There are a scant few rules in life that I follow. Some of them are old, some of them new, and some of them, like the one I’m about to lay on you, I just made up last Monday while watching Raw. Basically, if I watch a wrestling match and it involves a donkey punch as a legitimate offensive maneuver, then it has to make the “Your Match of the Week” post.
The match in question was the number-one contenders match for the WWE Championship on RAW, CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Alberto del Rio1. Punk was busy making headlines both during that show and especially during Raw last night, but lost in the swoon of the sequel to the critically acclaimed indie film Summer of Punk (2005) reaching its crescendo, the Straight Edge Savior acquitted himself well in the match where he earned a date with John Cena at Money in the Bank.
Triple threat matches can have a way of tripping up even the best workers, mainly because of pacing. The tendency is to have one guy get laid out or woozy on the outside while the two others wrestle in ring. Then, there’s a spot where one of the upright guys gets knocked out and we enter a state of wash, rinse, repeat. That wasn’t the case here. It actually felt like three guys in a fight against each other, no alliances, just three guys wanting a shot at Cena.
Mysterio bumped his rear end off, as always. Del Rio showed his panache, and Punk showed his cleverness that has become his trademark. It was an excellent free TV match, which isn’t surprising, given that despite its reputation WWE purveys fine fare on its 5 or so hours of telecast a week. And the finish, with Punk picking the bones of Mysterio’s kill on del Rio, was a fitting cap to the match.
Oh, yeah, and there was that aforementioned donkey punch. Early on in the match, Mysterio was on all fours, trying to recover from being knocked down. del Rio, having none of it, punched him in the back of the head before yelling at him to stay down. It was an awesome visual. Sure, it didn’t really do anything to dissuade the notion that wrestling is part homoerotic at heart2, but if that bothers you, then maybe the artform isn’t for you.
1 - I didn’t see ROH Best in the World or any indie show this week. To tell you the truth, even if I did, I still might have picked this as match of the week.
2 - If you don’t know where the term “donkey punch” comes from, well, check Urban Dictionary and don’t say I didn’t warn you.
TH writes The Wrestling Blog and broadcasts The Wrestling Podcast. You can find him on Twitter, or at various other spots around the Internet. He also loves Chikara, and quite frankly, thinks you should too.
Edited by Jason Mann
