[2004-10-23-IWA-MS-8th Anniversary Show] AJ Styles vs CM Punk

[bradhindsight]

For the IWA World Title; crowd (ok one guy who is really loud) chants NEW CHAMP, which sounds a lot like NEW JACK, which was confounding at first. This contest is paced really well, escalating as it goes along with everything for the most part meaning something. Early headlock and arm work segues into Punk countering AJ trying to roll out of the armbar by rolling along with him in a neat spot. We get a "55 minutes remaining" to tease a draw, which elicits a semi-groan from the crowd. Both guys miss on their dives to the outside, splashing the plastic seats and spilling across the gym floor. The outside stuff works into the main story as AJ goes to suplex Punk onto another section of chairs but after being rebuffed goes for a big discus clothesline which he lands full-on into the steel of the turnbuckle. Punk will come back to this damaged limb in most of his transitions for the rest of the match and AJ, for the most part, sells the restrictions. AJ goes for his own submission with working Punk's neck. Big brainbuster gets 1. Good back and forth, where there isn't really a long control segment, but the action is intense (including a pretty stiff short DDT) between submission holds (which includes the Vice, which AJ knees out of and plays into the finish). AJ goes to powerbomb Punk to the outside but its reversed into a rana and both are out. We don't get a Pepsi Plunge and Punk is thrown off trying to DDT AJ out of the corner. AJ explodes out of the corner with a discus clothesline with the bad arm, which Punk blocks and AJ sells, before spinning around and laying him out with the good arm, which gets a good two count. This match benefits from not being nearfall heavy at all. The covers they do go for make sense, even if the crowd is pretty non-plussed. Could be because they expected this to go a lot longer than the 23 minutes it did. Punk rolls out of the way of AJ's somersault splash off the ropes and hits his shining wizard before locking on the Vice. AJ knees him again but Punk rolls him over with the hold locked in and bridges up to really crank on the pressure. Styles taps and Punk is your new IWA World Champ. Great match.

[JKWebb]

I thought Punk was great on offense in this match. Once he established going after the left arm, he found creative waves to ground and pound on it. AJ stuck with selling it well through the majority of the match. There were a few times I thought he could have gone back to it to add some drama to his own explosive offense (Particularly the moonsault into the reverse DDT to the outside he did with his left arm). But, that is being really picky. Punk sold his neck very well after the dive to the floor, I really felt as though he was the backbone of this match. Since it felt like you connected to him more throughout the match, I thought Punk's win was beneficial to the story they told. I thought this was a really good match, but didn't feel that it really kicked up into that extra gear.

***3/4

[Tim Evans]

This was my pick by Soup23 for the Secret Santo project.I feel like I've seen this before but don't remember it. I liked the start of it with AJ's arm getting screwed up. Aj makes a come back with that Moonsault DDT thing. I think it was Xavier Woods that said AJ could never hit that quite right until he hit it on Woods. The one to the outside was the one that looked the most clean. Both guys miss dives to the outside and the Crowd doesn't seem to care for the most part. I liked the finishing run from AJ attempting to hit the styles clash and Punk being innovated enough to use the ropes to stop it to the way Punk hooked on the Vice. Good title match overall that told to a good story and while it was long, it didn't feel long like a lot of IWA MS matches do to me.

[ohtani's jacket]

I've gotta give Punk his due here. This was an excellent performance. It may be the Punk performance to date, at least in the matches I've seen. What impressed me most was that it was a great wrestling performance. Punk sometimes gets knocked for his technical ability, but he was excellent here. AJ is happy to follow Punk's lead, and the end result is one of the better indy matches in a while.