Chris Jericho vs. CM Punk

[9.0] "Highly recommended. A street fight that flows perfectly and, at times, is reminiscent of the Y2J/HBK Unsanctioned Match. Punk always has the crowd on his side in Chicago, of course, but both competitors deliver a flawlessly choreographed performance here, without ever giving the impression that it would necessarily be better without the PG restrictions and with juice. Apart from a few minor imperfections, especially from Punk, which cost the match the top rating (Top Rope Springboard, Cross-Chops, Flying Elbow) the match is, for me, somehow still the MOTN."

"I'd grade this match just a C. Th match lacked in intensity and physicality to sell the story of the feud and live up to stipulation. Granted, PG era WWE handicaps a lot of this but I think if both guys had come in with a frenetic pace it would have elevated the match. Crowd felt awkwardly quiet considering Punk is the hometown hero and Jericho is a top guy as well. There were some good spots but I also think the psychology of the match in regards to the story never quite worked. The finish is good in a vacuum but doesn't fit the story or match. Should have finished with Jericho taunting Punk's family, the sister slapping Jericho before Jericho lunges at her only to fire Punk back up and an irate Punk murders Jericho definitively for the win. Throw in Punk hitting Jericho with whiskey bottle to tie things back to the build. Neither prolific storytelling or in ring action, just a match that is there and doesn't have much of a payoff all things considered."

[9.0] "A real masterclass of the 80s drag out brawl style brought to an (at the time) contemporary medium. I think post AEW, this match really loses some of its flair due to how easy it to overlook the innovation this match offered in having two guys that just hate each other blow off a feud with 20 minutes and only like 4 real spots in the match, while it feels like an emotional deathmatch. Less is more throughout this entire brawl, and it's absolutely lovely."

[8.0] "In my initial rating for this match, I gave this 9, which was too high after rewatching it. It's a good brawl that was a fitting end to this rivalry where Jericho put over Punk clean in back to back PPV matches. This was during Punk's memorable 434 day WWE Title reign. The table spot was a big deal. It was smart to do it towards the end of the match because that's when the crowd was their hottest. I think this feud did well to help Punk's title reign and his popularity. Three months later, Punk turned heel."

[7.0] "Somewhat entertaining match but doesnt really service the feud much. Thought the wrestlemania match at least hit on key aspects of the feud. This couldve been a great blowoff match but they never really got too violent, it was mostly just stuff like the fire extinguisher spot and the elbow through the announcers table"

[8.0] "Slow at times but overall a really fun match here to wrap up an underrated feud. The elbow through the table was dope. Jericho was great here."

[6.0] "Not as good as their Wrestlemania 28 match but still decent. Fire extinguisher, elbow on the table and codebreaker with a chair were the most memorable spots. Maybe it went on a bit too long and I didn't care about the family drama as I don't think it fits either of their characters."

[6.0] "While this is still a great match, it is a significant downgrade from their gem at Wrestlemania. They bring a lot of unique and interesting segments to the table that make it memorable, and I really appreciate some of the long-term planned spots. They set up a chair in the corner and remove the turnbuckle pad in another corner, and they let those simmer for a while before it comes into play. It is a match that rewards your attention to it. On the flip side, it's very sluggish and probably 5 minutes too long. A decent portion of it drags a lot. The spot where Jericho taunts Punk's family and pours alcohol on him are lame and leave you checking your watch. It's also just a little bit sloppy on top of it. Despite it being in front of Punk's home town crowd, it just doesn't feel like these two had the same determination and drive to steal the show on this night like they did at Wrestlemania. When all is said and done, there's plenty to enjoy about this match but neither of their best efforts."

[9.0] "There are 5-8 minutes in this that were unnecessarly slow, but outside those, everything was super enjoyable. Especially the last ten minutes, they were perfect in my opinion. Better than their WM match"

[7.0] "Cool match, but no much different from the "street fights" from this era. I think street fights shouldn't end with pinfalls, but with submissions or knockouts. I mean, Punk won by submission at WrestleMania, and then pinned Jericho in the "more extreme" type of match just weeks later."

[6.0] "These guys manage to keep things interesting for the most part, the beers was funny, as was the fire extinguisher, but the pace of this kind of match made things drag in several places. I don't think this match is deserving of the rating it's got on here, it's not as good as people are saying. The audience was behind it the whole way though, so what do i know."

[10.0] "This is an incredible street fight and a brilliant way to end the best feud in the babyface portion of CM Punk's 434 day reign as WWE World Champion."

[9.0] "Such a great match and it's a shame it was in the middle of the Super Cena era. This should have been the main event. Sure, Brock's return was huge and that's why it should be the co-main event. You're telling the audience that the world title isn't as important as this non-title match. If this were Wrestlemania, sure, but it's Backlash so there's no reason why the better story, better athletes, and world title to not go on last."

[9.0] "Big pop for the CM Punk home. Jericho is very entertaining in this match as he often is. The use of stipulation is very well used. Jericho attacking Punk's sister in the front row to piss the latter off is awesome. Finally, the two wrestlers are dressed in jeans with their ankle boots, which adds an old school or indy hardcore side. (4*1/2)"

[10.0] "Just a fantastic match, great story build up with Punk fighting what he is supposedly meant to be, great in ring action, just great all around. 10/10"

[10.0] "im not very good at doing reviews but hey i really like this web site and i want to give it a try. this is one of my favourite matches of all time the story is very good the build up is very good.this match is like an old attitude era match.These two have very good chemistry with each other and this match is definitely a Chicago street fight these two beat each other up so much and man every time cm punk is Chicago you know your going to get a hot crowd.if anyone reading this has not seen this match then go ahead i think you will have a goodtime"

[8.0] "I'm surprised this hasn't been reviewed as much. This is in my opinion better than their Wrestlemania match. Great way to end the feud in a very much storyline driven match."

[8.0] "I can understand why some people found this boring, and I do agree that it was overly long and needed some time trimmed off from the back half, but personally I enjoyed it. It was fairly simplistic and you won't find anything here that you haven't seen before, but I appreciated that it never became convoluted as is the case with many modern WWE Street Fights. There weren't any silly spots, and I didn't feel like they ever lost sight of the fact that this was supposed to be a grudge match. The Chicago crowd response probably helped to keep this feeling energetic even at most of the points where the pace began to slow. I do think this was hurt by being PG (it really could have used some blood to enhance the drama), but considering how lukewarm a lot of similar WWE hardcore matches are I felt like they did about as well as they could have here - it just needed to drop around 5 minutes as it did feel like they lost their way and ran out of things to do by the end. Slightly generous rating possibly just because of how much I hate the usual WWE hardcore tropes that often feel forced and phoney, and appreciated that this match did a better job of incorporating them than usual."

[9.0] "this match was great. the storyline was fantastic. the Chicago crowd definitely added a lot. a very fun hardcore match."

[9.0] "This match was great the story line was so good and the match was just as good this match would have been better if they were allowed to bleed but it was still a great match. ****1/2"

[5.0] "This started strong but ended up it actively boring me to the point that I would just wish it would end. The brawling is decent and Jericho is great at being a smarmy prick. On top of the usual kendo stick and chair shots that you can expect to find in any WWE street fight during the past decade or so, they also got creative by using the cover of the announce table as a weapon. Jericho getting smacked in the face by Punk's sister was a nice little pay-off to all the trash talk that Jericho had been speaking about Punk's family in the lead-up to this match. After Jericho drenches Punk with the beer, the match starts to lose me. The match slows to a snail's crawl and not even a surprise Codebreaker is enough to wake the crowd up. I was beyond bored by the time that Punk hits his big dive through the announce table. There's a reason all the best brawls throughout wrestling history rarely ever go past the twenty-minute mark. You just can't keep the heat building for that long and this match is a shining example of that."

[5.0] "this match to me started off fine but then when they start fighting on the outside it just feels slow and boring, it was like the match was dragging for ever. Felt like this should have been 8-10 minutes shorter **3/4"

[9.0] "It was really an excellent match. The fact that it's in Chicago plays a lot, because the spot of the fan slapping Jericho is even more meaningful. Awesome work by both men, CM Punk was really inventive, the spot of the Ellbow Drop through the announcer table from the post was fantastic. Jericho was very arrogant, he had an awesome heelwork in that match and the spot with the beer was excellent. Punk is a fantastic natural babyface, winning with the GTS just after Jericho tried to do it in front of Chicago's crowd was an excellent ending to an excellent Street Fight. ****1/2"

[7.0] "Slow and boring, there's good moments though so it's not that bad but still not what I remembered this to be."

[4.0] "This starts off hot, but much like at Mania, once Jericho properly takes over, things go dry. He was good at receiving the ass-kicking from Punk early on, but once he was working the heat, it just wasn't interesting at all. They really lost me at about the bit where Jericho starts pouring beer on Punk, and everything after that just drags badly. 25-minutes for a match like this was just completely unnecessary, and it truly felt like they didn't have enough material for that duration. They get me back for a second w/ that awesome Elbow Drop through the table, but everything after that is once again pretty damn uninteresting. I was ready to call this better than their disappointing Mania meeting during the first 10 minutes or so, but like I mentioned, things quickly got very dull & remained dull for a very long time."

[5.0] "This was a fine no DQ match but other than Punk going wild after Jericho goes for his sister, this didn't leave much impact. The weapon use was tame and without hatred. The bottle stuff was good but the rest was really lacking in quality. The crowd going nuts for Punk was something to see though. Its not that the match was bad, it just had nothing much to it. **1/2"

[4.0] "Like most of WWE's 'extreme' or 'hardcore' matches this was mostly just lots of slow unimaginative brawling and weapon shots, except this sadly went for 25 minutes. Things were awkward from the very start when Punk threw some extremely soft strikes and somehow beat Jericho down with them. The rest of the match was like this, and when they actually implemented wrestling moves they were usually pretty sloppy. Punk himself looked quite awkward at times, especially when on the top rope as he constantly lost his footing. They did a really awkward angle with Punk's family in the front row too, but the family could barely hold back their laughter as Jericho berated them, and they barely seemed to care as Jericho was kayfabe beating Punk down right in front of them. This really just brought attention to how phoney looking Jericho and Punk's fight was. Nothing too interesting happened all match long, just a lot of weapon usage, brawling, and sloppy wrestling. Definitely not my kind of match. **"

[7.0] "A good match but not quite as good as I remember, it gets really unfocused and meandering in the middle. Jericho taking time to pour beers on Punk is particularly annoying, how you gonna win a match by doing that Y2J? A lot of it holds up very well though, the brawling is intense especially when Jericho gets involved with Punk's sister at ringside, and stuff like Punk's elbow drop through the announce table looks great. A good match, not as good as their 'Mania match though."

[10.0] "This was a fight. Both these guys are amazing athletes and they proved it once again. Brilliant storyline kept everyone engaged. Crowd was nuts"

[6.0] "Not particularly good, I had problems with Jericho's work. Overshadowed by the two far greater matches on the card."

[8.0] "This one lived up the billing for once as this was just as brutal and red hot as some of the famous Chicago street fight's in years past. Just an absolutely brutal, red hot match with some creative and killer bumps spread through-out perfectly, this reminded me of some of the best Attitude Era brawls. ****"

[8.0] "The matches underperformed for me in this 2012 feud between these two very talented workers. This match was great though I will say, but could have been better. Lots of weapons used, good story telling but ridiculous ring gear LOL. ****"

[7.0] "Really fun match. At times the match felt a little bit disjointed. The crowd was very good and elevated this encounter to another level. In today's Wwe this is as good of a street fight as you gonna get."

[8.0] "Very fun hardcore match. It was pretty back and forth, there wasn't really much story in the match it was more of a fun spotfest. Most of the spots though went in favor of Punk than Jericho."

[8.0] "Agressive, red-hot match with some bumps that will be remembered. Great rhythm (especially when compared with the WM match). Only blemish in my opinion was the way in which Punk recovered, almost worthy of a Cena comeback. Still, a brilliant match."