10 Incredible WWE Moments Nobody Ever Talks About
3. The Capitol Punishment PPV
Remembered mostly as a weird one-off with a bad and very desperate main event that did not draw - R-Truth as a pay-per-view headliner was such a sign of the times that it's little wonder CM Punk was allowed to bury the company just over a week later - Capitol Punishment is about as fondly remembered as Fatal 4-Way.
And yet, while it wasn't awesome top-to-bottom - nobody took the headline "attraction" seriously and the midcard sludge of the era had rarely felt so bland and meaningless - it was highlighted by three tremendous matches. It's something of a sleeper hit in retrospect.
CM Punk and Rey Mysterio continued their rivalry, and while the story was nowhere near as strong as it was the prior year, Punk might well have been Rey's best WWE opponent. He knew precisely how to work Rey: Punk threw him around like a ragdoll, adding a mean edge to the electrifying back-and-forth, and - the Bret Hart guy won't like this - pinged about the place like Shawn Michaels when bumping and feeding. Punk as mean bully ass-showing workhorse was sublime.
As was the slow-burn craftsmanship of Randy Orton Vs. Christian, which was a very, very good version of the methodical in-house WWE style.
And, while it was futile, Kofi Kingston and Dolph Ziggler treated their undercard opener as if it was the early '90s, and a midcard title bout was a litmus test for a breakthrough push; nobody cared at first, but they got them in the end.