>>7136210Punk was a guy that was at the right place at the right time.
He said things that resonated with a lot of disillusioned wrestling fans at the time, and especially with fans who left because of Cena's reign of terror over the years. He's the guy that managed to bring a part of those people back because he wasn't afraid to say what was on his mind and people loved that. He also was one of the rare guys that could handle himself like a pro on the mic. Cena, whether you liked him or not, was good on the mic, but Punk managed to one up him at various points. He was overall very charismatic, a guy who was often compared to Stone Cold due to how rebellious his character was. I think there was also a feeling that Punk legitimately was bringing back parts of the attitude era, something that many fans longed to come back in some form, so the guy could sorta hit the nostalgia factor for fans.
He also had an iconic theme song, people underestimate how much that helps in getting a wrestler popular.
But yeah, overall, tl;dr: Charismatic, rebellious dude, who was calling out WWE and Vince over the sorry state of the company at the time with his pipebomb, it brought back jaded fans who would become die-hard Punk fans and the rest is history.
