WWE: Friday Night Smackdown
June 29, 2007
San Antonio, TX
AT&T Center

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.

Word from Michael Cole is that Teddy Long isn’t here tonight which leaves Vickie Guerrero in charge. As her first night on the job all by herself, he has made some inter-promotional matches for the evening. She’s also made a match between Edge and Batista for tonight, but of course the world title can’t be on the line now, which just seems cruel to poor Bats.

• Ric Flair vs. Carlito
  

So you have chosen to promote an inter-promotional match after the draft has occurred, but instead of giving the people a *fresh* match-up, you give them a match that has already been played out on the other more popular show? Carlito concentrates on the ribs while Flair comes back with chops. He gets Carlito in the middle of the ring and puts him in the FIGURE-FOUR. When Carlito nearly reaches the ropes, Flair pulls him back to the center of the ring, elbow drops the knee a few times, and then reapplies the FIGURE-FOUR for the tapout. (8:00) Fine way to put Flair over and get him back to his winning ways. WOO! *½

SMACK OF THE NIGHT (brought to you by Auto Zone): Vengeance 2007, Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch defeating the Hardyz in STILL SHOTZ~!

• Lance Cade vs. Matt Hardy
  

I’m a little surprised there’s no Trevor Murdoch tonight. After some prelim stuff, Matt baits Cade out to the floor for a baseball slide. Back in, Cade takes the AHH elbow drop. He avoids the Twist of Fate and stuns Hardy with the SITOUT SPINEBUSTER. Matt rolls to the floor after that one. Back in, Cade concentrates on the back for a minute or so. Hardy comes back with the corner clothesline and the running bulldog for two. Cade shoves away the Twist of Fate and drills Hardy with a Clothesline from Hell. Cade follows up with a superplex for 1-2-NO! He looks for another one, but Matt kicks off the turnbuckle and hits the TWIST OF FATE FROM OUTTA NOWHERE! Cover, 1-2-3. (7:10) Matt Hardy just continues his roll throughout 2007. He needs to be in a program with MVP over the US title – STAT. **½

Still shots are shown of Edge and Batista from their match at Judgment Day to get you pumped for the main event.

Michelle McCool promo. She loves running on the beach – because she’s loving life.

• WWE Cruiserweight Championship: Chavo Guerrero (c) vs. Jamie Noble vs. Funaki
  

Well, Vickie Guerrero is clearly not showing her husband’s nephew any favor here. Funaki is just kind of here to take three-man moves. It’s really all about Noble and Chavo. They do a cool sunset flip-German suplex spot allowing Chavo to get the nearfall on Noble while Funaki takes the suplex. There’s a “Chavo” chant going. Noble connects with a running enziguri to Chavo and gets a nearfall. As Chavo rolls to the floor, Noble takes over on Funaki. During a sleeperhold spot, Funaki drops down for a jawbreaker to send Noble falling out to the floor with Chavo so that Funaki can dive on top of them. Chavo gets dumped out again leaving Funaki to appear like he’s going to beat Noble. However, Noble comes back with a knee to the gut and looks for the GIBSON DRIVER only for Funaki to counter and catapult him to the floor. That’s when Chavo shoots right in and delivers a GORY BOMB to pick up the win. (6:10) I think that got a more positive reaction in San Antonio than WWE was wanting. **½

Edge storms into the Smackdown GM office looking for Teddy Long, but only finding Vickie Guerrero is in charge. He refuses to wrestle Batista tonight. Vickie tells him that the title won’t be on the line. Edge is still pissed and says he will be wrestling under protest.

Jesse and Festus are coming to Smackdown. Festus is now mentally retarded.

• Deuce N Domino (w/Cherry) vs. Cryme Tyme
  

This is our second inter-promotional match tonight. Naturally, Cryme Tyme are ogling Deuce N Domino’s classic car. Domino takes a face bump and busts his nose open. A flying leg lariat from JTG gets two. Shad and JTG do the spot where Shad flips JTG over by his legs onto Domino for another nearfall. JTG gets sent to the floor so the tide can turn and the tag champs can get some heat on him. JTG escapes a Cobra Clutch and rolls past Domino to make the hot tag to Shad. They look for the G-9, but Deuce pulls the top rope down on JTG while Cherry has the ref’s attention. Domino sneaks a rollup on Shad and gets the three-count. (3:33) Do these tag champs ever get a chance to look strong? Geez. *

WWE Presents the “Just For Men: Stay In The Game” Moment: Smackdown, tonight. Clips are shown from Deuce N Domino defeating Cryme Tyme.

They show Cryme Tyme stealing DND’s car backstage planning to take it to the Brisco Brothers Body Shop to strip it. WHY DIDN’T DEUCE N DOMINO COME AFTER THEM INSTEAD OF WATCHING THIS FROM THE RING ON THE TITANTRON LIKE A COUPLE OF MORONS?

• MVP vs. Kane
  

MVP makes fun of Tony Parker (MVP of the 2007 NBA Finals) and Tim Duncan (3-time MVP of the NBA Finals!) because they aren’t the US champ. I love this man. This continues until Kane interrupts to save the day. They put over Kane’s POWER advantage to start. MVP is able to kick him down though and wears him down with an armbar. He connects with the Helluva Kick, but Kane comes back with a big boot of his own. Corner clotheslines and the Side Slam gets two. He hits the Flying Clothesline, but MVP elbows away the Chokeslam. MVP looks for the Helluva Kick again, but Kane catches his foot and grabs the CHOKESLAM to pick up the win. (5:42) This was what it was. *½

Still shots are shown of Edge and Batista from their cage match at One Night Stand to get you pumped for tonight’s main event.

Some guy I’ve never seen before introduces Smackdown to Eugene who came over as part of the supplemental draft. He’s happy to be here until the Great Khali interrupts to yell at him. They have a match tonight. Khali just wants to have fun tonight.

Elsewhere, Victoria approaches Mickie James (holy moley) and they get into a debate over who is the wilder chick. To prove how wild she is, Victoria says she will kiss the first guy who walks out of the locker room. Unfortunately for her, it’s Howard Finkel who appears to be taking fashion advice from Mac on “It’s Always Sunny”. Victoria is wild, but she ain’t *that* wild. The next guy is Hacksaw Jim Duggan. She chickens out and instead dares Mickie to kiss the next guy who walks out. The next guy out the door is the oily fat guy that WWE finds so hilarious. When he drops down to tie his shoes (because you wouldn’t want to trip being so oily), Ron Simmons walks out the door and gets smooched by Mickie. RACISM WAS DEAD BEFORE 2008, FOLKS. After the girls leave, the oily fat guy dances around Ron and gets a “DAMN”.

• Mickie James vs. Victoria
  

Finally, some Divas who can go on Smackdown. Victoria has been drafted over to Smackdown as part of the supplemental draft. They work the old Flair-Steamboat routine from the headlock to the backslide to give Mickie a nearfall. Up in the corner, Victoria trips up Mickie to put her in the tree of woe. A kick to the head gets a two-count. A slap across the face from Victoria wakes up Mickie. Victoria grabs Mickie for the TKO into a side slam for 1-2-NO! Mickie comes back with a headscissors out of the corner and follows up with a neckbreaker. Victoria avoids the Mickie-DT and smashes Mickie’s face on her knee. Time for the Flying Moonsault, but there’s no water in the pool. Mickie shoots over and applies a three-quarter nelson cradle for the win. (4:32) I enjoyed this and so did the crowd! Nice to see women who can already wrestle on Smackdown instead of women just trying to get better on primetime TV. **

Clips are shown of Edge and Batista from their match at Vengeance: Night of Champions to get you pumped for tonight’s main event.

• The Great Khali (w/his interpreter) vs. Eugene
  

This wasn’t fun at all for Eugene as Khali gives him the Brain Chop and the TREE SLAM to end him in :41.

Backstage, Batista said if he couldn’t have a world title match with Edge that he had just one word for him: “punishment.” YES.

• Edge vs. Batista
  

Edge is ducking Bats to start. He kicks at Batista’s leg, but Bats pushes him away and goes after Edge’s leg instead. He even applies a STRETCH MUFFLER~! Batista hits the Running Powerslam and sets up for the Demon Bomb. Edge goes to low blow him just like at Vengeance, but Bats grabs his arm and pulls Edge up into a short-arm clothesline. Batista knocks out Edge to the barricade to take us into commercial. When we return, Edge comes back on Batista with a swinging neckbreaker through the ropes. He snaps him off the top rope to drop him to the floor and tries to get the countout win. Edge wears down Bats with a cravat, but Batista comes back and hits a spear. Side Slam gets two, but Edge counters the powerslam and delivers the Edge-O-Matic. Edge charges him for the Spear, but Bats catches him for a Spinebuster. Edge rolls out only to be dropped on the barricade. Back inside, Batista flies from the top down into a dropkick. Edge tries another Spear, but Bats leapfrogs him just high enough for Edge to go right into position for the DEMON BOMB for the win. (10:50 shown) We close the show with Batista holding the world title belt high while he’s standing victorious over Edge. It seems other people don’t really dig their matches as much as I have. I liked the psychology here of Edge feeling as though he was completely done with ever having to wrestle Batista again just five days ago only to have to face him one more time and not being able to beat him. The motivation was clearly on the side of Batista and I thought this was fine overall considering all the extra issues going on with the WWE family at the time. Anyways, good stuff. ***

Until next time, so long for now.