WWE: Friday Night Smackdown
June 22, 2007
Charlotte, NC
Bobcats Arena

The current Smackdown champions are as follows:
World Heavyweight Champion: Edge (5/11/2007)
WWE United States Champion: MVP (5/20/2007)
WWE Tag Team Champions: Deuce N Domino (4/20/2007)
WWE Cruiserweight Champion: Chavo Guerrero (2/18/2007)

Read along if you have the WWE Network!

Your hosts are Michael Cole and JBL.

The Cutting Edge

Edge’s special guest tonight is Torrie Wilson who Edge accuses of killing Mr. McMahon. Torrie denies it, but Edge’s case is airtight. Torrie once seduced Vince when she first got to Smackdown. She also had a motive because Vince put her in a match with Carlito. MVP interrupts and accuses Torrie of lying about her age and then demands she take a lie detector test. All this Torrie abuse brings out Ric Flair who takes on both Edge and MVP until Batista helps him even things out. And ladies and gents, there is your main event.

• Jimmy Wang Yang & Shannon Moore vs. Chavo Guerrero & Jamie Noble
  

Shannon Moore has dropped the whole “Prince of Punk” thing. The story here is that Chavo really doesn’t want to face Yang in a fair fight so he avoids him until Noble hits an armbreaker DDT. The heels go to work on Yang’s arm. Cole and JBL actually do talk about this match for the most part. Yang misses a charge and posts himself. He hits Noble with an atomic drop and hot tags Moore. Shannon Moore cleans house. I DON’T BELIEVE IT. Yang takes out Noble with a cannonball splash while Chavo reverses a jackknife roll from Moore to a Gory Bomb for the win. (6:13) Not bad. Good way to make it appear like Yang still has Chavo’s number without the 50/50 booking. **½

• Mark Henry vs. Funaki
  

Seriously, Funaki? Alright. His offense just pisses Henry off even more. Henry finishes him with the bearhug in 2:16. ½*

Backstage, Teddy Long tells Vickie Guerrero that tonight is a big night for him. He looks at Vince’s picture and says life is too short. Nice touch. He asks Kristal to accompany him to the ring tonight. Oh boy. We know where this is heading.

• Matt Hardy vs. Finlay
  

They go through a nice feeling out process to start as they play around with headlocks. I never get over how rough Finlay appears to be in the ring there. This continues until they go to the floor where Hornswoggle distracts Matt and Finlay drills him with a clothesline to take us into commercial. When we come back, Finlay absolutely DISSECTS Hardy’s bad knee and rips off the knee brace. Cole cries how this could be legal and wonders what the function of a knee brace is. Hardy escapes an Indian deathlock and enziguri kicks Finlay down. He hits the Side Effect and sells the bad knee so well. Because it’s part of his moveset, Hardy comes off the middle rope with the AHH elbow drop jarring his knee. Hornswoggle reappears and distracts the ref while Finlay grabs the shillelagh and whacks Hardy in the back of the knee. Crowd really got onto Finlay for that. He shoots at Hardy, but Matt hits the TWIST OF FATE FROM OUTTA NOWHERE and gets the three-count. (15:49 shown) They did this same sort of finish last week with Regal, but I don’t really like it here. The “last ditch effort” thing is very played. But hey, the crowd did seem to like the finish and it was another really strong match for Hardy. I’m guessing by looking at history that their end game here with Hardy was to build a world title contender for Edge because once he’s done with Batista, he’s got nobody else serious to contend with right now. ***½

The Major Brothers are coming to Smackdown!

Teddy Long brings Kristal out to the ring to ask her to marry him because Vince is dead. Ya know, asking someone to marry you because “life is too short” is never a good idea. Anyways, Kristal starts to cry once he gets on bended knee and runs off in tears. Yeah, NOT GOOD.

• Chris Masters vs. Danny Shandling
  

I didn’t know Garry Shandling had a brother who wrestles! Total squash-a-roo as Masters wins with the MASTER LOCK in 3:45.

Meanwhile, when Teddy finally gets Kristal to come out of a locked room, he apologizes for proposing marriage to her in front of the WORLD. It’s going to be pretty hard to come back from that one, pal. She looks at the ring, puts it on, and then agrees to marry Teddy.

Daniel Beck from “the bureau” reports that everyone is still a suspect, but that forensics has confirmed that there was DNA from Vince McMahon, the limo driver, and “one other well-known personality.” So you’re specific about the totally unknown limo driver’s name, but the “well-known personality” is being withheld from us – FOR RATINGS?

Video package for Michelle McCool airs. She plays tennis because she loves taking out aggression on balls by hitting them as hard as she wants. Feminism is a cancer.

• Ric Flair & Batista vs. Edge & MVP
  

Flair and Bats control both of the young guys early. Boy, is this crowd hot for Flair or what. Commercials! When we return, Batista is stuck on the wrong side of town. Edge works in a bearhug for a bit. Batista hits MVP with a Bossman Slam though and tags out to Flair. He goes nuts on MVP and goes for the Figure-Four, but Edge breaks it up with a SPEAR. Flair-in-peril occurs and MVP works over his ribs with an abdominal stretch. MVP hits the Helluva Kick, but misses on the second attempt. HOT TAG TO BATISTA! Batista powerslams Edge and brings MVP into the ring. Flair sends MVP to the floor, which leaves Batista alone with Edge. Batista misses a Spear, but intercepts Edge with a Spinebuster and hits the DEMON BOMB for the win. (13:36 shown) Forget about the booking for the PPV, this was all sorts of fun. All four guys were motivated to work in front of this crowd that finally woke up once they got their man out here. Ric Flair could sit in the ring and do his taxes in just about any building in North Carolina and it would draw. ***¼

VENGEANCE IS NEXT! Until then, so long for now.

WWE presents Vengeance: Night of Champions
June 24, 2007
Houston, Texas
Toyota Center

TRIPLE MAIN EVENT
WWE Championship: John Cena (c) vs. Randy Orton vs. Bobby Lashley vs. Mick Foley vs. King Booker
World Heavyweight Championship: Edge (c) vs. Batista
ECW World Championship: Chris Benoit vs. CM Punk
WWE Intercontinental Championship: Santino Marella (c) vs. Umaga
WWE U.S. Championship: MVP (c) vs. Ric Flair
World Tag Team Championship: Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch (c) vs. The Hardyz
WWE Tag Team Championship: Deuce N Domino (c) vs. ???
WWE Women’s Championship: Melina (c) vs. Candice Michelle
WWE Cruiserweight Championship: Chavo Guerrero (c) vs. Jimmy Wang Yang