• Ohio Valley Wrestling
Punk was assigned to Ohio Valley Wrestling, a WWE developmental territory. On September 26, 2005 in his OVW television debut, Punk suffered a ruptured eardrum and broken nose at the hands of Danny Inferno, after he was hit by an overly stiff right hand. Despite the injury, Punk finished the match and quickly recovered.

On November 9, 2005, Punk became the OVW Television Champion after defeating Ken Doane. This led immediately to a feud between Punk and Brent Albright, who had previously been feuding with Doane for the television championship and had lost his chance to wrestle Doane after Punk had hit him with a chair so he himself could wrestle Doane. This led to a series of matches, including one which ended in overtime with Albright having Punk submit to Albright's finisher, the Crowbar, however 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 between himself, Albright and Doane. Doane was injured halfway through the match and could not continue and was replaced by Aaron "The Idol" Stevens. Punk submitted to Albright's Crowbar and was eliminated but after interference by Punk, Stevens was able to get the pin on Albright to become the new OVW Television Champion.

The feud continued after a short period in which Albright and Punk were a tag team, but they became opponents again after Albright wanted the respect of Punk who would never give it to him and instead proceeded to "punk out" (get the better of) Albright repeatedly. This continued for weeks with Punk always getting the better of Albright until a double turn occurred on February 1, 2006 when Albright turned heel during a tag match allowing The Spirit Squad to beat Punk and, in doing so, turning Punk face.

During this time CM Punk had a minor appearance at WrestleMania 22 on April 2, 2006 as one of the gangsters who rode a 1930s era car to the ring before John Cena's entrance.

When Matt Cappotelli vacated the OVW Heavyweight Championship due to a brain tumor, a tournament was held to crown a new champion. The finals were Brent Albright vs CM Punk with Albright defeating Punk to become the new champion. Punk and Albright continued their feud with Albright becoming more and 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, 2006, Punk finally defeated Brent Albright in a strap match to win the OVW Heavyweight Championship. As champion, Punk retained the title in matches against opponents such as Shad Gaspard.

On July 28, 2006 Punk and Seth Skyfire defeated Shad Gaspard and the Neighborhoodie (the Gang Stars) to win the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship at a house show. With the victory Punk became the second OVW wrestler to have held each of the promotion's three championships, following Brent Albright, and along with Skyfire the first to hold two championships simultaneously. They would lose the Tag Team Championship on August 2, 2006 to Deuce Shade and Dice Domino after an injured Skyfire tagged in an already injured Punk.

This lead to a feud between Punk and Skyfire after a rematch for the Tag Team Championship on August 7, 2006 in which a healthy Punk purposefully tagged in an injured Skyfire to be beaten by Deuce 'N Domino. On August 30, 2006 a match was scheduled to take place between Punk and Skyfire for the OVW Heavyweight Championship however prior to the match Skyfire was attacked by Charles "The Hammer" Evans, who Skyfire had also been feuding with, and was replaced in the match by Chet the Jet who pinned Punk to win the OVW Heavyweight Championship. As he no longer possessed the championship OVW no longer required him so he was removed from the roster and brought up to the WWE roster full time.

Punk made a surprise guest appearance on the December 16, 2006 edition of OVW TV, teaming with Fearless Jack Bull in a tag team match against Joey Mercury and Aaron "The Idol" Stevens.

• WWE On June 24, 2006 Punk made his ECW debut during a house show at the former ECW Arena, defeating Stevie Richards. He made his TV debut on the July 4 episode of ECW on Sci Fi, cutting a brief pre-taped face 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 TV wrestling debut on August 1, 2006 at the Hammerstein Ballroom, defeating Justin Credible. CM Punk established himself in ECW by going undefeated, defeating opponents such as Stevie Richards and Christopher W. Anderson.

Soon after, Punk began feuding with Mike Knox after Knox's girlfriend, Kelly Kelly, was seen to have feelings for Punk. Punk defeated Mike Knox in their first singles match (to qualify for the Extreme Elimination Chamber at December to Dismember) as well as the rematch, after which Kelly Kelly celebrated CM Punk's victory over her boyfriend. Punk then went on to team with D-Generation X and The Hardy Boyz in their Survivor Series match against Rated-RKO, Knox, Johnny Nitro and Gregory Helms, a match where all the participants on DX's side survived elimination. At December to Dismember, Punk participated in the Extreme Elimination Chamber, but was the first person eliminated.

Following this, Punk entered into a feud with Hardcore Holly, who ended Punk's six month unbeaten streak in singles competition on January 9, 2007. Punk then went on to feud with Matt Striker, who gave him his second singles loss since being in ECW on January 30.

• Theme Music & Tattoos
Punk has adopted his real life following of the straight edge movement as his professional wrestling gimmick, however the gimmick uses different elements of Punk's personality and the beliefs of the straight edge movement depending on the alignment. While portraying a face, the gimmick tends to be that of Punk's normal personality, largely indifferent to others who drink alcohol, smoke tobacco, partake in recreational drug use or have promiscuous sexual behavior as well as emphasizing the social discipline involved with abstinence. Conversely, his heel personality tends to portray that of a hardliner, especially the elitist and superiority attitudes possessed by hardliners defined by Punk's common mantra during heel promos that, because he is straight edge, he is "better than you". Irrelevant of alignment Punk performs the straight edge symbol of crossing his arms in an X formation while having the letter X written on the back of his hands, usually drawn on his wrist tape.

An integral part of Punk's gimmick is that of the numerous tattoos that adorn his body some of which have come to become symbols associated with Punk as well as mantras and declarations that have been integrated into his gimmick. The tattoos as a whole, due to their large quantity and variety, have also become an attribute identifiable to Punk. The most important of the individual tattoos in Punk's character, whether through association, symbol, or mantra, are:


• A Pepsi logo on his left shoulder inspired the names of two of his signature moves. He got the tattoo as a joke as many fraternity members in his school were getting beer logos tattooed on their body, so Punk, a keen Pepsi drinker, chose to receive a Pepsi tattoo to emphasize his straight edge beliefs. The tattoo is also a reference to former Minor Threat guitarist Brian Baker, who had a Coca-Cola tattoo and explained this by saying "I like Coca-Cola". When people inquire about Punk's Pepsi tattoo, he often replies "I like Pepsi" in a similar fashion. The Pepsi logo has become a symbol of Punk himself, wearing the logo on his ring gear in the independent circuit as well as a slightly modified Pepsi logo being used as part of his TitanTron entrance video.
• The words "Straight Edge" are spelled out on his stomach. This tattoo is one of Punk's oldest tattoos[15] and has been referred to by Punk as his identity.
• A large piece on his left arm which is entitled "Luck is for losers", a mantra used on some of the choices for Punk's first ECW T-shirt, that features twists on numerous symbols of good luck.
• His knuckles spell out when placed together "DRUG FREE", drug on the right knuckles and free on the left. This tattoo is often used in wrestling as a taunting gesture to the crowd and opponents.

Punk's character and gimmick have been parodied for comedy in the wrestling federation CHIKARA with the character CP Munk, the straight edge chipmunk. The character is simply a chipmunk mascot costume which includes references to Punk such as X marked wrist tape, a Pepsi logo on the costume's left shoulder and uses a sped up version of Punk's best known independent circuit theme song Miseria Cantare - The Beginning, as performed by the band AFI.

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