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Tonight’s episode begins with Josh Mathews in the ring. He introduces Randy Orton who comes to the ring for a promo on defending his title again against Christian this Sunday at Money in the Bank. Suddenly we hear and see Christian on the Jumbotron. He is instigating Orton by telling him his father (Cowboy Bob) was pathetic and only a glorified henchman for Piper (Orton was actually a great ring technician as evidenced by the testimonies of his peers…see ‘Greatest Wrestlers of the 80s’ DVD). He reminds Orton how lame his dad was for wearing a cast for 4 years and says he’s only in the Hall of Fame to appease Orton jr. and keep him in the company. Christian makes a funny comment by saying he’s in the lame section of the Hall of Fame with the likes of Drew Carey and Bob Barker, not in the main wing with Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, et al. This gets Randy fuming but Christian won’t answer his challenge to come to the ring right now. Teddy Long eventually comes on and books a match with Orton vs. Kane.

The first match is a revenge match from last week with Ezekial Jackson defending his IC Title vs. Ted Dibiase. They show Cody Rhodes watching from the back the whole time. Dibiase gets some offense in early but ultimately retains his jobber status by submitting to the standing back breaker, which has me fondly remembering Hercules Hernandez. Rhodes admonishes Dibiase backstage and threatens him with the vile paper bag should Ted ever lose again. Ezekial Jackson defeats Ted Dibiase.

Next up is one-on-one rematch between Brian Daniels and Cody Rhodes. We get a recap of the recent feud and it’s materializing as a good one between two solid workers. It’s kind of an old fashioned feud with nothing on the line but pride (and a paper bag), and hopefully it will lead to more good solid matches. Early on in the bout, Brian gets Cody tied up in the ropes and delivers a running missile kick, followed by softly landed suicide dive. After the break, the two trade blows in the middle of the ring but Daniels gets the upper hand with some Euro uppercuts, hard rights, and running lariat. Brian hits a chinbuster and another running dropkick followed by some ground and pound. Cody turns the tables and hits a vicious power bomb slam to Daniels for a near fall. He also connected with a facebuster earlier in the match. Back in realtime, Brian actually tries to get the Labelle Lock from the top turnbuckle…and he actually gets it half-way applied before tumbling to the ringside floor. Brian jumps back up for a top rope missile drop kick and gets the near fall. Both men are up and dazed in opposite corners. Brian musters some strength and charges Cody in the corner hard. Rhodes counters with his running reverse side head kick off the middle rope (anyone know what to call it??) and it sends Daniels sprawling to the mat. Rhodes gets the pinfall from this maneuver! Cody Rhodes defeats Daniel Bryan.

Kane comes backstage to Teddy Long’s office and tells him he’s not feeling himself. He thanks Long for his match against Orton but goes on to reveal he is no longer feeling like a monster, but a human being, and he doesn’t like it! He successfully creeps out Long and the rest of us with his heavy nose breathing and menacing body language.

Next up is a bit where Jinder Mahal is getting a photo shoot done, but he freaks out on the photographer for photographing Great Khali instead of him. He reminds the cameraman that “I’m on the star!”. Next we see Christian sarcastically upset over the fact that “someone” defaced Orton’s personal traveling bus with a spraypaint and graffiti.

Sheamus is introduced next and we see Wade Barrett joining the commentary booth. We keep hearing about Booker T’s ‘Fave 5’ and it seems like anyone can make the list at any time. It’s kind of annoying, especially since Booker T totally looked lame and weak last week by acting like such a wuss when confronted by Mark Henry. Sin Cara is Sheamus’ opponent and he does his usual dive to the ring. Finally Cara’s up against a top tier heel so hopefully his perfect little streak will come to an end. I don’t like him being undefeated, and as far as I can tell, that’s exactly what he is right now. Sheamus comes out pounding on Cara but Sin uses his speed and agility to avoid serious damage and to land some flashy offense as well. Cara does his over top rope flipping arm drag, but Sheamus comes out better for it as he immediately lands the Irish Curse backbreaker. The match goes back and forth between a power move by Sheamus and a razzle-dazzle maneuver by Cara. Hopefully Sheamus is hitting Cara with some potatoes since he’s supposedly such a shooter. It’s a credit to Sheamus’ developing skills that he can have a good match with anyone from Triple H and Orton to Morrison and Cara. Sheamus goes for a shoulder breaker or power slam, but Cara gets over his shoulder and dumps Sheamus over the top rope. Sheamus either sells or legitimately tweaks his knee. Back in the ring, Sheamus hits a nice throw on Cara after smashing him into the turnbuckles. Sheamus sets up his finisher but Cara naturally turns it into a rollup and gets a pinfall. Ok, it’s official, I despite Sin Cara about as much as I do Rey Mysterio. This is getting very annoying (his constant going over), especially now that Booker puts him at the top of his ‘Fave 5’ list. Barrett comes into the ring after the match and attacks Sheamus. He hits Wasteland and leaves Sheamus laid out in the ring.

We get another vignette with Christian…this time he apparently is stealing Orton’s wallet (or found it) and uses the cash he has to play a quick game of roulette. He bets a thousand on Red 1 (for orton’s birthday, I guess) but it lands on black 20…he loses and uses the opportunity to say “Randy Orton, your luck just ran out…”. There’s another amusing clip later where Christian criticizes Orton’s acting from his recent WWE lame-duck movie, and that’s a pretty good little skit. Christian’s a good ball-buster and really comes off great as a sarcastic heel in this fashion.

Kelly Kelly defends her Divas title against Melina…how’s that heel turn working out for ya Melina?

Next up we get a nice little surprise with Justin Gabriel introduced to wrestle in a singles…against none other than his douchey ex-partner Heath Slater. There was literally no build-up to this match, and personally I think this is one a lot of fans would have been excited to see, and could have been put on a PPV as a lower/mid card match that would pique the interest of many. There’s some good back and forth chain wrestling and aerial moves, but this one ends fairly quickly (about 3-4 minutes) with Gabriel landing the 450-splash for a clean pinfall win. Good to see Gabriel finally winning as a singles wrestler, but it all feels rushed with no proper build. I think they could have milked some more tag competition from these two, and since when are they bitter rivals. There was some bickering lately, and the backstage shove by Slater, but nothing that was really cogent. Oh well, I’m not surprised.

Lastly, we have the main event of Randy Orton vs. Kane. Orton really takes it to Kane and dominates most of this match; he even lands an impressive snap powerslam on the big man followed by the 2nd rope DDT. Christian comes out the ringside area and throws a pop in Orton’s eyes, causing Randy to lose via countout. After the match, both Christian and Kane pound on Orton in the ring, but then Kane scares off Christian as if to maintain some semblance of being a face still. The episode ends with Christian pounding Orton and lining him up to hit him with the belt. The rest will be settled this Sunday at Money in the Bank in the great city of Chicago! GO CM PUNK!!

Recap:

Ezekial Jackson submits Ted Dibiase to retain IC Title
Cody Rhodes pins Daniel Bryan
Sin Cara pins Sheamus via rollup
Kelly Kelly defeats Melina
Justin Gabriel pins Heath Slater
Kane defeats Randy Orton via countout

Source: wrestlingtruth.com