The SmarK Rant for WWE Great American Bash 2008
- Live from Long Island, NY.
Smackdown World tag titles: Miz & Morrison v. Finlay & Hornswoggle v. Jesse & Festus v. Hawkins & Ryder.
Festus clears the ring to start, but Hornswoggle decides to give it a go, then changes his mind and hits the camps with a pescado instead. Festus beats on Miz and gets a legdrop for two, and Jesse comes in with a monkey flip and a neckbreaker for two. Festus goes for the powerslam, but Miz escapes out, so Festus boots him down and everyone tags out. Morrison hammers Finlay down and Miz comes back in with the chinlock, and elbows Finlay down for two. Miz slingshots Finlay into Morrison's forearm on the apron, and then Morrison slingshots himself in with an elbowdrop for two. Nice. Neckbreaker and it's back to Miz, but Finlay pounds away on him and then he takes Morrison down for more of the same. Ryder tags himself in and gets two on Finlay, but Hawkins tags himself in and the Edgeheads double-team him in their corner. Finlay comes back with a Regal roll on Ryder, then hits him with the club for two. Hornswoggle tags himself in and gets a flying headscissors on Hawkins, but Jesse tags himself in and double-teams Hawkins along with Festus. Festus cleans house and hits Hawkins with a kneedrop, but Jesse goes up and Hawkins yanks him down to get the pin and win the tag titles at 9:04. I hate cheap finishes like that. **1/4
US title: Matt Hardy v. Shelton Benjamin
Shelton overpowers Matt, but Hardy gets a rollup for two. Matt gets a pair of armdrags and works on the arm, and they do an awkward reversal sequence in the corner before Matt elbows him down. Shelton tries to toss Matt and he hangs on, so Shelton baseball slides him to the floor and then sends him into the post. Back in, he gets a backdrop suplex and a backbreaker to work on the back while the crowd gets really vocal about something. Matt backdrops out of an abdominal stretch and gets two, but a blind charge hits boot. Shelton blocks a Side Effect with the STO and gets two. Backbreaker submission, but Matt powers up, so Shelton hits him with the Dragon whip kick, then misses a charge. Matt slugs back and follows with a corner clothesline into a bulldog for two. Yodelling legdrop gets two. Matt tries a rana, but Shelton tosses him into the top turnbuckle in a cool counter. They do a pinfall reversal sequence and Matt gets the Side Effect for two. He sets up for the Twist, but Shelton counters him into the corner and they fight up top, but Matt's moonsault is blocked with a knee to the head. Shelton hits him with an inverted Diamond Cutter to win the US title at 9:32. Crowd was getting really hot at the end, and hopefully this is the start of his next start-and-stop push. You can probably thank Michael Hayes for this one. ***
ECW World title: Mark Henry v. Tommy Dreamer
Henry uses the power to start and Dreamer slugs away to counter, but Henry boots him down and chokes away. He goes to a neck vice and works a wristlock as the crowd turns on the match already. Tommy fights up and Henry forearms him down, but misses a splash. Dreamer comes back with a seated dropkick and slugs away in the corner, then gets a neckbreaker for two. DDT and he goes after Tony Atlas, but Colin Delaney turns on him and the World's Strongest Slam finishes at 5:30. Tazz is shocked that the pupil would turn on the student. How long has he been watching wrestling, exactly? 1/2*
Shawn Michaels v. Chris Jericho
Slugfest to start and Jericho knees him down, but Shawn fires back with a chop. Shawn goes right for the leg, clipping Jericho and wrapping him up in the Indian deathlock, but Jericho makes the ropes. And hides there. He comes back and whips Shawn into the corner, then follows with a dropkick to put him on the floor. Back in, he works on the ribs and goes to a surfboard, but Shawn fights up and walks into an enzuigiri. Jericho goes up and lands on an atomic drop and Shawn fires back with the forearm and kips up. Jericho rolls him into the Walls of Jericho, however, forcing Shawn to make the ropes. Shawn tries to snap off the superkick, but Jericho catches the foot and tries to rebound out of the corner with the bulldog. Shawn blocks with a clothesline for two. Shawn goes up and Jericho brings him down via the nuts. They fight for the superplex and Shawn sends him down and follows with the flying elbow. He sets up for the superkick, but Lance Cade runs in and distracts him. They trade near-falls and slug it out, but Jericho charges and gets hiptossed over the top, onto Cade. Shawn hits them both with the moonsault press, but now the eye is bleeding. Back in, Jericho sees it like a target and he's all over it. Shawn rests on the ropes and Lance kicks him in the face with his cowboy boot, which is pretty awesome. Shawn begs the ref not to stop it, but Jericho headbutts him...and Shawn takes him down with a crossface. Jericho makes the ropes and then goes nuts on Shawn as the ref pleads with him to give it up. The camera shot shows he can obviously see, and there's a great bit of direction as you can hear Jericho saying "What'd he say? He said no, right?" before kicking him in the face again. Jericho wraps him up with a straightjacket hold and just pounds away on the cut, so the ref stops it at 18:19. Fine but anticlimactic. ***1/4
Smackdown Divas title: Michelle McCool v. Natalya Neidhart
Natalya has some volatile DNA, because one parent is a psychotic monster with little regard for human life, and the other parent is Jim Neidhart. McCool gets a seated dropkick for two and throws forearms, but Natalya drops her on the top rope and slugs away. Bow and arrow follows, but Michelle tries to reverse to a leglock. Natalya wraps her around the post and pounds on the leg for two, and hooks the Sharpshooter (not quite as fluid as Uncle Bret is), but Michelle makes the ropes. Natalya tries to reapply, but Michelle gets a heel hook and Natalya taps at 4:36 to give the Tramp Stamp belt to Michelle McCool. Nothing you'd be embarrassed to watch with friends. *1/2
RAW World title: CM Punk v. Batista
They fight for the lockup and Batista wins the power battle pretty easily, so Punk hits him with kicks instead. Batista elbows him down and boots him for two, then blocks a rollup with the power of his ass muscles. Punk puts him on the floor with an enzuigiri and follows with a baseball slide, and back in he gets two. He tries to control with more kicks, but Batista whips him into the turnbuckles and follows with a suplex for two. Camel clutch and he pounds on the back, but Punk puts him on the floor with another kick. Back in, they trade shots and Punk catches him with a cross body for two. Batista comes back with a powerslam and sets up to finish, but Punk grabs the ropes to counter and fires more high kicks. Knee in the corner and another roundhouse kick gets two. GTS is blocked by Batista and he hits Punk with a corner clothesline and sets up for a superplex. Punk counters with the Tarantula and then springboards in with a bulldog for two. Punk throws more kicks, but that just annoys Batista and he flattens the champ with a clothesline. He pounds away in the corner, but gets too worked up and misses a charge as a result, hitting the post. Punk tries to follow with a dive off the apron, but walks into a spinebuster on the floor. However, Kane runs out for the cheap DQ at 11:08. This Honky Tonk Man shit with Punk has to end if they're gonna do anything with him. Match was building OK before the weak finish ended it abruptly. ***
New York City Parking Lot Brawl: John Cena v. JBL
This appears to be a goofy pre-tape at a warehouse somewhere as opposed to the actual parking lot. Cena immediately tries to run JBL over, then chokes him out with booster cables. And ten we get the classic shock to the groin spot, a must in any vehicle related match. Cena heaves a keg at him and misses, then rams him into the horn to prevent him from driving away. JBL slugs back and whips him into the car door, which rips it right off the hinges. JBL beats on him and gets a neckbreaker on the hood of a car for two. JBL biels him into a windshield and follows with a DDT on the roof of the car for two. He tries to use the crowbar and smashes him into a car window, which not only doesn't kill Cena but doesn't even draw blood. Yeah, OK. JBL shoves Cena in the back seat of another car and retrieves a gas can from his limo before setting the car on fire. Well, of course. Cena luckily escapes that inferno of suck and shoves JBL into another car, then drives a forklift into it. Where are the side impact airbags when you need them? Cena drives the forklift, with JBL in the car, down into the arena as we're live again. They brawl on the rampway and Cena drops the five knuckle shuffle and sets up for the F-U, then changes his mind and that allows JBL to throw him into the windshield of the car and get the pin at 14:53. Cena jobs AGAIN? For those that felt Halftime Heat was too cerebral, this is for you. Some of the most ridiculously over-the-top contrived crap this side of a made-for-DVD action movie. *
Smackdown World title: HHH v. Edge
Edge dives in and attacks to start, but HHH tosses him and they brawl on the floor, where HHH takes over. Back in, HHH drops a knee and follows with a clothesline to the back, and they fight to the floor again. HHH charges and Edge drops him on a ringside table. Back in, he spears HHH in the corner and pounds on the gut with knees, then whips HHH into the corner and out to the floor, where he sends HHH into the stairs. Back in, he gets two and goes to a bodyscissors. HHH fights out of the hold, but Edge dropkicks him to the apron and tries to follow with a spear, which HHH dodges. They slug it out and HHH clotheslines him and gets the facecrusher to put Edge on the floor again. HHH sends him into the post, but Edge evades him and gets the DDT on the floor. Back in, Edge gets two. He goes up and tries a missile dropkick, but HHH catches him in a catapult, into a DDT for two. Edge counters the Pedigree into the Edge O Matic for two. Spear misses and HHH rolls him up for two. Edge boots him down, but HHH counters the spear into a spinebuster. KICK WHAM but Edge reverses him into the corner to block and they fight to the top, where Edge gets the superplex. They're both out, but the Wedding Planner slips the belt in for Edge, only to see Vickie knock her out. A catfight breaks out in the ring and Edge accidentally spears his blushing bride. KICK WHAM PEDIGREE ends it at 16:58. Edge should have won because they've got something with this wedding angle. It's not like HHH needs the belt anyway. Little too slow and it could have used some of the crazy overbooking that Edge's matches usually have, but they both know what they're doing out there. ***1/4
The Pulse:
I'd call this one the very definition of a "thumbs in the middle" show, as nothing was bad but none of the big matches were able to deliver, either. I think HHH v. Edge could have been the Wrestlemania main event to build towards, but that's pretty much shot now. Get the replay if you want, don't lose sleep over it if you don't. Whatever, I'm good like that.
Also want to remind everyone to check out www.stablewars.com for the monthly Play-Per-Views, where you can compete with other wrestling geeks to predict the results of these shows, and everyone who plays gets two shots to win a copy of my new book, Dungeon of Death, each and every month!
Tags: Rants
I hope this Shawn Michaels angle means he’s going to be out to get eye fixed. I can’t stand looking at his cross-eyed face anymore.
I can see where the “thumbs in the middle came from,” but I had a great time watching this show. Shelton & Jericho both won, and Punk didn’t lose. Add then in with the Edgeheads winning the tag belts & Henry retaining, and I was a happy fan. The last hour almost put me to sleep (actually, I did pause for a nap, come to think of it), but other than that, no complaints here. Glad you caught the “He said ‘No,’ right?” taunting that Jericho did at the ref. I completely dorked out for that. Now if London would just get involved in this feud in some way I’d be an even happier camper.
Oops. On the 3rd line, change “then” to “that” and dance a jig.
“Crowd was getting really hot at the end, and hopefully this is the start of his next start-and-stop push. You can probably thank Michael Hayes for this one.”
I know, right? Because Black people cannot achieve unless something is just handed to them, or through some nefarious means. Couldn’t agree more, glad someone said it.
First of all, Vince does want to actively push black wrestlers to improve his numbers in that particular demographic. That’s not racist, that’s business.
BUT,
a high-level WWE official used the “n-word” and I don’t doubt that putting three singles championships on three black wrestlers is a knee-jerk reaction to the comment.
I don’t believe Scott’s saying that black guys can only get a head when something is “just handed to them, or through some nefarious means.” I think what Scott MIGHT BE implying is that Vince is only interested in pushing black wrestlers when he’s afraid a bunch of them might get together and sue him.
Of course, Scott could just be acting like a smartass. That’s actually what *I’M* betting on…
No matter what the reason, I’m just thrilled that this new direction to get black guys on TV has D-LO BROWN back on Raw tonight. FATTEST FROG SPLASH EVAR~!~!
Plus, for what it’s worth, apparently Hayes was high on Benjamin to begin with.
I was arguing with a friend about ordering this, but then just found a great stream online and watched the whole thing for free. If i paid $40 for it i woudl have been pissed, I almsot felt like some episodes of raw were more entertaining. It seems everyone is gushing over jericho/hbk, yea it was good but definetly not great, I do love this angle, but hbk being “hurt ” for the past 5 months is getting old. I figure sometype of gimmick match for summerslam, hell in a cell would be awesome. Again punk looks like a punk bitch, im watchin raw right now , and they keep ramming it down our throats that hes a fluke, I’m not a ROH fan , and don’t really think hes world title worthy anyways, upper mid card yes. Anyways, the way hes beeing booked reminds me of rey 2 years ago, awful, that was a terrible finish too, how can you have 2 world title matches and 2 screwjob finishes on a PPV? thumbs down
Sentence structure is free. You should acquire some.
Alright, that was awesome.
Another SK classic. That line about Nattie’s mom was 24k solid.
One little nitpick, at the end of the Dreamer/Henry review, the pupil/student line… you’ll see it once you check it. Cheers.
I was waiting in anticipation for your rating of Shawn’s blade job. It had to approach 1.0 Muta, right? Is it possible it set a new standard? Lance Cade had HBK’s blood on him by way of Jericho!!!
Notice as well that Jericho still has Michaels’s blood on his face and body when he came out later for his promo. There’s no excuse for lack of personal hygiene!
“This Honky Tonk Man shit with Punk has to end if they’re gonna do anything with him. Match was building OK before the weak finish ended it abruptly. ***”
Gotta agree with this CM Punk shit. It got worst tonight, as Kane gave Batista a chokeslam in order for Punk to get the offense. Then, of course, JBL ran in to cause a DQ.
Has Punk been put over ANYONE clean since he won the belt? Cause this reign is not gettin him over, and neither is putting his matches on before John Cena’s on the pay-per-view.
Punk is 3-0-2 on TV since winning the title. He beat JBL and Snitsky clean with the GTS, beat Kane by count-out, and had 2 no contests with Batista due to interference. Punk had control for most of the 2 Batista matches.
HTM got his ass kicked every match and would run away or cheat.
Yeah, exactly the same situations.
Having John Cena interfere is clean? Cause that’s what happened in the match with JBL. And count-out wins are SO TOTALLY IMPRESSIVE dude.
This Punk reign is a joke. He hasn’t been put over clean against anyone important.
“What about Snitsky?”
I SAID IMPORTANT.
“Having John Cena interfere is clean? Cause that’s what happened in the match with JBL. And count-out wins are SO TOTALLY IMPRESSIVE dude.”
JBL staring at Cena, Cena not laying a hand on JBL or paying any attention to him, Punk hitting the GTS, and getting the pin = fluke win?
If they wanted to bury him, how about have Punk actually lose a match?
I think the point Scott and others are trying to make is that they could make Punk into Bret Hart 2008, taking on all challengers and eeking out clean victories but instead, he’s clearly just a placeholder until a real champion gets their hands on the belt. Though it’s really the WWE’s fault, since they made Punk look like a guy who couldn’t win the ECW title and now want people to cheer him like the WWE champion. Ain’t happening.
WWE did finally get it with Punk and the ECW title.
Plus, he has been champion for only 3 weeks, and I think WWE is trying to make it seem like he could lose the title but doesn’t. It’s different than Cena’s reign where you don’t think anyone will ever beat him. Punk is the underdog and could easily lose to Batista, Cena, and a couple of others, but he does have a chance at beating them, too. Punk has had 3 title defenses now, and in all 3, there were people who thought “This is the match where Punk loses the title”, but he didn’t. I think WWE wants that uncertainty in the fans’ minds.
I figured they were going in this direction: Punk fights to prove he is a worthy champion. Like how he keeps getting frustrated that JBL (or Cena) are interfereing in his title matches with Batista. I actually think he’ll keep the title beyond SummerSlam. He’ll finally beat Batista one-on-one. Probably in a cage match or something.
Actually Punk-JBL ended when JBL had finished CM off and was gonna go for the Clothesline, but Cena came out and did the STAREDOWN OF INTENSITY with JBL, allowing Punk to get up, sneak up on JBL and hit the GTS. Hardly a convincing win. And then that was immediately overshadowed by Cena brawling at ringside.
As for the PPV, that dq was a pretty lame finish. Oh, wait, I already said that.
If anyone looks bad there, it’s JBL for looking like a complete idiot. Plus, the last thing that happened on that show was Punk diving on everyone and joining in on the brawl.
i wish scott would do a raw recap, not so much cus I’m dying to hear his thoughts on it, i just want a place to see what the general consensus on the show was. I loved tonights raw , for some reason I thought it was one of the best shows in years, the jericho/cade segment was great. To be honest I was in shock at how good kelly kelly looked in the ring against beth, good match. hacksaw was good, and lawler really slapped the shit out of that little bitch cody. The 6 man tag had a good story to it, and everything else too. The only thing i didn’t like was the jenny McCarthy shit, me personally, I am pro-autisim, so i don’t need people trying to get rid of it on my wrestling show.
Pro-autism? That’s a new one.
We really need to cure autism. Mostly to fix this guy right here.
doesnt mrs sorrow have autism? or is that crabs or stds that only come from monkeys? i can’t remember what she told me, oh well i still hit anyways.
Mrs. Sorrow is a carrier of what we call the english language gene. It is transferred via osmosis. You have clearly never met her.
Oh SHIT! Do you subscribe to PW? Because he just TORCHED your ass!
See, stuff like this is why I don’t mind John Sorrow.
On a more serious note, there is far more to the autism discussion than most people realize. Here is an interesting article from New York magazine on this:
http://nymag.com/news/features/47225/
Ha! JRiggz is funny ’cause he’s an idiot.
Why is Triple H winning all of these matches? This is like 2003 all over again!! Has he ever lost cleanly to Randy Orton? How are they going to build towards the next ten years when Benjamin and Orton can’t get over now? WWE sucks right now and I won’t watch it. Give me 24/7 over this crap!
I thought that Orton was one of the most over heel’s in the WWE. And Benjamin just won the US title so I’m not really seeing your point.
It does seem pretty chaotic on the shows right now, as if there’s no clear plan. CM Punk (who is one of my favorites) is champion, but he’s clearly not as important as the JBL-Cena feud on RAW. It also would have made more sense (at least in my mind) to have Edge retain the belt and build towards Mania.
build towards mania? we are still in July? i see your point but with all the recent injurys in the past year, you really can’t build towards a show that is 8 months away.I assumed they were gonna try and hold off batista/cena for mania. But it appears thats happening sooner than later, and thats not a bad thing, thats a good thing, at least wait till survivor series, or throw then in a few tag matches or 3 ways. yea im pro-autisim, i am also pro hurricane katrina,
The way they’re booking Punk is ridiculous. He has the skills to hang with anyone they’ve got, and he should be, as someone else said, barely escaping with CLEAN PINFALL wins against big names to build him up as the scrappy, valiant warrior. They’re undermining his current reign.
One problem that I have with Punk is that I just don’t buy him as a face. Nothing about him says ‘face’. He needs a small stable similar to Edge’s where he’s the lead badass heel and can throw his straight edge lifestyle in the faces of the fans and look down on all the other wrestlers.
“The way they’re booking Punk is ridiculous. He has the skills to hang with anyone they’ve got, and he should be, as someone else said, barely escaping with CLEAN PINFALL wins against big names to build him up as the scrappy, valiant warrior. They’re undermining his current reign.”
How? He’s controls his matches and either wins or guys run-in before he can get the pin, and kayfabe-wise, that can’t be held aganist since it’s out of his control. Again, he has not lost on TV under any circumstances since he won the title.
True, but this ticky-tacky, barely-escaping-by-the-skin-of-his-teeth nonsense leaves us all just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Strong wins do count for something… I’m not saying Punk can’t get over as champ, or that he isn’t over now. But the marks in all of us want our favorite wrestlers to go over strong, especially when they’re title holders, and ESPECIALLY when they’re the world champs.
Remember how impotently Chris Jericho was booked in 2002? Eventually it became a foregone conclusion that he would job to either Triple H, which in turn killed his heat, which in turn became the convenient built-in excuse to never give him a serious push again. It’s self-fulfilling destiny, and if they’re not serious about keeping Punk on top, then they’ll continue with these cheap wins until even his most strident fans stop genuinely cheering for him. It sucks, but it’s the nature of the beast.
I’m not completely discouraged yet… Punk’s reign so far reminds me of the beginning of Bret Hart’s first title reign in ‘92, with the whole “I’ll defend against anybody, anytime” attitude. Of course, we all know how that ended… but it could have worked long-term. And if we can call CM Punk a five time World champion by the end of his career, then I think he’ll have done all right.
“Remember how impotently Chris Jericho was booked in 2002?”
Oddly enough, he looked strongest aganist HHH. He beat the hell out of HHH (who even did a stretcher job) not once but twice on TV leading up to Mania, bragged that he put HHH in the Walls of Jericho when HHH tore his quad because he knew how hurt HHH was, and HHH really never got much on Jericho in the build-up. Jericho also controlled most of the match at Mania and barely lost. Jericho didn’t look nearly that strong with Rock or Austin.
Jericho looked strong against HHH in 2002?
Give me a fucking break.
Between No Way Out and WrestleMania, HHH got NOTHING over on Jericho.
Jericho beat HHH so bad on the RAW before WrestleMania with the sledgehammer that HHH went out of the arena on a stretcher.
On the Smackdown before WrestleMania, Jericho left HHH laying again.
Jericho dominated the WrestleMania match and barely lost.
If that’s burying Jericho, it was done very badly.
he also was cleaning up HHH’s dog’s poop
Um, not really, and at the end of that RAW, Stephanie lured HHH to the ring, Jericho showed up, and beat the crap out of HHH with the sledgehammer.
That one episode of RAW was the first and last time the dog was involved in the angle, despite revisionist history stating the dog was a focal point of the angle.
I know the booking was weak, as was Batista having to sell a measely chokeslam like he was hit in the head with an anvil the whole match, but didn’t anyone else notice Punk basically beat the crap out of DAVE~! from bell to bell? That counts for something in my book….even if he was an afterthought by the end of the show.
All your average idiot mizark takes away from that is “Punk can’t win without help.” So what if Kane botched the chokeslam and Batista sold it like he’d basically just been pushed to the ground? If the announcers keep harping on the pre-match attack, then that’s what sticks with the viewers.
If they’re serious about keeping Punk around as a main eventer, then he needs to go over someone like Batista or Cena (sorry, Kane hasn’t been a legit main eventer for years), and he needs to do it clean as a sheet. No outside interference of any sort, before or during the match. If this doesn’t happen… well, see my above comment.
As I mentioned above, I think they are going in a cool direction with Punk. Maybe I’m just being naive, but I see them building to Punk beating Batista in a steel cage match. Punk finally gets his clean win over Batista, which is what he has wanted all along. He wants to prove that he can hang with the big dogs and that his title win was not a fluke.
The only thing that’s been keeping him from getting his clean win so far has been that there is no GM on RAW, which means people like JBL have been free to go nuts and interfere at will. I think that once they name a new GM, they’ll make a cage match between Punk and Batista at SummerSlam. I also think that Punk will win at SummerSlam. Again, maybe I’m just being naive, but I think they want to build Punk up as a viable contender and main eventer.
Or, and I forgot to put this up in that comment, Punk *doesn’t* get his win and he goes crazy and turns heel.
“All your average idiot mizark takes away from that is “Punk can’t win without help.””
Possibly, but I would hope not since that makes no sense. Punk dominated Batista and didn’t get the chance to win because Batista was attacked by Kane and the ref stopped the match. If Kane hadn’t become involved, then, logically, Punk could have easily won since he was in control for much of the match.
The problem with your argument is that even if Punk dominates the whole match, they let Batista make the comeback, spinebuster, thumbs up, thumbs down, and getting ready for his finisher, then Kane comes down and Batista goes after him, giving the appearance that if not for Kane, Punk would have been about to lose. Sure, he might have escaped the Batista Bomb, but we’ll never know thanks to the interference.
Also, even if you discount Batista being weakened by Kane before the match, just because Punk dominated most of the match doesn’t mean people actually believe he was going to beat Batista cleanly. The last couple years have seen Kennedy, MVP, Edge, and even John Morrisson not that long ago completely dominate the Animal for long periods of matches, only to eventually fall prey to the Spinebuster and/or Demonbomb for the win. (Edge excluded, via shenanigans in most cases.) I’m not sure anyone other than the Undertaker has beaten Batista cleanly since his inital main event push that began at Rumble 2005. In that sense, he has almost been more protected than Cena has, other than looking somewhat mentally deficient in some of the ways Edge was able to beat him. (I call that Lugeritis…named for Lex watching Yoko get counted out at Summerslam 93 and then celebrating as if he won the title)
“The problem with your argument is that even if Punk dominates the whole match, they let Batista make the comeback, spinebuster, thumbs up, thumbs down, and getting ready for his finisher, then Kane comes down and Batista goes after him, giving the appearance that if not for Kane, Punk would have been about to lose. Sure, he might have escaped the Batista Bomb, but we’ll never know thanks to the interference.”
By the same logic, like you said, Punk could have kicked out and made a comeback himself. We don’t know what would have happened, so I am not going to assume anything.
Plus, Punk has been champion for less than a month. Best case scenario, he would have cleanly beaten one main event guy in that time, and I don’t think beating one guy would make his career.