Pro Wrestling Ponderings

After some technical problems and a lot of running around, I can finally being you this week’s Smackdown recap. Let’s get to it.

The show opens this week with the Undertaker coming out to cut an in ring promo, hyping his world title match with CM Punk at Breaking Point on Sunday. Taker says that not only will he submit Punk but he will also take his soul. Punk comes out and refutes Taker’s claims. Pretty good promo from both men, putting over their respective submissions.

Finlay vs. Mike Knox: This match is a “Belfast Brawl”, or a no DQ match to me and you. Knox mkes some comments in an insert as he’s walking to the ring. It’s his typical “I’m a crazy man who knows lots of big words” schtick and it is none too thrilling. Finlay starts off strong but Knox catches him with a powerslam. The two men take the fight outside and Finlay goes for a chair shot but it gets thrown back into his face and we go to a commercial break.

We return and Knox hits a sidewalk slam onto the chair. The action spills outside again and Knox begins using trash cans and other items from under the ring. Knox throws both Finlay and the trash cans into the ring and continues to lay a beating on Fit before leaving the ring to get a table. Knox sets the table up in the corner and sends Finlay into it but it doesn’t break. Finlay is able to reach his shillelagh and nails Knox with it to gain the pinfall victory. Not much of a match, it has to be said.

Next we go backstage and we see Michelle McCool hitting on Dolph Ziggler who is just looking for Maria. McCool fakes a fall into Dolph’s arms and Layla takes some pictures. This is all sorts of lame.

D.H Smith vs. The Great Khali: Natalya and Tyson Kidd accompany Smith to ringside but before the bell can even sound, Kane is in the ring to attack Khali. Khali hits a chop and his finisher. This feud better end after the match on Sunday. It’s bad enough that this match remains on the card for Breaking Point while Ziggler vs. Morrison has been bumped. Ridiculous.

Chris Jericho & The Big Show vs. Cryme Tyme: Jericho starts the match with JTG and eventually gets dumped outside the ring. Jericho is livid and begins trashing the announce table in frustration as we head to the adverts.

JTG has control of Jericho when we return and tags in Shad, after which the two indluge in some double team action. After a press slam from Shad, JTG is tagged back in for some more tandem offence. Jericho finally tags in the Big Show and he takes control of JTG. JTG eventually escapes and tags in Shad who unloads on both opponents. He goes to the top rope but Show nails him on the way down. Show and Jericho take turns beating on Shad but eventually Shad is able to turn the tide and get to JTG for the hot tag.

JTG comes in hits  series of moves that lead to a pinfall attempt which Show breaks up. Shad runs in and both big men are soon brawling outside the ring. Jericho reverses JTG’s offence and goes for a pin using the ropes for added leverage but can only get two even with using the ropes for added leverage. He then goes for the Walls of Jericho but JTG reverses it into a roll up that gets a close two count. Chris tries to toss JTG over the ropes but JTG skins the cat. Big Show nails him with a right hand before he can complete the move and Jericho gets the three count.

Next, we see Vince McMahon backstage with Smackdown GM Teddy Long. Vince complains of his disappointment in both Long and the show (even though Smackdown has been infinitely better than RAW in recent weeks). Teddy promises a surprise next week that will “change the face of Smackdown” as well as something awesome at Breaking Point. Intriguing stuff.

John Morrison vs. Charlie Haas: Haas reverses a trip to the corner and hits a suplex in the early going. Charlie sends the Intercontinental champ shoulder first into the turnbuckle and takes him down, working over the arm. Morrison starts to fight back, hitting some kicks and a standing shooting star press leading to a two count. Haas tries for an arm breaker off the top ropes but Morrison blocks it, leading to Charlie falling down in the corner and Morrison hits Starship Pain for the victory.

John grabs the mic after his match and talks about his match last week, putting over Rey Mysterio. Morrison says Mysterio can have a rematch anytime he wants. Dolph Ziggler comes out and complains about getting looked over for his promised title shot. Which us fair enough I guess. Morrison gets the crowd to chat “Mr. Ziggles” at him. Dolph is insulted and leaves.

We see Matt Hardy backstage who once again delivers some wooden chat. Seriously, is he actually reading off cue cards? I’m starting to get really annoyed by Matt Hardy.

Layla vs Melina: A fairly dull match that ends with the  ref getting distracted by Layla allowing Michelle McCool to hit Melina in the ribs with her crutch leading to Layla getting the pinfall victory.

Next, R-Truth is in the back with Josh and he wants Teddy Long to “lookout at the cookout” and give him a match with Drew McIntyre. R-Truth then drops a lyrical bomb, saying that he’ll be on Drew like a “monkey on a cupcake”. Genius. Drew ends up attacking Truth from behind and delivers a beatdown. This was a really good segment all round.

World Heavyweight Champion C.M. Punk vs Matt Hardy: This is a Submission Match, in an effort to punt Breaking Point in Sunday. The match starts gaining steam after a neckbreaker for Hardy. Matt starts to work the neck and locks on an interesting move. Punk breaks the hold by propelling Matt into the corner but gets shoved off the top rope when he tries to follow up. Matt tries to hit the Twist of Fate but Punk counters and sends him shoulder first into the ring post twice. Hardy slips off the ropes and falls outside the ring as we head to the adverts.

We’re back and both men are nside the ring, with Punk in control. After some work on Hardy’s back, Punk hits a vertical suplex, a legdrop and a head scissors. Hardy fights out of the head scissors on the mat, trying to regain a vertical base but Punk nails him with an enziguri. He then hits a high knee in the corner but cannot hit his bulldog. Hardy locks on a figure four. Punk is able to reverse it and it is broken after reaching the ropes. Matt hits a bulldog followed up with a Side Effect. He then attempts the Twist of Fate again but Punk reverses it into the Go To Sleep. Matt manages to fight out of it and locks in a half crab. Punk is able to crawl to the ropes and floors Matt with a kick to the side of the head. Punk catches Hardy in the Anaconda Vice and Matt taps out. We then hear the familiar “Gong!” and the arena goes dark. When the lights come back on the Undertaker is standing at the top of the ramp holding the World Heavyweight Championship belt. Punk stands, shocked and angry in the ring as the show ges off air. Good stuff.

Perhaps not as good as recent Smackdowns but a solid show nonetheless and a far better go home show for Breaking Point than RAW was. Breaking Point is certainly looking good on the Smackdown side of things (barring the Kane-Khali abortuion), with Jerishow vs. Cryme Tyme and CM Punk vs. Taker in particular looking to be stand outs. It’s just a shame John Morrison and Dolph Ziggler won’t have the chance to show off their wares on Sunday, but that will hopefully be rectified soon.

See you next week.

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It’s time for another slab of Smackdown related action, this time eminating from Cleveland. Tonight we will witness the return of the Undertaker to the show and an intercontinental title match, with Rey Mysterio defending the title against John Morrison.

We start with a recap of last week’s cage match between CM Punk and Jeff Hardy, with Jeff Hardy’s subsequent exit from Smackdown following. Back in the arena Hardy’s music hits and the places goes nuts. The usual pyro goes off and, for a few seconds, in does indeed appear to be Jeff Hardy but on closer inspection it’s CM Punk, dressed to the hilt in Hardy gear, including face paint. CM Punk cuts a typical, yet still awesome, promo about him being straight edge and better than us. He mentions the Undertaker being an icon on Smackdown but that the audience should be looking up to the newest icon on Smackdown, Punk. Following a few more words (including an ‘anaconda’ reference, which I’m sure is planting a seed for when he whips out the Anaconda Vice in his submission match with Taker at Breaking Point), Matt Hardy comes out and engages in a brawl with Punk that has to be split up by a team of refs. A good segment, with Punk once again, delivering slices of fried gold on the mic.

Back from the break and Punk is protesting to Teddy Long backstage about Matt Hardy’s attack. Long says they can settle it in the ring in a non-title match later on in the program.

The Great Khali & Finlay vs. Mike Knox & Kane: Shortly before this match begins, JR hypes a singapore cane match between Khali and Kane at Breaking Point. Are you shitting me?! These two get a second PPV match in a row? Ridiculous. Knox and Finlay begin the match with Knox dominating (”his middle name is Lector” says JR. I’m not convinced). “Can you imagine the pre game talk between Kane and Mike Knox?” says Todd Grisham. “I bet there was a lot of diabolical laughter involved.” If that sentence was supposed to funny that Grisham is comedy gold. I get the feeling it wasn’t supposed to be though. Back to the match and The Big Red Machine is soon tagged in and misses a flying clothesline. Khali is tagged into the match and Kane quickly tags out. Knox gets caught in Khali’s vice grip but Kane drags his him out of the ring as we go to the adverts.

When we return Khali is dropping Kane with a clothesline and soon does the same to Knox. Finlay is tagged into the match and eventually is shoved off the top rope by Kane. Knox and Kane beat Finlay down, working the arm. Knox misses a tag in the corner and Kane goes after Runjin Singh (I’m sure I’m spelling that name differently every week), drawing the attention of both Khali and the ref. The distraction allows Finlay to nail Knox with his shillelagh and get the pinfall for his team.

Here in the UK, it was time for another “From The Vault” match, this time from a September 2007 episode of Smackdown that saw Batista go up against… The Great Khali?! Ooooh, go fuck yourself, WWE program director. This was when Khali was world champ too. Those were some dark days.

After the break, Eve and Maria are in the locker room discussing their tag-match later tonight. Michelle McCool enters talks some unconvincing trash at Maria concerning her relationship with Dolph Ziggler. Melina then joins in and gets on the tits of both McCool and Maria. This sucked.

Next up is the Intercontinental Championship match. Hooray!

Rey Mysterio (c) vs. John Morrison: The two men trade quick roll-up attempts to start things off, with Morrison winning the test of strength spot. More pinning predicaments follow, with neither man getting the advantage.

We return after the adverts and Mysterio and Morrison are engaged in some back and forth action which eventually spills out over the top rope with, Mysterio head-scissoring Morrison over, and taking a fairly hard knock to the back on the ring apron. attempt. Both men crawl back into the ring a second before getting counted out. Rey misses an attack in the corner and his shoulder hits the post. Morrison starts to work the arm but Rey reverses an attack into an awesome and well executed around the world head-scissors. A battle in the corner leaves Morrison open and Rey hits a swift kick to the face and a springboard moonsault off the ropes. Mysterio tries a few holds on Morrison but the “Friday Night Delight” performs a fantastic counter to Rey’s standing surfboard by flipping out of it and kicking him upside the chin. This spot was all sorts of awesome!

Morrison is in control and hits a standing shooting star press for a close two count. Morrison chucks Rey out of the ring under the bottom rope but helps him back into the ring without any outside action. Morrison hits his break dancing leg drop for a close two and following an exchange in the corner, Morrison ends up being set up for the 619 but he is up quickly to avoid it. Both men run the ropes and collide with flying crossbody attempts. We head to another break.

As we return Morrison hits a back suplex. Mysterio reverses a whip to the ropes and sends John to the outside. He follows up with a head-scissors and slides John back in. Rey hits a springboard legdrop and gets a 2 count. Morrison counters Rey’s bulldog attempt into a facebuster for a two count and quickly follows that up with a running knee on him for another close two.

Aftert some more back and forth action, Mysterio climbs the top rope and launches himself at Morrison but John catches him in mid-air with a drop kick to the gut. Rey is set up for Starship Pain in the corner by Morrison but he manages to move out of the way and gets placed for the 619. It connects but Morrison is out of the way before Rey can follow up with a springboard legdrop. John hits his springboard kick off the ropes and a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker but gets caught by Rey as he goes up for Starship Pain. Rey tries to hit a reverse frankensteiner from the top, but John holds on to the top rope, sending Rey crashing to the mat. He finally connects Starship Pain and gets the pinfall to become the new Intercontinental champion. Rey congratulates his opponent before exiting and John celebrates. As loathe as I am to talk about things such as workrate and to give matches star ratings, I’d be a fool not to recognise how good a match this was. Easily **** in my opinion and it will almost certainly be Smackdown’s TV match of the year, barring anyone eslse pulling something awesome out of the bag in the coming months. Great stuff.

R-Truth comes out to face an unnamed opponent but is once again attacked by Drew McIntyre. Apparently McIntyre’s going to keep doing this until he’s recognised as the superstar he is. Go ahead, my Scottish comrade!

Maria & Eve vs. Natalya & Layla: I could barely control my apathy as this match began. It doesn’t turn out to be that bad though, with Natalya in particular looking great in the ring. Towards the end of the match Maria and Natalya scuffle on the outside of the ring and Eve hits her handspring splash finisher on Layla for the pinfall.

CM Punk vs Matt Hardy: Punk starts the match by using the ref as a shield to avoid Matt. Matt eventually gets his hands on the champ and takes control. Hardy misses a charge into a corner and Punk tries to go up top, but Hardy is able to connect with a superplex and that gets him a two count. Punk manages to take control of the match as he drops him over the top rope with a forward vertical suplex and then sends him off the apron and into the barrier. Matt is down outside the ring we go to the adverts.

We return and Punk is in control with Hardy locked in an abdominal stretch. Punk continues to work over Hardy focusing on the midsection, due to Matt’s recent abdominal surgery. Punk misses a shoulder block in the corner and Matt hits a bulldog for 2 count. Hardy follows with a legdrop from the top rope that gets him another long two count. Punk reverses out of a Twist of Fate attempt, but Matt continues the reversal into a roll-up but then walks right into a kick to the head. Punk goes up top for a flying clothesline, but Matt catches him and hits the Side Effect. The fight goes to the outside and Hardy misses a dive off the apron allowing Punk to go to work on him with a steel chair. I’m guessing Punk was disqualified but there was no bell or announcement. He wraps the chair around Hardy’s neck in the same way he did to Jeff. The lights go out and when they come back on the Undertaker is there. He grabs Punk by the throat and chokeslams him through the announce table as the show goes off the air.

Another great episode of Smackdown, almost purely because of the Morrison-Mysterio match which was better than most of the stuff that’s been on pay per view recently (apart from the Hardy - Punk TLC match at Summerslam). The upcoming feud between Taker and CM Punk should also be great, ensuring Smackdown maintains it’s status as WWE’s ‘A’ show, despite what the ratings may say.

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Welcome to another week of Smackdown action. JR welcomes us to Phoenix for tonights show, bigging up the main event of Jeff Hardy vs. CM Punk in a steel cage for the world championship.

CM Punk is introduced as the only straight edge heavyweight champion in history as he makes his way down to the ring. According to JR, the TLC match Hardy and Punk had at Summerslam was “physical purgatory”. No idea what that’s supposed to mean but it sounds cool. Punk enters the ring and starts putting over straight edge again, although it’s all good stuff. The TLC match at Summerslam is recapped “in case you were all too intoxicated to remember”. Punk complains that he was robbed of his celebratory moment at Summerslam by the Undertaker and says its unfair that he has to compete in a steel cage match tonight. Jeff Hardy enters and Punk tells Hardy that the situation between the two of them has risen to such an extent that one of them has to leave WWE and, as such, the loser of tonight’s steel cage match will have to leave the company. Teddy Long comes out and confirms this stipulation before adding that the winner of the match will face the Undertaker at the Breaking Point pay per view.

John Morrison & Matt Hardy vs. The Hart Dynasty - Matt and Tyson Kidd start the match, as Natayla loiters on the outside of the ring. Morrison is tagged in and the duo perform a sweet leg sweep/leg trip combo followed by a legdrop from Morrison. Matt tags back in Kidd takes control before Smith tags in and beats on Hardy. Matt manages to get the tag and Morrison gets the btter of Smith. Kidd comes in to break up a pinfall attempt, Hardy dumps him over the top rope and follows him out with a clothesline off the apron. Morrison goes for a slingshot kick off the ropes, but DH catches him in mid air. John slides out of the slam attempt and sends him into the corner, quickly hitting an enziguri. Morrison hits Starship Pain for the win. A nice lttle match with Morrison in particular look as impressive as ever.

Next we see Melina explaining her concerns to Maria regarding the latter’s relationship with Dolph Ziggler. Unconvincing acting abounds. Melina says she Dolph with another woman at Summerslam but Dolph enters and explains it was just his sister. That’s good enough for Maria apparently.

Drew McIntyre vs. R-Truth - Nice to see a Scotsman on Smackdown. McIntyre attacks Truth during his enterance, kicking him in the head and delivering what looked to be a double-arm DDT to R-Truth. He cuts a promo saying “the party’s over”.

Melina vs. Layla - Michelle McCool is out for a promo, saying that due to being attacked last week by Melina she can’t compete and so has Layla replacing her. After a little bit of Melina hits her “Primal Scream”  finisher for a quick pinfall victory. After the three count, Melina pushes the injured McCool over her chair. Er… who’s the babyface here? It’s hard to emotionally invest in a feud when both people engaged in it are kinda unlikeable.

Rey Mysterio vs Kane - A fairly dull match that ends with Kane getting disqualified for repeatedly ramming the freshly suspended Rey Mysterio into the ring post. And then the Great Khali comes out. Oh, for fucks sake. My fears over this feud continuing after Summerlsam have been confirmed. Runjan Singh give Khali a singapore cane shot, Khali give Kane a cane shot and I died a little inside. Ziggler also runs in and attacks Rey. I think it’s a foregone conclusion who Mysterio will be dropping the belt to next week, before her serves out his suspension.

Chris Jericho vs Shad - Shad dominates the match, administering a press slam and power slam leading to a pin attempt by Shad but Big Show pulls Jericho out of the ring. JTG also joins in and all four men are battle on the outside. Teddy Long comes out and says the match will be restarted as a tag-team contest. JTG and Jericho start before Show gets a cheap shot on JTG and tags into the match, as Jericho goes over to yell at the announcers again. Awesome. Eventually Big Show makes a blind tag as Jericho gets slammed. When Shad turns around gets nailed by Show’s punch of doom and  pins him for the victory.

Steel Cage Match for World Heavyweight Title: CM Punk vs Jeff Hardy - Jeff enters first and Punk runs down behind him and attacks. Punk gets some shots in on Jeff and then tosses him into the ring. Punk to escape the cage several times early on  but Jeff catches him as he reaches the top each time. Hardy manages to deliver the Whisper in the Wind for a two count. Post adverts, we see Jeff climbing the cage, but being caught by Punk. Hardy is able to kick him off and follows with a crossbody for a two count. Jeff tries to climb again but Punk stops him and tries to super-plex him off the top. Hardy fights it off and hits the Swanton Bomb for a close two. Punk tries to climb while Jeff crawls for the door but Punk runs to stop him.

After another frickin’ ad break, we return to see CM Punk crawling out of the door but Jeff stops him. Punk goes for the Go To Sleep but Jeff reverses it into a backslide for a two count. Punk goes for the Go To Sleep again but Hardy reverses it once more, into a Twist of Fate. Hardy begins to climb the cage. Punk catches him as he reaches the top. He gets pulled back in and CM Punk hits the super-plex from the top. Punk starts climbing and Hardy catches him as he reaches the top of the cage. The two throw punches but Punk wins and Jeff goes crashing down to the mat. CM Punk drops down outside of the ring and retains the World Heavyweight Championship.

Punk heads back up the ramp waving goodbye to Jeff. Jeff grabs a mic and says thanks to his fans and that “this isn’t goodbye forever just goodbye for now”. As Jeff poses on the stage, Punk jumps him from behind and hits him with the title belt. The champion strikes a pose over Hardy as the show goes of the air.

Another good episode of Smackdown, consistent with recent weeks, and the Punk-Hardy saga came to a satisfying conclusion. It was slightly sad to see Jeff go after all his good work over the past few months but with talent like Morrison, Ziggler, Mysterio (well, after his suspension) and Punk, Smackdown’s certainly in safe hands until Jeff decides to return.

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Well, hello there. I’m taking a break from stumbling over tourists and performers at at this year’s Edinburgh Festival to bring you another week of hot, Smackdown action, as JR welcomes us to Kansas City, hyping an exclusive, sit down interview with Matt Hardy, who will attempt to explain the reasons for his action over the past few months. Grisham chips in by running down tonight’s main event; The Hardys and John Morrison vs. CM Punk and The Hart Dynasty. Good stuff.

Rey Mysterio & Cryme Tyme vs. Dolph Ziggler, Chris Jericho & Big Show - The mash up of Jericho and Big Show’s entrance music still sucks. Jericho and Mysterio start the match with Jericho in control for much of the early going. Jericho avoids the 619 and tags in Ziggler while Rey tags in JTG of Cryme Tyme. After some exchanges Shad enters and he and JTG execute some good, power, double team moves. Now, call me crazy, but I think I’m starting to vaguely enjoy Cryme Tyme’s in ring work. “Word Up” is a horrible excuse for a weekly segment, don’t get me wrong, but it’s always nice to see a tag team acting like a tag team, if you know what I mean. Jericho appears to talk trash almost constantly throughout the match, at one point heading over to the announcers desk and yelling “Like a ragdoll! Like a ragdoll!” as Big Show manhandles JTG in the ring. This is great stuff. JTG eventually gets the hot tag to Shad who allows Rey to stand on his shoulders to deliver a splash. Ziggler breaks up the pin attempt and suddenly bodies are flying out the ring left, right and centre. The ring clears leaving Rey and Jericho. Rey hits a bulldog for a close two count and then hurricanrana’s Jericho to the second rope. Rey goes for the 619 but is punched in the head by Big Show before he can finish the move. Jericho tags in Ziggler who pins Rey for the three count. A good match by all accounts, and the individual stories going into Summerslam for each member of the teams progressed nicely.

Matt Hardys exclusive interview is up next but before that we get a recap of the CM Punk - Jeff Hardy feud. This is a great video, and the old Hardy Boys music kicking in when Matt was shown running in last week was a nice touch. Onto the interview and it’s fairly unimpressive stuff. Matt appears to be still fairly wooden on the mic and doesn’t show much emotion. He also looks like he’s reading off cue cards which is pretty off putting. His reasons for turning on Jeff are fairly thin on the ground too. He says he’s sorry and that tonight, the Hardys will ride again. Despite the lacklustre interview, the crowd still pops for Matt so I guess it’s a job well done, technically.

Next, a recap of the feud between Kane and the Great Khali is shown. After the video, Kane approaches the ring. He cuts a promo on The Great Khali which is pretty silly but quite good. Kane’s in full on “I’m a scary, dangerous man!” mode, even chucking out the phrase “You care while I detest” to prove his badass-ness. Fun stuff. Khali eventually comes down and runs Kane out of the ring with a chair.

Here in the UK, to fill the time that’s taken up by the ridiculous amount of adverts on American TV, we got a match from 2002, featuring Rey Mysterio and Edge against Matt Hardy and John Cena, in his little shorts. The dynamic commentating duo of Michael Cole and Ernest “The Cat” Miller are on the call. Christ. Nice to see Hardy in his V1 shirt though.

Back to tonights show. Mike Knox, the “evil kinesiologist” according to Jim Ross, walks down the ramp as a pre-recorded promo by the man plays. More medical talk from Knox directed to Finlay. He signs off by saying to Finlay “I’ll move you”, in a voice that sounds more like he’s going to fuck him, rather than fight him.

Mike Knox vs. Finlay - Knox takes control at the beginning of the match, with JR mentioning that Knox has “studied pain”. STUDIED PAIN. What an unbelievable badass he must be. That phrase alone has gotten Knox over with me. Knox works on Finlay’s back before Finlay dodges running knees and follows up with a clothesline and a cannonball for a close two. Finlay tries to get Knox up for the Celtic Cross but his back can’t take it. He tires again and hits it for a close two. He gets rammed into the ring post by Knox who eventually gets DQ’d for not breaking the hold he had on Finlay. He then gives Finlay the same beatdown as last week, after recovering from a shalelaigh shot from Finlay. Not exactly inspiring stuff but I’m vaguely interested in seeing where Knox’s character.

Next we see the arena decorated with tables, ladders and chairs lying everywhere. Jeff Hardy enters and cuts a promo on punk, the majority of which is done atop a huge ladder in the middle of the ring with the belt hanging above it. A reasonably good promo from Hardy where he reiterates that he and Matt have reconciled their differences. He says that doctors have told him not to compete this Sunday and that he should stop wrestling, He says has hasn’t listened to the doctor’s advice before and he’s not going to start now. CM Punk’s music hits and he walks down the ramp and into the ring. “Hey Jeff aren’t you nervous being way up there, so HIGH?” says Punk. “Especially in the condition that you are in, and by condition I mean that you are probably drunk right now just like all of these people here tonight.” Punk’s promo is AWESOME. I mark out all over myself when he says “I’m straight edge. That means I’m better than you. After more verbal sparring, Punk tries to tip the ladder over but Jeff lands on his feet, hits Punk with the Twist of Fate and leaves. This was a tremendous segment that really got me excited about the match at Summerslam. Punk in particular was on fine form, continuing to prove himself as one of the best heels in the WWE.

Maria & Melina vs. Natalya & Layla - Maryse is on commentary for this one, which doesn’t contain much in the way of interesting points. The match ends with Melina hitting what almost looks like a Canadian Destroyer from out of the corner and pinning Natalya for the win. That was quite cool.

“Word Up” with Cryme Tyme is up next. My usual cup of tea that I make during this segment was replaced this week by beer. This segment makes me want to drink. “Word Up” isn;t actually that bad (or should I say ‘painful’?) this week, with Slam Master Jay being quite entertaining. He and Cryme Tyme take the piss out of Jericho and Big Show ahead of the match. Jericho in a bra is always going to be funny, no matter what anyone says, so that was fairly amusing. I was watching Smackdown with two friends this week, both of whom do not really watch wrestling that much, and they loved this segment. An illustration of how casual fans like the shitty entertainment aspect of WWE I guess.

Mysterio then cuts a sickenly babyface backstage promo, putting over Ziggler’s skills in the ring but still maintaining he’s going to beat him. Rey looks like he’s reading from cue cards as well. Horrible.

We get a recap of the DX story next. HBK superkicking that kid was hilarious.

CM Punk & The Hart Dynasty Vs. John Morrison & The Hardys - Wow. Matt’s piled on some chunk since he’s been out injured. Should probably do some sit ups or something. I didn’t take any notes during this match as I just wanted to sit back and soak it in. Predicatably enough it was a great match with all the partcipants getting their offence in. Matt Hardy eventually hit Punk with a Twist of Fate for the win.

This was a good edition of Smackdown and a far better go home show for Summerslam than RAW was. The CM Punk - Jeff Hardy segment alone sold the event for me, which I was considering not even ordering after RAW this week. The Smackdown Six continue to be awesomely consistant both in the ring and, for the most part, on the mic, making Smackdown undeniably the best programming WWE has to offer at the moment. Summerslam, here we come!

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JR welcomes us to Edmonton for this week’s edition of Smackdown and hypes the main event of John Morrison vs. CM Punk for later on in the show. Sweet.

We then get a recap of last week’s events when Hardy faced Punk with Matt Hardy as the guest enforcer. We get reminded of Matt Hardy’s spray tanning error too. Too much tan doesn’t look good in HD that’s for sure.

The show proper being with CM Punk walking to the ring. He grabs the mic and claims that he is better at TLC matches than Jeff Hardy, putting over his two wins in the Money in the Bank ladder match and the incident last week when he rammed Hardy into the ring post with a chair around his next. He calls the audience “slaves” and gets all righteously straight edge again before saying that he’s going to “end Jeff Hardy”. Good stuff from Punk on the mic once again here.

GM Teddy Long comes down to the ring and announces that Jeff Hardy is in the building and that Hardy will be able to compete against Punk at Summerslam, despite injuries sustained last week. Hardy’s music hits and he walks to the ring, selling his injuries. He grabs the mic and cuts a 15 second promo that basically repeats what Long had announced before he came out. Hardy still sucks on the mic. I thought he was getting better but I’m still cringing before he’s even opened his mouth.

We get a recap of Kane abducting Runjan Singh last week. JR tell us that Kane has Singh with him in the building tonight and is holding him captive in the bowels of the biulding. For some reason, I start to fear we’re going to see a similar episode to the Heidenreich incident from a few years ago. Michael Cole’s lucky he got moved to RAW.

Teddy Long takes a call from Vinnie Mac in his office next. McMahon makes the match of Jeff Hardy vs. The Hart Dynasty in a handicap match. He also apparently tells Long that he’s still on probation several times. Jeez, give a guy a break Vin-man!

Finlay vs. Dolph Ziggler - The match begins with Finlay as the agressor wh0 takes it to Ziggler with some hard strikes. He catches Ziggler between the ring skirt and apron following Ziggler’s attempted baseball slide and pounds on Dolph’s back. Ziggler manages to catch Finlay with a brutal looking kick on the apron. Mike Knox comes down to ringside and observes before cheap shotting Finlay in the knee with the Irishman’s own shillelagh. Ziggler hits his finisher for the three count. After the bell, Knox beats down on Finlay, administering a back breaker on the steel ring steps. He then cuts a short promo telling Finlay about the correct bone to punish to cause a lot of pain. Wow. Knox seems to know a lot about anatomy. Damn you, educated heels!

We next see Kane’s lair on the arena. Runjan Singh is tied to a chair and Kane is evidently filming him. This looks like it might be worse than the Heidenreich episode. Singh tell the camera that he is being punished for his association with the Great Khali and that he is being treated fairly. This is weird. It’s not creepy, but it’s slightly unsettling.

A promo video for R-Truth is played next. Awesome. I hope this means the Pretty Ricky experiment has been deep sixed.

Maria and Melina are backstage talkng about Ziggler and Summerslam before Layla enters and tells Melina that Michelle McCool is back next next week. Thrilling stuff.

John Morrison vs. CM Punk - Main event time. The match starts off with some back and forth action before Punk takes control by hitting Morrison with double knees from the top rope to the outside. He then follows this up with a figure four around Morrison’s neck. Morrison get some offence in and makes a couple of attempts to hit Starship Pain but Punk counters each one. After Morrison makes some counters of his own out of Punk’s GTS, the straight edge superstar finally hits it for the three. Another strong match featuring Morrison and Punk. You can pretty much count on a good match every time these two are involved and this was no different.

Melina vs. Layla - Layla’s entraince is interrupted by more footage from Kane’s home video collection. Runjan Singh gets pushed over in his chair with Kane asking him whay Khali  is such a “freak”. Steady on Kane. Scarily huge, big chinned men have feelings too. Singh eventually announces the revelation that the Great Khali is in fact his brother. Shit just got soap opera.

Back to the match and it’s typical WWE womens wrestling fare. Not necessarily a bad thing however, as I’ve noticed a marked improvement in a lot of the female wrestlers in the company. So it’s a decent match, with Melina grabbing the victory after hitting the Primal Scream. The bendiness of Melina continues to impress me.

Big Show w/ Chris Jericho vs. JTG w /Shad - Cryme Tyme cut a promo on the Unifed Tag Champs before the match, hyping the Summerslam match between the two teams. .Jericho joins JR and Grisham on commentary for this match, which is basically an elongated squash. I think JTG gets two punches in the whole match. Show chokeslams him and submits him. Some of Jericho’s commentary is funny stuff however. When justifying his loss to JTG last week Jericho says “Hey, I had a sore throat last week. Do you have any idea the toll that can take on a man?!”

We next head back to WWE’s Funniest Home Videos and Kane attacking Khali when the Punjabi playboy came to Kane’s lair to save Runjan Singh. I can’t wait for Summerslam purely because after that event, this fued will hopefully be over.

Jeff Hardy vs. The Hart Dynasty - Hardy starts off the handicap match facing Tyson Kidd while DH Smith waits in the corner. After some early offence, Hardy starts to sell his injuries, seemingly unable to fight due to his pain. As a result DH Smith and Kidd dominate the match, eventually getting the win a modified version of the Hart Foundation’s old finisher, with the clothesline being administered in a spring board fashion from the top rope. After the bell CM Punk walks to the ring and starts beating on Hardy. John Morrison runs in to make the save but ends up getting clobbered with a chair by Punk. Punk puts Jeff Hardy’s neck in a chair and looks to ram him into the ringpost just like last week but he is cut off by Matt Hardy. Morrison and the older Hardy eventually clear the ring. Matt and Jeff stare at each other before Matt helps Jeff to his feet. So, Matt’s a good guy again then? There’d better be sensible reason for this.

We cut to Teddy Long watching the monitor in his office. Vince McMahon enters and asks Long what he has in mind for next week’s main event. Long responds by booking The Hart Dynasty and CM Punk vs. Jeff & Matt Hardy and John Morrison. Vinve looks like he approves and, one more time, reminds Long that he’s still on probation. The two teams for the main event next week stare each other down as the show goes off the air.

A pretty good show all round, although not quite up to the standards of recent weeks. The best thing about tonight’s show was the fact that there was no “Word Up” segment from Cryme Tyme. Not even a hint of it! Hooray! For that, WWE should be congratulated. The face turn of Matt Hardy continues to bother me though but I’m an optimistic chap so hopefully the reasons for Matt’s sudden change of heart will be sensible and believable. Or maybe I’m just being ridiculously naive.

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Smackdown this week begins with a video recapping last week’s fantastic heavyweight championship match between Jeff Hardy and John Morrison. Tonight we will have Jeff Hardy defending his belt again, this time against CM Punk.

The proper begins with CM Punk walking down the ramp to the ring. Apparently the world heavyweight championship match is opening the show. I sense tomfoolery afoot. Punk cuts an awesome promo chastising drinkers, smokers, stoners and other drug users. We also get to see the footage again of CM Punk laying that intense beating on Jeff Hardy at the end of last week’s show. This was good stuff.

CM Punk vs. Jeff Hardy (c)

Jeff Hardy makes his way to the ring and goes right after Punk before the bell rings. Punk and Hardy brawl on the canvas for a while before Teddy Long and a group of agents and officials come down to restore order. Vince McMahon comes out and blames Teddy Long for the situation getting out of hand, reminding Teddy that he is on probation. Vinnie Mac goes on to say that the title match will take place later in the night and that he will appoint a special enforcer to keep things under control. He doesn’t mention whom it will be, saying he’s going to make us all wait to find out.

John Morrison vs. Tyson Kidd

Back from commercial and we have a rematch from Superstars between Morrison and Kidd, which was a pretty good match. The two men lock up and exchange holds before Morrison takes control hitting some of his awesome offence. Morrison is eventually dumped outside where Natalya and DH Smith get their shots in on the “Friday Night Delight” as Kidd has the referee distracted. After a competitive few minutes with both men hitting their respective moves, Morrison hits a springboard kick and then Starship Pain (hitting Kidd squarely in the face it would seem) for the win. Another good match from both these guys.

Hey, it’s my favourite time of the week; when I go and make a sandwich and a cup of tea while Cryme Tyme’s “Word Up” is on. From the kitchen, I hear that this week’s word is “Pretenda” and that Jesse has a match tonight. Oh. Great.

Slam Master J vs. Charlie Haas

So, Jesse is now Slam Master J. A stroke of creative brilliance there, I’m sure you’ll agree. I never want to hear Todd Grisham say “He is the Mac Daddy, and the Daddy Mac” again, but I know I’ll hear it from now on, whenever Jesse is present on Smackdown. I find myself enjoying Haas during this match. He seems a little bit more intense and his cobra clutch into a back breaker was pretty sweet. It’s a shame he has to put over this gimp. Slam Master J hits a splash from the top rope for the pinfall victory. Underwhelming to say the least.

Dolph Ziggler vs. R-Truth vs. Finlay vs. Mike Knox

Rey Mysterio is heading down to the ring as we return from commercial. He’ll be joining JR and Grisham for commentary on this match, which is for an Intercontinental title match at Summerslam. This was a decent match for it was but I think everyone knew who was going to win and, sure enough, Ziggler hits his finisher on Finlay to get the pin and the title shot.

We next see a brief backstage segment with Maria explaining to Melina why she is dating Dolph Ziggler, She says a whole load of stuff about him being “different on the inside” and other such bollocks.

Chris Jericho vs. JTG

Chris Jericho comes to the ring with the Big Show in tow. WWE has mashed Jericho’s and Show’s music together and it sounds freakin’ terrible. Shad is also out with JTG. Jericho and Show land some cheap shots and Jericho works the ribs for a while. JTG eventually comes back until Jericho hits the surprise Codebreaker. JTG is in the ropes so the ref won’t count the pin. As Jericho protests to the ref, he gets rolled and JTG gets the win. Well, who would’ve thunk it?

The Great Khali vs. Ricky Ortiz

Khali beats Ortiz in about 30 seconds after two moves. The phrase “short and pointless” never rang so true. After the match Kane appears out from under the ring, shoves Khali out of the ring and then drags Runjun Singh out of the arena. What a dark, terrifying twist this mammoth feud between Khali and Kane has taken. And, yes. That’s sarcasm.

World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Hardy vs. CM Punk

So it’s time for the main event and time to find out who the special guest enforcer is. Hey, it’s Matt Hardy! With a bizarrely tanned face. Or did the make up department out a whole load of bronzer on him? It looks strange, either way. Jeff enters the ring and tries to talk to Matt before the match but Matt does even look him in the eye. We get the big match introductions Hardy sets out to take control early as he clotheslines Punk outside of the ring. Punk counters and chucks Jeff off the apron to the floor, with Hardy landing in a twisted heap. Some work on the ribs by Punk and some covers follow, with Punk only getting two counts. Jeff counters out of the corner with the Whisper in the Wind and a drop kick. Following a two count, Punk takes control of the match with a superplex. Punk hits Matt accidently with a baseball slide aimed for Jeff on the outside. Matt doesn’t look too chuffed about that. Jeff eventually goes for the Swanton but Punk gets his knees up and goes for the cover. Matt pulls the ref out of the ring before he can even start counting and he enters the ring to face off with punk, complaining about the baseball slide that went astray. Jeff suddenly rolls Punk up and Matt is quick to count the 3, giving Jeff the win. Following the count, Matt leaves the ring and heads up the ramp, showing very little emotion.

Since he can’t get to Matt, Punk returns to the ringside area to give Jeff another beatdown. He rams Hardy’s head off the announce table multiple times before driving his neck with a steel chair around it into the ring post. This looked awesome. Punk starts to leave but Teddy Long comes out to tell Punk he will have a championship rematch at Summerslam but only if Jeff is able to perform. If it does go ahead, it will be a TLC match. We see Jeff being tended to by medical staff as the show goes of the air.

Not an amazing edition of Smackdown it has to be said but the Morrison-Kidd match was solid and Punk-Hardy was consistent too. The idea of a TLC match between the two men gets me very excited indeed. Matt Hardy’s return was welcome, but confusing. Is he going to turn face again? I certainly hope not. But, if so, what was the point of all that guff leading into Wrestlemania this year? I guess we’ll find out soon.

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Jim Ross welcomes us to Smackdown, taped in Miami this week. He hypes tonight’s main event, which will see Jeff Hardy teaming with Rey Mysterio to take on the duo of Chris Jericho and Dolph Ziggler. We will also be hearing from Edge tonight following his Achilles tendon surgery.

-Jeff Hardy makes his way to the ring and addresses CM Punk’s comments from last week, saying that everyone makes mistakes and he is no different. CM Punk comes to the ring and challenges Hardy’s words, once again bringing up his Wellness Policy violations and stating that the fact Jeff Hardy is a role model for children worries him. Eventually Jeff shoves Punk down and Punk exits the ring, saying that as he has a match next, he’s going to take the higher ground. This was an excellent segment for Punk, with his promo coming across particularly well. Jeff’s delivery on the other hand seemed a touch forced and…well, cheesy. Slightly disappointing, but Punk more than made up for Hardy’s shortcomings on the mic.

-CM Punk vs. John Morrison (non-title match)
This was a great match, featuring some great striking and athleticism from both men. Punk worked on Morrison’s back for much of the match, after Morrison was dragged out onto the floor, taking a rough blow to the back. Punk delivers a backdrop and locks on the body scissors on a couple of occasions. He also delivers an awesome double underhook backbreaker to the “Friday Night Delight”. At the end of the match, Punk attempts to hook Morrison in the magistral only to have his shoulders pinned to the mat and Morrison getting the clean victory over the heavyweight champion for the second time. A tremendous showing from both men and Morrison’s work continues to justify his gradual elevation to the main event.

-Next Layla comes to the ring in a Miami Heat outfit. JR tells us that she was previously a cheerleader for the team in her pre-WWE days. I think I see where this segment is going. And I’m not sure I like it. Yep, she’s going to dance for everyone. I went to make a cup of tea while this nonsense was going on and returned to see Ricky Ortiz entering the ring, dissing the Miami Heat and telling Layla that the people need some inspiration and to Rally Up. He gives Layla one of his towels and she’s feigns enthusiasm for a few seconds before dropping it and leaving back up the aisle. Memorable stuff I’m sure you’ll agree…

-And the hits just keep on coming, with Cryme Tyme’s “Word Up” segment next. My apathy with this tag team is slowly morphing into straight up contempt. They announce this week’s word is “Championized”, to “engross oneself at a champion level”. I actually quite like this word and feel myself softening for Cryme Tyme a little. That quickly disappears however, when the duo (and Eve Torres) are joined by NFC Champion, Antrel Rolle and Jesse makes his traditional weekly cameo.  Not as painful as usual, granted, but still no fun.

-Kane vs. R-Truth
Hey, R-Truth’s taken his buck teeth out following last week’s Pretty Ricky experiment and he back to normal. This match is what you’d expect, with Truth taking a beating for most of it while getting in occasional offence. Truth was hit by a nasty looking big boot from Kane as he came off the top rope and Kane picked up the win. Following the win, Khali and Ranjin Singh made their way to the ring. The distraction results in R-Truth hitting Kane with a missile dropkick. Kane then leaves through the crowd again rather than face off with the Punjabi Playboy.  This feud appears to revolving around Kane running away from Khali every week. I have absolutely no interest in what the pay off to this is going to be. However, I do know it will be, as J.R might say, “bowling shoe ugly”.

-Well, would you believe it, R-Truth’s put his buckteeth back in and gone to the beach in another “Delicious” Pretty Ricky vignette. This whole thing is bizarre to a degree that sort of makes me interested in it. Don’t get me wrong, the whole Pretty Ricky thing appears to be horrible but I just want to know what the reasons for this alter ego for R-Truth are.

-Hart Dynasty vs. Cryme Team and Eve Torres
A fairly solid effort from both teams in this one, nothing spectacular. I can’t help but notice Eve Torres’ improvement over the past few weeks though and the cartwheel standing moonsault she hit on Natalya really took me by surprise. The Hart Dynasty picked up the win when Natalya hit Eve with a spinning clothesline for the three count.

-Following a short backstage segment with Maria kissing Dolph Ziggler’s bicep and telling him to be careful, it’s time for the post-surgery interview with Edge. Edge cuts a seemingly heartfelt promo and stresses that he will do everything in his power to heal and be back to compete. The live fans are behind Edge. Chris Jericho’s music hits and he makes his way to the ring, where he calls Edge “pathetic” and “frail”, chastising Edge for pandering to the masses. Edge tells Jericho that when he returns, he will prove Jericho, and everyone else, wrong. Good mic work on this one from both Edge and Jericho, as we have come to expect.

-Jeff Hardy & Rey Mysterio vs. Chris Jericho & Dolph Ziggler
Before the match begins, CM Punk makes his way to ringside to join Michael Cole and J.R on commentary.

Jericho and Hardy start the match, with some back and forth offence culminating in Jericho hitting his springboard dropkick that sends Jeff to the floor. Jericho and Ziggler continue to dominate Hardy until he finally gets the hot tag to Mysterio. Mysterio hits some quick offence on Jericho. Rey eventually hits a hurricanranna, setting Jericho up for the 619. As Rey has his back turned preparing to run the ropes, Ziggler gets a blind tag. Rey hits the 619, but as he goes for the West Coast Pop, Ziggler pulls him off the apron and Rey takes a hard bump against the security wall. Ziggler continues to hold the advantage over Mysterio until both men tag out. Jericho goes for a bulldog, but Jeff escapes and hits a Whisper in the Wind. He then attempts a hurricanranna, which is countered by Jericho with the Walls of Jericho. Hardy escapes and hits the Twist of Fate followed by the Swanton Bomb. Ziggler runs in to break the count.

Following a Mysterio dropkick to Ziggler which sends him to the floor, all four men end up on the outside. Hardy tosses Jericho at Punk who moves but when Hardy turns his back on Punk, the straight edge superstar pushes Jericho into Hardy who hits the steps, causing the ref to call for the bell, throwing the match out as a no contest. Rey is then caught by Ziggler, who hits a dropkick and follows it up with his finisher on the floor. Jericho rolls Hardy back into the ring, hits a Codebreaker and locks in the Walls of Jericho as Punk looks on and then makes his way up the ramp. The show goes off air with Hardy suffering in the middle of the ring from the effects of the Walls. This was another good match featuring half of the Smackdown Six (with Dolph Ziggler perhaps being a prime candidate to take Edge’s place in the Six while he’s out injured) and the respective stories between Hardy and Punk and Mysterio and Ziggler were carried on nicely.

A strong show from Smackdown this week, which once again delivered on the in ring action but not so much on the segments and vignettes. With Night of Champions just over a week away now, things are looking healthy on the Smackdown side of things, with the Intercontinental title match between Mysterio and Ziggler and, in particular, the world championship match between CM Punk and Jeff Hardy sure to be quality matches. Following this week’s show however, I find myself more excited over the seemingly eventual feud that will occur between Jericho and Edge, upon the latter’s return to the ring than the current angles. I think we can all agree that would make a tremendous Wrestlemania 26 match so here’s hoping.

See you all next week for more hot, Smackdown action.

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So, time for another Smacdown recap. A little bit late this week I realise, but sometimes real life gets in the way of my wrestling enjoyment.

JR welcomes us to the show and hypes tonight’s main event, which sees Chris Jericho invoking his rematch clause for another shot at Rey Mysterio’s intercontinental title. Awesome.

-Jeff Hardy makes his way to the ring, wearing an eye patch over his right eye following the “injury” he sustained last week. He grabs the mic and cuts a short but effective promo, talking about the eye injury  and building up the title match between him and CM Punk at the forthcoming Night of Champions pay per view.

-Jeff Hardy vs. Kane: I can’t actually put into words how little I care about Kane. I don’t think he’s a bad wrestler, it’s just that nothing he does means anything to me. Still, this match with Jeff is pretty damn good it has to be said. Jeff starts off strong before being grounded by Kane. Kane delivers some strong looking kicks to Jeff and whips him into the ring post, wrapping him around it. Jeff eventually makes his comeback and hits the Twist of Fate but, before he can hit the Swanton Bomb, CM Punk’s music hits causing a distraction that allows Kane to deliver a top rope chokeslam for the win, with Punk smiling on from the stage.

-Cryme Tyme’s “Word Up” segment is next. I feel like I’m dying a little inside as I watch Cryme Tyme teach us all about the meaning of the word “bromance” before Jesse makes his usual pointless cameo. Although I will admit to laughing out loud when, in an attempt to entice Cryme Tyme to attend a party in his room, Jesse yelled “But I have Sega Genesis… with TWO controllers!” But one good line does not an entertaining segment make unfortunately.

-Next we see John Morrison in Teddy Long’s office where Morrison reiterates that he will be facing the winner of the Punk-Hardy at Night of Champions. Dolph Ziggler then appears from a closet. Dolph doesn’t have to say anything and I’m already laughing. His mannerisms are great. Maria then comes out of the closet too and delivers a firm smack to Ziggler’s ass and wishes him well in his match tonight. Ziggler’s the man.

-Dolph Ziggler vs. John Morrison: I had high hopes for this match, as John Morrison has really stepped up to the plate in recent weeks as a star in the making and the match didn’t disappoint. Some great kicks from Morrison and a stiff looking running knee all contribute to a great match up and Ziggler’s heel work was solid as well. Following a nice combination of counters, Ziggler steals the win with a roll up and a handful of tights. That dastardly Ziggler.

-Next we see vignette for R-Truth, except it’s not R-Truth. For reasons only WWE creative really knows, R-Truth is now the buck toothed Pretty Ricky. Huh? This bizarre video showed the hapless Ricky attempting to get into the arena for Smackdown and failing.  I’m not filled with confidence for R-Truth’s new gimmick upon this first viewing but who knows? It might end up being comedy genius. I very much doubt it though.

-Melina and Eve Torres vs. Michelle McCool and Layla: A strong showing from the Divas in this match, with McCool continuing to impress me with her in ring work, particularly with the emphasis she’s now putting on submissions. Tonight we were treated a figure four headlock from the Women’s champion, which isn’t something I expect to see in a WWE Divas match. Layla also took a hard bump to the outside following a baseball slide which looked pretty nasty. Following a collision between Layla and Michelle, Melina rolled Layla up for the pin. After the bell, Michelle McCool attacked Melina and the two brawled at ringside.

-Jeff Hardy joins J.R and Todd Grisham at the announce table to provide guest commentary for the forthcoming CM Punk-Great Khali match.

-CM Punk enters and launches into a promo, reprimanding Jeff for making fun of his eye injury.  He then produces the ointment he has to apply to his injured eye and tells Jeff that, unlike him, he obtains his drugs on prescription. He then brings up Jeff’s Wellness Policy violations and tells him that he has “zero chance” of winning Punk’s title at Night of Champions. A great promo from Punk who edges ever closer to being a full on heel.  Hurrah!

CM Punk vs. The Great Khali: This match was as you’d expect with Khali overpowering Punk for the most part and Punk getting in occasional offence. At the end of the bout, Khali hit Punk with the Punjabi Plunge but before he gets the three-count Kane emerges with a steel chair. Ranjin Singh passes Khali a chair of his own. Kane strikes first, but Khali stays upright before nailing Kane with the chair, causing The Big Red Machine to retreat for the second week in a row. Just get this feud over with already. It’s only been a couple of weeks but I’m already beyond disinterested.

The Hart Dynasty vs. Cryme Tyme: A solid effort from both teams, with David Harry giving the proverbial nod to his dad with a vertical suplex and various other small touches. The match ended when Natalya jumped up on the ring apron, distracting both JTG and the referee as The Hart Dynasty executed a double-team assault for the win. It was certainly good to see the Hart Dynasty picking up the win following Cryme Tyme’s victory last week. I don’t object to a feud between the two teams but I’d rather see the Hart Dynasty feud with a more dynamic tag team, ring work wise. Actually, I’ll take any team, as long it’s not Cryme Tyme, even if they suck in the ring.

-It’s now main event time, as Chris Jericho makes his way to the ring. He cuts a promo putting himself over as the best at what he does in the world today (which is hard to disagree with given the tremendous work he’s done, both in and out of the ring recently). He also pulls another couple of diamonds from “Chris Jericho’s Big Book of Big Words”. Tonight we get ‘macalstraint’ and another word I’ve forgotten because it was so awesomely big, I’ve no idea what those words mean but they sounded badass.

Chris Jericho vs. Rey Mysterio (IC Title match): The match kicks off with Jericho taking control early on and working on Rey’s lower back (in between dealing out some trash talk). Jericho continued work on the back of Mysterio by utilising a great looking spinning torture rack and avoiding a 619 attempt from Rey, resulting in the IC champ taking a rough spill to the outside. Rey springboards into a Codebreaker from Jericho but kicks out. He then hits the 619 and a splash to pick up the win. Another fantastic outing from both men, with Jericho giving a masterclass in wrestling psychology with all work on Mysterio’s lower back.

Following the match, Edge runs in and deliver a spear to Mysterio and assists Jericho in delivering another Codebreaker to the weary Mysterio. Dolph Ziggler then makes an appearance and hits his finisher on Rey Rey so it looks as though Ziggler and Mysterio will feud while Jericho and Edge continue their tag team champion reign (although this Smackdown was taped before Edge got injured so it will be interesting to see how things develop on TV next week).

A good Smackdown overall (mostly due to the superb Jericho-Mysterio match) but a few moments had me scratching my head, particularly the R-Truth Pretty Ricky experiment and, as always, Cryme Tyme and their “Word Up” nonsense but, as I always say, this is WWE. You gotta take the rough with the smooth.

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-Todd Grisham welcomes us to the show, tonight coming from Fresno, California. Tonight we have the Smackdown fallout from the Bash.

-The show begins with CM Punk coming the ring to explain his kicking of the referee at the Bash. Judging by the reaction of the live crowd, Punk’s turn fully to heel is imminent. After explaining how the errant kick he threw at the referee on Sunday night at the Bash was due to him being unable to see because of an eye injury, Punk admonishes Jeff’s actions after the match and asks him to come down to apologize.

-Teddy Long enters the ring and says that Jeff and Punk will have a rematch at Night of Champions later this month. He also states that Vinnie Mac liked his shaking up of things so much at the Bash that he’s decided to team Punk and Hardy up to face the new unified tag team champions, Edge and Chris Jericho tonight as the main event. Hardy and Punk then face off, with Hardy calling bullshit on the whole eye injury thing. Punk then tells Hardy that instead of hitting him, Jeff should “Just say no.” All in all, a pretty good segment and Punk’s sign off line was a nice touch. Hopefully we’ll have the fully-fledged, straight edge, heel Punk in our lives again soon.

-Finlay vs. Ricky Ortiz
Barely five minutes long, this match ended with Finlay hitting the Celtic Cross for the three. Short and pointless, but no harm done.

-We see Dolph Ziggler and Maria backstage, reminiscing about their date the previous night. Ziggler’s attempting at acting cool around Maria give me the impression he’s going to be gold at some in the future. I was laughing just by looking at him.

-J.R tell us that Rey Mysterio will be facing Kane tonight in a non-title match tonight. Could have done without knowing that.

- Dolph Ziggler vs. R-Truth
A short, pretty entertaining back and forth match ends with Ziggler hitting his finisher for the win. Looks like Dolph’s getting a bit of a push which could be pretty good. He seems to have quite a lot of potential for entertaining shenanigans.

-Next it’s Cryme Tyme’s “Word Up” segment. I enjoyed making a cup of tea and sandwich at this point during Smackdown last week but now I actually have to watch it. This was an unforeseen hardship. Tonight, Cryme Tyme hide behind some large pot plants and spy on Layla. More unnerving than that is the fact that, while they’re doing that, Shad appears to have his hand on his genitals for the duration. Then Jesse, formerly of Jesse and Festus fame, showing up and talking shit. This was total balls.

- Kane vs. Rey Mysterio
After his tremendous matches recently with Chris Jericho, I’m sure Rey Rey was just as disappointed as the viewing public when he found he was going to be competing against Kane tonight. Still, the match isn’t bad. Kane destroys Mysterio for the most part, eventually picking up the win with a chokeslam after a nice ending sequence. My initial thoughts were that WWE had made the I.C title look terrible by having their champ beat in a meaningless TV match but it appears as though they’re trying to build Kane again, and J.R did put over the fact that Rey competed in a great match just a few days prior at the Bash so it wasn’t that bad. Just as Kane’s about to unleash a post-match beating on Mysterio, The Great Khali lumbers down to the ring with a chair and breaks it up.  So it has come to pass. Khali and Kane are going to feud. And I have to watch it all unfold. Someone up there really likes me.

- Next up is Josh Matthews in the back with Jericho. Jericho once again delivers an awesome promo, even slipping the word ‘obsequious’ in there. Not only is this man the best heels in WWE, he has a tremendous vocabulary as well. Jericho is all kinds of awesome. He goes on to say that he’ll be invoking his Intercontinental Title rematch clause next week on Smackdown next week, so we’re in for some more Mysterio-Jericho greatness in a week.

- Cryme Tyme vs. The Hart Dynasty
Cryme Tyme twice in one night? Smackdown, you are truly spoiling me. Pretty solid match on the whole though, just standard tag team fare. Cryme Tyme pick up the win.

- Melina vs. Maria vs. Michelle McCool vs. Layla
Cryme Tyme’s win was quickly followed by some diva related action. This was a good match overall, with only Layla being slightly hard to watch in the ring. Not that she was sloppy or anything, she just didn’t look especially smooth. Michelle McCool and Melina did some great work though, with McCool working more of a ground game and throwing some holds into the mix and Melina being…well… just really bendy. Melina pins Layla after hitting the Primal Scream and gets the three count.

-Next up we see a segment with John Morrison and Teddy Long in Long’s office. This basically revolves around the two of them singing Michael Jackson songs and then Morrison interpreting the lyrics to fit the situation last week when he pinned CM Punk clean. It was entertaining for about 20 seconds but got old pretty quickly. The segment didn’t end with any resolution to Morrison’s issue either, over being rewarded for his victory over Punk. He just basically sang some songs, talked about beating Punk and left. Strange. I was loosking forward to seeing more of Morrison this week but alas, it was not to be.

- Edge and Chris Jericho vs. C.M. Punk and Jeff Hardy
It was now main event time for this week’s Smackdown. Punk and Hardy took control of the tag champs early on, with Punk being visibly hesitant to tag Hardy in. Shortly after this, Jericho takes control and Hardy goes for the tag. Punk acts as though his eye injury is bothering him and doesn’t tag in. After some more action Jeff hits the Twist of Fate on Edge and tags Punk before he notices. Following Punk battling with Jericho, he goes to tag Jeff but Jeff falls to the arena floor feigning an eye injury. Punk manages to hit the GTS on Jericho but not before Jericho blind tags Edge who runs in and hits the spear on Punk for the win. Hardy continues feigning injury until he gets to the top of the ramp, where he reveals it was all just a cunning ruse as the show goes of the air. Another good match involving these four men with some sound story telling throughout.

-Final thoughts
A good Smackdown certainly, but Morrison’s limited involvement damaged my enjoyment of the show a touch. The Cryme Tyme segment I could also have lived without but hey, you’ve got to take the rough with the smooth. Talking of rough, as I said before, the prospect of this Kane-Khali feud is going to haunt me. I have absolutely no interest in Kane and Khali’s terrible in the ring. This is a recipe for disaster is you ask me. Or, at the very least, some fucking horrible PPV matches

More interesting though is the man event scene. With news breaking last night that Edge injured himself during a house show match with Jeff Hardy (a suspected Achilles tendon injury) it will be interesting to see where this takes with regards to the tag team titles and the main event stories. Look for some sort of development on RAW addressing this on Monday, with a possible title change in the works.

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-We should be having a new Smackdown reviewer for next week, so this will likely be my last one. Last week, Jeff Hardy and CM Punk each defeated the men involved in the “Mask vs. Title” Intercontinental championship match. This week, we get a cage match and Punk in a non-title match with John Morrison. Sounds like more goodness. With that being said…

-Taped from just another Chicago suburb

-Your hosts those guys… you know the ones

Vince McMahon opens things up. Well, there goes this show. I’m reviewing the show off Hulu this week, so there might be a little less detail this week. Boy, that evil face of Vince McMahon really is too creepy. He makes fun of Wisconsin. He says the crowd is scared of him. He talks about jobs. Two days from a Pay-Per-View and we get this garbage. I know McMahon would never ever read this article or this review. I know he’s a successful businessman who’s re-made the wrestling business and killed WCW. I also know’s an egomaniac and that his continued presence onscreen only reveals his insecurities. Speaking of revealing insecurities, he then dresses Teddy Long down. And since we can’t call it a “cage match” because it’s too southern wrasslin’ it’s a “Rage in the Cage” match. Great, Teddy Long is on probation You know, fuck Vince and fuck this shit. Moving on…

-R-Truth comes out rapping, but Vince won’t say What’s up. After a commercial, Sheldon Benjamin comes out and speaks. Benjamin says some stuff that confirms that all the writers have to be white. Stuff about education and speaking properly. The delivery wasn’t so bad. What he was saying just continued to drag down this show further.

- R Truth vs. Shelton Benjamin

Since I can’t rewind or fast forward that easily, no times this week. The good news is this match got a fair amount of time and had a chance to develop. The bad news is that it was dreadfully boring because Sheldon Benjamin on offense does not equal success. He wrestles with so little aggressiveness and passion that it’s hard for me not to tune out. The best example was this backbreaker that he executed. He put so little effort into it that it killed the match even further. R-Truth might not be technically sound sometimes, but at least he’s exciting and brings some personality forward. R-Truth wins with what JR called “The Lie Detector.” It’s just his spinkick thing.

Winner: R-Truth

-More Vince. He talks to Rey Rey. Rey Rey speaks Spanish. Teddy Long is next to Vince as Vince points out we only speak English on Smackdown. Racial overtones and now this? What did President Obama do to piss him off now?

- Alicia Fox and Michelle McCool vs. Gail Kim and Melina

Cause this is going to help the show out at this point. Melina and McCool will meet at “The Bash.” I’m sooooooooooo excited for that. Melina gets kicked in the face by McCool, and her post-show plans must now be changed. I love how Gail Kim, chick who can actually wrestle, gets jobbed out. McCool wins with the Fairthbreaker. Gim loses to the bastardized version of the Styles Clash for a third time. I really hate Vince McMahon.

-Two worst words in the English language put together at this point. More Vince. This time he talks with CM Punk. Punk gives this look at the camera as if to say “Look at this goof.” I laughed heartily at this. That redeemed this segment, even when Punk spouted the garbage about being addicted to competition. He says it in such a mocking way that I can’t even be angry anymore.

-Brief discussion of The Great Khali vs. Dolph Ziggler  match that takes place Sunday. Again, thank God I’m not spending forty bucks on that show.

-It’s now time for the first edition of Cryme Time’s Word Up. I guess this is a new weekly segment that’s intended to be funny but isn’t. This was so mind-boggingly awful. They basically rip off Urban Dictionary by defining some word that is something resembling English but really just further bastardizes our language. Jesse interrupts and raps. Great, we have another John Cena rip-off. Where’s Vince to fire all three of these yabos?

- NON-TITLE MATCH: CM Punk © vs. John Morrison

Thank God. Very slow build before the commercial. Always appreciated since that means this is getting 15 minutes. The crowd kinda sat on their hands, but by the end they were going bonkers. Some great maneuvers here as they improved on their series of matches from 2007 ECW.  The ending was also very creative as it ended up being a series of reversals leading into Morrison holding Punk’s  shoulders together for three. Great great match that I almost enjoyed more than Morrison’s with Edge because it leaves the door wide open for these guys to do a match at the following Pay-Per-View. They didn’t even hit any of their big moves, but found a way to have a great wrestling match. Morrison is not all the way there as a babyface, but by continuing to have these kinds of matches, he’s going to be a world champion very soon. The show is saved from an abyss of suck.

Winner: CM Punk

-Punk goes to shake Morrison’s hand… and he plants with a Go 2 Sleep. He then puts his hands to his head as if to wonder what he has just done. This only leaves more doubts about whether he’ll turn or not. Honestly, I don’t think the WWE is quite sure at this point. If Mysterio and Hardy were staying for sure, I think Punk would complete this subtle turn Sunday, but I’m not quite sure at this point. He could still very easily turn, but I’d rather see them wait.

-Josh Mathews interviews Chris Jericho. He asks a dumb question about why Jericho wants to unmask Mysterio. Josh has been paying far too much attention to ECW and not enough Smackdown obviously. One final go home promo that serves its’ purpose as Jericho adds another layer by pointing out how he saved himself and wants to save Mysterio once and for all.

-JR and Tool Grisham talk about “The Bash.” Glad it’s no longer a secret. Here’s the card:

- John Cena vs. The Miz

- NO DQ Match: Dolph Ziggler vs. The Great Khali

- WWE Women’s Title Match: Melina © vs. Michelle McCool
- IC Title vs. Mask Match: Chris Jericho vs. Rey Mysterio
- Unified Tag Team Title Match: Carlito and Primo Colon © vs. Legacy
- ECW Title Scramble Match: Tommy Dreamer © vs. Christian vs. Finlay vs. Jack Swagger vs. Mark Henry
- World Title Match: CM Punk © vs. Jeff Hardy
-WWE Title Three Stages of Hell Match: Randy Orton © vs. HHH
- (The 1st Fall is a Regular Match, The 2nd Fall is Falls Count Anywhere Match, If Needed, the 3rd Fall is a Stretcher Match.)

-The cage comes down, and here we go.

-Vince and Teddy talk to Jeff Hardy.

-Punk looks like a moron in the referee’s shirt with no pants.

- CAGE MATCH: Chris Jericho and Edge vs.  Rey Mysterio and Jeff Hardy

Very odd rules since you could by pinfall, submission, or one person escaping the cage. This was another really good match as the heat segment was on Mysterio. Basic tag team wrestling within the cage as Jericho and Edge work quite well together. Of course, the guest referee becomes involved as Punk gets speared by Edge after Hardy ducks. Punk sells the rib injury for the rest of the match. Hardy hits a Twist of Fate but with Punk behind him isn’t trusting enough to finish the job. Edge hits the spear on Hardy for the three count. Punk was noticeably reluctant to make the count.

Winners: Edge and Chris Jericho

Final Thoughts: Between Sheldon Benjamin’s speech, the way Vince was treating Teddy Long, and Cryme Time, that was an awfully uncomfortable first half. The Vince McMahon stuff was awfully disturbing too. I’m just so tired of his ego infesting every show he’s on. Honestly, he screeches to a halt any show he’s on. I can see the ending a mile away. Teddy keeps trying to impress, but it doesn’t matter. Teddy is going to get fired. He’s going to get humiliated. Vince will entertain himself, play the bully once again and no one else care.

Thankfully the new Smackdown six of Edge, Jericho, Punk, Hardy, Mysterio, and Morrison save the show once again in the second half. I cannot emphasize enough how awesome these six guys have been with their matches. The interviews have a little to be desired in some cases, but the match quality makes up for it. And in some cases, Jericho is so awesome that Mysterio doesn’t need to say a word to get the fans on his side.

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