MATCH 7: WWE Champion CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho
‘Best in the World’ vs. ‘Best in the World’ was the basic premise for this match, and a fitting one for these two charismatic ring technicians. So why the silly alcoholism angle? God knows. Maybe the brass in Titan Tower felt that two men settling a professional one-upmanship wasn’t enough to carry a Wrestlemania world title match, needing a personal thread in order to rope the audience into the feud. I don’t know, all I do know is that this was a killer match regardless of the questionable storyline. The match did suffer a little from a fatigued crowd at first, with some of the early moves and allusions to addiction in Punk’s family being greeted with little reaction.
Eventually the sheer talent on display during this back-and-forth battle of technicians got the crowd invested and the closing moments felt as important as any title match from Wrestlemania’s almost 30-year roster of matches. The best moment of the match has to be the two men interlocked on the mat rolling eachother into pin attempt after pin attempt, eventually ending with Punk clinching Jericho in the Anaconda Vice, forcing him to tap out. A well-deserved win for someone I foresee bringing back some level of legitimacy to the top championship. Now if only we could get rid of that ridiculous bling-bling eyesore of a belt. Please?
