Tonights’ Smackdown comes to us from Houston, TX – 4th largest city in the U.S. (pretty far down on the ‘stuff to do’ list though if there’s a list for that). We are 23 days from WM 27 and hopefully we’ll get some more matches announced tonight – perhaps along the way of Money in the Bank, some Tag Title build, IC Title…probably not but that’s why we watch. One thing we are promised is the first Triple H appearance on Smackdown in over a year. I’ve been watching the Triple H DVD set from 2008 this past week and I’ve gotten a little more appreciation for him, so I’m enjoying his re-emergence so far.

“You Think You Know Me?!” – the familiar intro music of Edge breaks out as we open with the World Heavyweight Champion coming to the ring dressed in street clothes—black leather jacket and blue jeans. He’s gazing at the Wrestlemania 27 sign as we get a replay of last week’s contract signing chaos with him and Del Rio. Edge begins yelling in the microphone about how much he has been through in his career, and how he “tonight I don’t care about a match…I just want to fight!”. He threatens to stalk Alberto in the parking lot, backstage, etc. Del Rio answers the taunts as his music rings out. Thank heavens it’s without Ricardo Rodriguez, so we don’t get the drawn out introduction. It’s Del Rio with his NXT protégé, Brodius Clay. Del Rio admonishes Edge for daring to call him out. He says, “I am the man who is going to replace your legacy, with my destiny”. They face off in the ring and Edge doesn’t waste much time throwing hands with both men. Eventually the numbers get to him and he’s being worked over 2 on 1. The crowd noise escalates and here comes Christian right on queue. Christian ducks a lumbering clothesline attempt by Clay, and lands a big right to slow the Bundy/One-Man-Gang-esque Clay. He takes down Del Rio with a double leg and begins throwing lefts and rights. Clay gathers himself and rams Christian with a running shoulder block. Both babyfaces are down in the middle of the ring and Rio works over Edge with a series of headbutts and elbows while Clay clobbers Christian with a big right hand. The refs scramble in to the ring as Teddy Long’s music hits. He books the tag match of Brodius Clay and Alberto Del Rio vs. the legendary Edge and Christian! Long reminds us this is the first time in over 10 years Edge and Christian have teamed together….that’s a good enough main event for me.

After the break we have Kane in the ring ready to wrestle (er, “entertain”) and Wade Barrett on the ramp telling Kane he made a big mistake last week by double-crossing The Corre. Barrett jumps into the ring and lands some quick offense with Kane backed in the corner. Kane turns the tables quickly though and irish whips Barrett in the corner and lands a running lariat. For no apparent reason The Corre bum- rushes the ring and attack Kane. Jackson lands his big clubbing clothesline to take out Kane. Next we see Big Show coming towards the ring with a chair and we go to commercial. Back from the break we’ve segued into a tag match featuring Big Show and Kane vs. Barrett and Heath Slater. It’s Big Show and Barrett in the ring with Show getting the better of it, landing his usual style of offense (chops, punches, clothesline splash). Big Show goes for the choke slam on Barrett but he slides past the back door and lands a big boot to knock down Show. Another running boot flattens Show. Barrett’s size allows him to match up pretty well with Paul White. He tags out to Slater. Slater is aggressively busy but doesn’t seem too sure what he wants (or can) do with this behemoth. Ultimately he goes for a pin attempt and barely gets a one-count.. Slater locks in a chin lock Show lands a side slam/Samoan drop-like move and tags out to Kane. The Big Red Monster enters with his flying lariat off the top rope that lands clean. Slater’s in big trouble after a side slam and big boot “to the schnout” (as called by Booker), and the rest of The Corre recognizes this and bomb into the ring. Gabriel hits Kane with a chop block from behind taking him down and the bum rush on Kane is on full blast. Big Show is outside the ring not really rushing to help out. He grabs a chair and gets in the ring and wallops Jackson with a chair (for once, it wasn’t Gabriel that took the hit) and punches the chair into Barrett’s face. The rest of the The Corre scrambles from the ring and Big Show deliberates a moment before giving Kane a blast with the chair as well, for good measure. Booker asks “what the hell?!”. Barrett looks confused and Big Show just has a “what the heck, why not?!” look on his face. We go to commercial with Rey Mysterio shown backstage prepping for action.

After the break we get a replay of the Michael Cole (worst over-actor ever), JBL, and Stone Cold from this past Monday. It’s not worth commenting further here, other than I just echo the fact Michael Cole is a massive corporate tool who just gives me dousche-chills like no other. Normally I respect a good heel who is widely hated for knowing the psychology of being a villain and knowing how to draw heat. Guys like Y2J, Ric Flair, Roddy Piper, CM Punk, Michael Hayes, Arn Anderson, even Hulk Hogan, and so many more were masters at it. Obviously I’m not comparing him to these legends … just saying that there is an art form to being a heel. And just because people hate Michael Cole as a person and rejected him as a straight commentator, doesn’t mean he’s automatically “over” as a heel by simply behaving like a complete and utter fuck-wad. I don’t know what the right words are but he is beyond annoying, and not in a respectable villainous way. Just in a way that it’s obvious he’s trying SO hard to make something work for him, but he’s got zero charisma regardless of what light they cast him in. To me, he’s right in t here with the LayCool kind of nauseam. I look very much forward to seeing him blasted at WM 27 and I truly hope it lays the ground for him to go away for a while due to a legit or storyline circumstance. We’re told tonight there will be some kind of “legendary interview” with Michael Cole and John Cena tonight. Call me skeptical, but that is highly improbable. Not with those two…

Next up we have Cody Rhodes coming to the ring in his suit, but it’s a match as he’s announced and JTG is already in the ring ready to go. Looks like he’s changed his attire and wrestling in business clothes a la I.R.S. Cody is viciously aggressive and squashes JTG in this one. He gets the pinfall about a minute into the match after CrossRhodes. Wow, JTG is a full blown jobber it appears. So much for that IC Title run he predicted in late 2009. After the match is part 2 of Shawn Michaels’ interview and thoughts of the Lavesque vs. Callous match at Wrestlemania. Details of this should be on the Raw recap but I do like the straight “shoot” feel of these segments. Even if they are a work, they feel authentic and are done pretty well. Shawn is matter of fact and doesn’t bend over backwards to put over Lavesque, but still gets his point across that their brothers in arms and he doesn’t know who is going to win.

After the break we get John Cena coming to the ring with Michael Cole. Cole initiates a replay of the end of Raw last week with Miz’s pearl harbor attack…and People’s Elbow on Cena. Cole starts to talk but Cena interrupts and grabs the microphone. He correctly says if this is going to be a legendary interview then Cold will have to shut up. He actually says something kind of funny to Cole—“turn around and crawl back to that hole you were puked out of”. Cena congratulates on Miz on getting one by him with the attack. Cena is short and sweet, and basically says Miz should have laid low but now he’s awoken a sleeping dragon. He specifically says, “if Miz wants to be the new face of the WWE, then his focus has shifted to one new goal—breaking the face of the WWE”. His music hits and he starts to leave and is called back by Cole. Cole says he isn’t done conducting his interview, and proceeds to put over Miz some more (if that’s possible). Cole alludes to the fact Cena is scared and will blow his opportunity at WM 27. He throws out some more insults and Cena finally takes off his shirt and we hear a bunch of girls in the crowd scream. He grabs Cole and then Jack Swagger runs to the ring. He starts to beat on Cena but can’t get the ankle lock applied. All the while, Cole is cheering on Swagger and yelling into the mike for Swagger to punish Cena. It all sounds like nails on a chalkboard. Cena ends up hitting Attitude Adjustment on Swagger after attempting to get one on Cole, but the little rat slipped away.

Next up is my favorite Kaitlyn vs. my least favorite Layla. I’m sure it won’t be “pretty” from a technical wrestling standpoint, but glad to see a Kaitlyn with a spot. She’s using her strength to push Layla around but inevitably McCool interferes to distract Kaitlyn while Layla hits her with crescent kick and a neckbreaker for the quick win. McCool is wearing an ankle boot from an injury and they use it to beat on Kaitlyn afterwards.

The next match is Rey Mysterio vs. Drew McIntyre. Right at the bell Drew crushes Rey with a pump kick while Mysterio was turned away praying (might want to do that before the match). Next Drew hits a big around-the-world backbreaker and starts verbally taunting Rey. This is a perfect situation where they should let Drew win to give someone younger some mojo going in to WM, but you know Rey will have to win it even though he’s already booked in a match and is “over”. As I say this Rey is hitting his usual spots. Soon after though. Drew hits an impressive move that looks painful. He delivers a sideslam on Rey from the apron so that Mysterio’s back slams into the edge of the ring while Drew lands on the ringside floor. Quite the bad intentions with that move. We get a break and return with Drew kicking out of a pinning predicament. He’s been in control most of the way, and from the middle rope Rey headbutts Drew down to the mat and lands his seated senton. He goes for the reverse springboard off the middle rope next, but actually misses it. Mac turns that into a nice rollup attempt and gets a nearfall. Rey kicks out and hits a 619 and then the top rope splash for the pinfall. Booorrring (that’s “boo” and “boring” together, the way I feel every time Rey wrestles).

Cody comes out and congratulates Rey. Rey talks about how he wears his mask with pride and says he was disgraced when Cody tore it off. He’s totally disregarding the fact it’s been pulled off several times in the past, most recently by Jericho a couple years ago. He says ‘he’s going to wear his mask with pride when he beats Cody at WM’…and for some that reason that gets the crowd excited. I guess 8 year olds are easy to please. I hate him.

Long Live the King: Next up we get Triple H coming down the ring with his music raging—a classic metal number by any standard. He points poses and points to a ‘H-H-H’ sign in the crowd and pays homage to the WM27 banner. The music fades and he soaks it all in for a moment. From what I can tell tonight and in the recent Raw appearances, the crowd is mostly behind him than the Undertaker. We get a video package of Triple H highlights from past years that rivals the one Undertaker had played at his Raw appearance on Monday. We see him beating on everyone from Michaels to Goldberg and Orton to Swagger. The message is basically “If I can’t beat the Undertaker then I’ll die trying”. Levesque begins to talk about the great matches between Shawn Michaels and Undertaker, and how his emotions kept him from being able to defeat the Undertaker despite all his accomplishments in his career. Hunter says Michaels was overwhelmed by the “emotion” of facing the Undertaker and his WM streak. According to Shawn, Triple H won’t have that problem because he has a dark side—that allows him to do unthinkable things to anyone at any time without regret, remorse, without emotion. Triple H says that sounds like a horrible person, but the thing is it’s true. “I’ll stand in this ring, on the grandest stage of them all. In the biggest match of my life, and I’ll look into the eyes of the biggest legend ever in this business, and mark my words, I will do what no man has ever done before…at WM I will beat the Undertaker”. The crowd goes wild and I’m fired up too. He says, “I will have no emotion, I will not flinch, I will no blink, I will not hesitate for one second…and I will not become unglued by things that go bump in the night. Undertaker—you made this match No Holds Barred…Thank You”. I’m digging Triple H these days. Never had a feeling either way but I’m firmly in his corner against Undertaker. Streaks are made to be broken, right?

Backstage, we get Stryker interviewing Christian. Is this really the best they can do with Stryker? They’re reminiscing all the things we’ve seen in the last 10 years (Twitter, Charlie Sheen falling apart, Facebook, Jersey Shore, yada yada, etc.), but what we haven’t see is Edge and Christian—the two who started the decade off right. Edge pops in and looks intense as he simply asks Christian, “Are you ready?”. Affirmative – and they leave the camera area. I hope we get their old “you think you know me” entrance music—the trance, jamband version.

Brodius Clay is already in the ring and Del Rio gets the full blown introduction. My wish is not granted as Christian comes down first to his own music, holding his pectorial muscle that was damaged by Del Rio on Monday. Edge his next to his normal music and introduction—pyros, pointing to the sky, etc. Clay comes out firing but keeps missing with telegraphed, sloppy right hands that Christian easily ducks and counters. They bill Clay as the former bodyguard of Snoop Dogg, so I’m wondering if he’s passed his Wellness Tests with the WWE for Cannabis. The quickness of Christian is beating the power of Clay at first, but Christian gets distracted one too many times by Del Rio and Clay catches him with an over-the-shoulder throw that sends Christian under the bottom rope to the outside. Alberto capitalizes and whips him into the crowd barrier. Edge gives chase but Del Rio jumps the barrier and runs among the crowd. Back in the ring, Clay with an elbow drop and big body slam on Christian. Del Rio tags in and steps on Cage’s gut and lands some ground and pound. He locks in an arm bar to further damage the injured shoulder and pec area. Christian in big trouble as he gets stomped and clubbed some more. Christian mounts a comeback with a flying elbos smash from the top rope (after he was in super plex position). Clay tags in as Edge gets the hot tag. Edge goes for body press but is caught and demolished with a big powerslam. Edge kicks out and gets a drop-over toehold on Clay that knocks him into the middle turnbuckle face-first. Edge takes out Del Rio with a clothesline and lines up the spear. He goes through his gimmick and as he lunges for the spear he is leveled by Brodius with a flattening clothesline. Clay drags him to the corner and goes for a big splash but Edge gets out of the way. Things start to break down as Del Rio and Christian come into the ring and all four men are duking it out—Christian on Del Rio and Edge and Clay knocked down in separate corners. As Christian disposes of Del Rio, Clay attacks him in the corner, but is hit with a spinning DDT from the top rope (the same move Christian used on Monday night). Edge hits an elbow drop from the top rope and gets the win with a 1-2-3 pinfall over Clay. We fade to black with Christian and Edge having their arms raised high in the center of the ring as the victors.

Source: wrestlingtruth.com