Josh Matthews starts off this show in the ring, calling out Jeff Hardy for an interview. They play clips of Hardy beating Edge in the ladder match, and then CM Punk cashing in his Money In The Bank. Hardy guarantees he’ll be World Champion again after The Bash. Josh brings out CM Punk for a rebuttal, and the champ points out that he earned the right to cash in Money In the Bank any time he wanted by winning the match at WrestleMania, and it doesn’t say anything in the contract about not being allowed to cash in on Jeff Hardy. Then Josh asked for cheers for both guys, which led to Hardy getting massively cheered and Punk getting decent-sized boos. I’d heard talk that this was to “test” what reaction Punk would get before deciding if he’s face or heel, but by Punk’s mannerisms, delivery, and the fact that Jeff was allowed to get the last word in the promo, it’s clear he was positioned as a heel before the cheer/boo spot at the end.

After commercials, Hardy is still in the ring for his match with Chris Jericho. The action is very good as you’d expect from these two, and then there’s a great ending as, after a short brawl on the outside, Hardy is back inside the ring being admonished by the referee for something, and suddenly Rey Mysterio jumps out of the crowd and gives Jericho a huracanrana that sends him crashing headfirst into the ringpost, before sneaking back into the crowd and sitting down front-row next to two other luchadors in Rey masks. I assume they were luchadors, they looked too adult to be kids and I don’t think they’d be able to get regular adult fans to sit there in Rey masks next to Rey.

The next match is the next step in the Dolph Ziggler/Great Khali series, as this time Ziggler is able to escape with a DQ win using the old Eddie Guerrero finish where he brings a chair into the ring once the referee is distracted, and Khali punches the chair out of his hands, but then grabs the chair and is about to hit Ziggler when the referee caught him with the smoking gun and Ziggler escaped again. This was yet another good development in an old-school feud.

Next was Melina beating Alicia Fox with the Code Red in a short match to set up Michelle McCool attacking Melina after the match, with some absolutely terrible mic work after kicking Melina unconscious with the running knee to the announce table. I mean it’s like she’d never spoken to another human being ever, the emphasis was on the wrong words in the sentence, she randomly spoke really quickly and really slowly at random intervals, and she just totally wasn’t believable as doing anything other than trying to recite a memorised script. Badly.

Edge and John Morrison do in-ring promo work before their singles match, with Edge complaining about being left out of the World Title picture and saying Morrison isn’t on his level, before Morrison interrupts to call Vickie Guerrero fat (seriously, she’s fucking left the company already, the WWE don’t need to keep doing that shit), and does Canadian accent jokes that weren’t all that funny when South Park did them ten years ago. WWE booking snafu’s aside (the beyond retarded elimination from the battle royal) it’s very clear that Miz is the one in that team who was able to carry himself as a star. And it’s a real shame for Morrison that he sounds like such a twat on promos because, as shown here, his in-ring work has signs of real potential to be an extremely good worker. OK he’s in there with Edge who has been doing the “bump around, take your opponents big moves and do massive kick-out fests on nearfalls” for so long now you’re pretty sure he could do it with anyone, but Morrison’s work is flashy and spectacular enough that you don’t watch this and think it’s Edge making him look great (even though it is) but Morrison being awesome. The final stretch of nearfalls was excellent, ending when Edge was able to avoid the Starship Pain and hit the spear to win.

We then got a six-man tag with R-Truth and Cryme Tyme beating Ricky Ortiz and Team Angle. They have a short match that’s clearly just designed like women’s matches used to be on PPVs, as the piss break between important stuff. R-Truth pins Shelton with the spinning flying jalapeño. I’m surprised they had Shelton take the fall here, and surmise that it can only mean one of two things. Either he’s in the dog house again or he and R-Truth are breaking off into a singles feud.

Rey Mysterio then comes out to cut a promo, talking about how he wants a rematch at the InterContinental title, saying Jericho is a disgrace to that belt. Jericho answers by saying he already gave Rey his rematch and Rey lost. He goes on to say more of the usual greatness about how Rey’s mask will be his downfall and he needs to stop hiding his face, to which Rey responds with a passionate speech about how the mask is a representation of who he is, and without it he’s not the same person. Jericho then says he’ll give Rey a title shot if Rey puts his mask on the line. Rey says he’ll do it if that’s what it takes to expose Jericho as a hypocrite and a liar.

The main event was CM Punk v. Rey Mysterio in a non-title match, and Jericho joins Jim Ross and Todd Grisham for guest commentary. This was a really good match, the highlight being Jericho’s commentary to be honest, as he went on and on about how he’ll expose Rey as a liar and a hypocrite, while also making sure to put over how great an athlete Rey is, and when he’s doing his stuff in the ring as well as he was here, it’s not something you can’t really deny. The ending saw Punk attempt the Go To Sleep, but Rey hung onto the ropes to block it. Punk threw Rey outside, and distracted the ref, which allowed Jericho to ram Mysterio headfirst into the ringpost, in a payback spot from earlier. But in this case, Rey is able to beat the count at 9, but Punk quickly hits the Go To Sleep to win. Jeff Hardy runs out after the match and chases down Jericho. As he’s yelling at Jericho from the ring, Punk is behind him with belt in hand, and clearly had the opportunity to hit Jeff with the belt but didn’t. And it was WAY too obvious to not be something that was deliberate, so they’re still not going with Punk as a full-fledged heel, just a guy who will do whatever it takes, within the rules, to win.

Mark Bright
mark@ifight365.com