With the Draft done, and the start of it taking into effect now, I was very interested to see how things worked out with the “new” SmackDown.

Chris Jericho coming out to cut a promo was a great start, playing the same anti-fan character he was playing on RAW. He ran down the fans, and complained about having to wrestle a Four Corners Elimination match later on this show when he should be named #1 contender anyway, and stated he’d win the World Title at Judgement Day. This of course brought out the new World Heavyweight Champion, Edge, coming off his incredible Last Man Standing match at Backlash with John Cena.

Edge and Jericho managed to interact with each other as two heels, and two big stars, but they are both such strong characters where I’d be really interested in a heel v. heel PPV match between the two at some point. This show emanated from Madison Square Garden, so Edge got heat for saying there’s nothing better than being World Champion when you roll into the world’s greatest arena, The Air Canada Centre in Toronto! CM Punk interrupted the heels and got what, despite a previous World Title run, was really his first on-mic interaction with top stars where he was portrayed and reacted to by both guys and the crowd as if he belonged.

In the long run I hope Punk gets more of these opportunities, as he could be one of the best talkers in the entire company given the chance. Punk challenges Edge to a match tonight, and after Edge agrees to face him but only non-title, Punk points out that he can cash in Money In The Bank at any point, so will do it after laying out Edge with the Go To Sleep tonight.

The opening match was John Morrison getting a clean win with the flying springboard kick followed by the Moonlight Drive against Shelton Benjamin. I think Morrison has superstar potential so I hope this coming across as a showcase for him is how it actually was, and not the start of some even steven booking where they beat each other over and over again for the next several months. As a showcase for Morrison’s athleticism this was really good.

Jericho is backstage complaining to Teddy Long, so The Great Khali and Ranjin Singh interrupt. Singh tells Jericho that The Great Khali says he should quit his whining.

Up next was the Fatal Four Way (actually a Four Corners Elimination as Fatal Four Way is first fall wins) match for the World Title shot at Judgment Day, which Jeff Hardy won against Chris Jericho, Kane and Rey Mysterio. This was a good long match, and the mass countering of trademark moves at the start was done really well, ending in Kane’s elimination and a great character moment where Jericho stole the pin from Jeff Hardy after Jeff had done all the work, and given it’s elimination rules he basically did it to be a prick, which is great heeling. Kane then went on a rampage which saw Jericho DQ’d for using a chair Kane had thrown into the ring on Mysterio. After commercial break Hardy and Rey were in the ring by themselves and having a staredown.

As a big fan of both guys going back over a decade this has been something of a dream match, and this little hint of what may be to come in a future singles match did not disappoint. They went back and forth essentially doing holds and counterholds, not even making use of their main trademark spots for the most part, and it was AWESOME. Give these guys 20 minutes in the opening match of a big PPV like SummerSlam please, that would get the show off with a bang. Hardy won by countering Rey’s seated senton with a leverage pin as Rey went to hook Jeff’s legs for the cover. A brilliant ending stretch to a match that was both fantastic and made you forget that the draft can shake things up to the point where a match such as this between four big stars can still come off like something fresh and make you want to see more interactions between everyone involved.

Jericho is looking for Teddy Long backstage and instead finds Maria, which gives him the chance to rant about dumb divas and people generally having no respect for him. Edge then comes in and rants to Maria about being put in a match with CM Punk just after going through a Last Man Standing match at Backlash.

Cryme Tyme host a diva dance contest between Eve and Layla that ends in a catfight.

MVP beat Dolph Ziggler in the match with the woman from The View in his corner.

Jericho finally found Teddy Long and ranted about being disrespected, and threatened to quit. John Morrison then came out and said he thought Jericho was a loser, but he’s wrong, he’s a quitter. Jericho slapped him and they got into a pull apart brawl. YES! MORRISON IS BEING SHOVED UP THE CARD! Not too sure about apparently turning him babyface, but I just hope he can keep the same character, and a Jericho feud is perfect for him right now. There was also a really cool moment at the end of the brawl, as CM Punk walked in between them for his match. I don’t know why I loved this, but I marked out so much I knew I had to mention how cool it looked in my review so I guess that means it worked.

The main event saw CM Punk beat Edge with the Go To Sleep in a non-title match. Considering the crowd were chanting Punk’s name and cheering huge for him in the opening promo I was a little surprised that the match didn’t have the same heat, although the crowd still responded. The match was really good, if a little short at ten minutes, and it’s questionable whether the World Champion should lose cleanly in a non-title match, but given that Punk has the Money In The Bank briefcase I think it works on the level that Punk has already proved he can beat Edge, and he’s proved in the past that he can be opportunistic when it comes to cashing in his title shot, so there will, if the WWE are smart, be this constant undercurrent of CM Punk in the background while Edge is defending his title.

After Punk won, he announced he was going to cash his title shot in, but before the bell could ring (and Todd Grisham on commentary was very clear in making the point that since the bell didn’t ring Punk still has the Money In The Bank shot) Umaga ran out from the crowd and attacked Punk, laying him out with the superkick and his spinning slam thing. As Punk struggled to get back to his feet, Edge stood over him threatening to hit him with the briefcase, but Jeff Hardy made the save, laying out Edge with the Twist Of Fate and hitting the swanton.

This was a really good show I thought, and totally justified my optimism in how good SmackDown could be given this new cast of characters. It looks like the next PPV will have Edge v. Hardy, Umaga v. Punk and Morrison v. Jericho which are all intriguing matchups and with the exception of Edge and Jeff are all something new.

Mark Bright
mark@ifight365.com