JBL comes out and does a couple two-steps on the way to the ring. Oddly enough, Michael Cole came down to J.R.’s Boomer Sooner music.
They start by recapping the Edge, Batista, and Undertaker storyline since Survivor Series. A nice touch was that they had both Vickie Guerrero and Theodore Long switching between their respective speeches to Edge and Undertaker.
After the opening credits, Theodore Long comes out and says it feel great to be back on Smackdown. Since Vickie Guerrero is out, he will be acting in charge. He puts over the Triple Threat match for the World Title at Armageddon and also announces that MVP will be facing Rey Mysterio for the US Title. Edge comes out and interrupts Long. Edge tries to have a heart to heart moment speaking into the camera to Vickie but gets interrupted by Long. Edge runs down Long, talking about how he stripped him of the title when he was hurt, saying Long didn’t even give him the 30 days to defend his championship. Long fires back saying the doctors said Edge wouldn’t be able to do anything even for 90 days. Edge brings up how Kane put him out months ago and Long decides to make a match for later tonight where Edge would face Kane since he had so much to say about it.
Later tonight: Michael Hayes in the VIP Lounge.
1st Match of Smackdown – Miz and Morrison versus Jesse and Festus. Miz and Morrison swapped when they came out and which turnbuckle they stood on versus what they did on ECW. More good tag offense from M&M and Festus got some roughhousing in as well. The finish came down with Festus taking out Miz and Jesse went to the top rope for a move but Morrison knocks him down and pins him. This kind of set Jesse and Festus back in my opinion.
Elijah Burke is interviewed next. Says that he has beaten every Smackdown star that he’s come across since the talent swap started, but tonight he faces Batista.
2nd Match – Elijah Burke versus Batista. Batista comes on strong with the power game, running Burke in the corners and such but when Batista tries to run in for a clothesline, Burke hits a low drop kick to Batista’s knee. This sets up Burke for an Outer Limits Elbow on Batista then Burke goes up to the top rope for a move. Batista catches Burke coming off the top rope hard into a spinebuster. Then Batista Bomb for the pin. After the match, Burke couldn’t get up. Seems he got hurt when Batista caught him for the spinebuster, and in the replays it looked like Batista kind of stepped into catching Burke which might’ve knocked the wind out of him. Burke was on the mat for a long time before finally getting up and was helped to the back. Hope he’s okay.
In the back, Jamie Noble talks to Michelle McCool about his recent wins over Chuck Palumbo. Noble boils it down and challenges McCool to a stipulation that if he wins tonight, McCool has to go on a date with him. McCool acts like she has with Noble in recent weeks, but accepts.
3rd Match – Jamie Noble versus Chuck Palumbo. Noble comes out with a shirt reading “Noble 2 – Palumbo 0.” Palumbo pretty much manhandles Noble for most of the match until Noble gets the upper hand back. McCool then gets up on the apron and distracts Noble with her goodies but it backfires and Noble rolls up Palumbo for the pin. After the match, Palumbo runs down McCool for them just being friends and her agreeing to the stipulation of going on a date with Noble. He acted a bit like a heel saying she did that on purpose and that she can find her own ride home.
Up next is the VIP Lounge with MVP. MVP plugs the World Class Championship Wrestling DVD that’s coming out soon. So his guest tonight is one of the people who helped make WCCW special: Freebird Michael Hayes. Hayes puts over the DVD as well but gives some warnings about the consequences to all of the actions people take. How he’s kind of the only one left out of those days with those people. MVP starts running down Hayes about his age and about how good MVP is. Hayes backs him down once by getting in his face. Some good stuff in there about how MVP is the cocky star now that doesn’t care about all the people who came before him and set the table he now dines at. MVP then changed subjects talking about the close connection between Hayes and the Hardys. MVP asks Hayes how he felt about how MVP had dismantled Matt Hardy a couple week ago. Hayes said that the Hardys could handle their own business but he said when Matt does come back, MVP’s in for some trouble. Hayes also put over Rey Mysterio versus MVP at Armageddon. Things went down hill between Hayes and MVP and they came to blows with Hayes setting MVP up for a DDT but MVP backdrops Hayes out of it. MVP then hits Hayes with the Playmaker and Hayes sells it good, allowing Rey Mysterio to come in and make the save, hitting MVP with a seated senton then tackling MVP over a VIP set couch. MVP makes his way to the back while Mysterio checks on Hayes. Hayes really sold the Playmaker as it took him quite a while to get up and to the back. MVP was phenomenal on the mic tonight. Best VIP Lounge in my opinion.
From here we have quite a few interviews and segments. I can’t really remember the order but they put over Kane versus Edge, showing the events that led to Edge’s injury. They also have an interview with Batista and he puts over the Triple Threat match, how he’s never beaten Edge in a title match, and how he doesn’t have to be involved in the decision for the title. Another segment involved Hornswoggle pretending to drive the hot rod Deuce and Domino would use later in the night. He get upset and force Hornswoggle out of the car but before they could do anything, Finlay shows up and protects Hornswoggle. Finlay says Hornswoggle was just playing and that he didn’t break anything. He makes sure Hornswoggle didn’t break anything then tells him to go ahead and break something anyway. Hornswoggle snaps off the antennae of the car and breaks it in half while Finlay keeps D&D at bay with the Shillelagh.
4th Match – Finlay versus Deuce. Good match from these two as Finlay continues his face turn and gets his rough offense in while Deuce hit a few good moves like his jumping back heel kick. The finish comes down with Domino chasing Hornswoggle under the ring. Hornswoggle reappears a bit later with a fire extinguisher and sprays Cherry and Domino. Hornswoggle tries to get in the ring with the extinguisher and that distracts the referee letting Finlay take out Deuce’s leg with the Shillelagh and get the pin. After the match, the Great Khali’s music hit and as Finlay was getting ready for him, Domino hits Finlay from behind letting Khali get into the ring. Khali nails Finlay with a boot and tosses Hornswoggle out of the way when he tries to check on Finlay. Khali then sets his vice grip on Finlay and Finlay sells it better than just about anyone I’ve seen it on. Hornswoggle was also great being worried for his friend. After Khali lets up on the vice grip,
poses and goes to the back, Finlay keeps selling the move, staying in the ring for quite a while. Hornswoggle checks on his friend and Finlay gets to the back with help. On a funny note, while Finlay was laid out, a guy in the crowd shouted “Finlay sucks” quite a bit. After the third time, the kids in the crowd fired back with “You suck.” Guess that guy didn’t get the memo… but it’s good to know Finlay’s over.
From here I think we have another couple videos like the Jeff Hardy package and another Kane and Edge segment possibly. Kind of fuzzy on those moments.
5th Match – Edge versus Kane. Batista comes to the ring first and he takes a seat beside JBL and Michael Cole. Edge comes out, cuts another promo trying to have a heart to heart moment with Vickie. Looks like there’s a commercial between his promo and when Kane comes out. Match starts with Edge trying to keep his distance but Kane gets him and works in some fast offense. Kane hit Edge with some really loud uppercuts during the match and Edge sold them well. Good match seeing Edge get in some counters to Kane’s moves like floating over Kane and hitting an Edge-o-matic. Edge eventually gets frustrated and goes to ringside and gets a chair. Before he even really gets back in the ring the referee called for the bell and DQ’ed Edge. Edge gets in the ring only to be met by Kane kicking the chair in his face. Kane then takes the chair and smacks Edge across the back. Kane goes to the outside and gets a set of ring steps and tosses it over the ropes. He gets in and readies to nail Edge with them but Edge drop toe holds Kane onto the steps as Kane rushed Edge. Edge then spears Kane and sets him on the steps and readies for a Conchairto on Kane but Batista dashes into the ring to stop him. As Edge is contemplating what to do with Batista beside Kane, the lights go out and the gong sounds. The lights come back on and Undertaker has Edge by the throat. Batista goes for a spear and hits Taker with it letting Edge get away. Taker sells the spear for a bit while Batista stares down Edge. Taker gets to his feet behind Batista and motions for a chokeslam. Undertaker plants Batista with a chokeslam and I would assume that’s where it ends since after that the only thing that happened was Taker made his way to the back to his music and Batista made his way to the back after that taking some time to pose and thank the crowd around the ring.
Notes and Thoughts:
More than half of the camera side of the building was tarped off.
It looks like Edge’s pyro didn’t hit when it should have during his entrance because they fired it off for Batista when he was making his way back to the back at the end of the show.
Joey Styles isn’t kidding when he says Kane’s pyro is hot. I was sitting ringside on the corner opposite the entrance ramp a few seats back and I could feel the heat from here.
All in all, the only things that bugged me were the Kelly Kelly/Balls vs. Kenny/Victoria match (huh?) but that was kept short and the DQ on Edge for only coming into the ring with the chair. Both shows should be pretty good this week.
Pops and Heat:
Undertaker got the biggest pop when the lights went out during the main event.
Batista
Rey Mysterio
CM Punk
There wasn’t a whole lot of heat but MVP had most of it followed by Edge then like Mark Henry and Big Daddy V.
