Road to SummerSlam 2008 - 4

RIP.

SummerSlam 2008 is coming in August from Indianapolis; parts 1-3 of the build can be easily found by clicking the label.

7 of the 8 matches are ready to roll:

WWF Title: CM Punk (w/Maria) v. Matt Hardy
-Punk's now a 2 time Champ, he won the Undisputed Title from Flair back at Survivor Series '06, then threw down the WWF and NWA title belts, resulting in the seismic shuffle that has only now returned to normlacy. Matt returned at the close of XXIV to wipe out Punk after a year on the shelf; Punk and GDI beat down Matt, Edge, Jeff in the postmatch of the main event a year before at 23. Punk's tried to move a wedge between Matt and Jeff since the end of '07 framing Matt as selfishly neglecting the needs of his brother to serve his own desire for glory.

IC Title: Montel Porter v. Blood Dragon Jeff Hardy
-MVP (who you can follow on twitter, sometimes, he'll tweet during a match) took the IC from Orton at Survivor Series, kept in the blow off against his former partner Burke at the Rumble, then beat Kendrick/Noble in the 3 way at 24. There's no real angle between he and Jeff, for Porter it's about getting the modern day prima donna athlete character over - for Jeff it's about the Matt/Punk (Matt/Jeff) program - Jeff's been wearing a full Jushin Liger-like costume since Survivor Series in his program with Punk that established a thread that Jeff was looking to shed his identity as a Hardy, that Matt's success and Jeff's personal demons had caused this masked character to emerge. Matt says this is ridiculous and he and Jeff are primed to win their first ever singles titles on the same night. It's the biggest night in the 10+ year WWF career of the Hardy Boys.

WWF Tag Titles: WMD: Cena/Leviathan (with Arn) v. Clique: Edge/HHH-M
-Leviathan is Batista. Cena/Leviathan, doing a Road Warriors like no selling gimmick, went over Michaels/Helmsley (with an assist from guest ref Flair) at 24. It's Cena's second run, he and Orton were young boy tag champs; it's Leviathan's second; he and his mentor Flair were tag champs. Hunter and Shawn took the straps from Cade/Murdoch at Survivor Series, kept over the returning Edge/Jericho when Edge swerved Chris, but then dropped to WMD at 24. Shawn's gone, saying that the WWF fans don't appreciate his 10 title wins and aren't worthy of his talents until they do, there are extensive clip packs of those 10 title wins (2 World, 4 IC, 4 tags) shown on tv. Hunter and Edge dislike each other, but they are both Clique, and in a blood/water pairing they get the shot here. Hunter carries the issue with WMD, Edge spends more time cutting comedy promos on Jericho, who has vanished after losing to Edge at 24. Edge wears the Hart Foundation hockey jersey. Edge uses the sharpshooter.

No Foreign Objects: Undertaker (w/Cody) v. Bradshaw (w/Yakuza)
-Undertaker is babyface symbol of old guard WWF, having won the Legends Match at Mania 7 times; over the summer he came to the rescue of young Rhodes, who took on Bradshaw's stable BIG (Bradshaw Investment Group - Bradshaw calls a fan into the ring, and in a reverse Million Dollar Man bit, has the fan perform a demeaning stunt and then asks the fan to give him bailout money, the stable is Yakuza {Yang}, Mark Henry, and now the Great Khali) after they left Dusty for dead. Bradshaw says he's dreamed of the chance to take down the dead man. Bradshaw's become a garbage wrestler after his feud with the old ECW guys (all gone now, only Taz is still with the company, and he's the head trainer at WWFUniversity, the developmental school in Tampa) utilizing the glass light tubes - but he says this match will be just man on man, like the Taker likes it - because it's important to show he doesn't need to resort to the gimmicks.

PAUL~ v. KHALI
-PAUL is the Show; he's been gone since the end of Dead Men Walking in mid '06; Bradshaw just introduced Khali as the biggest wrestler alive (and used him to destroy Cactus Jack) and the Taker is countering with Paul's return. This match has a five minute time limit.

Mark Henry v. Frank Neely
-Henry's Bradshaw's bodyguard; he's the most famous bodyguard in WWF history having been the longtime bodyguard of the Nation of Domination as Big Markie during their two tag title reigns (Rock/DLo). Frank Neely (Bam) was a "fan" who refused to go along with Bradshaw's bailout request. Yes, I recognize I'm working way too hard for a match that I would fast forward. Several matches that I'd fast forward.

Parejas Increibles: Punk/Matt v. MVP/Jeff
-This is a SummerSlam tradition, the mixed partner opening tag. It's the first time Matt and Jeff have ever opposed each other in a match since they were ring boys who would grab time if a show was ever running short to do spots and hope to impress the office into letting them wrestle more.

Finally - Ka$h Kingston v. Santino Marella

This is a comedy program pretty much. Kingston and Ron Killings are Young Money; they were in Floyd Mayweather's posse and he got them signed. Killings was a former X Champ in TNA (trivia - he took from Punk!). They've got a L'il Wayne vibe; not exactly a parody of hip hop but not exactly on the square either (did you see T-Pain's Big Ass Chain at the BET Awards - that's exactly the vibe for these guys) their pants are low, they're covered in tattoos, their theme has lots of autotune. They're on a boat motherfucker don't you ever forget. Santino is tagging with the Miz. Here's who the Miz is - he's Spencer Pratt. That dude can find him some heel heat. The Miz is a douche; he's young and empty; he needs a girl for the act...Tiffany. Young Money's making it rain and the Miz is going to the Roxy or the Viper Room or whatever velvet rope trendy club is in the town they're in that night. Miz calls everyone "brah." Santino is Andy Kauffman. He does the Latka act when cutting promos - meek and foreign, "thank you very much" but when the bell rings (like Festus or Delirious) he turns into the ubercocky "I'm From Hollywood" Kauffman wrestling character. A lot of taunting and hip swiveling.

And that's your card.

As for the other stuff...

Your new RAW announce team is Joey Styles and Matt Striker
Your GDI announcer remains Josh Matthews, now doing the show solo.
Your new Fight Night announce team is Jim Ross and Matt Striker.

As mentioned in the run up to 24, there's an internet reality show, WWFU, which follows the exploits of the developmental group in Tampa. The leads are Jake and Kelly Hager (Jack Swagger and Kelly Kelly) a brother and sister. Jake is an All-american wrestler from Oklahoma, and he's the teacher's pet, the lead dog - the lead pupil - he does every drill perfectly, always studies his tapes, his hand is always first up - he does his sit ups and goes to church on Sunday. It's not an act, he's not a clown - he's genuine, honest, all around square. Most of the other boys dislike him for obvious reasons, and taunt him with the nickname Jack Swagger. Hager's largely quiet (it's the lisp) and just devoted to getting better and learning his craft. The antagonist is Ted DiBiase, Jr. - he's called a natural, and he takes it for granted - he goes out late, gets into fights, sleeps around, doesn't take anything too seriously, but manages to pick everything up without trying. Also there are the Hart kids, Harry Smith, Natty Neidhart, Tyson Kidd - they were last seen in the summer of '07 getting punked out by the Clique. Now they're in WWFU and eventually will have a "too big for this" attitude - "that's now how we learned it in the Dungeon" will be heard a couple times, but we're not there yet. It's all presided over by Taz. He's grumpy.

Finally, the two ongoing programs which don't get aired at SummerSlam.

Benjamin and Nitro walked into 24 with singles belts, but they lost the TLC to Punk - most of the build for 24 was about them, Punk came in late - and most of the match was the two of the in opposition. They have a history, Strong Style (Benjamin/Haas) ended MNM, running Matthews from the company and then torturing Nitro, who proved he wasn't just a pretty boy by taking that beating. They are positoned as similar athletes, taking the WWF to the next level athletically - and which one will grab the top spot?

In Steamboat's only appearance, the night after 24 where he makes Matt the number one contender, he also announced the first ever Best of 7 series, to start whenever Benjamin and Nitro get clearance. Much of the summer will be background stuff - Benjamin is very different than in the real world, he has sweat equity with the WWF fans, like real world Hardys. Benjamin came up through Camp Angle, he's an all time great tag champion with Haas and Angle - we saw him as Angle's protege in Team Angle as SMoney - he retired Kurt from the WWF at Mania - he won the company for the WWF by getting Fit to tap in the War Games match, he beat Rey for the WWF Title at the Rumble. Over the summer in taped pieces we go to his hometown in Orangeburg, South Carolina to see him in the hometown here babyface role - we go to the University of Minnesota to get over his amateur bona fides - Benjamin is white meat babyface, all hero - rock solid. And Nitro's a cocky heel - we see him in the tanning bed, we see him getting oiled up by strippers, we see him effortlessly hitting high spots and posing.

They return for match 1 of the series, say right now, for the main event of RAW right now, end of June/top July. They go 20 minutes+ and Benjamin goes over clean. Postmatch, Nitro attacks Benjamin's knee ( which would have been the chief injury suffered at 24, keeping Benjamin on the shelf until tonight). That knocks Benjamin out another month - match 2 then happens top of August, with Match 3 set for SummerSlam - but match 2 never happens - Nitro takes out Benjamin's leg on the ramp before they can get to the ring. He wants a countout win - but the referee waves it off - saying the match never actually started - Nitro sneers - but he has effectively taken away Benjamin's legs it seems in their battle over who the top athlete in the WWF is. This means their SummerSlam match is off.

Also not wrestling at SummerSlam - Defiance.

Randy Orton joined The Juggernaut (Umaga) and a heel turning Dean Malenko to take out Fit Finlay at 24. They are Defiance, utterly without respect for authority. Orton had been rubbing up against Dusty; Juggeranut against Steamboat - they join together as Defiance under the tuteledge of the dastardly Malenko.

Dean and Fit had been teamed for years - first in the WWF office, then they came out of retirement for one last lap around the teack, Fit became IC champ and then NWA champ. But in the Fit/Nitro feud there developed a split, a slow burning difference of opinion evident in multiple ways - Dean didn't come to the ring with Fit for his 24 match against The Juggernaut, saying Fit shouldn't take the match, that he was in over his head against a monster.

They destroyed Fit at 24 - Orton debuted that punt, kicking Fit's skull as Dean held him in the clover leaf.

Over the summer, Dean (who now demands to be called Professor Malenko) says he tried to warn Fit, tried for months - but Fit wouldn't listen - but Randy Orton listened - and whereas Finlay had reached his pinnacle - Orton is just getting started. Orton gets some credibility from working with Malenko (a former NWA champ) and the Juggernaut gets a mouthpiece.

It was Regal who held the broken skull of his longtime frenemy Finlay at 24 - and when Defiance crushes Charlie Haas's skull (Haas was a Regal protegee in Team Angle) that causes Regal to snap. A crazed, frenzied Regal attacks Defiance in the parking garage during one show, hitting Orton with his car - and then smashing into the side of the car carrying Dean and the Juggernaut. That puts Orton on the shelf - but sets up a TV with Regal and the Juggernaut, no holds barred. After a good brawl (that would be on Fight Night - now that NWA is gone, the difference between Monday and Friday is Friday's largely No DQ or otherwise positioned as "fights" or "brawls" whereas RAW is largely puroresu (Tuesday is an indie feel, tiny venues, cheap production) Regal gets the Juggernaut to submit to the Regal Stretch, breaking his arm in the process.

It's a shocking result - the Juggernaut was unbeaten and had stormed through the WWF (goddamn WWF, I liked Umaga okay but don't really care that he's gone - but the Juggernaut! With the cigars and the catchphrase! Why you gotta do me like this?) but Regal unleashed the full range of his fury - and he ends the summer having tapped the Juggernaut (who then vanishes into the night) and run over Orton with his car.

Regal sees no satisfaction - he cuts angry, vengeful promo on Malenko, saying he will either see Dean in the ring or the parking lot, but he will get his revenge!

And that gets us there.  Wait!

One more reason to buy. 

The Number One Contender's Battle Royal will return this year (in September, on the debut episode of the new Friday Night Fight Night on MyNetwork TV) for the first time ever the draw for spots #1 and #2 will take place LIVE - at SummerSlam!  Find out who will be 1 and 2!  Find out only on PPV!

SummerSlam 2008is on its way. Sometime in August. Check this space. Call your cable company!

Road to SummerSlam 2008 - 3

We continue our Road to SummerSlam 2008. In Parts 1 and 2 we set up the top of the card:

WWF Title: Punk v. Matt
IC Title: MVP v. Jeff
Tag Title: Leviathan/Cena v. Edge/Hunter
Opening Tag: Matt/Punk v. Jeff/MVP

The other half of the show comes from only two programs.

The first part of 2008 saw us rev up the ECW machine again. Tommy Dreamer and Taz were the color analysts for GDI and WWF respectively (Taz had been the analyst forever), while Bradshaw was the NWA analyst. Bradshaw, as heavyduty NWA mouthpiece had strongly cut anti WWF promos – and eventually as all of the broadcast teams started to do PPVs together, the crosstalk and insults built into threats.
That heat escalated into an ECW v. Bradshaw heat on the back of Stevie Richards’ retirement angle; at the Rumble all the analysts brawled, which cost them all their broadcast jobs under Steamboat’s “no physical acts” policy. That built to two Mania matches, a Bradshaw/Dreamer garbage match (Bradshaw won) and a Stevie/Yakuza match (Stevie won and retired).

The first half of the summer sees Bradshaw (actually, BIG, an acronym for Bradshaw International Group) take out the ECW guys. Dreamer, Guido, Super Crazy all job their way out of the company. Taz isn’t part of the angle after Mania, he spends the rest of 2008 in Tampa running developmental (WWFU – World Wrestling Federation University, which you can see as a reality show on the counterfactual.com)
As does Cactus Jack, whose leaving is a bigger deal, since he’s a Triple Crown winner – he does a job to Bradshaw aided by the debut of the Great Khali – who does nothing except enter, look big, and hit a chokeslam.

Just a chokeslam. Please. He can scream too. That would be fine.

The ECW program transitions into the new program – BIG (get it, they’re an international group) consists of Bradshaw, Yakuza (the gentleman from the Pacific Rim), Mark Henry (whose ancestors proudly hailed from sub-Saharan Africa), and Khali (the Indian bigger than the Sun) is heavily tied into the economic collapse.
Bradshaw’s catchphrase is that this is the wrestling stable too big to fail.

He does a turn on the DiBiase bit, he’ll bring a fan into the ring, have him do something demeaning, and then demand that the fan pay him a hundred dollars. That would be a fun bit.

Because the Bradshaw International Group needs a bailout, see. They’re down to 3 Gulfstreams. They only have 7 homes among the 4 of them. They only made an average of 360x what an American worker makes, down from 430x, and that’s unacceptable. And when he says 360x, that’s an average American worker, not a wrestling fan, everyone knows wrestling fans don’t have jobs.

They’ll take financial terms for the names of the maneuvers. The Bailout is the new name for the Clothesline from Hell, the Credit Default Swap will be the name for a tag team move.

This will all play out on Fight Night, which is still being run by Dusty even though it’s no longer affiliated with the NWA. Eventually, all of the ripping of the average worker will bring a response from Dusty, who will hit his everyman populist appeal button as hard as he can.

And eventually, that’s gonna lead to the end of Dusty – he gets buried by BIG.

That leads to a response by Cody Rhodes, which really kicks us into the build to SummerSlam. Rhodes is extragreen, we’ve seen him before, Dusty used him as the 5th member of the losing Team NWA in the last War Games match – which drew much criticism from Bradshaw in his analyst’s role.
Cody does the green babyface thing – he’s extra scrappy – he loses singles, and loses in an ugly way, to the members of BIG – but week after week keeps coming back until finally the next week he’s challenged to a 4 on 2, all 4 members of BIG against Cody and anyone he can get to stand with him in a handicap match against the stable to BIG to fail.

Who will he get? Who? Who?

He gets the Undertaker, the 7 time Legends Champion.
Taker gets all the superman stuff, but eventually Khali tags in, hits the chokeslam and they get the fall.

We’ve got 3 BIG matches at SummerSlam.

-Undertaker (w/Cody) v. Bradshaw (w/Yakuza) – this is specifically a non garbage match. Oh yeah, BIG is a garbage stable; they got a taste for the plunder in the ECW angle, Bradshaw used to decry the use of glass light tubes, but now everyone seems to constantly swing one. There’s barbed wire and broken glass all over the place.

But for this match Bradshaw says he doesn’t want any part of the glass, he wants to destroy the Undertaker man on man – he has been in the WWF almost as long as the dead man – and he always knew if he got the opportunity, he’d show he was a better man.

-Khali v. PAUL – Khali does nothing but be big and hit chokeslams – after he destroys Cactus and then chokeslams the Undertaker – Bradshaw does the full run about Khali being the largest man in the history of wrestling, the only true giant in the history of wrestling. The ‘Taker says he has a friend who would disagree.

PAUL’s been gone, what, two years now, he was taken apart by Lashley during his run of dominance. He’s not going to come back until the PPV, so there’s that.
The stip is this is a 5 minute time limit match – these two monsters are going to go as hard as possible for 5 minutes – each trying to hit that chokeslam! Who will win?? Who?? Who?

-Mark Henry v. Frank Neely, yes, that’s Bam, no, there’s no reason to call him Frank except that that’s what we’re gonna do. Neely’s gonna be one of the “fans” who gets called to the ring to give BIG money – he’ll refuse – he’ll stand up to Bradshaw – he’ll slap Mark Henry – it’s the regular guy standing up to BIG!

So he’ll take him on at SummerSlam.

Boom, boom, boom. 3 matches.

One more match, it’s Kingston v. Santino – but we’ll hold that off.

In Part 4, which probably won’t come until July (there will be a TNA post after real world Slammiversary) we’ll set up that last match, plus, talk about all of the programs going on which aren’t represented at SummerSlam.

7 matches down – the 3 title matches, perejas increibles, and now the 3 BIG matches. One more match left, then the programs that aren’t making SummerSlam but are nonetheless significant to our new season and our long run to WM Silver.  We continue.

Road to SummerSlam 2008 - 2

In Part 1 (click the label at the bottom) we set up the two singles title matches at the top of the card (the advertising push twins them – it’s Hardys Go For Titles at SummerSlam ’08) and the opening tag.

The other tag match – the tag title match – is also pretty high profile.

Shawn and Hunter – heels – largely doing the same act that makes them babyfaces in real world WWF (like they’ve lived on scholarship their whole lives, Shawn’s “jesus loves me and so it’s okay that I was a dick” act is the same, Hunter’s “I’m married to the Princess so I own this whole place” act is the same) but in Counterfactual WWF, they’re booed.

I mean, you don’t have to boo. I’m booing.

Anyway – they took the straps at Survivor Series (their second time as a team) from Cade/Murdoch (the Superstar and the Sidekick, such a good gimmick “That_Just Happened” was the name for the flip piledriver – TNA can have that one if they like) kept that the Rumble but lost at XXIV to WMD: John Cena and Leviathan (Batista).

Each of them have had a previous run (Cena with Orton, Leviathan with Flair) WMD is doing an 80s musclehead thing – all oil and steroids (allegedly) and no selling. They’re managed by Arn, Flair was the guest referee at Mania and wound up turning on the Clique to aid WMD in taking the straps.

Hunter gets the rematch at Summer Slam, but he’ll be doing it with Edge.

Edge got maybe his biggest ever (maybe second biggest) singles win at 24, beating Jericho.

Edge is essentially real world Edge at this point. He’s amoral. He and Christian joined the Clique back at WM15, turning on their friends, the Hardys, now almost 10 years ago. Following that long collision feud, Edge went down for a year and a half with the neck surgery, returning as a babyface at XX in the big Clique babyface reformation (Michaels, Christian, London) that came on the heels of Michaels beating Hunter and Christian losing to heel Jericho in the second ever Cell match.

That version of the Clique had a long feud with Team Angle; Edge took the IC from Jericho – Edge then turned heel, lying to everyone, including his brother, in the Lita program – beating Christian in a Loser Leaves Town, Edge beat Michaels at XXII – then built for a year to the Cell Main Event at XXIII – he lost to Matt, then appeared to turn face in the postmatch beatdown from GDI.

Edge returned to save the Anvil’s daughter Natty at Survivor Series, he and a returning Jericho aligned to face the Clique at the Rumble – in a touching, historically important scene Jericho presented Edge with his own pink and black Hart Foundation hockey jersey (#10).

Edge then turned on Jericho in the match, having set him (and the fans) up all along. Edge then beat Jericho clean and in the middle at Mania.

So – here Hunter and Edge are.

This storyline isn’t much about WMD, largely they just do their act. The summer here is about the Clique.
Hunter and Edge continue to establish they don’t like each other. That’s always been clear, clear for years. Edge thinks Hunter’s bloated and self important and only has his spot because he bangs the Princess. Hell, maybe one day, when Hunter’s out of town, Edge might pay the Princess a visit.

Hunter thinks Edge is a bitch who only got out of the midcard by doing Matt Hardys tranny girlfriend.
They don’t like each other.

But the Clique is bigger than that. You think anyone likes Scott Hall? Hell no. But they’d lay down their life for him, ‘cause 4-Life isn’t just a catchphrase (buy the shirt) it is a blood oath.

And of course the fans don’t understand. And Joey Styles doesn’t understand. They’re losers. Like Chris Jericho.

They do lots of Jericho talk over the summer – ‘cause Jericho is gone without a trace. And there’s lots of talk about how wrecked he must be (Jericho has a fragile psychological history) that he’s crawled into a bottle someplace, that he’s been found in a back alley with a needle in his arm. They’ll talk about people spotting Jericho in the Arizona desert weighing 400 pounds and covered in melted cheese, or say that he and Perry Saturn have moved to Vermont to make it official.

So, Hunter’s HHH-M. And Edge has just ended Chris Jericho.

What about Shawn?

Shawn appears once on TV, soon after Mania, to cut a new variation on his “Don’t you people know who I am” promo.

Shawn says although you wouldn’t know it by watching WWF television, when he and Hunter won the tag titles last year – he became the first 10 time champion in WWF history.

2 time Heavyweight Champ.

A record 4 time Intercontinental Champ

4 time tag champ.

10 times.

Not Sammartino. Not Hogan. Not Steamboat or Savage or Hennig or Flair or Austin or Cactus or Mysterio or any one of the Harts – any damn one of them.

Me. Shawn Michaels. And none of you are smart enough to appreciate that what you are seeing in front of you is the greatest professional wrestler who ever lived.

A 10 time champion. Shawn Michaels.

So it’s time to educate you people on just who it is I am.

Shawn says one day Jesus will return to earth. But not everyone will be saved. Only the people who recognize him as their lord will be saved. That’s why they need to educate themselves.

You have to know Jesus when you see him.

Shawn says “I am not Jesus, that would be blasphemy – but I am as close as most of you are ever going to get – and you will recognize that in this ring – I am your Lord!”

So, what we get, not just over the summer, but all the way until 2009 – are clip packages of Shawn’s ten title wins. They are positioned in a way to put Shawn over as hard as possible – slow motion, music – narration, it is designed to in a full on way portray Shawn as more than a man.

The Clique’s in charge, after all. Hunter’s a McMahon. Shawn Michaels is Shawn Michaels. Edge is Edge.

They are entitled.

The ten Michaels title wins are shown in clip vignettes, interspersed with biblical verses all summer long, hell, make it all year long, all the way to 2009. They end with flashes of white light and the phrase.

He Will Rise Again.

That’s the tag title match. WMD defending against Edge and Hunter.

4 down. 4 to go. Plus all of the other stuff that while not being part of Summer Slam is nonetheless going on in the summer of ’08. We continue.

Road to SummerSlam 2008 - Part 1

WM 24 is here.

SummerSlam 2008 will be coming in August from Indianapolis. As SummersSlam can occasionally be, it’s a top heavy card, but gives you some sense about the storylines which will unfold over the course of the new season.

We’ve got 8 matches to set up – I’m going to break with what has been my recent habit and give you the lineup right now – RIGHTNOW! ON THIS VERY SCREEN! – and then fill in how we get there, probably taking a total of three posts.

WWF Title: CM Punk (w/Maria) v. Matt Hardy
IC Title: MVP v. Jeff Hardy
Tag Titles: WMD (w/Arn) v. Clique: Edge/HHH-M
Kash Kingston v. Santino
Undertaker (w/Cody Rhodes) v. Bradshaw (w/Yakuza Yang)
PAUL v. Khali
Mark Henry v. Frank Neely
Parejas Increibles: CM Punk/Matt Hardy v. MVP/Jeff Hardy

I know, you’re wondering what you did to deserve that undercard. I feel your righteous fury.

Let’s talk about the top. Punk, as you hopefully know, kept at XXIV in the 3 way TLC over Nitro and Benjamin (more on them when I get there) and then was hit with a top of the ladder twist of fate by Matt, gone since his XXIII main event win over Edge and subsequent postmatch beatdown at the hands of the GDI crew led by Punk.

Matt actually already had a shot at Punk, Rumble 07, but largely that will be glossed over in the program (it was just for the ECW belt and it ended after Edge interference). The program really contains the following components:

A. Punk’s in celebratory mode.
-After being a step ahead of everyone in the company, really, since his arrival, but certainly since winning the Unified Titles (and then throwing down 2 of the belts) at SSeries ’06, Punk found himself playing intellectual catchup to Steamboat, outmaneuvered by the WWF GM into giving up control of GDI and reunifying the title belts. So now, that he has once again won, is once again WWF Champion, and has won the main event at Wrestlemania, he gloats. “I threw the WWF title belt on the ground, I started my own show, I broke the greatest wrestling company in the world into little pieces – and did I get my comeuppance? Did the great Ricky Steamboat take me to school to teach me a lesson about respect? Did I have to get back in line and “learn my place”? Or did I stand in front of 70,000 people at Wrestlemania and become a 2 time WWF World Heavyweight Champion?”

B. Punk’s really doing promos on Steamboat
-There’s a lot of space between Mania and Summer Slam, really a program, to run that long, has to have stages. In the initial stage Punk largely ignores Matt and instead cuts promos on Steamboat (who only appears once, on the RAW after Mania to make Matt the number once contender – he then says he’s going on the road to scout new talent – and poof – he’s gone) Punk sets up the feud as not just starting when he arrived at WWF refusing to appear on “corporate TV” – but educates fans who are unaware of their ROH history (ROH Counterhistory is the same as actual ROH history – given events of 2009, that’s probably a policy that could use modification) so the Punk/Steamboat feud from real world ROH – all of that happened in Counterfactual ROH – it’s been referenced during the course of the long power struggle between the two men – but now, with a whole summer to talk – Punk talks. Additionally, in Counterfactual TNA Punk was X Division Champ at the end of ’03 (he took from Daniels, dropped to Killings) I don’t talk storyline in the TNA recaps, just run through the shows, but we’re going to say, just for the hell of it – that their feud began then, in 2003.

So, 5 years and multiple promotions later – Punk does a lot of preening – he won the X Title in TNA (and he says the letters, says them on RAW – Punk’s a renegade, see) despite Steamboat trying to keep him down – and he won the ROH World Title (Punk took from Aries and lost to Noble, all in mid ’05) despite Steamboat trying to keep him down – and now, with Steamboat putting up roadblock after roadblock – he has cemented his legacy as WWF royalty, by winning his 2nd WWF Title. And Steamboat can’t do a damn thing about it.

Punk tries to coax any type of response, even from video, by Steamboat, but the Dragon stays gone. Punk likes this for awhile “I drove Ricky Steamboat out of the WWF – not the Dynamite Kid – Me!” but eventually he feels disrespected “Every week I call you out – and every week you ignore me! I’m WWF Champion, Has Been! Who the hell are you?”

C. The Matt stuff.
-Matt doesn’t vanish, he’s been totally gone a year and will need to get some momentum back from the year and a half build to WM23 when he was the hottest act in the company. Matt doesn’t talk much, he’s got a CrowSting thing going with some Pillman-insanity tossed in. A reminder of how we got here – the long collision match feud with Edge/Christian and the Dudleys (the Hardys and E/C started together as ring boys, the Hardys working for the Clique, E and C for Owen Hart – E/C turned heel with Trish, joining the Clique) ended with everyone but Matt stretchered from the building – the Hardys had just started working with Eric Bischoff – and over the course of a year + (and two WM matches) Matt and RVD doubleturned in a death defying program. The bodybreaking nature of that, coming on the heels of the years of collision matches, apparently broke something inside of Matt – who actually quit the company in the middle of Summer Slam a few years ago.

Then came Edge and Lita, and Matt’s return as a crazed Pillman type babyface – he inflicted permanent damage on Edge’s eye, he put Lita out of the business – he beat Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair at PPVs to begin a one year build to the Cell main event at 23 (even getting his own show, a 24/7 look at how he and Edge trained for Mania).
He won that main – got taken out by GDI – returned at XXIV and here we are.

Matt’s part in the program consists of getting revenge on the full GDI crew – Sydal, Kendrick, even Yang who is now in the Bradshaw stable (more on that later) and Noble (who has turned face – but Matt doesn’t care!). Finally he hits Colt, Punk’s best friend/bodyguard. Matt breaks Colt’s arm (Colt’s gonna wear a cast until he gets fired at the top of ’09).

That’s enough to swing Punk’s attention from Steamboat to focus directly on Matt.

D. The Punk/Matt/Jeff stuff.

-Down the stretch to Summer Slam – Matt’s storyline is simple – he needs to win the title. He lost a year of his life listening to Eric Bischoff. He lost a year of his life chasing after Edge. He lost a year of his life recuperating after WM23. The losing has ended. At SummerSlam, he wins. He wins the WWF Championship.

-Punk gets a little more psychological, the seeds for which have already been planted.

Punk, recall, feuded with Jeff at the end of ’07, going to a time limit draw at Survivor Series and beating him at Rumble ’08. Jeff isn’t Jeff anymore, he’s now the Blood Dragon Jeff Hardy – as sometimes he wears a Jushin Liger like full body suit and mask. Blood Dragon was a play on Ricky Steamboat (nickname+real last name) in an attempt to get Punk to believe he would get Steamboat in the ring. That program evolved into Punk’s cutting promos on Jeff that the reason he was subsuming his identity was he couldn’t handle being Matt Hardys less successful brother.

Punk returns to that theme as we drive to the finish line, Matt’s destroyed the fragile psyche of his brother – Matt’s just been worried about himself – about his own pain, about Lita, about Edge, about me – and his brother has spiraled away from him. Matt’s enormous ego has killed his own brother – Jeff might seem alive – but now he’s this costumed freak – maybe if Matt would stop talking about what he wants, what he needs – he’d notice that the Hardys Boys are dead – killed dead by Matt’s ego.

They’ve avoided physical confrontation since Mania – but Matt will have beaten, let’s say MVP, in a long non-title main event on RAW – and then Punk will come to the ring and he and Porter will stomp Matt out – with the babyface save by a returning Blood Dragon, gone since the Rumble.

That then will set up 2 additional matches – as the sell for Summer Slam now isn’t just Matt’s attempt to be WWF Champion – but the Hardys attempts to win their first singles belts ever – Matt v. Punk, Jeff v. Porter. And it sets up what has become our Summer Slam tradition, that the opening tag match is parejas increibles – this time it will be Punk/Matt v. MVP/Jeff.


A word about MVP – since he goes most of the summer without a program, the summer for him is about establishing the modern day athlete, the TO gimmick.

Porter appeared with Elijah Burke, his hometown friend, as protégées of Booker T two years ago – Porter’s backstory was his real life backstory, he spent the 90s in jail for piracy.

Not the kind of piracy that lets you watch PPVs for free, but actual piracy. Look it up.

Now, in the Counterfactual, his lifeline was Booker T, then with the NWA, who he wrote a letter to, as he loved him some Harlem Heat. Book sent wrestling tapes and told Porter to look him up when he got out. He did, and Porter and Burke (his not convict pal) moved to Houston and trained with Book – eventually they came to WWF, became Heat – Booker won the vacant WWF Title at WM 23 – then lost to Mysterio at last year’s Summer Slam. Porter, upset with Book’s babyface temperament, turned on both he and Burke. MVP then took the IC and TV Titles from Orton at Survivor Series ’07, lost the TV to Stevie Richards on GDI TV, beat Burke at the Rumble to end their feud – and reunited the belts (which like the World belts are once again all WWF based) at XXIV in the three way over Noble and Kendrick.

Over the summer – the TO element of his persona is played up. A spot I like is Porter going on Twitter during a match:

MVP Has Just Hit the Drive-By

You could see that getting over, right? We encourage WWF fans to sign up for Twitter, and during a match he hits them with a Tweet.

I’m just giving these ideas away, people. Someone call creative!

Porter does the things that made TO a heel – he holds out for more money the night of a RAW – doing push ups in his drive way as the camera cuts away during the show. He has walkaround guys, he holds press conferences, he demands his own recliner in the locker room. He spends the summer doing all the big, brash, modern day athlete stuff that fans call talk radio to scream about.

Jeff wears the Blood Dragon costume almost all the time – taking off the giant mask only occasionally.

Matt cuts promos that he doesn’t care about parejas increibles – he will not fight his brother in the opening match at Summer Slam – he will never fight his brother – Summer Slam is a Hardy coronation.

Jeff is silent about the tag match.


That’s 3 matches down.

Punk v. Matt for the strap.
Porter v. Jeff for the IC
And the opening tag match – Punk/Matt v. Porter and Jeff.

5 matches to go, plus all the other stuff that we have to talk about, as we travel together down the road to Summer Slam 2008!