By Greg Parks, PWTorch columnist

After not getting to sleep 'til after 4:00 a.m. last night following TNA's Basebrawl and our Gonzo and The Greg taping, then getting up this morning for Father's Day festivities and a 1:00 baseball game, it was time for Capitol Punishment at Buffalo Wild Wings to cap a non-stop weekend. Kurt and Gonzo tied for the prediction contest win here.

At the restaurant, folks were dressed in CM Punk, Randy Orton and John Cena gear. I think the Orton guy wears that same shirt to every PPV at Wild Wings. Gonzo loved the set, while Kurt thought it was a waste of money. Seeing Hugo Savinovich and Carlos Cabrera reminded me of how long they've been with the company, and how they're probably glad Vince doesn't speak Spanish.

(1) Dolph Ziggler vs. Kofi Kingston: All three of us talked about the two men's amateur credentials and how real they are. Kurt noticed "Perfection" on the back of Ziggler's trunks, while I replied that he's no "Perfect-Shawn." Dolph's sleeper late in the registered the first pop of the night in the eatery. **3/4

Between matches, Gonzo and I argued over the Florida Marlins' situation, as my favorite team has been on an epic nosedive for the past 3-4 weeks, and their manager just quit today.

(2) The Miz vs. Alex Riley: Gonzo and Kurt spent the early part of the match discussing possible R-Truth vignettes they could've done leading up to this PPV, dealing with his craziness and also the political theme. One particular example was Truth on the grassy knoll shooting at a picture of John Cena (playing the role of JFK) in a moving car (also fitting in with his conspiracy angle), then blaming it on the "Little Jimmy" in the book depository. Another idea was for him to think someone was going to steal the WWE Title and have secret service men surrounding him backstage and coming to the ring before his match with Cena. Oh yeah, Miz vs. Riley...I thought it was interesting they're still using Cole to get Riley over as a face. Gutsy call putting Riley over here; Kurt and I were not fans of his finisher, but Gonzo liked that Riley was put over Miz. **1/4

(3) Big Show vs. Alberto Del Rio: Mark Henry's recovery ability is apparently amazing. Kurt expected Big Show to pull out a can of spinach to give him the Popeye-effect to make it back into the ring to start the match. I thought they should've had Ricardo Rodriguez came back out dressed like Big Show and ADR, in action movie cliche 101, not being able to tell which was the REAL Big Show. Of course, it would be obvious which was the real one, but him not being able to tell would be funny. Gonzo went through a bunch of scenarios in which Show would win, right before he lost. "Way to waste your breath," I told him. "I do a lot of that," he replied. Couldn't agree more. *1/2

(4) Wade Barrett vs. Ezekiel Jackson: Good to see pre and post-match mic work by both men to make the match seem important, even if we couldn't really hear it. I'm sure it was fantastic, though. The match...not so much. *

(5) Rey Mysterio vs. CM Punk: After Punk's Earthquake-like butt splash, we tried to think if that move had a name when 'Quake did it, but I couldn't think of it. We talked about Punk's future during this match. Two PPV losses in a row now for Rey. His return to Raw has begun like his last one ended up. ***1/4

(6) Randy Orton vs. Christian: Crazy predictions (which, if come true, automatically win you the prediction contest) included: Gonzo guessing they'd mock the Anthony Weiner situation in a backstage segment involving Hornswoggle; Kurt predicting a Batista return; and me opining that the Barack Obama impersonator would cost Truth his match. No surprise they played up the concussion angle during this match. At one point, Kurt and I both gave a "twoooo" on a near-fall at the same time, after not having done it the entire night. Eerie. ***

(7) Jack Swagger vs. Evan Bourne: I liked Keith Stone's Rick Rude t-shirt. After Swagger's loss, I thought we'd see a replay of Bam Bam Bigelow vs. LT, where Stone would laugh at Swagger and Swagger would shove him. Okay, that'd be like 1/16th of that angle. *1/2

(8) John Cena vs. R-Truth: By the way, negative eight stars by Gonzo for the Obama segment that preceded this. I think they've underutilized the smoking aspect of Truth's character...that'd be some easy heel heat. Big pop from the Wild Wings crowd for the drink being thrown in Truth's face, and it made sense in the context of the storyline. **

Overall: Middle-of-the-road, with a few good matches to save this from being really poor (and the matches were kinda offset by the stupid Obama thing). Did we ever get a count on how many Washington luminaries attended the event, either?

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