In June 2010, the WWE’s pay-per-view show was Fatal Four-Way.  That show was part of the WWE’s short-lived obsession with giving every pay-per-view its own gimmick.  The theory was that filling a card with four-way matches would in some way be of interest to somebody.  It wasn’t, really.

Fortunately, the company seems to have figured out that not everything needs to be a gimmick show.  So this year the June show has been retitled Capitol Punishment, for no particular reason other than that it’s coming from Washington.  This is a low priority show.  July gets Money in the Bank, which is used to mark out future headliners; August is Summerslam, traditionally treated as a major part of the calendar.  Capitol Punishment… is filling a slot in the diary.  In a couple of matches, the WWE is taking the opportunity to experiment with new pairings – but basically, nobody’s really pretending that this is anything other than a show for the hardcore.

It may also be one for the purists.  Unusually, there are no gimmick matches on this show at all.  Not even a tag match.  It’s seven regular singles matches, and I can’t remember the last time that happened.

1.  WWE Title: John Cena v R-Truth. Now this is a fresh pairing, and an important match for R-Truth, who has suddenly been catapulted into the main event after years treading water in the midcard.

R-Truth used to be a dancing rapper, which is about as midcard a gimmick as you can get.  In keeping with wrestling tradition, he has freshened up his act by turning heel and rejecting the fans and his former showmanship – to the point where even his entrance music has been removed.  Messing about with the conventions of ring entrances is a good way of making someone stand out, and in the short term at least, this is working for him.

The trouble is that the WWE is always reluctant to really get behind new headliners, and R-Truth looks to be the latest in a line of wrestlers who aren’t being presented as a serious threat to the established stars.  Yes, he technically has two wins over the champion, but both are on technicalities (and not even technicalities which could have won him the title, since it doesn’t change hands on a count-out or a disqualification).  The risk here is that in their attempt to reposition him as a paranoid maniac, the company goes too heavy on the craziness, not enough on the credibility, and ends up just turning him into a different sort of midcarder.

All that being said, R-Truth has been excellent in the role, and he’s a good wrestler who was criminally underused as a dancing babyface.  He’s not winning this match in a million years – nor should he, since his whole act right now is based on his conviction that the powers that be are conspiring against him, and it would be way too early to cut to him “proving them on”, even if that was in the long term plans.  But he does need to put on a good show here and convince the company that he deserves to stay in the main event mix.  Hopefully he’ll get that opportunity.

Cena’s winning, but the match could be both good and interesting.

2.  World Heavyweight Title: Randy Orton v Christian. Over on Smackdown, the main storyline sees Orton and Christian continuing to feud over their version of the title.  The general idea is that, having finally won the title after years of trying, only to lose it to Orton days later, Christian has flipped out, turned heel, rejected the fans, and embarked on a crusade to win it back.  This is kind of sort of working, but suffers from the problem that the audience really rather likes Christian, and agrees with him that it was a terrible shame that he didn’t keep the title for longer.  So the heel turn isn’t really taking.

Fortunately, it doesn’t necessarily have to; this can work as a face/face feud, and they’ve had good matches so far.  Orton successfully retained the title on the last show, so it’s curious that we’re getting the match again, unless they simply don’t have any other challengers lined up.  (And the roster depth on Smackdown is less than spectacular, it has to be said.)  I would not rule out the possibility of Christian getting the title back on some sort of screwjob finish in order to allow the feud to be extended over the next couple of shows.  Knowing the WWE, though, Orton’s probably just going to beat him again.

For all the storyline issues, the actual matches have been strong, so this should be a good one.  Incidentally, Orton has apparently been cleared to wrestle notwithstanding the (genuine) concussion which was mentioned on TV this week; seems a questionable call, but the company has generally been more sensible about these issues lately, so presumably there’s a basis for it.

3.  Intercontinental Title: Wade Barrett v. Ezekiel Jackson. Another rematch from the last show.  The IC title is the secondary belt on Smackdown.  Barrett, the defending champion, was the de facto leader of a not-very-successful heel faction called the Corre.  Jackson was the first member to break from the group and turn babyface.  They’ve been feuding over the IC belt since then.  Until now, Barrett has held onto the title with the help of the rest of the Corre.  But now the group has disintegrated entirely, so common sense says this is the point where Jackson completes his chase and wins the belt.

Jackson is, shall we say, a wrestler of limited range, and he was probably better cast as the big guy in a group.  Still, the match last month was competent enough, and if they keep this to a sensible length, they’ll be fine.

4.  US Title: Kofi Kingston v. Dolph Ziggler. Did you enjoy last summer’s feud between these two over the IC Title?  Well, now they’re both on the Raw roster, so apparently we’re going to do it again.  There’s not much story to this; it’s just a match for Kingston’s title.  On the basis that there’s no story to this, and Kingston probably needs the belt to preserve what momentum he has, I’d expect him to retain.  I really hope this is a stopgap before both guys move on to fresh opponents, but to be fair, they’ve apparently been having good matches at the house shows, and god knows they’ve wrestled each other often enough that they should have the act sorted by now.

5.  The Miz v. Alex Riley. A very big match for Alex Riley, who was introduced as Miz’s student on the second season of NXT, and then (after failing to win the show) joined the Raw roster as Miz’s sidekick.  He spent literally months as Miz’s dogbody, but now they’re doing the break-up angle, Riley has turned babyface, and the crowd has got behind him to a surprising degree.

You can see why the company likes Riley.  He looks the part and he can talk.  And from what little we’ve seen of him in actual matches, he’s okay considering his level of experience.  Nonetheless, he is inexperienced and he’s now being shoved in there against wrestlers far higher up the card.  There’s also a question about whether the fans will still care about him when he moves on to feud with someone else – is he getting cheered because of Miz’s heat?

This is a tricky match to predict, both because the quality is hard to judge, and because both guys really need the win.  Miz’s main event aura would take a real knock from losing to Riley, who until a few weeks ago was just a sidekick and barely presented as a threat even to opening match wrestlers.  But on the other hand, the audience is just getting behind Riley – it’s the wrong time to beat him in a high-profile match.  Any clean finish will be interesting.  I suspect we’ll get some screwjob designed to protect both guys.  (They’ve been doing this match on house shows, and in that version it apparently ends in a double count-out, but it doesn’t mean they won’t have a proper finish on pay-per-view.)

It may not be good, but it could be very interesting.  And who knows, Riley may surprise us – he’s held his own so far as a babyface in tag matches.

6.  The Big Show v. Alberto Del Rio. Well, Raw has these two guys and they’re not doing anything, so…  Del Rio is still supposed to be in line for a future title feud with Cena, which makes sense.  Miz has been done to death, and R-Truth isn’t going to be in that role for the long run.  Big Show, on the other hand, is more a feature of the landscape at this point.  So Del Rio should win, though it’s fine if he cheats to do so.  (The return of his supposedly-injured sidekick Ricardo Rodriguez would seem a good option.)

This doesn’t exactly sound like a technical mat-wrestling classic, but I’m sure they can have a decent story-driven match.

7.  CM Punk v. Rey Mysterio. And another pairing of supernumerary Raw wrestlers.  Punk and Mysterio were feuding only a few months ago in the lead-in to Wrestlemania, and I question the decision to go back to it this soon.  But they did have decent matches, and to be fair, I’d rather see this combination than Punk/Big Show and Mysterio/Del Rio (which has also been ridden into the ground).  This will probably be good; if it serves any storyline function, it should be to build up Punk’s Nexus faction and use them to give him a win.

Worth buying? Well, it’s got major matches in the career of R-Truth and Alex Riley, and it is an entire show of straight wrestling matches, which is something of a rarity these days.  It’s one for the completists, but at least that’s the audience who would probably be most receptive to a straight wrestling show with some rematches of good feuds.