It’s Friday night and that’s alright for fighting on WWE Smackdown! A World Heavyweight Championship match again highlights this week’s episode but tonight’s will feature Jeff Hardy defending against former champion CM Punk!
We begin this week’s episode with a video package spotlighting the great match last week for the World Heavyweight Championship between Jeff Hardy and John Morrison. The finish is interrupted by CM Punk walking to the ring to truly open our broadcast. During his promo we get the awesome footage of the beating he gave Hardy after his title defense against Morrison. Punk: “You can boo all you want, I know why you boo, you know why you boo, because I tell the truth and the truth sometimes hurts doesn’t it.†Punk runs down pill poppers, cigarette smokers, potheads, alcoholics and of course all Jeff Hardy’s fans in a good promo that the crowd was surprisingly kind of quiet for.
CM Punk vs World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Hardy: When a match like this opens the show you know shenanigans are afoot so why bother with the charade? Jeff is in full make-up tonight and looks like a member of the Insane Clown Posse tonight. Both men tear into each other before the bell even rings and Teddy and a group of agents and officials are out to stop it from starting? Vince McMahon comes out to end this farce and to blame Teddy Long for not keeping control of the situation. He says this match will take place later in the night with a McMahon-appointed enforcer that he teases us with but does not announce. We then head to commercial as Jeff tries to get at Punk again before more interference from the Smackdown staff.
John Morrison vs Tyson Kidd: These guys had a great match last week on Superstars so I have no problem with seeing a rematch tonight. The lovely Natalya and the large DH Smith accompany Kidd to the ring despite getting the boot in their previous encounter. Morrison is in control in the early going including hitting his awesome break dancing legdrop. But John is dumped outside only to get laid out by both Natalya and DH Smith as Kidd has the ref distracted. Morrison is brought back inside by Kidd after he dropkicked him off the apron and we head to a commercial break.
We return with Kidd controlling Morrison on the mat with a headlock in various positions. Kidd is yelling at Morrison and the ref so loudly that I actually can’t understand what the announcers are saying. John gets to his feet and a slugfest between the two men begins with Morrison eventually getting the better of it. Morrison hits a nice standing moonsault but cannot get the pinfall and Kidd is quickly back in control and hits an awesome legdrop with John draped over the bottom rope. Morrison hits a springboard kick and then Starship Pain (mostly on Kidd’s face) for the pinfall victory. The finish was sudden but the match was solid although I liked the one from Superstars better.
Cryme Tyme and Eve are here to drop another edition of Word Up on the television audience. This week’s word is “Pretenda†which they try to relate to their Summer Slam opponents Chris Jericho and Big Show. Of course Jesse joins the fun as usual but instead of getting embarrassed as usual he asks them to watch his match tonight. Wait…Jesse has a match tonight?
Slam Master J vs Charlie Haas: At this point Charlie Haas needs one of those J.O.B. Squad t-shirts from the 90’s. Haas takes control early with a nice overhead belly-to-belly suplex as Cryme Tyme and Eve watch on the monitors in the back. Jesse takes control with a series of power moves (despite being the same size as the ref) and heads to the top rope. Haas tries to slow his roll but gets shoved off and SMJ hits a splash from the top rope for the pinfall victory. That was brief and pointless.
Dolph Ziggler vs R-Truth vs Finlay vs Mike Knox: This is for an Intercontinental title match at Summer Slam and I am pretty sure we all know who is going to win. If you missed it, Rey Mysterio had a painful match with Mike Knox on Superstars last night and he joins JR and Todd on commentary for this match. When asked about facing bigger opponents like Knox Rey drops past victories against Kevin Nash and Bam Bam Bigelow and calls himself a giant killer. As the match begins Knox quickly takes control hitting his version of the flying burrito and several clotheslines. With all of his opponents hitting the mat we hit some commercials.
We return with Knox briefly in control but he is dumped outside by R-Truth who follows that with a crossbody and both men are down outside. Knox reenters to break up a pin attempt by Finlay and is again hit with a crossbody (this time from the top rope) by R-Truth. Ziggler hits a double ddt on both Fit and Ron and no one has been able to take clear control since we’ve returned. Truth tries to form and alliance with Finlay but it is met with a Celtic Cross. Truth is dumped outside by Knox, Knox is hit with the shillelagh by Fit and Ziggler hits his finisher on Finlay to get the pin and the title shot.
We get a brief backstage episode of “diva talk†from Maria and Melina as Maria tries to explain to all of us why she is dating that Dolph Ziggler, Melina might have thought her explanation was good enough but I don’t. Tonight’s episode has been very light on the WWE Diva appearances.
Chris Jericho vs JTG: Big Show is out with his partner and Jericho does have both of his belts with him this time. I love their theme music remix btw. Shad is also out in support of his partner so sadly we do not get Show on commentary. We get some rope work to begin the match which JTG uses to gain a brief advantage. Jericho (and the Show) uses the power of the cheap shot to gain the advantage both in and out of the ring. Chris follows up on those opportunities by working over JTG’s ribs.
But JTG makes a nice comeback hitting some nice high impact maneuvers both on the run and from the top rope. Jericho hits the Codebreaker out of nowhere but JTG is in the ropes and the ref refuses to count the pinfall. As Jericho complains, he loses focus and gets rolled up for a quick three count and JTG gets the win. Neither Big Show nor Jericho likes the decision but as they complain to the ref Cryme Tyme celebrates on the entrance ramp.
The Great Khali vs Ricky Ortiz: To the shock of all Ricky Ortiz fans everywhere this is just a squash match with Khali quickly laying waste to him with only 2 moves. Seriously the entrances were longer than the actual match. After the match Kane appears out from under the ring to sadly continue their feud. He shoves Khali out of the ring and then drags Runjun Singh out of the arena. Oh no! How will we know what Khali is saying in his promos now?
World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Hardy vs CM Punk: Matt Hardy is announced as the special guest enforcer. Jeff tries to talk to Matt before the match but Matt does not answer him or even look him in the eye. Punk taps his wrist and yells “It’s Clobberin’ Time!†on his way to the ring but is sadly not wearing Fantastic 4 inspired trunks. We get the big match introductions but only have about 17 minutes of show time remaining. Hardy looks to take control early on as he clotheslines Punk outside of the ring. Before he can follow up Punk dumps him off the apron and we get our last commercial break of the evening.
As we return CM Punk has control of the match and continues to work the ribs as we are assured he began this course of action while we weren’t looking. Punk follows an abdominal stretch into a pinning attempt but can only get a two count. Another two count after tossing Jeff into the turnbuckle and Matt congratulates the ref in the ring for making a good call. Jeff counters another toss into the corner with Whispers in the Wind and a drop kick as Punk is laid out in the corner. Hardy can only get a count of two from the moves and heads up top but Punk meets him and takes control with a superplex.
Punk tumbles outside and Jeff follows with a crossbody but his focus quickly turns to his brother but Matt has no reaction to him. Punk tries to take advantage of this situation but hits the wrong Hardy Boy with his baseball slide attempt. Jeff goes for the Swanton but Punk gets his knees up and rolls Hardy up for the pin. Before the ref can count the fall, Matt pulls the ref out of the ring and enters to complain to Punk about getting hit with that errant baseball slide. Jeff recovers to roll Punk up and matt quick counts him to give his brother the victory. But Matt does not celebrate with Jeff; instead he quickly and still emotionlessly heads up the ramp with Punk giving chase.
Punk is unsuccessful in chasing Matt down so instead he heads back down to the ring and starts a fresh beatdown on Jeff Hardy. After slamming him repeatedly into the announce table, he hits him with a chair and then in a Pillmanizing-like maneuver wraps the chair around Hardy’s neck and tosses him into the ring post. As the medical staff comes down Punk says;†Make sure he’s okay, make sure he’s okay. Fix him so I break him again.†As Punk leaves, Teddy Long comes out to tell Punk he can have a rematch at Summer Slam but only if Jeff is able to perform and it will be a TLC match. The crowd starts a TLC chant as we take another look at Jeff being tended to before ending the show.
