All right, after that extremely emotional Raw, we’re due to have an extremely emotional episode of Smackdown. Tonight, Edge has to actually give up the World Heavyweight Championship, and of course it’s the saddest thing ever. Man, I can’t quite describe how emotionally draining this whole thing is. I know I wrote my proverbial love-letter to Edge in my last post, but damn, the guy is one of my favourites of all time. I mean, with Undertaker and Triple H, they’ve both been slowly written out of the show for a couple years now, so when they do officially retire, it won’t be so crushing (I’ll still be devastated when Taker goes, but it’ll be a little easier). With Edge, it was so sudden, and you had no time to mentally prepare. They didn’t even get a chance to write him out of the show, ala Shawn Michaels. And you’d better believe that I did the pose along with Edge as he came down the ramp one last time to give his farewell. Again, I won’t go into detail of this speech, because I don’t really have the heart to do it, but it’s a good, classy goodbye. Also, on wwe.com, they have the aftermath of the show, when the locker room comes out to applaud Edge, which doesn’t happen unless everyone thinks you’re pretty awesome. Big Show, Chavo, Rey, and Triple H actually go to the ring and make their feelings known. What more can be said except Edge is great, we’re sorry to lose him, but it’s a good thing they caught the spinal injury before he fell off a ladder.
The show starts with Alberto Del Rio coming to the ring, finally getting another car to replace the one that Edge and Christian destroyed at Wrestlemania, and looks much cheerier as a result. Taking the mic, he gives a pretty good speech regarding Edge and the respect that he’s earned, which I presume was an out-of-character way to have Del Rio come out and give his regards to Edge without having to spoil his heel persona for the fans. It’s true, though: as I’ve been documenting in my blog, Edge has really helped get Del Rio over as a major heel, and pushed him as believable and legitimate. But, that’s enough of that, and it’s time for Del Rio to go back to being the bad guy we all know and hate. He says that since Edge can no longer be Champion, than, as #1 Contender, the title should be handed over to Del Rio. This selfish demand doesn’t have the same kind of heat-power that it should have, coming as it was after a pretty good thank-you to Edge, but the intent is there, and that gets a few boos. GM Teddy Long comes out and puts Alberto in his place. He says that Del Rio is due to /compete/ for the Championship in a ladder match at Extreme Rules, and compete he shall, against another contender who shall be decided in the main event: a 20 man over-the-top-rope battle royal. Del Rio pouts (on Del Rio’s facials: I love that he smiles while most heels glower, and how he pouts while other guys look angry), and informs Teddy that he’s glad that he’s injured Edge and forced him to retire. This kind of comes out of nowhere, as it is clear that Edge’s retirement is due to a culmination of injuries, namely a broken neck, which Del Rio didn’t have a whole lot to do with. But, if this is going to be a plot point now, I’m all for having Alberto as the thing which took out Edge.
And now, our line of the night:
Del Rio: It was Edge’s destiny to retire. It’s my destiny to be the World Heavweight Champion.
Teddy: It’s your destiny to shut up and get back to the locker room!
Damn, Teddy Long is such an effective character. In a time that the idea of a General Manager doesn’t have the same narrative pull as it did in the past, Teddy really brings out the best in the heels (his mini-feud with Drew last year was epic).
Our first match of the night is Ezekiel Jackson vs. Kofi Kingston, with the rest of the Corre standing by on commentary. The Corre’s commentary reveals everything I already knew: Wade is well spoken in his villainy, emphasizing his character and personality; Gabriel tries, with limited success; and Slater is a maroon. Highlights include Wade finally ceasing with this silliness of their teams “equality,” goes back to that arrogant British-ness that made him such an effective bad guy, and drops a hint that the rest of the Corre will be helping him win the battle royal later in the evening. Slater does his best Goofy impression, unintentionally no doubt.
The match itself: I’m still not sold on Jackson, as he appears incredibly limited in what he can do in the ring. Kofi does a lot of the work and keeps the pace up, and Jackson gets a few power moves in. However, to be fair, I think this might have been a mismatch of styles, in that Kofi’s speed and energy and Jackson’s size meant that Jackson had to almost over-sell Kofi, or let him get a higher move ratio, because otherwise Jackson would just plough over Kofi and the match would be boring as a result. Still, not very impressed by the one-trick-pony that is Jackson’s size; being big does not equal being interesting in the ring. At any rate, the moment of the match is when they go outside of the ring, Jackson picks up Kofi, and chucks him at the Corre members. They go back inside, Jackson picks up the win, and Barrett is aghast. Now, what they could (should?) do here is pick up where they tried to go with Otunga and Barrett and have these two guys have a prolonged power struggle (though it’s a bit late to start it off, but better late than never), as the two men are similar sizes, and thus Jackson wouldn’t look so lost in the ring.
More Cody Rhodes. Damn, Rhodes is just... damn. I adore what he’s done with his character. Now he’s wearing a hood over his mask, and is helped by the dark blue tinted overhead lighting, and the low angle shots, thus creating a greater sense of foreboding, drama, and insanity. Cody explains that there is no sense of satisfaction since his victory over Rey Mysterio at Wrestlemania, and that even should Cody win the battle royal tonight, and win the World Heavyweight Championship, there would still be no satisfaction, because he would know that Mysterio is still out there, still without the ample punishment he deserves for breaking Cody’s face. Holy. Crap. Now, /that’s/ character motivation, kids. In a show where the stories are dominated by the title-shots, I always love when a compelling storyline is created outside of the Championship scene: it makes their struggles feel a little more real and less attached to the world of wrestling, thus more identifiable to the average viewer. Cody goes one step further, musing that Rey has doubtlessly told his children when tucking them in at night that there were no monsters hiding in the closet; by the time Cody is done with Rey, his children will be haunted by monsters every time they’re forced to look at their father’s face. This is the guy who, seven months ago, was doing promos about how to brush your teeth properly. Magnificent.
Speaking of rising stars who I’m rapidly marking out for: Drew McIntyre vs. Rey Mysterio. I really like where they’re going with Drew, making him out to be a villain who’s simply not afraid of anything. Compare his heel style to Del Rio and Rhodes. Del Rio is an arrogant jerk who’s main motivation is this sense of entitlement, and if you don’t comply with his train of thought, he will do something underhanded. Cody has simply gone insane, and his evil deeds are derived from self pity and loss of what he was. McIntyre has gone from just angry-Scot to calculating-angry-Scot: he doesn’t engage in the usual cowardly, underhanded, cheating styles of traditional heels. He goes in the ring looking to defeat the hero /entirely on his own merits and strengths./ The evilness derived from his actions stem from how brutal he is, how much pleasure he takes, and how far he goes with his attacks. That form of antagonism not only makes his character more legitimate, but gives the heroes that face him a bigger struggle to overcome.
This match is another highlight of how far Drew has come. When he first started, most of his offence came from brute strength, not in the sense of just punches and power moves, but in things like running opponents into the ring posts, chucking them outside the apron, etc. Since then, he’s added a lot of technique and traditional moves to his arsenal and it definitely helps. Drew’s greatest strength in the ring, in my opinion, is that he’s always moving, or doing something. There’s always action, momentum, and a good pacing, making his matches much more interesting than, say, Randy Orton’s, who does one move and then calls it a day. The commentary in this match really helped to push Drew along as well, with Booker emphasizing how Drew just needs to focus in order to realize his full potential, and Cole doing his usual heel stuff. So both the face and heel commentary are backing Drew.
Oh, and, uh, Mysterio does some stuff and wins. Sorry, Rey, I’m just a McIntyre fan, nothing personal.
We have our backstage segment of Michelle McCool and Layla trying to have relationship counselling. Michelle is obviously annoyed, while Layla is her sunny minion self. I’ve forgotten how much I enjoy Layla as the hapless lackey. She really picks up on how to be this ineffectual minion who just wants to do the real villain’s will, albeit with limited success. This comes out even more in the obligatory Divas match for the evening, Layla vs. Kelly Kelly (who else? Surely there must be other women in the back...). Layla tries, fails, and earns the scorn of Michelle for it. Layla just looks so innocent and broken in the ring, stunned that Michelle would turn on her. Which is weird, because Michelle would totally knife anyone in her way; at least, that’s what her initial character was when she first turned heel. Hopefully, now that LayCool is no more, she’ll go back to that, as it’s far more compelling and interesting than the mean school girl she’s been playing.
Edge comes out, gives up the title, I have an emotional breakdown, moving on.
Now, the main event for the evening: a twenty man battle royal. I always like battle royals, because it’s a good way to give everyone in the back some screen time, and the chaos and color inside of the ring is just fun to look at. Also, this one was particularly well done, especially considering they went a half hour with it. It doesn’t feel bogged down, and there’s always something going on, as well as a couple of memorable moments. The first thing that stands out is when Big Show clotheslines Jackson out of the ring, but winds up falling out himself as well. I wonder if that was supposed to happen, because Show looks a little out of it afterwards (I hate when you can’t differentiate the acting from what’s actually going on...). They let Brodus Clay get some points, eliminating Cody and Drew (much to my dismay), and then challenging Kane, and woefully failing in the attempt. Silly Clay: don’t challenge Kane. Ever. He will kill you. Also on the subject of Clay, I believe Chavo takes a crack at him, getting a few cheers in the process, and it’s always good to see Chavo. A confusing part of the match is how Chris Masters keeps trying to put people in the Master Lock, like he has absolutely no idea that the idea of the match is to throw people over the top rope. And, as loathe as I am to say it, there is a good Justin Gabriel moment: he helps Wade throw Kane over, only to push Wade as well. The looks he and Wade exchange (with Wade looking absolutely aghast while Gabriel just smirks) should be the money shot of a video package, if they go with this story.
So our final four are Justin Gabriel, Rey Mysterio, Jack Swagger, and Christian. I have no complaints about this set up: It makes sense for either Christian or Rey to face Del Rio, as they both have former storylines with him; I’m always glad to see Swagger back in the spotlight; and if you’re ever going to get me to care about Gabriel, now’s the time to do it. Anyways, the fight for a bit, and there are some pretty good nail-biting moments; the thing with battle royals is if you accidentally slip up when you’re not supposed to and wind up falling off, you can’t really re-write or salvage the match from what was supposed to happen, so attention to detail is necessary. Gabriel is eliminated, and I’ll confess I don’t remember how. Rey tries to 619 Swagger, but Cole comes out of his box to block it, in an attempt to smooth over relations with Jack (whom, we remember, he slapped on Monday, and now has to team with against King). Anyways, Jack eliminates Rey, leaving only him and Christian in the match. At this point, you know Christian is going to win, but they still manage to keep up the tension by having a pretty good back-and-forth as they try to get the other guy out of the ring. Del Rio, of course, tries to take out Christian (which is a bit odd; if Christian loses, he still has to face Swagger, and surely that’s not exactly preferable?), but Christian shakes it off, dodges a charging Jack who goes over the top, and is now the other contender to face off against Del Rio for the World Heavyweight Championship. Man, that’s just awesome. If we can’t have Edge, surely Christian is the next best thing. If he winds up winning... oh, damn, the emotional high that will be experienced...
So that was Smackdown for this week. Obviously, it was a more dramatic episode than we usually get, but I’m glad that it was limited, and that we didn’t have “The Best of Edge” video packages. Not only would that have made it unbearable to sit through (in a mourning sort of way, not quality based), but it would have slowed down the show a great deal. Instead, we had a really solid match with Rey and Drew, Cody got to develop his character, we’ve seen the end of LayCool, the battle royal was fun, and Christian is getting a title shot.
Ah, heck, it bears saying one more time: Thank you Edge.
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