This week’s Smackdown starts with a recap of the Beat The Clock challenge last week, and Vickie makes the announcement of Armageddon’s semi-main event being a triple threat match.

Yes, the announcement of the WWE Title match on PPV was done with a clip interspersed into a video package.

WWE Champion Edge v. Kung Fu Naki was the opening match, non-title obviously. After Naki hit a few kicks and karate stuff, Edge laid him out with a big boot and a spear to win. I love star v. jobber matches on TV, and this worked bigtime especially with Edge being aligned to the GM in that he’d have such an easy first match back. Vickie says that since Edge wrestled, Jeff Hardy and HHH have to wrestle as well, as tag partners in a tag team gauntlet, where the match can only end when Jeff and HHH lose.

Divas Champion Michelle McCool v. Maria is up next in a non-title match. It was probably only 3 or 4 minutes long, but felt like it lasted about 10 years. McCool went for a big kick, but Maria ducked and rolled her up for the surprise win.

MVP comes out, with no spectacular entrance, and cuts a promo about how he’s a huge loser and lost all his money. He challenges Hurricane Helms, who comes out for his first match in about a million years. I liked pissed off MVP showing more aggressiveness than usual, and when Helms gets back in true ring shape (he looked a little rusty here) I wouldn’t mind a long-term feud between these two. The finishing sequence especially was a little slow and shaky as they countered each other’s finishers before Helms hit a kick to the back of the head for the win.

Jeff and HHH confront each other backstage, basically hinting that they’d beat the shit out of each other if they fucked up in the tag match.

Jeff Hardy & HHH v. Hawkins & Ryder. Easy quick win for HHH and Jeff despite them getting into arguments and a shoving match afterwards.

Jeff Hardy & HHH v. John Morrison & The Miz. This went much longer, and was a good tag team match from all involved. I was very happy that Morrison and Miz were competitive, and I liked the underlying tension between Hardy and HHH. They actually got the heat on HHH which isn’t really what you’d expect from a HHH/Hardy team, but that actually made the match more interesting. The ending saw Hardy do a dive onto the outside, taking out both Miz and Morrison as well as HHH, which he doesn’t take kindly too, and they keep brawling on the floor so Miz and Morrison win by countout.

Vickie announces HHH v. Jeff Hardy next week and gloat over them beating the hell out of each other. Jeff marches in and Edge says HHH was to blame for taking him out in the hotel stairway the night before Survivor Series. Then HHH comes in and he and Hardy brawl.

Up next is Matt Hardy v. Chavo Guerrero, but after a short match Vladimir Kozlov runs in, throws Chavo outside and concentrates on beating down Matt, including tying him into the ropes in the old Andre The Giant spot and destroying him. I’m actually interested in where they go with this, I mean it’s clear from his awful PPV main event with HHH that Kozlov just doesn’t have it in the ring right now, so working with Matt for a few months might just help that out.

It’s time for the Christmas edition of the Khali Kiss Cam, which basically means Runjin has mistletoe with him and Khali is wearing a giant Santa hat. Instead of the random fat chick, WWE Diva Eve comes out in a sexy Santa outfit and Khali kisses her.

The main event is The Big Show v. The Undertaker in a steel cage match. I like that Show provides a lot more aggressiveness since he started going with boxing-inspired punch-based offense, but seriously he looks like a whale. Watching the No Way Out comeback promo or the Mayweather match, it’s shocking to think that this is the same guy only a few months down the road. And the fact that WWE is billing him as the same weight as they did for the Mayweather match is fucking embarrassing to be quite honest. That said, I really enjoyed this match, it had an epic “big fight feel” to it, and showed that two big dudes raining down punches on each other can work, can get over, and can be just as good as lighter weight guys running around the place. Of course it helps that they have a strong storyline, and it definitely helps that Taker in the last couple of years has been better than ever. After a long and dramatic main event, Taker wins with the Hells Gate submission.

Overall this was a good show. I liked the intrigue that was added to the WWE title match at Armageddon with HHH and Hardy exploding and Edge the cocky champion along with Vickie the evil heel sitting back and watching his challengers fuck each other up, the start of Kozlov getting his killer edge back, Helms returning, and a really good main event to top things off.

Mark Bright
mark@ifight365.com