William Regal (c) vs CM Punk
No Disqualification Match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship
01/19/2009
Allstate Arena, Rosemont, Illinois, United States
(reviewed 05/28/2019) Unsurprisingly this is pretty good. Punk was already insanely over by this time so a Rosemont crowd hoping to see their local boy win a title is even hotter than usual. Not sure why this was announced as no DQ because they don’t do a whole lot with that stipulation, other than Punk refusing to let go off holds in the ropes. This naturally infuriates Regal and both guys take all sorts of petty shots at each other. Regal’s awesome at selling the physicality of a match but I love the way that Punk’s intensity (and his popularity) elevates this to something a little bigger than an IC title match on RAW in 2009. The champ drops the challenger on his head with a gruesome dragon suplex but Punk avoids the knee trembler, hoists his man up, and powers through Regal’s elbows to connect with the GTS and win the Intercontinental title.
