This week's edition of Smackdown was taped last night in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at whatever the arena next to the Spectrum is called nowadays.
Spoiler-free preview:
- Triple H's State of Smackdown address.
- A backstage segment that starts a major bit of fanservice for loyal fans online.
- A good match on paper made during the address.
- A Wade Barrett promo.
- Alicia Fox, Rosa Mendes, Tamina vs Natalya, Kaitlin, & A.J.
- Mark Henry in action.
- WWE Tag Team Titles: The New Nexus [Michael McGillicutty & David Otunga] (c) vs The Usos
- A Johnny Curtis promo
- An R-Truth interview
- A match made during a backstage segment.
- A Jinder Mahal promo
- The main event, also a good match on paper made during the opening segment.
It sounds like an...interesting show. Spoilers after the jump, but I'll start with the participants of the matches made during the show and if you don't want any further spoilers, don't scroll past that.
The opener is Christian vs John Morrison, the mid-card match made during the show is Intercontinental Champion Ezekiel Jackson vs Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase in a handcap match, and the main event is Randy Orton vs R-Truth.
Time for full spoilers, so don't read any further if you just wanted to know who was in those two matches:
Triple H dealybob. He wants to fix the title situations on both shows. He re-signed CM Punk late in the show during Raw on Monday. He outright said that it's more complicated on Raw because there are two champions, so they're not going with the Shawn Michaels fake belt scenario from '93-'94. He said he'll straighten it out by Monday, strongly implying he'll make the incredibly obvious Summerslam unification match then. Christian came out and interrupted him. TRIPLE H ANGRY. TRIPLE H MAKE CHRISTIAN VS RANDY ORTON NO HOLDS BARRED AT SUMMERSLAM. Then R-Truth came out, calling Triple H "Mr. H-Truth." Awesome. Triple H booked Christian vs John Morrison and R-Truth vs Randy Orton for later in the show.
Backstage, Triple H was talking to The Identified Smackdown General Manager, Teddy Long. Zack Ryder interrupted them and Hunter made him Teddy's assistant. Friday Night Fanservice! WOO WOO WOO, YOU KNOW IT.
1. Christian defeated John Morrison in eight minutes with the Killswitch. Reportedly a good match.
Wade Barrett called out Daniel Bryan because he felt he should have won Money In The Bank and thus be able to get himself a Wrestlemania main event payoff. Yes, they're actually doing an angle about that. If they make a reference to the champion deserving five times as much for the match as Bryan, then we'll know someone read Jericho's second book and is pissed off over it. Wade attacked but got LeBell Locked and started tapping out. WWWOOOOOOOOOWWWW!!!!
Mark Henry confronted Teddy and Zack because nobody will wrestle him. Zack promised to find him an opponent.
2. Alicia Fox, Rosa Mendes, Tamina vs Natalya, Kaitlin, & A.J. in a two minute "What was the point of that? Oh, right. Boobs." WWE Diva (TM) match.
A Mark Henry video led into...
3. Mark Henry defeating Bobby Howard, an especially schlubby looking jobber. Henry went for the World's Strongest Pillmanizer but Teddy distracted him and effectively decided to suspend him, but then Sheamus came out. Since he turned babyface last week by not doing anything, he confronted Henry, slapped him, and tripped him out of the ring. I guess this means Sheamus is higher on the totem pole than Kevin Dunn.
4. WWE Tag Team Championship: The New Nexus (c) defeated The Usos in three minutes to retain the titles. Nobody cares.
Zack Ryder booked Ezekiel Jackson vs Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase in a handcap match.
Johnny Curtis did a promo for his debut next week.
Matt Striker interviewed R-Truth about the main event.
5. Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase defeated Intercontinental Champion Ezekiel Jackson in a handcap match when Rhodes pinned him after Cross Rhodes.
Jinder Mahal cut a promo in his eeeeeevil foreign language.
6. R-Truth defeated Randy Orton by disqualification in nine minutes when Orton beat the hell out of Truth with a chair in front of the referee after Truth hit him with the plastic water bottle while Christian had the referee distracted.
Post-taping stuff:
Ryder made Christian vs Orton in a street fight the dark match main event. Time to copy and past the rest from last week's post:
Christian finally got to successfully defend the World Heavyweight Championship by rolling up Orton for the pin while Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase distracted him. Then Orton hit all three with RKOs and celebrated while Christian sold being knocked out to end the show.