SmackDown started this week with the new World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk coming to the ring to cut a promo. It really was the only possible way to start the show, as there was much intrigue as to what direction his character would go following cashing in his Money In The Bank briefcase on Jeff Hardy at Extreme Rules. Punk received a mixed reaction from the crowd and went on to cut a promo that I interpreted as primarily heelish, but with enough logic and babyface traits that it leaves room for doubt, and also places him clearly as the tweener in a three-way-feud with Hardy and Edge.

But just being given the mic and the opportunity to run with promo time is a big deal for Punk’s career and a sign that at least some in the WWE think highly enough of him that he’s getting mic time that he didn’t get in his first World Title run last year. Punk admits that his decision might not be popular, but then nobody complained last year when he cashed in on Edge – and I think that fan resentment will be the cause of Punk’s heel turn, using the “all the great heels think their actions are justified” mantra – an expression that most people attribute to Michael PS Hayes, who not coincidentally happens to be the head writer on SmackDown right now. One of the important points that Punk made was that he realised what he did to Hardy wouldn’t be popular, but he’s never done things to be popular, just done whatever is right for him, which both fits Punk’s alternative loner look and babyface character as well as sounding like an uncaring heel line. Both scripting and delivery of this promo was really good.

Jeff Hardy comes out and calls bullshit, and clearly the crowd are siding with him, but Punk again points out that the ladder match stipulation was Hardy’s choice, which again fits into the “heel can justify his actions” thing, that Jeff brought on his downfall himself, which also helps the casting of Jeff as this tragic figure of a babyface that will hopefully be paid off with the big WrestleMania title victory he arguably should’ve had for either of the last two years. Hell, maybe Hardy keeps coming up short and having glory snatched away from him so he can redeem himself with the biggest victory of them all, snapping The Undertaker’s WrestleMania undefeated streak? The possibilities are endless.

Of course Edge wants to get involved too, and when he complains about deserving a rematch, how Hardy got lucky and how Punk clearly wants to be Edge, even naming his lifestyle after him, it was another important ingredient because it allowed Punk to be treated by the fans as a babyface against Edge, which will just help Punk’s heel turn even more when they cheer for Hardy over him and his resentment spills over until he snaps and turns full blown heel, which I’m guessing is where this programme is going. And, as much of a huge Edge fan as I unashamedly am, having Punk as the centrepiece heel of the show would feel new and fresh, and I have no doubts about Punk’s ability to get there. The segment ends with Hardy knocking Edge out of the ring, then hitting Punk with the Twist Of Fate and Swanton Bomb, which of course the crowd popped huge for even though it was a sneak attack. That’s perfect booking – just a tremendous opening segment. Teddy Long interrupts Hardy’s celebration to announce a main event of Hardy v. Edge with the winner going on to face Punk on the three-hour (yes I hate it too) RAW this coming Monday.

Backstage, Teddy Long talks to Chris Jericho, who says that he should be the number one contender, and Long gives him the chance to prove it in a non-title match against Punk later on tonight.

The opening match saw The Great Khali take on Dolph Ziggler in a rematch from last week, and after last week’s easy Khali victory, this week they got the feud back on track with a really fun short match with Ziggler trying to take Khali down by attacking the legs. When that didn’t work and he still got his ass kicked, he grabbed Ranjin Singh at ringside and used him as a shield to protect himself from Khali, then threw Singh at Khali, and rushed back in the ring to beat the count, which Khali couldn’t do, giving him a tainted win, and leaving Khali pissed off that he failed to get his hands on Ziggler. Which worked but would’ve worked a lot better if they didn’t do last week’s match, as logically that is what should have followed this bout as the next step in the feud.

Up next Michelle McCool and Layla won a tag team match against Melina and Eve Torres when Alicia Fox distracted Melina when she was going for a Code Red, allowing McCool to counter with the Faith Breaker. Melina as the plucky babyface so doesn’t work for her, and she needs to drop the Women’s Title as quickly as possible. The match was usual women’s fare but I did like the counter used for the finish a lot.

The next match saw Team Angle suffer yet another defeat, this time to the odd couple tag team of R-Truth and John Morrison. I was very happy to see R-Truth get some mic time before his match, the promo he cut on Chris Jericho last week showed that he deserves the chance to shine in that area, and he undoubtedly has a connection with the crowd that WWE could and should capitalise on. I know the WWE get a lot of criticism for their policy of even steven booking, but how many times is Morrison going to have to get clean pinfall victories over Haas or Benjamin before it has the consequence of pushing him higher up the card? The match was fine, mainly because of R-Truth’s charisma while selling; these last two weeks have been the best of his WWE career by far.

Chris Jericho then comes out for his match with CM Punk, but beforehand cuts another in a long run of fantastic promos. He has Rey Mysterio’s mask with him as a result of the excellent finish to their Extreme Rules bout, and says that as a man of his word, he both won the InterContinental Title and took Rey’s mask. He even twists it as doing Rey a favour, since he can step out of the shadows and when he’s out grocery shopping or talking to the mailman he doesn’t have to wonder whether the guy realises his true identity! That’s such a brilliant line, both for the heelish over the top-ness of it, and also it helps paint Rey as a modern day comic book superhero which is exactly what masked babyfaces in wrestling are intended to be.

Then his match with CM Punk allowed Punk to both wrestle as a babyface and have his actions justified by the announcers, although JR also sided with Ziggler earlier and in this match said Jericho was probably right when he said he should be the #1 contender so I think from now on they might be using him as a heel commentator. I don’t necessarily mean in the mould of a Bobby Heenan where he came across as being over the top cheerleading against babyface and for heels, but more like Jesse Ventura in that he’d find ways to justify heel actions and make them sound like they were in the right.

Of course the problem with that is that the audience trust JR and have grown up listening to him be right about all their heroes over the years that the fans may side with him and cheering for heels may become even more commonplace than it already is. As for the match itself, Punk and Jericho have always worked pretty well together and this was one of their better matches. They hit several big moves, with Punk getting his feet on the ropes from the Code Breaker before hitting the Go To Sleep for the win. He didn’t signal for it like he used to, but I think that was more a case of how the finishing sequence went rather than him dropping something that used to be in his babyface routine, as he otherwise worked face, and celebrated by playing to the crowd.

The main event with Edge and Jeff Hardy was worked differently to their usual matches, and in many ways the changes made it stand out more. Both guys were selling like they were still feeling the effects of the Extreme Rules ladder match, and therefore worked at a much slower pace than usual, but the talent of the two guys plus the excellent announcing job really put this over, and gave the match a more realistic feel than most matches, which I really liked. Punk was out again to do commentary on this match, again hammering the point home that he did what he believed was right even though it wasn’t popular, and JR backs him up on this, saying that Punk earned the right to cash in whenever he wanted by going through a gruelling Money In The Bank ladder match, and after an intense ladder match is a smart time to cash in.

The majority of the match was based around Edge punishing Hardy’s injured knee, which Jeff sold great, and it built fantastic drama throughout, especially when Edge locked on the sharpshooter. The ending saw the two guys brawling outside, and Edge threw Hardy into Punk, knocking him out of his chair, so Punk charged the ring and punched away at Edge. Hardy came back in, and laid Edge out with a Twist Of Fate, but turned around into Punk’s Go To Sleep. As Punk held the title belt in the air in celebration as the show closed, we went backstage to Teddy Long, who is for some reason sat with ECW GM Tiffany, and Long announced that Monday’s match would now be Edge v. Punk v. Hardy in a triple threat for the World Title.

I can’t believe they’re not doing a singles match one way or the other and saving the triple threat for the PPV, but then the cynic in me is aware that there were just recently another batch of Wellness tests done, so maybe somebody has a suspension coming up and they wanted to do the three-way beforehand, as placing Punk in a clear tweener role is part of a natural transition towards going heel that seems like it’s inevitable at this point.

Overall this was a really good SmackDown, and Punk was treated as a top guy who had a smart plan rather than as a fluke champion like he was treated as on RAW last year, long may it continue.

Mark Bright
mark@ifight365.com