-- Cody Rhodes captured the Intercontinental Title from Ezekiel Jackson. It marks Rhodes's first singles title in WWE.
-- The Sin Cara character returned to TV in the form of developmental wrestler Hunico under the mask. Hunico is heftier than the original Sin Cara a/k/a Mistico, who was suspended for a Wellness Policy violation.
The Smackdown announcers danced around the noticeable weight difference, with Josh Mathews saying it appeared Sin Cara put on some weight during his time off. In the storyline, Sin Cara was temporarily written off TV via an injury angle at the Money in the Bank PPV.
-- Johnny Curtis made his Smackdown in-ring debut in a squash match loss to Mark Henry.
-- Beth Phoenix came over from Raw to team with Natalya in a victory over A.J. and Kaitlyn. WWE gave Phoenix and Natalya the tag team name of "Divas of Doom."
WWE Friday Night SmackDown is aired tonight from Sacramento, California, 48 hours away from the SummerSlam Pay-Per-View. Triple H starts the ceremonies with a largely mixed cheer; half of it genuine, half of it cosmetic. As Triple H welcomes everyone in Sacramento to SmackDown, he recaps that he is the special guest referee for the WWE Title Unification match at SummerSlam. As he announces John Cena, there was a reasonable cheer for his name; whereas he mentioned CM Punk, there was a rather lukewarm cheer. As he went into details, a CM Punk chant erupted as quickly as it was silenced.
He then goes into explaining that he didn’t realize the magnitude of responsibilities that came with being the COO, but asserts that he loves the challenge. He then promises to make every episode of Raw and SmackDown as exciting and unpredictable as it can be. He then listed a series of matches that will occur tonight, firstly an Intercontinental Championship match between Ezekiel Jackson and Cody Rhodes, followed by a match that will feature Money in the Bank winners; as Alberto Del Rio bouts against Daniel Bryan, which prompted an ecstatic cheer from Booker T.
Finally. He concluded the card by announcing that former World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton will go against The Great Khali, also a former World Heavyweight Champion, and as Triple H was about to announce Christian’s opponent for tonight, the World Champion decides to interrupt Triple H. As he made his way to the ring, there were shots of WWE fans still showing support for the current World Champion, accompanied by a cheer for the heel. Christian then recaps to Triple H, that he promised him and the WWE Universe that he will make an announcement tonight. He then chided Triple H for not asking him what was it about, but Triple H simply responded that he doesn’t give a crap.
Christian then tries to bury Triple H for his forced humor, to which the audience responds with some more cheers for Triple H. Christian then announces that he will sue the WWE, and explains that one of his reasons why he will sue, is that he’s facing off against a man who has severe anger management issues, and by forcing Christian to face Orton in a No Holds Barred match for SummerSlam, that Triple H is putting Christian in an unsafe work environment.
He then puts an ultimatum to Triple H; if the stipulation of No Holds Barred isn’t pulled, that Christian will launch a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the WWE. He goes even further by saying that he’ll sue Triple H’s children, everyone that works at WWE, and joins the Laurinaitis bashing by saying that he’ll sue the Executive VP of Talent Relations as well. He takes it even further by saying that he’ll sue all the fans.
Triple H states, that if Christian breaches his contract by persisting with his lawsuit, that he would fire Christian and strip him of his title. Christian then falls into an emotional outburst by constantly questioning Triple H why is he helping Orton, even though Orton attacked his family two years ago. Triple H explains that he doesn’t like Orton, but he respects him, whereas with Christian, since the fans don’t like him, he doesn’t like him. And the way he won his World Heavyweight Championship means that he doesn’t respect him anymore. He ends his promo by saying that the only way that Christian can earn that respect, is by competing in the No Holds Barred match.
Christian then bellows to Triple H as he leaves the ring that he’ll drop the lawsuit, and fight Orton, and that he’ll go against whomever Triple H will set him up against. Triple H is pleased with the response, and lets him know that he’s fighting Sheamus.
Sheamus versus Christian: Christian engages in a brief game of cat-and-mouse until Sheamus scores some European Uppercuts on the champion. Christian, after enduring a vicious stomping from Sheamus, scores a slap on Sheamus, but Sheamus quickly powers back before being tossed out of the ring by Christian. Christian went for a baseball slide, but Sheamus caught him. As Sheamus wanted to ram Christian into the ring post, Christian breaks free from his grip and pushes Sheamus into the post, face first.
Sheamus resumes his attack on Christian, but as he sends him to the corner, Christian side steps and makes Sheamus hit the ring post with his shoulder. Christian begins working the arm of Sheamus as Sheamus begins getting up and catches Christian with the Irish Curse backbreaker. Sheamus unleashes a series of hammer fists on Christian, and unloads a scoop slam on Christian. Christian attempted to go for the Killswitch, but Sheamus fights it off.
Christian then goes for a body splash, which Sheamus ducks out of the way. He then goes for the High Cross, which Christian counters and gets trapped in the ring ropes, while Sheamus whales on Christian, to the delight of the audience. Sheamus goes for a top rope Shoulder block, which he connects on Christian. As Sheamus was setting up for the Brogue Kick, Christian rolls out of the ring, grabs his belt, and walks away, but Sheamus stops him.
After dragging him back to the ring and setting up another High Cross, Christian counters, hits Sheamus’ neck with the top rope, and walks away, leaving Sheamus to win the match via count-out.
Beth Phoenix and Natalya versus Kaitlyn and AJ: It’s the Divas of Doom against the self-proclaimed Chickbusters. Natalya and Kaitlyn start off the match. Natalya starts off strong with a scoop slam to Kaitlyn before tagging in Beth Phoenix, while performing a double Electric Chair Drop on Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn avoids a body splash on the corner of the ring and tags in AJ, and she lands a dropkick on Beth Phoenix, square in the chest.
AJ tries to go for a roll-up on Beth, but the Glamazon had other ideas; namely scoring a Glam Slam on AJ. One, two, three, this one is over. After the match, Beth tosses AJ out of the ring, while Natalya locks in the Sharpshooter on Kaitlyn, in which was accented by Kaitlyn screaming in pain.
In the GM’s office, Zack Ryder was discussing with Teddy Long the ratings success of SmackDown before being interrupted by Cody Rhodes. Rhodes expressed his thanks to Ryder for making the Intercontinental Title match happen between Rhodes and Jackson. Long, however, pointed out that it wasn’t Ryder’s suggestion, and then Aksana appeared, which prompted Long to send Ryder, Rhodes, and DiBiase out of the premises so he could talk with her, with sax music in the background.
Aksana’s dialect was hard to listen, much less to make out due to the music in the background. Despite this, Teddy Long left the office after Aksana tried to make some advances on him.
There is a video package shown of Mark Henry’s recent path of destruction, with a recap of his match with Big Show, and the events that followed around him, concluding with a recap of Vladimir Kozlov, former WWE Tag Team champion and employee, being given the broken ankle treatment.
Johnny Curtis is shown getting ready for his debut, but then, Mark Henry appears before him. Henry then subtly, then directly, tells Curtis, that his debut match is against Henry himself. He then complimented Curtis for his vignettes, before suggesting him another play on words; he told him to go “break a leg”, which unsettled Curtis even more.
Sin Cara (Hunico) versus Tyson Kidd: The bout begins with both Matthews and Booker T pointing out that Sin Cara put on a little weight, subtly acknowledging the changing of the man playing the role of Sin Cara. Sin Cara makes Kidd launch himself out of the ring, and after that, he launches himself out of the ring with a body splash on Kidd. As Sin Cara prepared for a springboard attack, Kidd hits a kick on his arm, which knocks Sin Cara out of the ring. Kidd follows it up with a low dropkick to Sin Cara’s face.
Kidd then works on Sin Cara’s arm, to which it gets countered into an arm drag. Sin Cara scores a head scissors takedown on Kidd, followed by a rebound clothesline off the middle rope which landed flush on Kidd. Sin Cara then uses a corner front flip attack on Kidd, and then sets him up on the top turnbuckle. As he attempted to go for the C4, Kidd pushed him off and tried to go for a double foot stomp, but Sin Cara ducked it. Sin Cara then caught Kidd with a unique suplex. He then pulls a top rope senton bomb-lionsault combo for the win.
Alberto Del Rio versus Daniel Bryan (Money in the Bank Winners Match): A particular caveat to notice is that Daniel Bryan changed his theme song once again. He’s going through theme songs like tweens go through episodes of Jersey Shore. Del Rio drives Bryan to the corner and lands a kick on his ribs, and kicks him in the corner until Bryan fights back with some European Uppercuts and lands a dropkick to the corner of the ring in which he drove Del Rio to. After the pin attempt which Del Rio kicked out, Bryan gets overwhelmed and is driven into the ring post, shoulder first.
Del Rio follows the attack with an impressive back suplex, in which he only gets a two-count. Del Rio then begins to work on Bryan’s arm, softening it up so it can be susceptible enough for his Cross Armbreaker submission. Bryan fights off the armbar Del Rio had locked on him and engages in a small series of European Uppercuts before Irish whipping Del Rio, to which Del Rio counters. Bryan then floats over Del Rio and lands a clothesline on Del Rio. Bryan then begins to launch those stiff Japanese kicks on Del Rio’s chest, until Del Rio ducks the kick meant for his head, and scores an enzugiri out of nowhere, which was an amazing move to pull out.
Del Rio then went to attempt his Cross Armbreaker, to which Bryan pulls out, and launches Del Rio out of the ring. Bryan then capitalizes by doing a suicide dive on Del Rio through the ropes. Bryan, however, had a rather difficult time getting up, as he was tending to his left shoulder. He slowly gets up, climbs to the top rope, and goes for his missile dropkick, which Del Rio moves out of the way, making Bryan crash and burn, so to speak. This gave Del Rio the chance to use his Cross Armbreaker, to which Bryan taps out in haste, and even so, Del Rio kept the lock on for a smidge more amount of time.
After Del Rio’s win, Wade Barrett shows up and lands a kick on the face of Daniel Bryan, then performs his Wasteland finisher on Bryan to send a message to his SummerSlam rival on Sunday.
The camera then shows Christian in a somber mood over his series of misfortunes since Triple H came to be COO.
Ezekiel Jackson versus Cody Rhodes (Intercontinental Championship): Rhodes and Jackson lock horns, and attempts an arm lock before being shrugged off forcefully by Jackson. Ezekiel then whales on Rhodes in the corner before tossing him to the middle of the ring. Jackson went for an elbow drop twice, but Rhodes rolls out of the way both times. Rhodes engages a small offense before being knocked out of the ring once more by Jackson. A commercial break happens and it shows Rhodes taking the offensive, landing punches and kicks on Jackson’s face.
Rhodes goes into a ground game by keeping Jackson down to the mat. After a two-count following his knee drop, Rhodes work on Jackson’s left arm once more, which he turns it into a face lock with a hammerlock attached. As a small glimpse of Zack Ryder’s Internet Championship belt is shown in the audience, Jackson gets up slowly and rams Rhodes into the corner. Rhodes adjusts his lock into a sleeper hold, which Jackson rams Rhodes into the ring corner once more. Jackson went for a corner clothesline, but Rhodes kicked his arm to prevent the clothesline from landing.
Rhodes then went for a bulldog attempt, but Jackson shrugged him off, despite reeling from the pain on his arm. Jackson lands a couple of clotheslines before finishing it off with his corner clothesline, which he finally lands on Rhodes. Jackson then goes for the scoop slam, which he lands on Rhodes three times, weakening him for the Lex Luger-inspired Torture Rack. As Jackson was attempting the Torture Rack, Rhodes reaches for the top rope. DiBiase then climbs the ring to distract Jackson, which let Rhodes score a sneak attack on Jackson. Rhodes then engages in a series of headbutts with his facial mask against Jackson’s face, in which the referee had to stop before Rhodes hit the 5-count.
As the referee was chiding Rhodes, DiBiase once again tried to get the drop on Jackson, but Jackson levels him with a clothesline. Rhodes hits the Beautiful Nightmare kick on Jackson, which fazed Ezekiel momentarily, before responding with a clothesline, that Rhodes blocks and catches Jackson with CrossRhodes for the win, and his first Intercontinental title. The highlight after the match is Michael Cole going out of his way to put over Rhodes as a role model that overcame adversity.
Rhodes then puts a paper bag over Jackson’s head. As Rhodes left and DiBiase was celebrating, Jackson took off the paper bag and leveled DiBiase, before stomping him out of his misery in the corner, as retaliation for losing the title. He then ends his assault by hitting his Book of Ezekiel finisher on Ted DiBiase, and in a show of strength, he Military pressed him out of the ring.
The NFL Film-inspired CM Punk-John Cena video package was shown once again. After that, the announce team hypes the card for SummerSlam this Sunday.
Matt Striker then has an interview with Randy Orton. Orton then states his displeasure for Christian instigating his fits of anger. He recaps the No Holds Barred match, and explains how Christian is his perfect way to unleash his anger on. He touches on his match with The Great Khali, and guarantees victory.
Mark Henry versus Johnny Curtis: If there was a personification of having cold feet, Johnny Curtis fits the bell perfectly. Curtis goes for a hip lock, but Henry easily breaks the hold, and does a violent hip toss on Curtis, followed by a vicious shoulder charge. Curtis then gets further humiliated by being slapped by Henry and then proceeds to deliver a miniscule offense to Henry before being leveled by Henry right then and there. Henry then scores his World’s Strongest Slam for the easy win.
As Henry went to attempt to break Curtis’ leg, Sheamus does a run-in to save Curtis. He then cuts a small promo, taunting Henry to fight him, but instead of Henry going for Sheamus, he just does another World’s Strongest Slam on an already beaten Curtis outside of the ring, while telling Sheamus that the same fate will await the Celtic Warrior.
Randy Orton versus The Great Khali: A brief staredown begins the match. Khali and Orton lock horns until Khali pushes Orton off him and into the corner. Orton then engages in a small amount of offense before being manhandled by Khali once again with a clothesline. Khali then stomps on Orton, which draws the referee to chide Khali, giving Jinder Mahal an opportunity to choke Orton momentarily. Khali then lariats Orton out of the ring, as he gets out of the ring as well, and proceeds to drive Orton’s head into the steel steps.
Khali then drives Orton into another set of steel steps, and gets tossed back into the ring. Khali then lands a huge chop on Orton’s head, to which Orton, inexplicably, kicks out at 2. After the kickout, Khali does a vicious grip on Orton’s shoulder. Orton fights out of the grip and starts hitting Khali with some punches, and lands a dropkick on Khali’s chest, which made him lean on the ropes, and subsequently, gets his arms tangled up in the ropes.
Orton then beats on Khali as he’s trapped, then punches down Mahal for attempting to interfere in the match. Orton then lands a DDT on Khali, which prompted Josh Matthews to say that this is the first time he saw Khali off his feet. So, I guess the matches with Cena, Kane, Henry, Big Show, et al, don’t count, right? Smark moment aside, Orton was attempting to go for the RKO, but Khali counters his attempt into a Khali Vice, and tosses him to the corner of the ring once more.
As Khali was going to press his palm on Orton’s chest, Orton fights back, scores a couple of European Uppercuts, and inexplicably, lands a RKO on Khali for the win. As Orton took his time to bask in his victory, the World Champion, Christian appears before Orton. He then tells Orton that he cannot wait till Sunday for their No Holds Barred match, and lets him know that he “has the best thing going” for him come Sunday. Christian then bids his farewell to Orton to close the show.
Posted by: Aquiles Emmanuel Yika of WrestlingNews.com on Aug 12 2011
How stupid does the WWE think their fans are? Putting Unico in Sin Cara's costume was pitiful.
^Did it look as bad as it sounded?