Smackdown – October 9, 2009: Punk Outsmarts Another Muscle Freak

I don’t remember why this was requested but it’s one of the few times someone has wanted to see a relatively recent Smackdown. On the card tonight we have Punk vs. Batista which should be worth checking out. Other than that I have no idea what to expect (well ok so I do but it sounds better the other way) which is usually fun so let’s get to it.

Let It Roll baby.

Undertaker won the title in the Cell recently so he’s here tonight. Also it’s Rey vs. Jericho which should be good.

Here’s Teddy to open things up. This is just after the HIAC PPV. Teddy congratulates Taker for winning the title and says it proves that Smackdown is the dominant brand. In three weeks it’s Bragging Rights. I think I was at Smackdown the week after this (further review: I was). Teddy talks about the Orton vs. Cena match at the PPV and if Cena loses he’s off Raw forever. They’d love to have him on Smackdown of course.

This brings out Punk for some reason and he’s limping badly. He talks about how Smackdown needs focus rather than John Cena and right now Teddy needs to focus on him. If there’s going to be a #1 contender named, it better be him. The match against Batista tonight isn’t fair after he was in the Cell just five days ago. Punk wants Undertaker in a submission match and he wants Scott Armstrong (semi-crooked referee) at ringside. Teddy says no and Punk says he’s calling the shots.

That brings out Vince in a surprise appearance. Vince talks about how Teddy is still on probation and that’s not good. What Long was about to announce isn’t going to please anyone. Vince informs Teddy that it’ll be Undertaker defending against Punk, Batista and Mysterio. And speaking of Mysterio, let’s have our first match.

Rey Mysterio vs. Chris Jericho

This should be good. Jericho is half of the tag champions here. Jericho and Show beat Mysterio and Batista on Sunday to retain so there’s the story behind the match. They start off fast of course with Mysterio tossing Jericho to the floor where he hits a plancha. The crowd is almost silent for some reason. Back in Jericho takes his head off with a clothesline, followed by kicks to the back.

Mysterio takes him down with a headscissors but gets caught and thrown into the air to put the Canadian right back into control. Jericho throws him under the bottom rope so Mysterio can do his land on his chest landing. Back from a break with Jericho holding a chinlock. Jericho hits an enziguri for two and drapes Mysterio over the top rope. After a quick skirmish on the floor Jericho loads up a belly to back superplex but instead goes for the mask.

Rey knocks him off and hits the seated senton as things speed up. Jericho tries a sunset flip but Rey rolls through and hits a seated dropkick for two. Jericho grabs the feet and tries the Walls but Rey rolls him up for a close two. Backbreaker gets two for Chris. The bulldog is countered and Rey puts him in 619 position but Jericho moves. Rey tries a springboard but jumps into the Walls. He can’t make a rope but he gets underneath Jericho and kicks him into 619 position. That and a slingshot splash are good for the pin.

Rating: B-. Good match here but did you expect anything else? They got to do their usual stuff and the ending was solid on top of that. This would put Rey higher on the totem poll than Jericho which makes sense as Jericho was in the Bragging Rights match instead of the world title match. Good stuff here but not as good as their stuff from earlier in the year.

Back to Raw for a clip from Ben Rothelisberger hosting the show.

WORD UP’s word of the week is Eve. She pops up in the video and that’s about it.

Eve Torres vs. Michelle McCool

Michelle is Women’s Champion. McCool takes her into the corner but Eve fires back. Eve controls for a few seconds but Michelle hits a running knee to take over. Michelle wraps up Eve’s arms and rams the back of Eve’s head into Michelle’s chest. That’s a different one. Eve comes back with dropkicks and a small package for two. And never mind as Michelle kicks her head off for the pin.

Rating: C-. It’s amazing how far this division has fallen in the last two and a half years. Laycool was so ridiculously better than anyone else for a long time and then they both left and the division fell off a cliff. When you go from Michelle and Layla down to Kelly Kelly, the ring quality goes down a lot, which is saying something when Laycool wasn’t great in the ring to begin with.

Vickie is in the back with whatever boyfriend she has this week. Oh it’s Eric Escobar. No wonder I didn’t recognize him. Teddy comes in and Vickie complains about Escobar to not have a match tonight. She complains about Punk not getting a rematch and complains about the Undertaker being treated unfairly. Huh? Teddy says it was Vince’s idea and Vickie is incensed. Eric speaks Spanish and Teddy has no idea what he said. Escobar would be off TV before the end of the year and released in January.

Intercontinental Title: John Morrison vs. Dolph Ziggler

John is defending. Feeling out process to start and they head to the mat. Dolph winds up on top for a bit until Morrison hooks an armbar. That gets broken up quickly so it’s time for a headlock. Ziggler fights out of that so Morrison hits a backbreaker and Russian legsweep for two. Maria is at ringside because she was dating Ziggler I think. In a cool move, Ziggler grabs Morrison’s leg but Morrison dives forward and swings his other foot over his head to kick Ziggler in the head (called a Pele by JR).

Morrison misses a corner charge and Ziggler grabs a bridging German suplex for two. Stinger Splash hits for two as does a jumping elbow drop. There’s a reverse chinlock and sweet goodness Maria is gorgeous. Ziggler stomps him in the corner and hits a powerslam for two. Back to the chinlock but Morrison stands up and comes out with an electric chair drop to escape.

Slugout goes to the champion and he’s getting all fired up. Leg lariat takes Dolph down and the standing shooting star gets two. John cross bodies him to the floor and they’re both down. Ziggler throws him back in and steals Maria’s chair. Maria takes it back without Dolph seeing her. Dolph hits a dropkick and goes for the chair (without taking care of the referee first) but after yelling at Maria he walks into the Flying Chuck (Disaster Kick) for the pin.

Rating: B-. This was a pretty solid match but the reversals were going slowly for some reason. They were fine and worked well for what they were going for but it wasn’t anything great. Morrison is great in the ring and as long as he can keep his big mouth shut and can stay away from Melina, he’ll be back in WWE someday.

Video on Taker’s seven world title wins. Did we mention he got the belt back?

After a break Ziggler won’t talk to Maria. He winds up yelling at her and says to stay out of his professional life. As for his personal life, they’re done.

Rey is in the back and Batista comes in. Rey hopes Batista isn’t upset about the loss on Sunday but Batista says it’s cool. They both think they’ll win at Bragging Rights.

R-Truth/Matt Hardy vs. Kane/Drew McIntyre

This is when McIntyre was pretty new and unstoppable. That’s quite a strange partner for him. I kind of miss Truth doing his own song. Drew still has a very generic rock song. Matt and Drew start us off and it’s time for arm work. Off to Truth as Drew is in trouble. Drew makes a blind tag and Truth messes up his spinning kick. Kane comes in to run over Truth and hits his low dropkick for two. After a quick exchange, Truth sends Kane into the buckle and it’s off to Matt vs. Drew. Everything breaks down and Drew sends Matt into Kane for an uppercut, followed by the Futureshock for the pin on Hardy.

Rating: D+. Not much here as they didn’t have a ton of time. McIntyre would take the title off Morrison soon enough but it wouldn’t lead anywhere. Hardy would feud with McIntyre eventually while Truth would go on to become crazy in about a year and a half with not much else in between. Kane would float around until the summer when he would FINALLY win the world title again.

Here’s Undertaker for his latest speech. The belt does look good on him. He talks about how the title is so important and that’s why he needs to hold it. He talks about the world title match at the PPV and says Punk won’t be as lucky at Bragging Rights as he was in the Cell. He’ll take out Batista and Rey as well. That’s about it.

Batista vs. CM Punk

There’s a lot of time for this. Punk immediately goes to the floor and it’s time to stall. We finally get some contact and Punk gets sent to the ropes. Batista takes him into the corner and rams him with a clothesline. Punk to the floor again but he manages to guillotine him on the top rope. A springboard clothesline fails but Punk escapes the Batista Bomb as we take a break.

Back with Batista suplexing Punk for two. The high kick is countered into an ankle lock of all things. Punk runs to the floor again and catches Batista coming in with a kick to the head and then a knee lift. Off to the chinlock and into a headscissors as JR makes the alays stupid statement of the two being the same size on the mat.

Batista comes up and hits the Bossman Slam to put both guys down. Now Grisham tries to be witty by saying that Batista knocked the air out of the man from the windy city. Cross body is countered into a powerslam for two. Punk gets a quick comeback but walks into a spinebuster. He bails to the floor and Batista tries the Bomb out there. Punk grabs the top rope and kicks Batista away before sliding back in for the countout win.

Rating: C. See, now that was a clever ending. Why is that such a rare thing to come by nowadays? It played into the idea that Punk was trying to stay away from Batista as well as giving us a nice surprise instead of making Batista look unbeatable. That gives you another challenger in the PPV Title match instead of just the obvious Big Dave. The match wasn’t great up until the ending though.

Batista powerbombs Punk anyway post match.

Overall Rating: C+. This show flew by and in a mostly good way. They set up the PPV title match and on the next show we would start setting up the big tag match. Since there were only five matches on the card, the PPV wouldn’t take much more than that to build it up. The show tonight was good and certainly entertaining enough. Good stuff.

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