We open from Kansas City, MO with an introduction of Edge. He’s in his wrestling attire and the crowd is going wild for him. He’s still got it with the masses and is definitely “way over” from what I can tell. Next is Alberto Del Rio’s music but the actual competitor to face Edge is Brodus Clay, the big protégé from NXT. Del Rio and Rodriguez are in his corner though. Some bad banter from Michael Cole and fortunately the match begins immediately. It starts with a powerful over reverse suplex throw by Clay as he tosses Edge over his head behind him. Clay with some hammering right forearms and a wrist lock into a shoulder takedown. Edge in pain and on the defensive early, as he gets hit by an old fashioned heart punch (a la Mean Mark Callous from the pre-Undertaker WCW days). Edge fires back with some right hands to get out of the arm bar but every time he tries to get some momentum he’s laid out by Clay with a clothesline or clubbing blow. Soon enough, Edge is countering and landing some moves. He avoids a splash attempt in the corner and hits a flying body press from then top rope, his new move. While underneath Clay, he tries to pull him off his feat for a sunset flip like pin attempt, but Clay just gives squats on him and gives an Earthquake splash for a near fall. Clay lines up another avalanche but Edge moves out of the way and Clay crashes into the corner. Edge starts going through the Spear technique but now Rodriquez and Del Rio get involved. Ricardo gets on the apron to distract the ref and Del Rio is grabbing Edge’s ankles from the outside. This enables Brodus to crunch Edge with a battering ram full body takedown for another nearfall. All hell breaks loose as Christian runs out from behind and attacks Del Rio from behind. Clay clobbers Christian from inside the ring and turns around to get speared and pinned. EDGE DEFEATS BRODUS CLAY VIA PINFALL. Clay is one a losing streak but it’s against championship competition at least. After the bell it’s pandemonium between Christian and Del Rio as they get into a ferocious brawl, which is broken up by Teddy Long coming out. He announces a main event of Alberto Del Rio vs. Christian in a Steel Cage!

After the break we get a solid matchup of U.S. Champion Sheamus vs. Intercontinental Champion Kofi Kingston. I still can’t think of a actual recent title defense by Kingston, which is tainting my opinion of his reign, but either way it’s a good matchup even if non-title. The bell rings immediately and we have a side headlock takedown by Sheamus and some quick pressure and pounding to the right arm of Kofi (still kayfabe injured from his beatdowns by Del Rio a couple weeks back?). Sheamus is all over the arm early but Kofi fires back with some combinations that is stalled out by a powerful series of moves by the Celtic Warrior – an inverted power bomb that sent Kofi face first into the top rope; a leveling short-arm clothesline, and a twisting neckbreaker that is all good for a two-count. Sheaumus has his aggression back with a surfboard and devastating edlbow smash. His aggression backfires as he charges Kofi in the corner but Kingston gets out of the way and hits the Pele kick. Kofi to the top rope for his gorgeous, soaring flying body press, and he lands it but the momentum reverses Sheamus into the top position and he continues rolling with it until he’s on his feet and completely lifted Kofi up into a power slam position. Kofi slips out the backdoor and lands some kicks and punches, and then a side neckbreaker. He then hits the boom drop and as he’s going through his silly hand slapping “boom” think, Sheaumus gets to his feet and locks up with Kofi, only to be hit by the SOS. Kofi gets a nearfall but Sheamus grabs the bottom rope at the last moment. The two battle ruthlessly outside the ring and back inside Sheaumus obliterates Kofi with a running pump kick for the clean win. SHEAUMUS DEFEATS KOFI KINGSTON VIA PINFALL. Whatever he did to recently get himself in the doghouse, it appears he’s back in good standing with recent wins over Daniel Bryan and Kofi Kingston. Allow me to just comment that this current reign by Kingston is about as lame as an IC Championship run that I’ve ever seen.

Next we get a promo for the reunited team of Big Show and Kane vs. Heath Slayer and Justin Gabriel. Hey, what’s this, a legit tag title matchup. As Show and Kane are talking about their match, they grab each other’s throats maliciously and Kane says “you complete me” with his sinister laughter. Show just smiles as call him “one crazy man”…kind of a funny little snippet.

Next up is Trent Barretta against Cody Rhodes. Dashing is once again wrestling i. He’s vicious and the implication is pretty clear that they’re pushing Cody as a deranged psycho/socio-path. He drills Trent with a heatbutt wearing his plastic protective mask and gets a squash match within 20 seconds. If anyone’s gonna get a big push it may as well be him…

Next we get part 2 replay of the Shawn Michaels commentary on HHH vs. Undertaker. In a Divas match, Layla defeats Kelly Kelly after being distracted by Michelle McCool. Pretty sure we’ve seen this before…like basically every week. Yawn…

The tag team feature match is up next with Just Gabriel starting in there with Kane. Kane is dominant at first and hits a hard baseball slide/low drop kick to the face of Gabriel. Slayer tags in and is greeted with a devastating right hand, followed by a slide slam from Kane. The “One Man Boy Band” is in big trouble in the corner and can only get something going until he ducks a Kane charge in to the turnbuckles. The champs tag in and out quickly and work the left leg of Kane relentlessly. Good continuity and use of tags. Eventually Show is tagged in and levels Slater with some clothelines, followed by a huge body drop and a couple big splash charges into the corner. He hits a choke slam on Slater and as the ref is counting three Just in Gabriel pulles the ref out of the ring to earn a DQ. Kane comes over and punches Gabriel in the chin and it looked close to legit. In this chaos we see EZ Jackson do his clobbering clothesline to take down Show, and Barrett on the outside rips Kane into the crowd barrier. Wade is directing traffic and we get a 4 on 1 team up of The Corre working over Show. Barrett impressively lifts up Big Show and delivers his wasteland maneuver. They take their attention to Kane on the outside, and though he holds his own for a moment, the numbers game gets to him and he gets tossed hard into the steel ring steps. The Corre does a number on both Kane and Show but this time there’s some unity b/w the two big men so perhaps we’ll get another teamup with Kane and Big Show vs. The Corre at WM 27. Wow, next Barrett and Jackson lift up Big Show and slam him into the announcers table and it crumbles on top of him. Kane is laid out w/ the steel steps on top of him. Both big mean lay in pain among the ringside wreckage and The Corre stands please, cocky and victorious (despite the DQ loss) inside the squared circle.

The next match is Jack Swagger vs. Chris Masters. It Swagger with some forearms to take the upperhand early, followed by a clothesline for a two count. Masters reverses an armbar into a nice firemans carry fallaway slam. He attempts the full nelson but can’t apply it. Jack works over his ankle against the ringpole uncompromisingly by slamming it into the pole and then kicking it into the pole with all his might. He applies the ankle lock and Masters taps. Then we get the human dousche bag Michael Cole crawling out of his little safety booth to apply a lock of his own on Masters. They run around the ring with their arms extended like a couple dorks and I hit my fast forward button to get to something much better…like Y2J!! (even if it is in reference to Dancing with the Stars). Good to see Chris Jericho back on an episode – hopefully it won’t be long until he’s returned and is wrestling. I assume he’ll be back as a babyface soon enough, perhaps after the ‘Dancing’ tv show. We get a highlight package and interview vignette. He’s as good a rep to the show as any wrestler possible. I’m sure he’ll do well but it’s just a matter of the fruitcake mainstream viewers and voters as to how he does (‘queer’ as in attitude, no sexual orientation).

Next up we get Rey Mysterio entering the ring and his opponent is the seldom-seen Ted Dibiase—the unfortunate latest jobber. Dibiase catches Rey with a sweet dropkick to counter Rey’s flying body press from the top, plus a hard lariat. He looks good early but there’s absolutely no way he’ll go over against the “untouchable” golden child of WWE, Rey Mysterio. Ted is in charge for the first several minutes, but is DDT’s as he goes for a power slam. Rey goes for his usual ‘around the world’ head scissor take down but Dibiase counters it into a BEAUTIFUL inverted power bomb. It was devastating but of course Rey kicked out. Rey does a lame little move to get Ted in 619 position, hits 619, lands his pussy drop from the top rope and gets the predicable 3-count. REY MYSTERIO PINS TED DIBIASE. Once again, I hate it. Rey Mysterio is everything that’s wrong with the WWE. I can only hope he gets busted with illegal drugs again/fails his drug test and goes away for a long time.

After 15 minutes of Snooki/Vicki recap from Raw and ring introductions we’re ready to start the cage match between Christian and Del Rio. The two men exchange blows but Del Rio is in control at first. Cage with a backdrop and both men try to slam each other’s faces into the cage but can’t get it done. Christian tries for kill switch but it’s too early – Del Rio is too strong. An irish wip by Christian to Del Rio sees Alberto simply climb up the turnbuckles and on up the fence. Christian follows and the battle it out with both standing on the top rope. Del Rio tries to german suplex Christan off the top rope but Christian holds on to the fence too tightly. Captain Charisma is hit with a somoan drop off the top instead and both lay down on the mat. Back from break it’s Cage getting slammed into the cage as he misses Del Rio with a flying tackle attempt. Side suplex by Del Rio but no pinfall. The two exchange maneuvers back and forth for about five minutes, including headplants into the cage, a killswitch by Christian, and eventually they are duking it out on the top bars with both men seated and facing each other. Christian’s face is slammed forward into the metal bars and it appears Rio is going to win as he is hanging by the cage on the outside. Suddenly, Christian gets behind him and holds Del Rio idle while not allowing him to move. Christian creeps past Rio and slips further down and they both go crashing to the ringside floor but Christian is first! CHRISTIAN DEFEATS DEL RIO IN CAGE MATCH BY HITTING RINGSIDE FLOOR FIRST. Del Rio doesn’t take it well and starts attacking Christian but then we see and hear Edge wailing on the horn of Alberto’s Bentley. He threatens to smash it up with a steel chair but is laid out from behind by Brodus Clay. Clay and Del Rio commence to brutalize Edge and Christian as we fade to black. This week, the bad guys stand victorious at the end.

Source: wrestlingtruth.com