WWE Friday Night Smackdown 7/24/09 Review

We have a raucous edition of Smackdown tonight, just forty-eight hours away from Night of Champions.

Starting things off is Jeff Hardy out to talk about how he thinks CM Punk's way of thinking is wrong. He is sick of Punk shoving the straight edge lifestyle down everyone's throat and that he'll win the World Heavyweight Championship at Night of Champions.

Jeff Hardy vs. Chris Jericho

If you're expecting anything less than a solid match between these two, you won't be disappointed. These two were very good tonight, and well, that's to be expected. I loved Jeff's selling of the Codebreaker. It's like Jericho hit it and then shot him with a shotgun at the same time. The looking around for Hardy after Jericho hit it was a nice touch as well. Hardy was able to mount a comeback and out counter Jericho to hit the Swanton for the win.

We head backstage where WWE Women's Champion Michelle McCool is getting make up done and running down former Women's Champions. She says she's the best when Melina shows up. She says she's invoking her rematch clause at Night of Champions and then throws make up in McCool's face.

I think this was after this, but Jericho was seen talking to Kane presumably about being his partner at Night of Champions.

The Great Khali vs. Mike Knox (with beard)

Hey it's Mike Knox and man, has that beard gotten more awesome. It's too bad he hasn't been seen in weeks or else that beard would be causing mayhem on Smackdown. Khali pretty much dominates this match. Kane comes out for a distraction, but it doesn't help as Khali is still able to get the win. Kane comes down afterwards to try in get in the ring with Khali, but thinks against it and walks away.

Time for another edition of Word Up with yo boys Cryme Tyme and Eve. They talk about great tag teams when The Hart Dynasty are seen. These two get into talking trash to each other when your real boy, Jesse shows up. He helps out Cryme Tyme in laying down the smack talk on The Hart Dynasty, even busting out a Badstreet reference. It looks like Cryme Tyme might actually except Jesse. We can only hope.

Dolph Ziggler heads to the ring with Maria. He gets on the mic and says the line of the night, "I'm not much for big introductions." Oh and he said he'll win the Intercontinental Championship.

Dolph Ziggler vs. Finlay

Finlay tries to beat down the young Dolph Ziggler here. He does a good job of this until he throws Ziggler outside. Ziggler is thrown into the announce table, rib first and head first. Finlay would then clothesline him and that would be when Maria would come to check on Ziggler. Finlay backs off to not hurt Maria, when Ziggler comes back and hits the reverse jumping complete shot on the outside. Ziggler slides back in and wins via count out. Really, three years ago, who would've thought that Nick Nemeth would've been the most successful out of the Spirit Squad?

World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk is out now to challenge the WWE Universe. He runs down people who do drugs and tries to teach them how to say no. He talks about the damages people do to themselves when they do drugs. Jeff Hardy comes out and is unhappy with Punk. Punk, however, does not try to tempt Hardy as he tells him he'll just say no here.

Jericho is backstage again, this time with The Great Khali asking him to be his partner. Khali wants nothing of it.

Eve (with Cryme Tyme) vs. Natalya (with Kidd and Smith)

We head back to the ring with Diva's action. Natalya showed her wrestling wherewithal here by busting out some seldom seen moves. Namely the Mexican surfboard. She also hit the discus lariat again, but did not go for the pin. She instead tried to go for a high impact move from the top, but was reversed and that allowed Eve to hit a moonsault for the win.

R-Truth vs. Charlie Haas

No Pretty Ricky tonight, but we do get R-Truth (WUTS UP). He's facing another seldom seen superstar on Smackdown, Charlie Haas. Since Shelton Benjamin is now on ECW, there's not much for Haas to do here on Smackdown. R-Truth picks up the win here with the scissors kick.

CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio

It's champion vs. champion in the main event tonight as World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk takes on WWE Intercontinental Champion Rey Mysterio. Very good back and forth fast paced match here. Punk busted out some different submissions here and was able to weasel out of some 619 attempts. Dolph Ziggler would come down to ringside to get a better look at the action. I did like the spot where Mysterio rolled though Punk trying to slide him out of the ring. Punk would get hit with a 619, but as Mysterio was going for the pin, Ziggler would come in and interfere causing the DQ. Mysterio would come back and try and set up Ziggler for the 619, but Punk would cut him off before that. Punk would leave the ring, leaving Ziggler to hit his finisher twice on Mysterio. Jeff Hardy would come running down to ringside, bumping into Punk doing so. Hardy clears Ziggler from the ring, but not until Punk comes rushing back in to hit the Go To Sleep on Hardy to end Smackdown.

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Another good edition of Smackdown tonight. On the one forum I frequent, I put in my Night of Champions predictions that Christian would be Jericho's partner. But now I'm really hoping it's Ziggler. Since after tonight with the somewhat helping out with Punk and Ziggler, I'd love to see a super heel trio of Punk, Jericho, and Ziggler. But who knows, WWE might swerve us and have Chris Masters be Jericho's partner.