Articles on professional wrestling mistakes often concentrate on moves going wrong, and not on bog standard errors in judgement from non-wrestling personnel. While were not going to bore you with the number of times that Lillian Garcia has screwed up announcing the participants of a match, or list the mistakes crowding Booker Ts bowling shoe ugly announcing career, this ones a fairly valid inclusion the finish to this match was ruined, because the referee forgot what was supposed to happen. WWE referee protocol goes that the ref should count the pin if the shoulders are down on three, regardless as to whether thats the scripted outcome of the match, because to do otherwise would look utterly ridiculous. In this instance though, Jack Swagger was supposed to kick out of CM Punks pinning attempt, and did, in plenty of time but the referee called the pin anyway, seriously confusing both competitors. It was far too obvious what had happened, and WWE decided to roll with it, given that Punk was scripted to win later in the match anyway. The production truck got on with putting together replays, while the announcers discussed the mistake with concern in their voices. Later in the week, the issue was actually addressed on WWE.com, and RAWs interim General Manager of the moment, John Laurinaitis, (kayfabe) awarded Swagger a US title shot to make up for the (real) goof.
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