6 Ups & 2 Downs From WWE Bash In Berlin (Results & Review)

1. Punk Gets Measure Of Retribution

Saturday’s strap match between CM Punk and Drew McIntyre’s was everything that their SummerSlam match should have been: a bitter, angry, vicious fight between two rivals who just want to tear each other apart.

McIntyre didn’t even wait for the match to start to attack, using the strap to whip Punk before either man was tethered to it. They continually smacked each other with the strap, punched, chopped and beat each other down to try to touch all four corners. There were a couple of nice teases along the way, including the old trope of one wrestler carrying the other on his shoulders while touching the corners, but the second wrestler touches them behind his back, leading to a struggle for the fourth corner. Thankfully, that wasn’t the finish, but it was a nice nod.

Punk picked up the win, and he did it with flair, delivering two Go-to-Sleeps and touching two corners, hitting a third GTS before the third corner, and then adding a fourth GTS just because he hates Drew before retrieving his bracelet and hitting the fourth corner. Magnificent stuff that got across the bitterness without being too dramatic. Even the bracelet lore was compressed and kept to a minimum here.

Consider this feud – once the best thing in wrestling – back on track and steaming toward a finale at Bad Blood.