Pro Wrestling Chronicle

Oct 2004 CM Punk vs Brian Danielson (IWA-MS)

Punk is actually the World Heavyweight Champion as of this writing in the WWE. Wow! Danielson is rumored to be going to the WWE. Both have been two of my all-time favorites from this decade’s crop of indy talent. I felt it was time to take a look at Punk back in the day when I still got enthusiastic about his character development.

The match is in front of maybe 50 people. The guys still have fun in IWA-Mid South, which I love to see. Everyone should have to go through this promotion to make it. It’s an important learning tool and networking advantage. Or it was. Not sure anymore.

Both men work on the other man’s neck. It starts out well enough with good trading of holds and strikes. Not a completely clean match, but that’s not what I need from all my matches as a fan. What gets me is when Punk uses a killer piledriver on the neck of Danielson as a transitional move. What!? Well, you take the good learning experiences with the bad. He doesn’t do that anymore. Sadly, he shows little of the creativity and eager/aggressive movement he projects here any longer.

All the greatness: The Danielson airplane spin on the floor leads to both of them stumbling and dizzy. They struggle to beat the 20 count to get in the ring, and then battle a NEW ten count to prevent a double KO finish. Very fun and creative.

Match made sense for the most part, and while it wasn’t given time to be epic, it had a flow and captured the crowd for the finish. I’ll save who wins but it is not a refined match. It’s a match for those who want to see the development of two talents still testing out their presence, moves, and psychology. It’s also a recommendation to watch rather than the 10.04 Alex Shelly vs CM Punk match I also watched. While the charisma and fun oozed from the ring on that one, the match itself was fraught with mistakes and confusion. It falls off a cliff halfway through, than finds the audience too late as the ending comes out of nowhere. Punk was a typical indy big move guy at times, which was frustrating here and there, but I do miss the Pepsi Plunge.

I recommend the Danielson match. Danielson was there as a performer. Forget the Shelly match. Shelly wasn’t ready, and Punk only wrestled to the ability of the opponent. In all this madness Punk would wrestle one of the greatest matches of his life. You may have heard of it. It’s Joe-Punk 2. Neither of these gives a clue to the wrestling IQ he’d show in that match though.