In September 2005, Punk was assigned to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), a WWE developmental territory. He made his debut on September 8, 2005, in a dark match, where he, Nigel McGuinness and Paul Burchill were defeated by Deuce Shade, Elijah Burke and Seth Skyfire.
On September 26, 2005 in his OVW television debut, Punk suffered 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.
On November 9, 2005, Punk became the OVW Television Champion after defeating Ken Doane, which immediately led 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 hit him
with a chair so he himself could wrestle Doane. They wrestled in 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 halfway through the match and was replaced by Aaron "The Idol" Stevens.
Punk submitted to Albright's Crowbar and was eliminated, but he
returned later in the match to distract Albright allowing Stevens to pin Albright and 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 feud
continued for weeks with Punk always getting the better of Albright
until a double turn occurred on February 1, 2006 when Albright became a villain during a tag match, allowing the Spirit Squad to beat Punk and, in doing so, making Punk a crowd favorite. During this time, 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.
After Matt Cappotelli vacated the OVW Heavyweight Championship because of a brain tumor
in February 2006, 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
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 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, Ken Kennedy, Johnny Jeter and Mike "The Miz" Mizanin.
On July 28, 2006, 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, 2006 to Deuce Shade and "Domino" Cliff Compton after an injured Skyfire tagged in an already injured Punk.
This altercation led 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 Shade and
Compton.
On August 30, 2006, a match was scheduled to take place between Punk
and Skyfire for the OVW Heavyweight Championship. Prior to the match,
however, Skyfire was attacked by Charles "The Hammer" Evans, with whom
Skyfire had also been feuding, and was replaced in the match by Chet
Jablonski (Chet the Jet) who pinned Punk to win the OVW Heavyweight
Championship.[
As Punk no longer possessed the championship, OVW no longer required
him. He was removed from the roster and brought up to the WWE roster
full-time. He continued to make sporadic appearances for the company,
such as at the 400th episode of OVW on television, up until WWE announced it was ending its developmental territory agreement with OVW on February 7, 2008.
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