Smackdown 25/04/08 CM Punk vs Edge
Uploaded by Theragman72. – More professional, college and classic sports videos.After wrestling three men in over 30 minutes in Raw’s King of the Ring tournament, CM Punk challenged Edge, the #1 Contender to the World Heavyweight Championship, to a match on SmackDown! There was no real rhyme or reason to the actual match, but this is the continuation of CM Punk’s coming out party, and probably his first real main event-level WWE match. It’s a damn good one, too. Edge does everything in his power to put Punk away, pulling out ten years worth of abandoned finishers, but nothing puts the guy down. The lack of Vickie Guerrero and Edge’s group of lackeys helps the match immensely, as all that matters is Punk and his quest for recognition.

After three and a half “seasons” of NXT, I think it’s time to realize that ECW was probably the better star-building platform. NXT has given us Wade Barrett and Daniel Bryan, a bunch of flunkies, a released Kaval, and a disappeared Season 3 winner. Big whoop. ECW? Sheamus, CM Punk, Jack Swagger and The Miz have gone on from ECW to win either the WWE or World Heavyweight titles, and the show gave new life to guys like Goldust, Chavo Guerrero, Christian, Matt Hardy, Tommy Dreamer, Stevie Richards and William Regal. John Morrison, Evan Bourne, Kofi Kingston, Tyson Kidd and Ezekiel Jackson also got their start on the show, giving Raw and SmackDown! a backbone that NXT (and likely the new Tough Enough) hasn’t been able to match. While the show had its share of facepalm moments, the positives of ECW far outweighed the negatives, even if one of those negatives was screwing with the legacy of the original ECW. This match is proof-positive. By the time Punk graduated from ECW, he was ready for Raw and SmackDown!, knew how to intelligently work a WWE match, and had fans clamoring for his debut. I’d take that over a buffet of awkward promos and horrible skits, any day of the week.