By James Shannon – This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Jeff Hardy with a patch over his right eye starts this week’s show, walking to the ring for a match. He takes the mic , adjusts his patch and shows a replay of Punk tending to his own eye when Hardy needed help and Hardy doing the same to Punk. He claimed it was like his eye was on fire all of a sudden, but the thing that bothered him most was that Punk did not check to see if he was ok, as if Punk didn’t believe him. He ends by saying his eye injury was as serious as Punk’s. He then lifts the patch to show no damage. This really didn’t get over. There were spots where Hardy paused after “Punk” where the crowd was meant to boo, but only gave silence.

Match Number One: Jeff Hardy Vs. Kane.

Last week was Kane’s return to SmackDown and boy was I ready for him to take a holiday. This week has given me some hope, as he had a far more entertaining match than I expected. There was an early plancha by Hardy, but the highspots I enjoyed were from Kane. He hit a running dropkick onto a seated Hardy. Better still Kane slid Hardy along the mat curling style, under the bottom turnbuckle, into the steel post. That was promptly followed by another running dropkick smooshing Hardy into the post again.

Hardy was about to get the win following a Twist of Fate into a Swanton, but Punk’s music hit as he was on the top rope. Punk walked out, then just stood there. Hardy looked over, then just stood there. Kane stood up, then just chokeslammed Hardy off the top rope for the pin.

Winner: Kane, pinfall.

Cryme Tyme’s Word up aired. “Bromance”. They made fun of the Hart Dynasty.

Morrison is with Long, reminding him about his proposal for a shot at Punk’s title. As Long leaves, Ziggler (Morrison’s opponent tonight) pop’s out of the store room where noises were heard from, adjusting his clothes. Morrison makes a ‘coming out of the closest’ quip and leaves.  Enter Maria from said closet, wishing Ziggler luck and smacks his butt.

Match Number Two: Dolph Ziggler Vs. John Morrison.

Ziggler’s facials and comments during matches are awesome. Horrible edit early, with the ref holding the back of his head in an ‘oh my that hurt’ way after the cut. Really athletic stuff by both without being pointless spots. Ziggler got the pin by holding the tights on a rollup.

Winner: Dolph Ziggler, pinfall.

A lot of the match included Ziggler using counters to moves and being billed as a ‘counter wrestler’ by the commentators.

Footage of R-Truth with fake teeth as ‘Pretty Ricky’ is shown. Maybe this just didn’t translate to my Australian database of knowledge, but I this went straight over my head. Someone, please explain it to me.

Match Number Three: Eve Torres & Melina Vs. Michelle McCool & Layla.

Ross said that Eve has been training hard on the mat, including in jiu jitsu. It didn’t show.

Not a great match. Awkward spot when the ref was meant to be with Eve to miss McCool’s interference, he just really didn’t want to not see. Anyway, Melina battled back, knocked McCool off the apron and pinned Layla with a rollup.

Winners: Melina & Eve, pinfall.

No celebration as McCool takes out Melina. Melina takes control on the outside though in a terrible pull apart which was accomplished by a single referee.

Hardy joins the commentary booth in anticipation of Punk facing the Great Khali.

Punk still favouring that eye. Punk berates Hardy for faking an eye injury. He produces a solution that he has to put in his eye three times a day – a prescription only solution. Punk makes fun on Hardy’s dealings with prescriptions. He then brings up Hardy’s two strikes and his own clean record. This all went over the crowd’s head.

Match Number Four: CM Punk (c) Vs. The Great Khali.

Why can’t these people understand that Khali cannot and should not sell?

Punk hit a lot of kicks that Khali would roll around for. Then Khali would hit a power move or two. Eventually Khali hit the Tree Slam for what would have been the finish, but...

Kane came down the aisle with a chair. As he entered the ring, Singh slid Khali a chair of his own. They were both posed to swing, waiting in a stalemate. Kane disengaged, prompting Khali to do the same. So Kane whacked him. Khali roared, and met the second chair shot from Kane with a fist, sending the chair to the ground. Kane tried to talk his way out, but Khali swung anyway.

No Contest.

Match Number Five: Cryme Tyme Vs The Hart Dynasty.

This wasn’t terrible, but I guess I just expected more from the Hart Dynasty. So far they have been given awfully little of anything. Given that David is a Hart-Smith, and that Kidd was the last trainee of the Dungeon, wouldn’t it make sense to have them be good “wrestlers”, like have great technique and control opponents using said technique? Instead, they had JTG out wrestle Tyson and Shad out wrestle and out power Smith. They never even ‘got the heat’ in the match.

They at least got the pin, but it came when they were losing. Natalya got the attention of both the Ref and JTG so that Kidd could take out Shad’s leg from behind as DH hit a clothesline for the pin.

Winners: The Hart Dynasty.

They played it up as payback for Cryme Tyme’s sneaky win last week.

Match Number Six: Rey Mysterio (c) Vs. Chris Jericho, for the IC title.

Jericho is out first. He lists his accomplishments, including being the ten time IC champion after tonight. No mention of Edge at all so far.

Proper in-ring introductions are given, a rarity on TV, giving this a big match feel. 

These two gel together so well. Fantastic main event, with the focus of Jericho’s attack being centred on Rey’s back.

Good fast, back and forth start. Jericho takes over just before the adbreak by running Rey into the ring post, who was standing on the apron, dropping him to the floor. Jericho cuts off a Rey comeback with a lucha backbreaker upon return. Near fall from Mysterio with his wheelbarrow into bulldog. But Jericho eventually counters back with a big powerbomb.

Jericho turned a headscissors into Walls of Jericho. Rey attacks the knee to get out of it. Rey has Jericho in the position for the 619. Jericho pulls down the middle rope as Rey jumps, causing him to crash and burn in a spectacular manner to the outside floor. That looked awesome.

Rey’s back continues to be his downfall. Jericho caught him mid-moonsault, then ran him upside down into the turnbuckles. From the position, Jericho tied up Rey in the Tree of Woe.  Rey managed to sit up, dodging a charging Jericho who hit the steel pole.

Match is really picking up. Jericho went to hit the Lionsault onto Rey who was laying face down on the mat, so that his bad back would take the impact. However he rolled out of the way, so Jericho landed on his feet and quickly applied the Walls of Jericho.  Rey struggles from the centre to the ropes, then as Jericho was outside, Rey hit a springboard moonsault to the floor.

Jericho caught Rey with the Code Breaker in midair as Rey had springboarded of the top rope to enter the ring. Jericho was furious when Rey kicked out. He repetitively hit Mysterio with running kicks to the body as he yelled at Rey to stay down.

Rey took out his leg as he went for another running kick, sending Jericho to the ropes. 619, senton and pinfall.

Winner: Rey Mysterio (c)

Fantastic match. SmackDown has had several good main events in the last two months. This may have been the best one.

Mysterio rolled under a running Edge who had entered the ring, and left the Tag champions safely. Keeping an eye on Edge, Rey was taken out from behind by Dolph Ziggler who came flying down the ramp. Ziggler sent Rey into the ring for a Spear by Edge.

Edge fed Rey to Jericho for an assisted Code Breaker. Edge then invited Dolph into the ring, who hits his jumping inverted STO after Rey slowly gets to his feet.

Bar the two tag matches, the show was really good. Dolph was great as always and the main event was beautiful.