Smackdown provided an excellent go-home show for the Extreme Rules PPV, a show that really needs some strong build going in, since the card is almost exclusively rematches.

We start with one of the cooler opening scenes to a WWE TV show in a long time, as the whole arena is decked out with ladders, including some in the ring, as Edge comes out to host The Cutting Edge. His guest is his opponent at the PPV, Jeff Hardy.

Edge starts talking about their history and how he always wins their big matches, but Jeff cuts him off and says if he’s going to listen, he’s going to do it at the top of the ladder, so he climbs up right next to the World Heavyweight Title belt, which hangs from the ceiling. That was a great thing, and Jeff says he’ll climb once again on Sunday to win the belt. It’s something that he’s often criticised for, especially amongst the online community, but I have absolutely no problem with Jeff Hardy’s mic work. His laid back “I’m just being myself” attitude fits him absolutely perfectly and also makes him stand out from the usual crowd of promo guys where everyone talks the same and makes the same points.

Edge then climbs the ladder to join Hardy, and at this point the ending to the skit is really telegraphed, I don’t know anybody that wouldn’t be thinking “OK Edge is pushing Jeff off the ladder in a bit” – but the fact that that’s what happened is not a bad thing. Edge hit Jeff with two belt shots, which Jeff sold as being really shocked by, which was fantastic, then shoved him off the ladder, so Hardy crashed off the ropes to the floor. Excellent opening segment, it was visually fantastic as the ladders created a different look, and built the PPV really well.

The opening match was Shelton Benjamin v. John Morrison, and like presumably everybody else watching this match I found it impossible to give a flying fuck, since Morrison has already been established by beating him clean twice, and beating his tag partner clean twice, as being a level above Shelton. Beating him clean again with the Starship Pain does nothing for either man. The match was pretty good, with Shelton working over Morrison’s knee and Morrison having to spend the whole match doing babyface selling, which is another string to his bow.

Chris Jericho then came out to cut a promo about how Rey is a coward and a criminal (great heelish hypocrisy considering the awesome sneak attack by Jericho during Rey’s entrance last week). R-Truth interrupts with his rap, and at this point I was like “fuck this guy, I hope Jericho slaps the fuck out of him” which isn’t the reaction I’d hope people wanted, but when Truth got in Jericho’s face and started cutting a promo I remembered why I wanted him to be a top guy in TNA in years past, he cut Jericho down for his whining, and got himself over as the guy who speaks the “truth” rather than the guy who raps through the crowd. Speaking of the crowd, responding to every R-Truth sentence with “WHATS UP!” was a great touch, and a good twist on the usual Steve Austin “What” thing which is overplayed as hell.

This lead to a match between the two, and it was another exciting short match that saw R-Truth hit a dive to the floor and some other cool stuff, but the highlight of this match was by far Jericho having Truth in a chinlock and instead of “ASK HIM!” Jericho extended that to telling the ref to “ASK HIM WHAT’S UP!” The ending saw Truth come off the top rope and Jericho countered with the Code Breaker. After the match, as Jericho is leaving he gets attacked by Rey Mysterio, and you’d think Rey isn’t the kind of guy for angry babyface punching people in the head, but it totally worked here, he got over his fire and anger really well. After they were separated by the usual crew of referees and backstage people, Rey broke free and hit a running seated Senton off the stage to the arena floor, taking Jericho down. A decent match, Truth stepped up on his promo, and the post-match angle was awesome.

Up next was CM Punk v. Umaga. Yes, they’re having a singles match two days before their PPV strap match. But that is the only problem here as this was classic and great pro wrestling. I can’t believe that whoever wrote the spoilers I read during the week called this match “boring until the end” – if you have no fucking idea about pro wrestling, why the fuck would you send spoilers to a pro wrestling website, because this match was goddamn awesome. When he’s in there with a smaller guy who can sell for him and take bumps, Umaga is one of the best wrestlers around, and Punk, as fans of the indies will know, has no problem having great matches with fat Samoan guys. Umaga’s swinging uranage move might be my favourite move in all of wrestling right now, and I thought it was very smart that Punk went for a dive to the floor, which worked for Truth in the last match, but here Umaga countered with a thumb strike to bring Punk crashing down. Umaga made the mistake of going for the Samoan Strap, but as the referee was admonishing him, Punk lifted him for the Go To Sleep for the clean win. So we’ve established that Punk can knock Umaga out, now we need to know if he can drag Umaga around the ring, which is the PPV match on Sunday. This should’ve been what they did for the last PPV match in Chicago, but you know WWE’s policy of jobbing people in their hometown, no matter how counterproductive it turns out to be.

The next match was a Divas Tag team match, as Michelle McCool, Alicia Fox and Layla beat Melina, Gail Kim and Eve, with Layla getting the pin on Melina after McCool took her down with a kick to the head once everybody started brawling on the floor and the referee was distracted. That was probably the sensible finish given they’re building to McCool v. Melina for the Women’s Title. But the highlight was Maria, as special guest referee, screaming out loud “DING DING DING!” as she signalled for the bell to ring at the start of the match. I don’t know why but that was goddamn hilarious.

The next match was Dolph Ziggler v. The Great Khali. Now, I’ve been saying for a while now that I’d save their match for a PPV, but I can see why some people would baulk at that idea. What we’re left with is classic pro wrestling, the cocky arrogant heel has ran and ran and ran from the giant babyface for weeks, and now it’s time for him to get destroyed, which is exactly what happens, as Khali dominates, save for one moment where he goes for the Khali Chop on the outside but Ziggler ducks so Khali hit the ringpost, ending when Khali won cleanly with the Khali Bomb.

The main event, between World Champion Edge and InterContinental Champion Rey Mysterio, was a great match between two of the best wrestlers in the world, and one that I would happily watch all day long. It’s your classic babyface v. heel story, which is perfect for both these guys, and even though they’ve wrestled each other a hundred times and could easily just have their usual match and it would be great and there would be no complaints, but they change things up even as much as taking Rey’s trademark bumps at the start and having him able to counter them. I marked out massively twice for two spots in a TV main event that took place before the first commercial break, which never happens.

Rey took his trademark “be whipped across the ring floor on his stomach and crash on the floor” but was able to counter the fall with a lucha roll landing himself on his feet, only to turn around into an Edge baseball slide. They followed that up with Edge trying to whip Edge into the steps, a usual spot done in most WWE matches, that usually ends in the babyface taking the bump and leading to the heel taking control, but here Rey is able to cartwheel over the steps, then this time can counter Edge’s counter by dropkicking the steps into his knee as Edge charged at him. Back in the ring, things got even better including Rey selling his ass off, particularly for Edge’ fantastic big boot, which works just perfectly against Rey, and the stretch of moves and countermoves and nearfalls was excellent, particularly the 619 teases. When Rey was eventually able to hit the 619, the people went crazy, but Edge was able to duck the springboard dive, although Rey landed on his feet, only to turn around into the spear for the clean pin. This was just a fucking superb match, the best on WWE TV in a long while (although I’ve yet to watch this week’s ECW and apparently Christian and Tyson Kidd had an excellent match although I can’t imagine it being as good as this), and one that just had EVERYTHING I want from a great pro wrestling main event match, I can’t speak highly enough of this match.

Afterwards, Edge got a ladder from under the ring and was about to hit Rey with it when Hardy ran out for the save. He laid out Edge with a Twist Of Fate on the ladder, and a moonsault off the top rope over the ladder onto Edge. The show ends with Hardy holding up the World Title belt and standing on top of the ladder in celebration. I can’t recommend this show highly enough, even in a streak of great SmackDowns lately this stands out as the best one easily. It made me excited for the PPV and had great matches, great promos and great post-match angles.

Mark Bright
mark@ifight365.com