The Smackdown Summary – 1st January 2010
01/01/2010
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On with the show!
Quick Links
Opening Segment: Punk’s New Years Resolutions
Match 1: Matt Hardy Vs. C.M Punk
Match 2: Kane Vs. Dolph Ziggler
Match 3: The Great Khali Vs. The Carolina Panther
Match 4: Drew McIntyre Vs. John Morrison
Match 5: Beth Phoenix Vs. Mickie James
Match 6: Chris Jericho Vs. Rey Mysterio
Main Event: R-Truth Vs. Batista
The Smackdown Summary
Opening Segment
Punk’s New Years Resolutions
Happy New Year everyone! On behalf of all the WWEBlog staff I’d like to extend our wishes to you and your nearest and dearest.
Our personal New Year’s Resolution is to keep bringing you the same quality of coverage and features, and where possible improve and expand.
C.M Punk and his faithful follower Luke Gallows are the first two Superstars to hit the WWE ring in 2010 and to tie in with what I just said above, the topic of the promo is Resolutions.
Punk asks the crowd if any of them have made resolutions, then chastises them for undoubtedly already breaking them.
He says that he hasn’t made a New Years Resolution because he’s already better than everyone else and therefore doesn’t need to.
After singing the praises of his ‘success story’ Luke Gallows, Punk urged all the fans in the arena and around the world to raise their hands and take a ‘Straight Edge’ Pledge.
Needless to say it didn’t go down very well in the arena, which prompted Punk to threaten the whole crowd with physical violence if they didn’t comply.
He then said that next week he will save a ‘very lost soul’ from the audience, which will enable his message to spread from city to city and create a Straight Edge society, and tonight he will set the winning time in the Beat the Clock Challenge.
Oh, sorry. Did I not mention there’s a Beat the Clock Challenge tonight to determine the #1 contender for The Undertaker’s World Heavyweight Championship? Well, there is.
Punk vowed to become the 4-time Straight Edge World Heavyweight Champion at the Royal Rumble, but he’s got to get past Matt Hardy first.
Match 1
Beat the Clock Challenge Match
Matt Hardy
Vs.
C.M Punk
Unlike the last Beat the Clock Challenge we saw way back in July when Shaquille O’Neal Guest Hosted Raw, either competitor in these matches can ‘Beat the Clock’ and lay claim to the #1 contendership.
So for example when Evan Bourne beat Randy Orton back in July, he would have set the fastest time, rather than just being the person who cost his opponent a shot.
This was a very well contested back and forth match, but by the time Hardy hit the Side Effect at the 6 minute mark, it already felt like the match had gone on too long to set a winning time.
Punk wrapped things up a minute and twenty later with a surprisingly un-assisted victory by way of a Jujitsu Kick and a GTS.
However, after the bell Gallows made his presence felt, attacking Hardy under orders from Punk.
C.M Punk wins by Pinfall and sets a time of 7 Minutes, 20 Seconds (7:20).
Match 2
Beat the Clock Challenge Match
Kane
Vs.
Dolph Ziggler
Time to Beat : 7:20
The way things have been going for Dolph recently I’d consider preventing Kane from beating the time a victory for him.
The commentary team made a big deal of Ziggler’s ability to win under time constraints from his collegiate wrestling days, but I’ve got a feeling he won’t be doing it here.
Kane began the match with some little-seen mat skills, rivalling everything Ziggler threw at him and controlling the action for the first two minutes or so.
Ziggler began to take the upper hand with 5 minutes on the clock and got a very near fall at the 3.50 mark.
Dolph continued the attack with a trio of elbows and after grabbing another near fall locked on a Sleeper, which Matt Striker was eager to push as a positive move despite the fact it wasted almost a minute with no real effect.
Kane broke free and hit a big boot, then followed up with a Sidewalk Slam, coming close to a win around the 2 min mark.
With just over a minute on the clock Kane hit a Jumping Jack from the top rope, but Ziggler kicked out then instantly avoided a Chokeslam.
Ziggler hung Kane up over the top rope then locked on a Sleeper once more, bringing The Big Red Machine to the canvas but ultimately failing to beat the 7 minute 20 time set by Punk.
After the claxon sounded Ziggler made his frustrations clear, landing a huge Zig-Zag on Kane before heading to the back.
Both men failed to Beat the Clock.
Match 3
Singles Match
The Great Khali
Vs.
The Carolina Panther
Khali (surprisingly WITHOUT his ‘brother’ Ranjin Singh) is getting a push it seems.
First Jericho walked out on their match last week, now he gets to flatten a guy in a football jersey in literally about 20 seconds.
If this had been a Beat the Clock match then I think we’d be looking at our new #1 contender.
Although I’m sure no one wants to see the title on this guy again.
I did a little research regarding Khali’s ‘brother’ and manager, and it turns out that not only is he still contracted to the WWE, but I’ve been spelling his name wrong for the past year.
Apologies to Mr Singh and I’ll start spelling it properly from now on, I promise. That is if we ever see him again.
The Great Khali wins by Pinfall.
Match 4
Intercontinental Championship Match
Drew McIntyre (c)
Vs.
John Morrison
Tonight’s show has been incredibly match-heavy so far, but luckily they’ve all been pretty good or pretty short, so no complaints from me.
It seems that recently John Morrison = Great match, and this one was no exception.
McIntyre took a while to warm up in this match, and eventually resorted to tearing the top turnbuckle cover off.
However, he didn’t get chance to use it as Morrison began raining down shots in the corner, to the point that the referee had to step in three times.
As the referee reprimanded Morrison for the third time McIntyre sprung from the corner and bundled the challenger into the official, leading to a disqualification and a somewhat underhanded victory for the champion.
As McIntyre headed up the ramp Morrison chased after him and an almighty brawl erupted, which took 6 officials to bring to an end.
Drew McIntyre retains the Intercontinental Championship by Disqualification.
Match 5
Divas Match
Beth Phoenix
Vs.
Mickie James
Lay-Cool (as they now apparently want to be known) sat at ringside once again for this bout.
McCool had on the obligatory Piggie James shirt, but Layla had gone for the slightly better ‘We ♥ The Glamazon’, although after the outcome of this match I don’t think the feeling will be reciprocated.
Less than a couple of minutes into the match Michelle decided to give Beth a helping hand while Layla distracted the ref, but inadvertently struck The Glamazon with a kick to the head, costing her the match.
After the bell Lay-Cool began double teaming Mickie until Phoenix stepped in and made the save, taking out Michelle with style.
Mickie and Beth tagged hands once the ring was clear, but Beth asserted her dominance seconds later, hitting a Glam Slam on an unsuspecting James.
Mickie James wins by Pinfall.
Match 6
Beat the Clock Challenge Match
Chris Jericho
Vs.
Rey Mysterio
Time to Beat: 7:20
Jericho and Mysterio had some epic matches towards the end of 2009 and gave us some real headaches when voting who should get the WAFTA for Match of the Year ( The hotly anticipated WWEBlog Awards articles are coming very soon by the way), so hopefully this one will be no different, even if it is only going to be a maximum of 7 minutes 20 seconds in length.
Before the match Jericho talked about how Smackdown isn’t big enough for him as he’s bigger than the show, the brand and in fact the whole of the WWE, so on Raw he and Show will defeat DX and re-claim the tag titles.
He then said that his New Years Resolution will be to win EVERY Championship in the WWE, starting with earning a title shot against Taker at The Rumble.
Jericho started the match strongly and after being dumped to the outside Mysterio began favouring his legitimately injured knee, needing a count of 7 to get back in the ring.
Rey again began to pull out the stops, going for a 619 at around the 4.40 mark, only to be sent flying by a lucha libre backflip.
After a lengthy Sleeper (how is this good strategy?) from Jericho, Mysterio grabbed a near fall from a flying Headbutt and began to build momentum.
With less than 90 seconds on the clock Mysterio once again set up for the 619, but Jericho caught it and locked in the Walls of Jericho.
Mysterio clawed for the ropes and eventually battled out, setting up and hitting the 619. However, Jericho reversed the West Coast Pop into a Codebreaker and covered on 15 seconds, only for Mysterio to somehow kick out.
As Jericho complained to the referee Mysterio rolled him up and grabbed a three count with 1 second left on the clock, setting a new time by the skin of his teeth.
Rey Mysterio wins by Pinfall and sets a NEW time of 7 Minutes 19 Seconds (7:19).
Main Event Match
Beat the Clock Challenge Match
R-Truth
Vs.
Batista
Time to Beat: 7:19
Rey Mysterio took a seat at ringside following the previous match, I assume to put his former friend Batista off his game.
Mysterio is in a catch 22 situation here though.
If he attacks Batista, as he would no doubt like to do, he would cost himself the #1 contendership and hand it straight to R-Truth.
By the 4.40 mark both men found themselves down and out on the outside after a plancha over the top by R-Truth.
Both men made their way back into the ring by a count of 8, although Batista took advantage of the situation and sent Truth flying into the ring post before whipping him into the steel steps.
By the 1 minute mark Batista still hadn’t put Truth away and instead seemed to turn his attention momentarily to Rey.
After a Spear and a Spinebuster Batista finally put the exclamation mark on the match with a Batista Bomb and went for the cover.
However, as the referee’s hand was coming down for the three Rey pulled the official out of the ring.
The referee didn’t have enough time to call for the disqualification and the clock hit zero, making Rey the #1 contender.
I don’t think we’ve heard the last of this situation, I mean does anyone really want to see Rey/Taker at a PPV?
Just as I thought, Vickie Guerrero made her way out after the match and told Rey that on Smackdown everyone has to follow the rules and as he just cheated Batista the two of them will face off next week for the #1 contendership.
Happy New year again folks!
Both Men failed to Beat the Clock.
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