WWE Smackdown- June 27, 2008
by Sassy

Smackdown is broadcast on the CW Network

Ringside announcers: Jim Ross & Mick Foley

Ring announcer: Justin Roberts

Sunday is WWE’s Night of Champions pay per view. The draft will not affect the matches scheduled for the pay per view. I will not be ordering the show, but will report the results on the Monday Night Raw review.

Vickie Guerrero is on camera to tell the audience that Mr. McMahon was severely injured on Monday Night Raw and the fans get to see a replay of the incident. After we suffer through that, we are forced to hear about “the wedding”. Finally, Guerrero introduces the new announcer for Friday Night Smackdown – good old JR. JR makes his way to the announcer’s table to his entrance music and sits down with Mick Foley. JR says that Friday night will never be the same.

The Game Triple H enters the arena with the WWE title belt on his shoulder. HHH gets a positive greeting from the live audience. HHH touts JR as the greatest announcer in the business. HHH then does a round of advertising for Night of Champions before The Rated R Superstar Edge, WWE Heavyweight Champion, enters the arena. Edge does not receive the same reception from the fans as HHH garnered earlier. HHH predicts that he will retain his title but Edge will lose his title at Night of Champions. Edge reminds HHH that Batista has never beaten Edge but John Cena has beaten HHH. Edge tells HHH that Smackdown is Edge’s house and Edge’s show. Edge demands respect from HHH and Batista enters the arena. HHH sends Edge out of the ring and straight into Batista who delivers a spear to Edge on the floor. Batista and HHH stand in the ring, each of them holding a title belt. JR calls it shades of Evolution and we go to commercial break.

Tag Team Match
The Big Red Machine Kane weighing 323 lbs.
WWE ECW Champion
&
The Big Show, 7’0” weighing 441 lbs.
Vs.
Montel Vontavious Porter from Miami, FL weighing 248 lbs.
& The World’s Strongest Man Mark Henry, weighing 392 lbs.
MVP seems to be a little out of his element in this match up. Kane will face Show and Henry at Night of Champions to defend his ECW title. MVP tells Henry he will start in the ring and he faces off against Kane. MVP tries but he doesn’t do it and finds himself down on the mat. Kane tags in Show. MVP makes a tag to Henry and Show tags in Kane. MVP is back in the ring and he delivers a boot to Kane’s face and goes for the cover but Kane kicks out. MVP comes off the ropes into the side slam by Kane. MVP finds himself in trouble again as Kane delivers a big boot to the head. MVP rolls out of the ring but Henry goes down to the floor and rolls him back into the ring. Kane delivers a choke slam, goes for the cover and gets the three count. Time: 6 minutes.
Winners: Kane with a choke slam & The Big Show

Kane, Show & Henry are staring each other down for the title. MVP made himself more of a heel and more of the kind of guy that will walk away from matches versus getting himself in danger. The fans enjoy seeing him sent back into the ring when MVP tries to make a getaway. There was no real wrestling action in this match but MVP surprisingly held his own against much larger opponents. Edge is backstage with Guerrero, skipping that part, and we go to commercial break.

JR and Foley introduce a video of Samoan Bulldozer Umaga.

Tag Team Match
Finlay & Hornswoggle
Vs.
Curt Hawkins & Zack Ryder
At a combined weight of 435 lbs.
Finlay begins the match with Hawkins but Hawkins backs Finlay into the wrong corner. Finlay nails Hawkins on the ring apron and then goes after Ryder in the ring. Hawkins comes back into the ring and Hornswoggle delivers a spear. Finlay is out on the floor working over his opponent but a baseball slide delivered by Hawkins catches Finlay. Finlay is down on the mat on the wrong side of the ring. Finlay sends Hawkins over the top rope to the floor and then goes after Ryder. Finlay delivers the Celtic cross, Hornswoggle delivers the tadpole splash, goes for the cover and gets the win. Time: 3 minutes.
Winners: Hornswoggle with a tadpole splash & Finlay

I’m not saying that Hornswoggle isn’t talented. I am saying that Hornswoggle is outsized in every match he has been in (editor's note: No shit. Then put him in there with Tazz) . Finlay ends up carrying the match and although I enjoy watching Finlay in the ring, I am surprised that WWE hasn’t bothered to find wrestlers of Hornswoggle’s caliber so that Hornswoggle can be in his own matches. The son of Finlay storyline works well for the fans and Finlay and Hornswoggle does do work well together as a team and in this match, they provided a background against the not so great team of Hawkins and Ryder. John Morrison and The Miz appear on the entrance ramp with their WWE tag team belts to stare down Hornswoggle & Finlay who will face the tag team champs at Night of Champions.

Non-title Match
Matt Hardy from Cameron, NC weighing 236 lbs.
WWE United States Champion
Vs.
The Rated R Superstar Edge from Canada, weighing 250 lbs.
WWE World Heavyweight Champion
JR reminds the fans that Hardy will be seen on ECW. If Edge makes it through this match on his own, I’ll be shocked. Hardy may not have been able to outwrestle the old Edge but this new and unimproved Edge could be a pushover. The match does begin with wrestling moves and countermoves. Edge does not break clean when he backs Hardy into the corner. Hardy comes back and delivers a bulldog, goes for the cover and gets a two count. Hardy tells Edge “this close” and we go to commercial break. Back to the action, Edge is in the corner and the referee is backing Hardy away from Edge. Edge is getting worked over a little more than usual in this match. Hardy is doing a great job of keeping Edge off guard. Edge drops Hardy face first on the top turnbuckle and both men are down on the mat. Edge goes for a cover getting only a one count before Hardy kicks out. Edge has Hardy in the corner and the ref backs Edge away from Hardy but Edge bails out of the ring to beat on Hardy on the ring apron. Edge is back in the ring and Hardy is on the floor much to the dismay of the fans. Hardy makes it back into the ring. Hardy makes it back to his feet and fights back, taking Edge down with an elbow, dropping an elbow to the sternum. Hardy goes for the cover and gets a two count. Hardy goes for a backslide and gets a two count. Hardy hits the side effect and goes for the cover again getting a two count. Hardy misses the bulldog, goes up to the second rope and delivers an elbow to the back of Edge’s neck. Hardy delivers a DDT, goes for the cover and again gets a two count. Hardy goes up to the top turnbuckle and meets the mat as Edge rolls out of the way. Edge misses the spear, Edge counters with the backslide but gets caught with his feet on the ropes, Hardy goes for a roll up, Edge kicks out. Hardy stops himself from running into the ref, turns around and gets caught by a spear. Edge goes for the cover and gets the win. Total match time: 9 minutes.
Winner: The Rated R Superstar with a spear

I didn’t like the ending but I have to admit that the match was decent. Edge did more in the ring tonight than I have seen him do in a long time and he did it without any outside interference. Hardy always gives his fans one hundred percent and tonight was no different. I’m not certain whether Hardy will like being on ECW but he should bring action and entertainment to Tuesday night. We go to commercial break.

JR and Foley introduce a video of Jeff Hardy who is now on the Smackdown roster. I have to admit when Hardy can keep himself out of trouble, he is the greatest risk taker on the WWE roster no matter which one you are talking about it. JR and Foley then run down on the matches for Night of Champions.

WWE Championship Match
The Game Triple H, Champion vs. John Cena, Challenger

WWE ECW Championship 3-Way Match
The Big Red Machine Kane, Champion vs. The Big Show, Challenger vs. The World’s Strongest Man Mark Henry, Challenger

WWE World Heavyweight Championship Match
The Rated R Superstar Edge, Champion vs. The Animal Batista, Challenger

Six Diva Tag Team Match
Kelly Kelly & Michelle McCool
We go to commercial break, back to the arena,
&
Cherry
Vs
Victoria & Natalya & Maryse
Everyone is in the ring and the match is ready to begin. Kelly actually got in the ring during this match. Cherry delivers a bulldog to Victoria and goes for the cover getting a two count. Victoria tags in Natalya. McCool goes for the cover and gets a one count. Natalya hangs up McCool on the ropes. Natalya delivers a submission hold but McCool makes her way out of the hold. McCool delivers a jawbreaker and Natalya tags in Victoria. Victoria delivers a standing moonsault and goes for the cover, getting a two count. Victoria tags in Maryse. That was a mistake. McCool tags in Cherry. Cherry delivers a neck breaker and goes for the pin getting a two count. The ref gets distracted and Natalya goes after Cherry. Maryse & Cherry are left in the ring and Maryse delivers a roll up, getting the three count while everyone else is battling it out on the floor. Time: 7 minutes.
Winners: Maryse with a roll up, Natalya & Victoria

Not a bad match but WWE just can’t seem to get to the level of women’s matches I like to see. Natalya is most likely one of the best female wrestlers on the roster, Victoria is excellent and Cherry looks like she could be very good given the time to work the ring. The diva thing just doesn’t work for me but it seems to go over with the fans. We go to commercial break.

Domino from the Other Side of the Tracks weighing 230 lbs.
Vs.
Vladimir Kozlov from Moscow, weighing 302 lbs.

The wrestlers Kozlov is facing are getting larger. But will this match be any longer than Kozlov’s previous matches? This may the first time the audience has cheered for Domino. Domino even appears to know a little about wrestling. He may do a better job as a singles wrestler than I thought he would. Kozlov delivers a belly-to-belly suplex and goes for the cover but Domino kicks out. Domino has discovered that straight out wrestling may not work against Kozlov and Domino manages to drop Kozlov to the mat. Domino goes for the cover but only gets a one count. Domino comes off the ropes, gets caught, Kozlov goes for the cover and gets the three count. Time: 2 minutes.
Winner: Vladimir Kozlov

The match was not any longer than Kozlov’s previous matches but Kozlov’s forehead is bleeding and he may have broken a sweat in this match. Kozlov has yet to do anything in the ring that makes me sit up and take notice but I did think Domino did a decent job for such a short match. Backstage Hornswoggle runs into Rey Mysterio, hands him his green hat and teaches him how to touch his heels and we go to commercial break.

Rey Mysterio enters the arena to a standing ovation. I understand via the grapevine that Mysterio wasn’t thrilled about being drafted to Monday Night Raw but if Mysterio can keep another injury at bay, he will be a welcome addition to the Raw roster. This is Mysterio’s last night on Smackdown. Before Mysterio can leave the ring, Batista enters the arena still carrying the WWE World Heavyweight Championship belt in order to tell Mysterio goodbye and we go to commercial break.

WWE Rewind: The Battle Royal from Monday Night Raw. Batista and Edge collided, Batista was left with a bleeding wound on the head. Edge won the Battle Royal.

Main Event
The Animal Batista from Washington, DC
Vs.
Samoan Bulldozer Umaga from the Isle of Samoa weighing 350 lbs.
Umaga may be large but I prefer watching him in the ring to watching Batista in the ring. For a large wrestler, Umaga is very agile and doesn’t hesitate to take risks when it is required to win the match. JR has told the fans that Batista received stitches as a result of the injury he suffered during the Battle Royal. Umaga uses head butts to try to open up the stitched area. Umaga goes for a cover and gets a two count before Batista powers out. The live audience is pro Batista and they aren’t quiet about it. Umaga is in charge during the first part of this match. Batista delivers a jawbreaker but Umaga delivers a standing dropkick and goes for the cover. Umaga gets a one count. Umaga uses numerous head butts as he stalks Batista, finally dropping Batista to the canvas. Batista tries to body slam Umaga but Batista goes down and Umaga goes for the cover getting a two count. Umaga misses a squash in the corner and Batista goes after Umaga with clotheslines. Batista delivers a spine buster and as he gets ready to finish Umaga, Edge’s cronies appear in the ring to take out Batista. Umaga is getting back to his feet and he delivers a super kick that sends Batista to the mat. Hawkins, Ryder, Guerrero and Edge get shoved aside by Umaga so that he can finish Batista himself. Umaga delivers a squash in the corner. Time: 7 minutes.
Winner: The Animal Batista via disqualification

As Umaga goes up on the top turnbuckle to go for a splash, HHH enters the ring and stops Umaga before going after everyone else in the ring. Batista is back to his feet and they take on Hawkins & Ryder, HHH delivering a pedigree while Batista delivers a Batista bomb.

I have high hopes that Umaga switching to Smackdown might also give him a switch to his character allowing the fans to see him wrestle. You just know he has to have in ring talent that goes beyond his present work. It wasn’t the greatest of matches for a main event but it did continue the friction between Edge and Batista and has now thrown HHH into the mix.

Sound Off!
Comment about this article on Da' Wrestling Boards!

Email Sassy

back to WWE Smackdown reviews Index