The go-home SmackDown for Judgement Day was another really good effort by the WWE’s blue brand, once more outshining the live RAW from Monday night, all the more remarkable considering an injury to Rey Mysterio on Superstars caused this show to be extensively rebooked on the night of the taping.

Things started off with a really good long tag team match pitting CM Punk and John Morrison against a reunited Team Angle, although of course they weren’t using that name. Getting Haas and Benjamin back together just showed that, even after five years apart, they are better off as a team than as singles guys, and if the WWE had any focus at all on tag team wrestling then you’d have to say that they never should’ve been broken up to begin with. They have a chemistry that all the top teams down the years have had, and worked their natural heel unit roles perfectly.

Punk and Morrison’s past as singles rivals on ECW was not touched on at all by the announcers, so I guess that means we’re supposed to forget about it. Athletically, Morrison is fantastic, but I’m not sure I’m altogether sold on him as a babyface, especially being the hot tag guy in a tag team, when he runs wild with dropkicks that showcase how he bumps it looks a bit ridiculous. But it’s an energetic and heated and good old fashioned plain fun opener, and Morrison using a corkscrew split legged moonsault on Haas to win just looked spectacular.

Next up Chris Jericho came to the ring and cut a promo about how he’s disrespected by everybody on SmackDown, which is now his show and there’s a conspiracy against him. When he did his conspiracy victim stuff during his Dean Malenko feud in WCW, he played it for laughs and comedy, but here it’s totally in his serious character and it works just as well, probably better in fact for a main event act. He calls out Rey Mysterio, but instead Edge interrupts to point out that he’s owned SmackDown for years now and it’s actually his show, so he calls out Jeff Hardy. They go back and forth before Teddy Long comes out to remind both guys that SmackDown is in fact The WWE Universe’s show. Ugh, great idea but the term “The WWE Universe” is maddening, they don’t need to hammer us over the head with it on every show. Anyway, he makes Edge v. Jericho in the main event tonight. That’s certainly a huge match that could’ve used some build, but like I said the show had to be thrown together to cover Rey’s injury, as I believe the original plan was an Edge/Jericho v. Hardy/Mysterio tag match.

Speaking of Hardy, Jeff won a short match against Ricky Ortiz, clean with the Twist Of Fate followed by the Swanton. Ortiz got the heat for a while so it wasn’t a complete squash but you knew this was just to get Hardy on the show and to put him over so they could talk up the PPV. And that’s not a criticism, by the way, it was a great idea. After the match, Josh Matthews interviews Hardy who points out that Edge can’t seem to keep the World Title from one PPV to the next and promises to win the title for all his fans that have stuck by him and always believed in him. See, with Jeff that’s all true, and the people know that, so it doesn’t come across as pandering to them, even though they are.

The next match was a women’s tag with Michelle McCool and Alicia Fox losing to Melina and Gail Kim. This was the best women’s match in the WWE in a good while, just your basic tag team match, but it was all action from start to finish, and treated as a serious athletic contest rather than a joke, basically what you’d expect from a promotion like Ring Of Honor rather than WWE, and here on SmackDown, which has taken a role as being the “wrestling show” of the two, it fitted perfectly. I think McCool comes across so much better as a heel than she did in her babyface role of previous years, and Gail actually looked like the Gail in TNA. I do have one complaint. Remember that annoying scream Melina used to do at ringside when she managed MNM? She did that here too, before EVERY SINGLE MOVE she did on offence, even basic stuff like forearm shots got the scream treatment. The ending saw Melina pin McCool with a Code Red.

Then we got Dolph Ziggler pinning Jimmy Wang Yang in a short match with a jumping Russian Legsweep. It was a good short match, but the key happened afterwards as The Great Khali came down to the ring, and grabs Ziggler by the throat from the apron and tosses him outside, then Ziggler escapes to the back. I’m very interested to see where things go from here because when Ziggler attacked Khali last week it really made me sit up and pay attention. To be perfectly honest, even though it would weaken the show from a workrate perspective, I would much rather they had added Ziggler/Khali to the PPV than Benjamin/Morrison, which seems like a bit of a non-event since Morrison has won all their matches and is the guy who needs to win again on Sunday, especially if Team Angle are back together as a tag team full time.

Then in a backstage segment, Eve gets revenge for Layla attacking her last week by throwing some kind of white powder over her. I wouldn’t cast aspersions on the WWE locker room, but it’s the WWE locker room and I’m sure many could guess what it actually was! They get into a catfight which is broken up by Cryme Tyme.

Then we got the only part of the show I wasn’t fully on board with, as Mike Knox wrestled R-Truth. Knox beat him last week and JR really put him over on commentary as a potential monster heel of the future. So I’m watching the match thinking it’s another big dominating performance by Knox, when R-Truth hits El Matador’s old finisher, the flying jalapeño for the win. Weird.

Rey Mysterio cut a promo backstage half in Spanish and half in English. I didn’t understand the Spanish but the English bits called Jericho disrespectful and saying Jericho didn’t need to worry about any conspiracy theories at Judgement Day, he just needs to worry about getting hit with the 619.

This is followed by Todd Grisham and Jim Ross standing in the ring running through the card for the PPV. They did this as well on RAW and I liked it, probably because it’s just a minor thing but it makes the presentation look fresher even by doing something as simple as that.

The main event of Edge v. Chris Jericho reminded me a lot of Edge’s heel v. heel match with Randy Orton on RAW a couple of weeks ago, which I just watched as I’m working my way through disc 3 of the Edge DVD (Review is coming soon I promise, it’s just most of the matches were fairly recent so I’m struggling to motivate myself to sit down and watch matches that are relatively fresh in my memory). The comparison comes because both guys managed to keep their heelish personas and attitudes in the match, Edge taking these big bumps and putting Jericho’s offense over, and Jericho ranting at the referees when he’d try to cheat, and of course throwing in an obnoxious “ASK HIM!” when Edge would be locked in even a basic submission hold. They also did the “both guys try to get the pin with feet on the ropes but the ref catches them” spot.

After some submission teases from the Sharpshooter and the Walls of Jericho and also a tease of a countout finish after a double knockout as they were standing on the top rope trading punches, Jericho brought a chair into the ring but Edge nailed him with a big boot before he could use the weapon, and the ref called for the DQ on Jericho for bringing the chair into the match. That was a smart ending because it adds to Jericho’s conspiracy theory, since he didn’t actually use the chair on his opponent, but the announcers can still paint him as a hypocrite since he did bring the chair into the ring.

With both guys down, Jeff Hardy attacks Edge, laying him out with the Twist Of Fate on the chair, but before he can do the swanton, Jericho attacks him, so Hardy dives on Jericho on the outside. Then CM Punk’s music hit and he went to cash in Money In The Bank, but Umaga made another appearance and brawled with Punk, who responded by hitting him with the briefcase and diving to him on the outside. While this was going on, Edge and Jeff Hardy brawled into the crowd, to be closely followed by Umaga and Punk. Jericho walks up the ramp while this is going on, and is attacked by Mysterio.

The show went off the air with Jericho and Rey brawling on the top of the ramp while Umaga and Punk brawled on the floor of the seating section with Edge and Jeff brawling in the stands. A great way to close the show, and three hot brawls that really made me want to see the three singles matches at the PPV. It’s almost like SmackDown, post the draft taking effect, has remembered the point of wrestling TV shows and are just going about the basics and it’s resulted in some kickass television. Long may it continue.

Mark Bright
mark@ifight365.com