{"id":61490,"date":"2018-06-16T00:55:15","date_gmt":"2018-06-16T05:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=61490"},"modified":"2018-06-16T00:55:15","modified_gmt":"2018-06-16T05:55:15","slug":"10-yrs-ago-wwe-in-new-castle-australia-6-16-08-punk-miz-morrison-kozlov-khali-mccool-undertaker-matt-hardy-batista-vs-edge-mvp-mark-henry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2018\/06\/16\/10-yrs-ago-wwe-in-new-castle-australia-6-16-08-punk-miz-morrison-kozlov-khali-mccool-undertaker-matt-hardy-batista-vs-edge-mvp-mark-henry\/","title":{"rendered":"10 YRS AGO &#8211; WWE in New Castle, Australia (6-16-08): Punk, Miz &#038; Morrison, Kozlov, Khali, McCool, Undertaker &#038; Matt Hardy &#038; Batista vs. Edge &#038; MVP &#038; Mark Henry"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-3345956598\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>The following report was originally published on PWTorch.com ten years this weekend&#8230;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><b>WWE Smackdown\/ECW house show<br \/>\nJune 16, 2008<br \/>\nNew Castle, Australia at the New Castle Entertainment Centre<br \/>\nReport by Adam Berry, PWTorch.com reader<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>As per previous shows on the Australian tour, the event starts with an awkwardly phrased, yet undeniably popular, announcement that facilitates Undertaker&#8217;s participation in the main event despite his gimmicked retirement loss to Edge at One Night Stand. That WWE would burn the good-will generated with the legitimate retirement match at WrestleMania with a transparently false retirement match only a few months later still astounds me.<\/p>\n<p>(1) Kane defeated Shelton Benjamin with a chokeslam counter to the Stinger splash to retain the ECW Title. Barely more than a squash match. Benjamin deserves more and it is this type of booking that is tarnishing his potentially valuable gimmick and shot at upper-mid-card success. They need to feed this man some wins and quickly.<\/p>\n<p>(2) C.M. Punk defeated Chuck Palumbo with the GTS. CM Punk remains over, despite being booked as an also-ran since winning Money in the Bank, and Palumbo generated more heat than expected (in addition to a humorous \u201cput your hat back on\u201d chant). A solid encounter made better by an enthusiastic crowd.<\/p>\n<p>(3) The Miz &amp; John Morrison defeated Funaki &amp; Jamie Noble with Morrison\u2019s Moonlight Drive to retain the Smackdow Tag Titles. Despite the predictability of the result, the teams put on an entertaining and well received match that delivered equal parts comedy and action. The Miz and Morrison strip-show drew chants of \u201cyou are wankers\u201d from the crowd, which they answered with a beautifully executed slingshot back-breaker into a leg-drop tandem manoeuvrer. The finish came when Noble\u2019s double-knee gut-buster was nullified by a distracted referee, allowing Morrison time to hit his sharp rolling neck-breaker for the win.<\/p>\n<p>(4) Michelle McCool defeated Natalya (w\/Victoria) via submission to rolling leg lock. The crowd was practically non-existent for the first five minutes of the match, but the women grafted hard and the audience rewarded the effort. Both Natalya and McCool looked impressive throughout the match, with a nice surfboard executed by Natalya and a novel flipping neck-breaker from McCool (who has improved no-end in the last year). A single women\u2019s division across both brands could put on matches of similarly high calibre on a consistent basis, but the talent will surely be stretched too thin in the current configuration.<\/p>\n<p>(5) Finlay (w\/Hornswoggle) defeated The Great Khali via a shillelagh to the head. Hornswoggle remains super-over and his relationship with Finlay remains oddly endearing. Though the chants of \u201cyou can\u2019t wrestle\u201d directed at Khali are perhaps not misdirected, they are certainly less valid than they were a year ago \u2013 he has evolved into a tolerable presence. The match saw water pistols, juggling, a low-blow from Hornswoggle and a shillelagh shot, yet still managed to entertain the crowd.<\/p>\n<p>(6) Kofi Kingston defeated Chavo Guerrero (w\/Bam Neely) via Trouble in Paradise. Surely a minor upset here, but Kingston\u2019s momentum is increasing and the crowd seems consistently behind him (could it be because he feels fresh? Perhaps there is something in that, WWE). An entertaining match, that saw Chavo regain his heat via a post-match beat-down with Bam. The rousing response to Kingston\u2019s recovery again signals big things for the young Jamaican.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-3177304612\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>(7) Vladimir Kozlov defeated Shannon Moore in a squash. The packaging of Kozlov is perfect and shows how well WWE can promote someone when there is a singular vision for the performer. The spotlight, lack of entrance music, short and methodical matches and Kozlov\u2019s lack of emotion tell you the story of the character in just a few minutes. His matches are yet to reveal enough about his work, but the framework for a successful run is there. Shannon Moore and the other cruiserweights must be devastated by the introduction of a second women\u2019s division and should hope that TNA is feeling in the mood to expand an already over-sized roster.<\/p>\n<p>(8) Undertaker &amp; Matt Hardy &amp; Batista defeated Edge &amp; MVP &amp; Mark Henry with Undertaker\u2019s Tombstone piledriver. Devastating pops for the entire face squadron, and for the Undertaker in particular. Impressive heat for Edge and MVP, with both playing up to the crowd in archetypal form. An enjoyable, though relatively brief, match came to an end when Batista hit Mark Henry with a spine-buster, Matt Hardy took-out MVP with a Twist of Fate and the Undertaker finished Edge with the tombstone to gain some small measure of revenge for his \u201cretirement\u201d. The crowd reaction for the finishing sequence was astonishing.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>NOW CHECK OUT THE PREVIOUS 10 YRS AGO FLASHBACK:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2018\/06\/15\/10-yrs-ago-tna-in-essex-u-k-6-15-08-a-j-styles-samoa-joe-bobby-roode-booker-t-rhyno-jay-lethal-dixie-carter\/\">10 YRS AGO \u2013 TNA in Essex, U.K. (6-15-08): A.J. Styles, Samoa Joe, Bobby Roode, Booker T, Rhyno, Jay Lethal, Dixie Carter<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-3728420269\"><div id=\"pwtor-4251027660\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>The following report was originally published on PWTorch.com ten years this weekend&#8230; WWE Smackdown\/ECW house show June 16, 2008 New Castle, Australia at the New Castle Entertainment Centre Report by Adam Berry, PWTorch.com reader As <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2018\/06\/16\/10-yrs-ago-wwe-in-new-castle-australia-6-16-08-punk-miz-morrison-kozlov-khali-mccool-undertaker-matt-hardy-batista-vs-edge-mvp-mark-henry\/\" title=\"10 YRS AGO &#8211; WWE in New Castle, Australia (6-16-08): Punk, Miz &#038; Morrison, Kozlov, Khali, McCool, Undertaker &#038; Matt Hardy &#038; Batista vs. Edge &#038; MVP &#038; Mark Henry\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-specialfeatures","category-exclusives_flashbacks"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/MorrisonJohnGG_3x2_600.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61490"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61491,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61490\/revisions\/61491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}