On October 31, Punk forced his way into a match against Del Rio at Survivor Series. In the match, Punk defeated Del Rio to win back the WWE Championship. He defended the championship throughout the year, defeating Del Rio in a rematch on the November 28 episode of "Raw" as well as defeating both Del Rio and The Miz in a triple threat TLC match at . On the December 26 episode of "Raw", Punk was defeated in a gauntlet match by Dolph Ziggler which made Ziggler become the number one contender for the WWE Championship. If Punk was able to win the gauntlet match, he would have earned the right to face Laurinaitis in a match. On the January 2 episode of "Raw", Punk was defeated by Ziggler via countout after Laurinaitis interfered in the match. Throughout January, Laurinaitis would continue to mess up Punk's matches and cause him to lose to Ziggler. This eventually led to Punk attacking Laurinaitis. Punk defeated Ziggler in a match at Royal Rumble to retain his championship even with Laurinaitis acting as the outside enforcer.