave sermons including during the annual Royal Rumble match in January 2010 as well as during an Elimination Chamber match in February 2010 at both of the eponymous pay-per-view events.


title: CM Punk

text: During the first months of 2010, Punk feuded with Rey Mysterio, being eliminated by him during the Elimination Chamber match. After Mysterio prevented him from winning a Money in the Bank qualifying match, Punk interrupted Mysterio's celebration of his daughter's ninth birthday. Mysterio and Punk faced each other in a match at WrestleMania XXVI, where if Mysterio lost, he would join the Straight Edge Society, but Punk lost to Mysterio at WrestleMania. They had a rematch at Extreme Rules where Punk would have to shave his head like his disciples if he lost, but he won this match after interference from Joey Mercury, a fourth member of the Straight Edge Society. On May 23 at Over The Limit, a third and final match between Punk and Mysterio was booked with both stipulations reactivated, but Punk lost and was subsequently shaved bald.


title: CM Punk

text: After the match, Punk began wearing a black mask, since he considered himself always pure unlike his followers and was embarrassed by his baldness. On June 20 at Fatal 4-Way, Punk challenged for the World Heavyweight Championship against Mysterio, Big Show and the champion Jack Swagger, but he was unsuccessful when he was attacked by Kane, who was accusing various people of attacking The Undertaker. Punk and his stable started a feud with Big Show when on the July 16 episode of "SmackDown", Big Show unmasked Punk. Big Show faced the Straight Edge Society in a three-on-one handicap match on August 15 at SummerSlam, winning the match after Punk abandoned his teammates. The next month, at Night of Champions, Punk lost to Big Show in a singles match. The Straight Edge Society angle ended after Serena was released from WWE and Mercury became injured, and Punk defeated Gallows in a singles match on the September 24 "SmackDown".


title: CM Punk

text: On October 11, Punk was traded back to the Raw brand after being swapped with Edge and took part in the interbrand tag team match on October 24 at Bragging Rights after defeating Evan Bourne to win a place, but Team Raw lost as Punk was eliminated by Rey Mysterio. It was reported later that Punk was suffering with a hip injury that would stop him from competing. To keep a presence on television, he began commentating on "Raw" from November 22.


title: CM Punk

text: At the end of December, Punk left the commentary team after assaulting John Cena on "Raw" and "SmackDown" with a chair. Punk later revealed that his motives for the attacks were that he had joined and assumed control of The Nexus. Punk then made each member of the group prove themselves worthy of a spot, with some instead choosing to join The Corre, which had been started by former Nexus leader Wade Barrett on SmackDown.


title: CM Punk

text: In January 2011, Punk and The Nexus cost Orton his match with The Miz for the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble as a revenge for Orton prematurely ending Punk's first World Heavyweight Championship reign in 2008. In turn, Orton responded by taking out all of the New Nexus members by punting them in the head, leaving Punk alone as the sole surviving member of the group. This led to a match at WrestleMania XXVII on April 3 and a Last Man Standing match on May 1 at Extreme Rules, both of which Punk lost.


title: CM Punk

text: In June 2011, after pinning WWE Champion John Cena on the June 13 episode of "Raw", Rey Mysterio at Capitol Punishment, and finally Alberto Del Rio in a number one contender's triple threat match (which also included Mysterio) all within one week, Punk revealed that his contract was to expire on July 17 at Money in the Bank and vowed to leave the company with the WWE Championship. After making a scathing yet highly acclaimed on-air speech, often referred to as the Pipe Bomb, concerning the way in which WWE is run and its owner Vince McMahon, Punk was given a storyline suspension from televised WWE events. Punk would be reinstated on Cena's insistence. Upon his return, Punk ceased to appear with the remaining members of The Nexus and the group quietly dissolved that month, turning Punk face. At Money in the Bank, Punk defeated Cena to become the WWE Champion on his final night under contract with WWE. The match received a five-star rating from Dave Meltzer, marking Punk's second performance to attain a five-star rating. The match is also considered one of the greatest professional wrestling matches of all times.


title: CM Punk

text: On July 21, Punk made a surprise appearance at a joint WWE–Mattel panel at San Diego Comic-Con, where he mocked new chief operating officer Triple H and offered WWE Championship tournament finalist Rey Mysterio a match for the WWE Championship as long as it was in Punk's hometown of Chicago. Punk appeared at July 23's All American Wrestling show, showing respect to Gregory Iron, a wrestler with cerebral palsy. Mysterio won the WWE Championship tournament on the July 25 episode of "Raw" only to lose it to Cena later that night. After Cena's victory Punk returned and upstaged the new WWE Champion's celebration while also entering into a title dispute. Triple H later upheld both Punk and Cena's claims to the WWE Championship as legitimate and scheduled the two to a match at SummerSlam to decide the undisputed WWE Champion. At SummerSlam on August 14, Punk won, but he lost the title minutes later to Alberto Del Rio, who had cashed in his Money in the Bank contract after Kevin Nash attacked Punk.


title: CM Punk

text: The night after SummerSlam, Punk accused Nash of conspiring with Triple H to keep Punk away from the WWE Championship. After repeated confrontations, Nash and Punk demanded to face each other at Night of Champions, to which Triple H acquiesced, but after Punk's repeated verbal attacks towards him and his wife Stephanie McMahon, Triple H booked himself to replace Nash. At Night of Champions, Punk lost a no disqualification match to Triple H after Nash, The Miz and R-Truth attacked both men. Miz and Truth also attacked Punk on October 2 at Hell in a Cell after he lost a WWE Championship triple threat Hell in a Cell match to Del Rio. Punk attempted to avenge this by teaming with Triple H against Miz and Truth on October 23 at Vengeance, but they lost due to Nash attacking Triple H. This helped transition Punk's anti-establishment voice from Triple H to John Laurinaitis, who became the interim Raw general manager. Punk balked at Laurinaitis' promotion and verbally attacked him as a dull yes man.


title: CM Punk

text: On the October 31 episode of "Raw", Punk strong-armed his way into a match with Del Rio at Survivor Series, regaining the WWE Championship at the event on November 20. Punk went on to defend the title through the end of the year, retaining in a rematch with Del Rio on the November 28 episode of "Raw" and against both Del Rio and The Miz in a triple threat TLC match on December 18 at . On the December 26 episode of "Raw", Punk was defeated by Dolph Ziggler in a gauntlet match and as a result Ziggler became the number one contender to the WWE Championship (had he been successful, Punk would have earned the right to face Laurinaitis in a match). The following week on "Raw", Punk was defeated by Ziggler by countout after Laurinaitis interfered, retaining the championship as a result. Intermeddling from Laurinaitis caused Punk to lose to Ziggler throughout January, which ultimately led to Punk attacking Laurinaitis in retaliation. At the Royal Rumble on January 29, 2012, Punk successfully defended his title against Ziggler despite Laurinaitis acting as the outside enforcer.


title: CM Punk

text: On the January 30 episode of "Raw", the returning Chris Jericho attacked Punk and Daniel Bryan during their Champion vs. Champion match, giving Bryan the win. The following week on "Raw", Jericho explained his actions by dismissing the WWE roster as imitations of himself and singling out Punk for calling himself "the best in the world", a moniker Jericho used the last time he was in WWE. Their rivalry continued through Elimination Chamber on February 19, when Punk retained the WWE Championship in the namesake structure, but while four competitors were eliminated Jericho was unable to continue the match after being kicked out of the chamber by Punk, causing temporary injury. The next night on "Raw", Jericho earned a match against Punk on April 1 at WrestleMania XXVIII<ref name="Raw SuperShow 2/20/12 Results"></ref> and in a bid to psychologically unsettle him revealed Punk's father was an alcoholic and alleged that his sister was a drug addict, asserting that Punk's straight edge philosophy was paranoia to avoid the same vices and vowing to make Punk turn to alcohol by winning the title from him. John Laurinaitis added the stipulation that the WWE Championship could change hands via disqualification, which led to Jericho inciting Punk into using a weapon, but Punk resisted and retained the title. On the April 2 and 9 episodes of "Raw", Punk retained the WWE Championship against Mark Henry after losing to him via countout and disqualification, being attacked by Jericho following both matches and doused with alcohol. On the April 16 episode of "Raw", Punk pinned Henry in a no disqualification, no countout match to retain the title. After repeated altercations, the feud between Jericho and Punk culminated in a Chicago street fight on April 29 at Extreme Rules, where Punk defeated Jericho to retain the WWE Championship.


title: CM Punk

text: On May 20 at Over the Limit, Punk retained the title against Daniel Bryan after reversing Bryan's submission hold the ""Yes!" Lock" into a pinning combination as the pinfall saved Punk from his own submission only moments later. Shortly before Over the Limit, Bryan interfered in a non-title match between Punk and Kane to frame Punk for attacking Kane with a steel chair, starting a three-way rivalry. On the June 1 episode of "SmackDown", a WWE Championship match between Punk and Kane ended in a double disqualification after Bryan attacked both men. Meanwhile, Bryan's jilted ex-girlfriend AJ Lee turned her affections to both Punk and Kane. This feud culminated in a triple threat match on June 17 at No Way Out, where Punk managed to retain the title after AJ distracted Kane. On July 15 at Money in the Bank, Punk defeated Bryan in a no disqualification match with AJ as special guest referee to retain the title and end the feud.


title: CM Punk

text: On July 23 at "Raw 1000", Punk defended the title against Money in the Bank winner John Cena and lost by disqualification after interference from Big Show. When the night's special guest The Rock – who had interrupted Punk earlier to announce he would wrestle for the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble in January 2013 – intervened to save Cena from Big Show's assault, Punk attacked Rock, turning heel in the process. Punk justified his actions the following week on "Raw", explaining he was tired of people like Cena and Rock overshadowing him when the WWE Champion should be the focus of the company, asserting himself further soon after by disrupting a number one contender's match between Cena and Big Show. As a result, both men were entered into the title match against Punk on August 19 at SummerSlam, where he successfully retained the title by pinning Big Show after both Punk and Cena submitted Big Show at the same time and Raw general manager AJ Lee restarted the match. In the following weeks on "Raw", Punk demanded respect from people like AJ Lee, Jerry Lawler and Bret Hart and eventually aligned with Paul Heyman in his feud with Cena. On September 16 at Night of Champions, Punk retained the WWE Championship after he fought Cena to a draw. Punk continued to feud with Cena despite the latter's arm injury, rejecting the requests of Mick Foley and Jim Ross to pick him as his Hell in a Cell opponent and leading to a brawl with WWE chairman Vince McMahon. Cena was eventually pulled from the title match and replaced by Ryback, whom Punk would defeat at Hell in a Cell on October 28 in a Hell in a Cell match with help from referee Brad Maddox to retain the title and also ending Ryback's thirty-eight match undefeated streak.


title: CM Punk

text: The next night on "Raw", a furious Mick Foley confronted Punk for refusing to pick John Cena as his Hell in a Cell opponent, leading the two to agree to meet at Survivor Series in a Survivor Series match with Punk choosing Alberto Del Rio, Cody Rhodes, Damien Sandow and The Miz for his team. However, Punk was replaced as captain by Dolph Ziggler the following week on "Raw" and was instead booked in a triple threat WWE Championship match against John Cena and Ryback by Vince McMahon. At Survivor Series on November 18, Punk won the match by pinning Cena following interference from the debuting faction called The Shield (Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins), allowing him to retain the WWE Championship and hold the championship for a full year. On December 4, Punk underwent surgery to repair a partially torn meniscus, removing him from his title match against Ryback on December 16 at . Despite his injury, Punk became the longest-reigning WWE Champion in the past 25 years on December 5, when he hit 381 days, surpassing John Cena's 380-day reign. Punk returned to in-ring action on the January 7, 2013, episode of "Raw", retaining the WWE Championship against Ryback in a TLC match following interference from The Shield.


title: CM Punk

text: On January 27 at the Royal Rumble, Punk defended the WWE Championship against The Rock in a match that stipulated that Punk would be stripped of the title if The Shield interfered. Punk originally pinned The Rock to retain after The Shield put Rock through a table while the arena lights were out, leading Vince McMahon to come out and announce that Punk would be stripped of the title, but he instead restarted the match at The Rock's request. Punk lost, ending his reign at 434 days. WWE recognized this reign as the longest world championship reign in WWE of the "modern era" (after 1988) until Universal Champion Brock Lesnar broke that record in June 2018. Punk received a title rematch with Rock on February 17 at Elimination Chamber, stipulated that The Rock would lose the title if he was disqualified or counted out, but Punk was pinned by Rock after miscommunication with Heyman. On the February 25 episode of "Raw", Punk faced Royal Rumble winner John Cena for his number one contendership to the WWE Championship, but he lost.


title: CM Punk

text: In March 2013, Punk set his sights on ending The Undertaker's undefeated WrestleMania streak in an effort to "take something away from the fans" as he believed they had taken the WWE Championship away from him. He defeated Big Show, Randy Orton and Sheamus in a fatal four-way match on the March 4 episode of "Raw" to officially earn the right to face The Undertaker. After the real-life death of Paul Bearer, Undertaker's former manager the next day, a storyline involving Punk regularly spiting The Undertaker through displays of flippancy and disrespect towards Bearer's death began, including Punk stealing Bearer's trademark urn. On April 7 at WrestleMania 29, Punk was defeated by The Undertaker, who took back the urn.


title: CM Punk

text: After defeating Chris Jericho at Payback, Punk started a storyline where he told Heyman to no longer accompany him to his matches and was later attacked by Heyman's other client Brock Lesnar, thus turning Punk face once again. Heyman also cost Punk a WWE Championship Money in the Bank ladder match at Money in the Bank when he attacked him. This led to a match between Punk and Lesnar at SummerSlam on August 18, when Punk lost to Lesnar in a No Disqualification match after Heyman interfered. His feud with Heyman continued during the following months, facing his other client, the Intercontinental Champion Curtis Axel. First, at Night of Champions, Punk faced Axel and Heyman in a no disqualification two-on-one handicap elimination match in which he made Axel submit, leaving only Heyman left, but Punk lost the match after Ryback interfered and put him through a table. Then, Punk defeated Ryback at Battleground and the feud ended at Hell in a Cell, where Punk faced Heyman and Ryback in a two-on-one handicap Hell in a Cell match, winning the match by pinning Heyman and after the match performing a "Go to Sleep" on him at the top of the cell.


title: CM Punk

text: Punk moved on to a feud with The Wyatt Family (Bray Wyatt, Erick Rowan and Luke Harper) and formed an alliance with Daniel Bryan, with the duo defeating Harper and Rowan in a tag team match on November 24 at Survivor Series. The next night on "Raw", Punk was attacked by The Shield while attempting to save Bryan from being "taken hostage" by The Wyatt Family. Punk then insinuated that The Authority, a villainous group who controlled WWE led by Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, ordered the attack, which resulted in the Director of Operations Kane booking Punk in a three-on-one handicap match against The Shield at . At TLC on December 15, Punk won the match after Reigns accidentally performed a spear on Ambrose. After further altercations between Punk and Kane, Kane made Punk the first entrant in the annual Royal Rumble match on January 26, 2014. At the Royal Rumble, near the end of the match, Kane, who was already eliminated earlier in the match by Punk, eliminated Punk from the outside and proceeded to perform a chokeslam on him through the announce table.