WWE Capitol Punishment + SICW Special Comment

WWE Capitol Punishment

-Dolph Ziggler(w/ Vickie Guerrero) d. Kofi Kingston via sleeperhold to win the U.S. Title.
-Alex Riley d. Mike Mizanin with an elevated DDT...wow.
-Alberto Del Rio d. The Big Show via ref stoppage...Alberto got an assist from a pre-match attack by Mark Henry who gave Show the World's Strongest Slam through the Spanish broadcasters' table.  Alberto targeted the bad leg and the official finally declared Show unable to continue.
-Ezekiel Jackson d. Wade Barrett with the torture rack to win the Intercontinental Title.
-C.M. Punk d. Rey Misterio Jr. via Go 2 Sleep.
-Randy Orton d. Christian Cage with the RKO to retain the World Title; Christian's foot was under the bottom rope during the pin but the referee missed it.  Orton BELTed Christian after the match as payback for Christian's previous belt attacks.
-Evan Bourne d. Jack Swagger by countering an anklelock attempt into a victory roll pin.
-John Cena d. "R-Truth" Ron Killings via F-U to retain the WWE Title.

SICW Special Comment

After a text message exchange with Mephisto, we have a verbal truce regarding the incident at last weekend's Dynamo show.  I'll leave it at that...there's too much petty garbage around the independent wrestling scene as it is.

Anywho, SICW was in East Carondelet last night.  Hyped ahead of time were Powers vs. LMC and Jackson vs. Kevin X(there-must-be-a-winner) plus Chaz vs. Vincent.  Had heard on the day of the show that Pete Madden vs. Eric Allen was added to the card, but both were switched to other matches for unknown reasons.  Was still cool to see them both on the show along with Dan Walsh(had heard a few weeks before that he might be there).

The "split" between MMWA and SICW into separate companies continues as both Tim Miller and Ben Simon will be exclusively MMWA now.  Was unusual to not see Tim there.  Briefly talked to Ian Storm and David Cox at the show and spent a lot of the event hanging out with the esteemed Coach Chuck Farley and his kids.

Opener was surprisingly short but effective for Allen's debut.  Archer had a mini-win streak going for a while but seems to have hit the skids in recent months.  He joked after the show about how he worked heel the previous month(teamed with Tony Raze) and was now back to being a face.

Raze-King was a fine matchup...Raze is mixing some old-school Big Boss Man repertoire in with some more varied offense.  He had been finishing with the Falcon Arrow but traded in for the Blackhole Slam variant of the Bossman Slam(short-arm clothesline setup pulled into the move).

DiBiase had some interesting stories about his career, including the WWF's insistence on having him "live the gimmick" of the Million Dollar Man by frequenting the most expensive hotels and restaurants.  Another popular story is that Vince said the gimmick would have been his own if he had been a wrestler...interesting that Vince was thinking of himself in the role of a wrestler even at that point in time.  I was fortunate to get his autograph a while back along with Rick Steiner's on a program from the last WWF show at the old St. Louis Arena where Rick & Scott won the Tag Team Titles from DiBiase and Irwin R. Schyster.

The tag match seemed a bit rough and the ending came out of nowhere.  Credit to the ref for enforcing the rules as Hargas and Waco WERE the legal man though Vaughn and Texan were fighting in the ring.

Chaz-Vincent...have known these guys for quite some time.  They exchanged falls in last month's six-man tag with Dory Funk Jr. as Vincent actually made Wesson tap out to the figure-four(thanks to helping hands from the ring ropes AND Ron Powers) but Chaz countered a second figure-four attempt into a small package for the second fall.  Fine psychology in this one, as you might expect.

I saw LMC's tag match from last month on the Wrestling Explosion TV show and honestly thought he should have pinned Raze for the win to show that he was capable of beating a larger opponent.  Despite his vocal supporters, I don't know if anyone thought he had a legitimate shot against Ron Powers...though next month's match against Chaz might be a bit tougher to predict.  Bit of a style clash here.  Hargas has been getting a good push in SICW and I wonder if he'll be the one to dethrone Powers(if Wesson doesn't beat him to the punch).

Pete vs. Dan was a fine entertaining matchup...we got both the foot-DDT and the fistdrop to the fist out of the Human Wrecking Ball, though the ceiling was a bit low for any potential chairsaults.  Finish seemed a bit off, though both seemed interested in a rematch down the line.  I would not be opposed to that.

The main event was announced with the stipulation "there must be a winner".  Didn't see the point of the countout and restart except to reinforce the stips.  Even with the match setup seemingly guaranteeing a decisive winner, we didn't QUITE get that but Gary did get the victory.  I was fully expecting the double-cross on the post-match handshake but it occurred without incident.

Next week is MECW...several newcomers from the Chicago area have made their mark recently.  That has forced Eric Allen into a temporary alliance with rivals Bailey Mannix, Mauler McDarby, and Barry Ryte against the new stable...interesting.