Saturday Night Digging in the Crates

We take a visit to a minor league baseball stadium in Wisconsin, to see friend of a friend of the blog CM Punk who is in the news a bit against a friend to no one Ian Rotten.



CM Punk v. Ian Rotten MAW 9/2/01

PAS: This was a Texas Death Match for the MAW title and is a nifty chance to check out early Punk against one of my favorite severely underrated guys Ian Rotten. This was a nasty bloody brawl, but worked like an old school Texas Death Match not a Indy Death Match. Punk starts out by ripping off Ian's omnipresent bandage, and lands some nasty cut opening punches. Punk is a guy whose stiffness is a little hit and miss over the course of his career, but you bring it against Ian and they both lay it in here. Some really nifty brawling spots, including Ian reversing a whip into the crowd with a great looking monkey flip which sends Punk flying into chairs. They also use the chain link fence in the bleachers like a steel cage. I also really liked the lack of overkill, early 2000's indies could really overdo it, but the finish here felt like a reasonable place to finish. Also loved Ian with the earnest post match offer of a handshake, which Punk takes and then jumps him. No one does earnest sportsmanship like Ian.

ER: Ian the shake my hand/respect/gentleman is so amazing considering 20 minutes before he was comparing Prazak to a used tampon and reacted to being called a fat prick by saying that's the best thing to put in a woman. And he's Ian Rotten. And he was the babyface. All this seems like he perfect kind of thing to be happening in a promotion called Mid-American Wrestling. Match itself went maybe a little too long as it appeared Ian gassed pretty hard (the more muscle you have obviously the more oxygen is needed to feed that muscle) and was having trouble getting up off the mat or climbing ropes. Still there were plenty of great moments: Ian's beastly somersault senton, Punk taking a double underhook DDT right on his head, the aforementioned awesome monkey flip reversal in the dirt through chairs, Ian leaving a bloody stain on a chair after getting it dropkicked into his face. Fun stuff.

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You Should Have Given Your Love to The King, It Couldn't Do You No Harm

Jerry Lawler v. Steven Richards MCW 1/20/01-GREAT

ER: I know I've said it before but Stevie is just a great opponent for Lawler, since he really feels like a nice throwback to an 80s Memphis worker. Here they work a cross between violent arena brawl and studio comedy match, with some fine brawling (loved Stevie's fist drop into kneeling choke) and both bringing some great comedy. Lawler went for his great corner 10 count punches...but then thought Stevie could use some more, so ended up doing about 50 corner punches. Greatest spot in the match - and really one of my favorite spots I've seen in any Lawler match - was him taking the strap down, and Stevie panicking and pulling Lawler's strap back up, as if it would immediately nullify his superhuman strap down powers. So Awesome.

PAS: Yeah I was a big fan of this match too, although it was a bit stally in the middle especially for a short match, and I hate the Lawler stunner and the dumb finish, but man everything else ruled. Stevie is a guy with some really nice punches and bumps and can really do some shtick. I want to second the greatness of the replace the strap spot, such a brilliant spot and can't believe I hadn't seen it before.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE KING

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