WWE Friday Night SmackDown! Rebound

Just like Monday night, nothing truly spectacular, unless you’re a firm supporter of The Undertaker. Here’s the SmackDown! Rebound!

The show opens with a recap of last Friday’s events involving the stripping of the Phenom of the World Heavyweight Championship by General Manager Vickie Guerrero.

In the “interest of fairness” as she so put it, she has decided to hold the first ever Championship Chase in which former/current World, United States, and ECW Champions could compete for the right to battle it out in an Over The Top Rope Battle Royal for the right to fight for the World Heavyweight Championship at Judgment Day.

In other words, SmackDown! and ECW collided once again, but the prize was richer than before. The participants that were chosen for the Championship Chase are: Matt Hardy, Chavo Guerrero, John Morrison, Tommy Dreamer, MVP, Finlay, CM Punk, Kane, Big Show, and Batista.

The Catch: Their moment of glory at Judgment Day will be for the World Heavyweight Championship…but their opponent would be The Undertaker.

Now here’s the Championship Chase to Judgment Day Matches.

First Bout: Matt Hardy (SmackDown!) defeats CM Punk (ECW)

As the show begins the physical portion of the broadcast, Matt Hardy and CM Punk tried to size each other up. Hardy starts to focus on the left shoulder of Punk. The match continues with a barrage of submission holds until Punk breaks out of them to try to recover.

But as Hardy tries to regain control of the match, Punk hits the Knee-Dog from the ropes, which turned things in his favor. As Hardy attempts to recover from a kick to the back of the head, Punk goes for his patented Go To Sleep. But after another series of counters, Hardy hits another flip package to secure the pinfall in the same fashion that Punk used to beat Hardy during the King of the Ring tournament.

Matt Hardy becomes the first to advance to the Over The Top Rope Challenge later on that night.

Second Bout: MVP (SmackDown!) and Finlay (SmackDown!) fight to a Draw

The second bout of the Championship Chase featured two former United States Champions, MVP and Finlay. After a series of back and forth takedowns and submissions, the match changes massively when Finlay runs into the steel posts. This was the opening that MVP needed as he applied a devastating armbar that kept the Irishman in check.

Finlay tries to fight back, but Porter nails the injured arm and drives him out of the ring with a boot to the skull. Back on the inside, he continues to concentrate on the arm, but Finlay counters and applies a leg lock submission to slow down the pace. Following a huge body slam into the ring ropes, Finlay gains control and locks in a single leg Boston Crab.

Porter again survives, and after another series of counters, Finlay regains momentum with a back suplex pin. Unfortunately for him, the referee sees that both men’s shoulders were down and declares the match a draw.

Right before the third match of the Championship Chase, General Manager Vickie Guerrero declares that she would rather have a positive than a negative in regards to the second match of the Chase. Therefore, she allows both Finlay and MVP to advance to the Battle Royal.

Third Bout: Batista (SmackDown!) defeats John Morrison (ECW)

The match began with Morrison slipping in and out of the ring to throw the Animal off. Then after a few cut and runs, the Shaman gains complete control of Batista. Morrison nails Batista with a few shots to the head, including a knee to the left jaw.

But every time it looked as if the Tuesday Night Delight would pull off the upset, Batista would continue to power out of the covers. As Morrison continues the headlock, the Animal starts to power out again, only to get dropped to the middle turnbuckle. The Animal stumbles to his feet, and JM goes for his 15 Minutes of Fame.

Batista counters the finisher and hits Morrison with a back toss, followed by a clothesline in the corner. Morrison tries once again to put the Animal down with a springboard dropkick, but the Animal counters with a devastating Spear. He follows up with the Batista Bomb for the pinfall and the victory to advance to the Battle Royal.

Fourth Bout: Big Show (SmackDown!) defeats Tommy Dreamer (ECW)

A happier Giant since the match at Backlash, the Big Show has had his problems with the other giants of the WWE (Great Khali & Mark Henry). But tonight, he was focused on becoming the World Champion once again. Battered and bruised from an ECW Extreme Rules Match this past Tuesday on ECW, Tommy Dreamer was hoping for a miracle.

One of these former ECW Champions got their wish…in less than three minutes.

After powering Dreamer into the corner with a series of knee thrusts, Show practically toyed with the former ECW Champion. But then Dreamer started showing that tenacity that made him a World Champion in ECW. But it was truly a short lived time for the man of the Extreme Kingdom.

After a series of punches from Dreamer, Show countered with a chokeslam for the win and the advance.

Fifth Bout: Kane (ECW) defeats Chavo Guerrero (ECW)

Chavo begins the match with a series of kicks to Kane’s legs, but is quickly thrown into the corner for a series of punches and kicks followed by a body toss. But after a blatant choke, Kane gets his leg caught on the ropes. This was the opening that Guerrero was waiting for.

He starts to concentrate on the legs of the ECW Champion, and with the help of his bodyguard Bam Neely, Chavo continues to apply the leglock to wear down the big man. Kane gets out of it only to get dropped with a dropkick. Kane quickly rises up and begins to decimate the former ECW Champion with a barrage of corner clotheslines.

Chavo rakes the eyes of the Big Red Machine, and attempts a flying body drop. Kane recovers and goes for the chokeslam, but Chavo counters into a sunset flip. He must have forgotten that Kane was over 300 pounds as Kane just dropped to his knees for the win to advance to the Finals of the Championship Chase.

Main Event: Championship Chase OTR Battle Royal (Winner: Edge)

The six combatants entered the ring still showing signs of distress from their earlier battles. But that didn’t stop them from putting one hell of a show. As the match progressed, Big Show continued his dominance as he went around head butting and clotheslining everyone in sight.

As the match wore on, the Franchise Playa became the Ultimate Opportunist by sneaking in and out of the ring and letting the other five wear each other out. After several close calls, Matt Hardy becomes the first elimination as MVP sneaks up from behind and tosses him over. But the Franchise soon became a victim of his own plan as explained later.

After playing home run derby with his shillelagh, Finlay gets booted over by the Big Red Machine. As for Porter, his own running boot led to his elimination as he overshot Batista and went flying over the top rope and to the awaiting floor. 

Afterwards, the remaining three went to town on each other with the equalizer being a body splitting spear from the Animal. Big Show picked up the staggered Monster and tossed the ECW Champion over the top, leaving him and Batista to finish the Battle Royal.

The battle was all Show until a drop toe hold led to the downfall of the World’s Largest Athlete. After blocking the Batista Bomb, Show tried to toss the Animal over, but Batista countered with a hurracanrana that sent the big man over for the final elimination… 

Or so we thought.

General Manager Vickie Guerrero came out to announce that her fiancée Edge was officially cleared to compete. The Ultimate Opportunist then proceeded to run to the ring, spear the Animal, and steal the victory. But his celebration was short lived, however.

As the Rated ‘R’ Superstar stood just a few feet from the championship, a lightning bolt came down and struck the case igniting the encased gold. Edge then ran like a scalded dog to the back as flames surrounded the championship.