The fantastic ending to the SummerSlam PPV where Edge got chokeslammed into the pits of hell was a great way to bring Undertaker back and give Edge some time off. The poetic justice of him getting payback for all the bad stuff he’s done towards the end was great too, but honestly Edge has been so great that if you’re giving him some time off and writing him out of the show for a short while, and wanting to show Undertaker as pissed off old guy teaching Edge a lesson, getting a simple 3-count wasn’t enough. But he was so good that it does leave a gaping hole on the SmackDown roster that I’m interested to see how they fill.

The show starts with Vickie Guerrero on the TitanTron, and she tries to turn herself babyface (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!) and announces another Championship Scramble for Unforgiven. I like that certain PPVs are getting their own identity outside of the big four, and if this scramble proves successful then Unforgiven could definitely become the annual scramble match PPV. Now they just need to bring back the all-elimination-matches format to Survivor Series.

Natalya v. Maria is the opening match, and doesn’t run long before Maryse interferes (with entrance music which used to make me mad when Stone Cold Steve Austin did it, much less someone who isn’t even in the same universe) for the DQ, and then Michelle McCool stumbles out, somehow not falling and breaking her neck as she made her way down the aisle, for the save.

The Big Show meets Vickie Guerrero backstage, and Vickie apologises for not putting him in the scramble match.

Next up is the battle royal for a spot in the scramble match, and Big Show comes down to sit at ringside and watch the match. Kozlov was eliminated first when everyone ganged up on him, then Big Show came in and just started throwing people out and beating them down. However, when he threw The Brian Kendrick out, Ezekiel caught him so his feet didn’t hit the ground. THAT’S 100% ZEKE! So when Show finally eliminated Jimmy Wang Yang and left, Zeke helped The back into the ring, and he was declared the winner. THE BRIAN KENDRICK IS MAIN EVENTING A PPV! He just HAS to get a pinfall in at some point, so he can brag about being a former WWE Champion even if it’s not official.

The final R Truth vignette played, which was essentially a highlight clip of all his previous vignettes, with the announcement that he’s debuting next week. I have been a real fan of these, and have always thought Killings got unfairly downplayed in TNA (at least once they moved to Orlando), and think he can get over big with a decent push in a company that knows what they’re doing.

MVP beat Festus to qualify for the championship scramble. Ok this is where the idea of a championship scramble falls down. MVP v. Triple H in a 1-on-1 match is something new and if MVP had not been jobbing all over the place people could buy him as a serious threat to HHH, and a strong performance and possibly even a win could make MVP a star. Now he’s just another guy in a 5-way including people who should be nowhere near the title such as (as much as I like him) The Brian Kendrick. The match was fine, and there was a nice ending with them brawling outside, so MVP laid out Jesse and snuck back in the ring, while Festus attended to his partner and got counted out. After the match, once the bell rang, MVP laid out Festus with a running kick.

Shelton Benjamin v. Finlay is up next, and it again shows up one of my bugbears about the WWE right now. Finlay got drafted to ECW, and I know in the aftermath of the draft that kind of got ignored and everyone was everywhere still, but in the last month that has calmed down a lot. And if Finlay can come over from ECW to try to get in this match, why can’t Matt Hardy? Why can’t Miz and Morrison? Those guys have all at least held titles recently. That aside, this got the long match spot of this weeks show and they delivered a fine basic house show match, with an ending that saw Mike Knox come out to go after Hornswoggle, which distracted Finlay long enough for Shelton to hit Pay Dirt for the win.

Jeff Hardy beat The Great Khali in a match that was exactly how you’d expect Jeff Hardy v. The Great Khali to go, especially once you know HHH was at ringside doing commentary. Hardy tries to avoid the monster early, Khali catches him and beats him down, Jeff makes the comeback, Ranjin Singh distracts, HHH goes after Singh, then hits Khali with the chair, then Hardy wins with the Whisper in the Wind. HHH, after doing a quite frankly HORRIBLE job on commentary, suddenly remembers how to put his opponents over as his face immediately turns to a mix of regret and fear that he helped Hardy win, and now Jeff has the chance to take his title.

After Hardy and Khali leave, HHH is in the ring cutting a promo about how great he is, when Kenny Dykstra interrupts. HHH pedigrees him and tells him to fuck off (not in those words obviously).

Vickie Guerrero is backstage writing A LETTER OF APOLOGY~! to The Undertaker for all that she did. Then after the break she and the rest of La Familia are in the ring, and Vickie reads her apology. Undertaker comes down to the ring, and Vickie tries to get him to accept the apology, pointing out that she handed Edge to him in a Hell In A Cell match, but Taker wants souls not apologies, so he beats La Familia down and Vickie manages to escape while that’s going on.

Wow, there’s a giant Edge-shaped hole in this show, and when you watch a SmackDown without him it really hits home what an amazing job he’s done carrying the show, and even with established over guys like MVP and Jeff Hardy getting a PPV main event, and with HHH and Undertaker on the show, it felt so empty without Edge.