A Counterfactual History - The 2000s, Part II

Part One is here.

72. Royal Rumble - 2005

-Remember when I was pushing Paul London?  He beat Mysterio here.  Christian beat Flair in what appeared to be Flair's last match.  Edge took the IC from Jericho; after which it was announced that Steamboat would be returning to become the new WWF general manager.  Benoit beat Michaels with the sharpshooter in the main event.

73. Wrestlemania XXI - 2005

-Mysterio worked twice, beating the Taker in the legends match and getting revenge on London.  The Michaels heel turn began in his program with Jericho.  The Clique had been feuding with Team Angle, Kurt beat Christian here.  Edge kept the IC over Regal; Eddy took the title in a 60 Minute Iron Man Match with an overtime against Benoit, the best match of this half of the decade.

74. Summer Slam - 2005

-Hunter announces his name change.  The Summer Slam tradition, kinda/sorta, parejas increibles begins, so the show opens with a Angle/Michaels v. Benoit/Jericho tag.  The IC is vacant, Edge gave it up in the "You screwed Matt" angle which was underway - Angle beat Michaels and Benoit beat Jericho to determine a title matchup.  Rey takes Eddys title in a 2 of 3 falls match.  The main is an unsanctioned fight between Edge and Matt, Edge goes over when Lita shows up and chooses him.  

75. Survivor Series - 2005

-The 75th PPV in WWF history ended 2005.  Flair and Arn turned heel on Leviathan; Hunter beat Shawn with Edge interference in a match that saw Kendrick return and turn on London, Arn and Flair beat up Steamboat, and Matt Hardy lay everyone out with twists of fate, as his monster face push was on.  Benoit won the IC and the Triple Crown, beating Angle for the vacant belt, and Rey kept the title over Juvie, the final two matches done in tribute to Eddy.

76. Royal Rumble - 2006

-Matt beats Edge in an empty arena match after jabbing him in the eye with a fork.  The 51% Solution is now in control of the WWF; Hunter beats Benjamin.  There was an ECW angle, RVD as a babyface up against the ECW heel contingent beat Kid Kash, but was then turned on by Cactus Jack.  CM Punk debuted in the crowd to watch a Kendrick/Noble/London 3 way, with the program being that he had manipulated each to turn on the others.  Michaels went over Angle in the blowoff to the Clique/Team Angle program; Fit Finlay, managed by Dean Malenko, took Benoit's IC.  Rey went over Super Crazy and Psychosis in the main - and the 51% Solution cleaned house in the postmatch, joined by their enforcer, the newcomer Lashley.  

77. Wrestlemania 22 - 2006

-Cactus beats Van Dam in the legends match, but a debuting Sabu helps the babyfaces postmatch.  Benjamin sends Kurt out of the WWF; Edge beats Shawn; Matt beats Flair - and Steamboat announces the main for WM23 will be Matt and Edge Hell in a Cell.  Fit kept the IC over Regal but then dropped to Hunter.  Rey kept the title over Benoit, who Lashley destroyed postmatch.  

78. Summer Slam - 2006

-GDI was underway as a shadow promotion led by Punk that represented indie wrestling in general and ROH in particular.  Sabu/Cactus beat Edge/HBK in the incredible partner match.  Sabu then beat Cactus in a glass light tube match; Shawn beat Edge in a ladder match when Jeff Hardy returned.  MVP debuted as a protegee of Booker - Flair took Rey's WWF Title belt to give the Solution both singles titles.  

79. Survivor Series - 2006

-CM Punk's the pivotal figure of the back five years of the first decade of the millennium, and that's because of Survivor Series 2006.  Edge beat Jeff Hardy; Matt beat HBK; RVD/Sabu took the tag straps; Shane Helms took the IC from Hunter as the Solution fell apart - and then CM Punk (who had won the number one contender's battle royal and emerged as a babyface) beat Flair to smash the Solution's grip on control of the company -- but Punk went into business for himself, throwing down both the NWA and WWF belts and proclaiming himself the GDI World Heavyweight Champion.  Chaos ensued.  

80. Royal Rumble - 2007

-Michaels and Jeff had a time limit draw; the NWA was relaunched and given the Friday Night TV spot; Fit and Flair won the semifinal matches to crown a champion; the WWF belt was vacated - Booker and Lashley winning the semifinal matches for the vacant belt.  Sandman and Dreamer took the tag titles; Punk kept the GDI Title by beating Matt when Edge interfered.  

81. Wrestlemania 23 - 2007 

-Undertaker won his 6th legends match, beating the heel turning Michaels.  Finlay ended Flair's career and became the NWA Champion.  Punk kept the ECW/GDI Title by beating both Van Dam and Sabu; Booker became the first ever African-American WWF Champion; Matt won the Hell in a Cell over Edge, after which Punk and the GDI crew beat the hell out of both of them and Jeff Hardy.  

82. Summer Slam - 2007

-Orton beat Kendrick to keep the IC; Fit kept the NWA over Nitro who walked out of the match; Rey regained the WWF Title and MVP turned on Booker postmatch.  Punk kept the ECW/GDI title over London.

83. Survivor Series - 2007

-MVP took the IC from Orton; Michaels and Hunter were on a heel jihad against the young Harts, they won the tag titles here and were then attacked by a returning Edge.  Rey went over the Undertaker to keep his belt; Punk kept his belt after a time limit draw with The Blood Dragon Jeff Hardy; and Johnny Nitro won the main event, taking the NWA belt from Fit.

84. Royal Rumble 2008

-An ECW angle popped up that involved announcers brawling; the secondary titles split to match the heavyweight titles; Nitro kept the NWA belt; Punk kept the ECW/GDI belt; Edge swerved Jericho out of the Hart Foundation hockey jersey and renewed his allegiance to the Clique; and Shelton Benjamin became WWF Champion

85. Wrestlemania XXIV

-The ECW matches were underneath; note developmental had begun, Taz was head trainer Underground; Defiance got put together here - with Dean swerving Fit to join Orton and the Juggernaut.  Edge beat Jericho; and the belts all got unified and then once again the company, under the leadership of Steamboat, was whole -  MVP the IC Champ and Punk the WWF Champ.  

86. Summer Slam 2008

-The Hardys both lost singles title matches; Jeff, who seemed increasingly fragile in the Blood Dragon gimmick, lost to Porter and Matt couldn't get by Punk.  

87. Survivor Series - 2008

-Nitro and Benjamin were in the middle of the best of 7 series; Kendrick beat Matt; Orton beat Regal in a parking lot brawl; Edge and the Blood Dragon became tag champs - we all (including Matt) thought it was Jeff under the mask (it wasn't).  MVP was in a program against Rey, and he kept the IC here.  And Jericho took the WWF title from Punk.

88. Royal Rumble 2009

-Underground made its way to PPV; Swagger beating DiBiase.  Matt beat Kendrick in a cage.  The Best of 7 continued.  Orton beat Van Dam and DiBiase joined Defiance.  MVP beat Rey again; Christian revealed himself to be the Blood Dragon; Jericho kept the belt over Hunter as Shawn returned in the Messiah gimmick.

89. Wrestlemania Silver 2009

-Orton beat Finlay in a match where Swagger got the housecleaning babyface spot.  Nitro won the blowoff against Benjamin and then stomped out Ric Flair; Punk and Steamboat had been in a feud spanning 3 separate promotions and half a dozen years and they actually wrestled here.  Rey kept his mask and took MVPs IC belt. Matt won the Montreal Match and sent his brother out of the company with a heel turn.  And Jericho kept his title over Shawn in the main event.  

90. Summer Slam - 2009

-Division One beat Defiance in the opener to get a title shot and won the straps at night's end, Regal beat Orton - Christian inadvertently punched Maria when Punk pulled her in front of him; Shawn took Rey's IC; Jericho kept the big belt over Porter.  

91. Survivor Series - 2009

The decade ended here; Steamboat returned as the new owner of GDI with Danielson and Low Ki as his aces; MVP beat Nitro; Rey beat Sydal; Punk and Christian were both knocked out by Matt Hardy; D1 kept their belts over Finlay and Regal; Michaels, with his Flock - Nitro/Tyson/Harry/Natty, beat Shelton Benjamin.  and Jericho kept his belt over Chavo.  

Summer Slam 2011

The build is here.

Summer Slam 2011 –Los Angeles

Joey/JR is your announce team.  Josh does interviews. 

Dark: Ambrose d. Black

DiBiase/McIntyre d. Tatsu/Sydal

Both dark matches further storylines; Black, you may recall, finished second to Ambrose on WWF Underground; he then moved to training in developmental, and has been having his will bent to Regal’s.  So postmatch, Ambrose extends his hand – and Black takes it.  That’s a spot they’ve been doing for a few weeks by this point.

The show opens with the results of the end of the second match, a postmatch beatdown of the two GDI members by Underground – Sydal and Tatsu are helped from the ring on the first shot of the live telecast.

They’re immediately replaced in the ring by WWF Commissioner Bret Hart – Bret welcomes us to the 98^th WWF PPV and reminds us that his contract was originally set to expire at WM 27.  But with all of the planning for WWF100, the biggest WWF show of all time, Bret agreed to stay on until Survivor Series.

But at Survivor Series – in the WWF’s historic home – MSG – Bret will give up control to the new Commissioner of the WWF – a man who always puts the best interest of the WWF first – the Head Trainer of WWFU – Steve Regal.

Regal enters, he and Bret raise their arms above their heads and wave at each side of the crowd as if they were running for office, and they’re encountered by CM Punk – as its match time.

1

.       CM Punk d. Wade Barrett (DQ)

Barrett is positioned in this inner circle in Underground with Nemeth/Sheamus; the story of this match is how he hangs with the 3 time WWF Champion Punk – until he doesn’t, Punk gets control, has him ready for the GTS, and then he’s attacked by Underground (not the beltholders), they have a quick beatdown, enough that Punk is laying as Bret has Howard Finkel announce the next match.

2.       CM Punk d. Alex Riley

With Punk laid out, this looks like any easy, cheap win for Riley, but in a matter of seconds, Punk rolls him up, gets the fall, rolls out of the ring and escapes through the crowd.  Underground fumes in that way you’d expect.  Following the next match there’s a shot on the video wall of Punk, shielded from security by a wall of fans, escaping the arena, getting into a car and driving away.  As Bret watches that – we see that he turns to Regal and says “lock the gates.”

3.       Dos Caras, Jr. (w/Ricardo/Vicki/Atlas) d. Randy Orton

Dos Caras promised a surprise for the Rock when he came to his “hometown” of Los Angeles, that surprise is a new limo driver – Tony Atlas.  The story here is that Atlas, as Rock’s dad’s longtime tag partner, is Rock’s godfather – but, he’s down on his luck enough, apparently, that he’s now under Caras’s employ.  Atlas does the typical reasonably degrading stuff to serve Caras; Orton remains as listless as he’s been all summer and submits. 

4.       Ka$h Kingston d. @TruthKills (countout)

Killings plays the crazy man, leading to him walking out of the match – not because it seems like he is losing, to the contrary – he just hits a highspot – but because he is late for his part time job at Ikea.  He puts on his vest, apologizes to Kingston, and makes his way up the ramp.

5.       No DQ: Bryan Danielson d. John Cena

Cena’s got a receipt coming; ideally this is a fairly intense brawl, much of it taking place outside the ring, the type of things you’d expect to see used get used, Danielson goes over strong and then is absolutely mauled by Underground; everyone but the beltholders.  There are no GDI members left – Punk roars back to the building but is blockaded by security from re-entering the arena – Tyler Black stands in the ring with Underground – and eventually lays in some shots to the defenseless Dragon himself.  Danielson’s spent the summer looking to get over as the best wrestler in the world from the outside of the company – and that ends here. 

6.       Tags: Empire (Barrett/Riley) d. Clique (Nitro/Miz with Natty)

With Empire having wrestled earlier tonight and now facing the Clique, they could be expected to go in as underdogs; the finish comes when Riley pulls a mask out of his trunks, puts it on, and falls to the outside, rolling under the ring, when he emerges, still with the mask, it’s to quicky tag in as he’s going to the top rope to hit Gabriel’s signature highspot and get the fall on Nitro.  He immediately disappears back under the ring – and emerges quickly again, Riley removing his mask to the confusion of the officials, protests from the Clique – but still holding the belts. 

7.       IC: Sheamus d. Christian

Christian’s unable to win his first singles belt in WWF as Underground’s big night continues; Sheamus goes over clean in the best match they can have and ends it the way he ended Edge’s career, by tossing him shoulder first into the ringpost.

8.       WWF Championship: Nick Nemeth (w/Kelly) d. Rey Mysterio

So, this is designed to give Nemeth credibility; Rey’s been talked about in reverential terms for the past year; he really moved to transcendent status; partially because of the failures of young wrestlers like Nemeth to beat him, Rey not losing all year until his career unbeaten streak at Mania fell to Danielson.

He loses clean here, it’s an enormous win for Nemeth – his immediate response is to scream up at the skybox where Mistico and his crew have been all night – for weeks, the potential of a Mysterio/Mistico title match at MSG had been almost impossible not to foresee – Nemeth, constantly feeling slighted, really came into this match with a chip on his shoulder and he taunts the Mistico box postmatch – grabbing at his genitals and pointing at Mistico – and then, with the full adrenaline of the moment raging, he begins to stomp out the defeated Mysterio.

It takes the rest of the Underground crew, all of them who emerged to celebrate postmatch, a beat to go along “really, this is okay, to stomp out Rey Mysterio” – but then they do.

Everyone here has to go bananas – the announcers – ideally the Latino fans, Bret Hart – who begins yelling at Regal in the front row – and then the WWF locker room (guys who weren’t on the card) runs in, some faces, some heels.

Colons.

DMW.

Mark Henry

Santino – there’s a spot where Henry and Santino work together briefly

Lawler - the color announce on Fight Night

Booker - last seen as one of the trainers on WWE Underground, beaten up by the Underground vets

The Undertaker

HHH-M

And that makes it a good brawl – but Underground still has the numbers:

Nemeth

Sheamus

Barrett

Gabriel/Riley

McIntyre/Ted

Tyson Kidd

Black/Ambrose

Douchebags: Ryder/Slater/Hawkins/Reks/Barretta…

…and they leave the WWF locker room laid out. 

They do the Whose House….Our House call and response chant….and the show ends.  Underground controls the World Wrestling Federation.

I’ve got two more entries in my series of recaps of every WWF PPV; there will be another TNA show when real world Bound for Glory occurs; October, I’d guess, we’ll see the build to Survivor Series – and then November will the the 99^th WWF PPV, Survivor Series from MSG, where Nick Nemeth will defend the WWF Championship against Mistico.  It’s going to be a happening. 

Build.