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Thanks to Mark Bright for the following recap:

With The Undertaker winning the WWE Title at the Hell in a Cell PPV thanks to the company booking themselves into a corner with their stipulation-specific shows and necessitating hot heel champion CM Punk dropping the title. Admittedly, Undertaker is the face of SmackDown and therefore him having the title will never really be a terrible decision, and because he’s not a traditional babyface or heel you can really put challengers against him from either side of the fence, which allows for some interesting possibilities for the future.

Teddy Long is in the ring at the start of the show to cut a promo. He congratulates Taker for winning the World Title, and says that his performance proves that SmackDown is the dominant brand in the WWE. The guy who lost the title in 10 minutes was also a SmackDown guy so not quite sure how that works. He also puts over the possibility of John Cena coming to SmackDown, which I guess he has to, but it would be a completely fucking boneheaded thing to do. Not necessarily from an artistic standpoint, since you could argue that Cena may benefit from a wrestling guy like Michael Hayes writing for him instead of all these Hollywood guys on RAW who just know bad comedy. But from a perception standpoint, Cena is the top guy in the company and the cash cow they should be riding, which is tough to do on MyNetwork TV with it’s ever-decreasing ratings and cancellation rumors.

CM Punk interrupts, and after playing for time, allowing the crowd to soak up the opportunity to gloat at him losing the title, he chastises Long for spending so long on SmackDown talking about a RAW wrestler. Yes, he said “wrestler” not “superstar” which I found interesting.

Punk says he has an automatic rematch, and after complaining about Long putting him in a match tonight with Batista, he says his rematch with Taker will be a submission match with Scott Armstrong as a referee and Teddy at ringside, but Long cuts him off, only to be cut off himself by Vince McMahon. I think because RAW is always seen as the “A show” the fans went absolutely mental for Vince when ‘No Chance In Hell’ hit, because it’s still so unexpected to see him on this show, despite being in an angle with Long. Vince wonders why Long continues to provoke The Undertaker, and announces the SmackDown main event for Bragging Rights as Taker v. Punk v. Rey Mysterio v. Batista in a 4-way. Long reacts like he didn’t know this was happening, and Punk reacted with gloriously over-the-top shock.

The opening match of the show was Rey Mysterio v. Chris Jericho, and Rey got a handshake from Vince as he was making his way to the ring, while Punk and Long were still jawing at each other, which seems somewhat of a symbolic gesture given the widely-reported problems that arose between the two of them before Rey’s suspension. These two had a fantastic feud earlier this year, and this match picked up right where they left off. I could quite happily watch bully Jericho taunt and beat down and throw around Rey Mysterio, with Rey making highflying spectacular comebacks after selling his ass off every week until these guys retire.

Jericho at one point rips at Rey’s mask in a callback to their feud from earlier this year, and JR calls it a tactical error as it leads to Rey’s comeback. The nearfalls were worked brilliantly as usual, particularly Jericho grabbing the legs to counter the 619 only for Rey to counter a Walls Of Jericho attempt with an inside cradle for 2, which is the kind of thing that I think would make a great finish every once in a while, flash pins and wrestling holds I believe can work as finishers today, and these two are pretty much the perfect guys to get that ball rolling. Rey picked up the win with a kick to the head, followed by the 619 and a slingshot splash. Another really good match, as you’d expect from these two.

Then we got a Cryme Tyme Word Up segment, and today’s word was Eve, so they do some joking around as an excuse to show pictures of her from wwe.com photoshoots – and that’s not something I’ll ever complain about – before hyping her match with Michelle McCool, which is up next.

McCool v. Eve takes place in a three-minute non-title match. There are several things I hated about this. The WWE have done a decent job in her side role in the Hart Dynasty/Cryme Tyme feud as building up Eve as this firey babyface who isn’t afraid to get into a fight, but McCool just dominates her in this match, as she has in pretty much all her matches lately, that you just wonder where her competition will come from, and please God I’m hoping they don’t go back to Melina. Plus, the work is rookie-level bad, like something you’d think the WWE would be embarrassed to present in a company that primes itself as the worldwide leader in sports entertainment, and wants to project that image. Women’s wrestling is definitely one way in which WWE doesn’t live up to that billing. McCool wins with a kick. The crickets chirping and total lack of reaction to her matches would mean the title gets taken off her, if not for who she’s dating, but lets not pretend that hasn’t happened in the wrestling business for centuries and lets not pretend that there are a bunch of better qualified champions elsewhere on the roster right now.

Vickie Guerrero is backstage, and she berates Teddy Long for not including Eric Escobar on tonight’s show, and also says it’s unfair on Punk and also on Undertaker that he made the main event a 4-way. She gets Teddy to let slip that the four-way was Vince’s idea, and reminds Teddy that he’s still on probation. They should just let Vickie walk right back into the GM role anyway, since she was awesome at it last year.

The next match is an Intercontinental Title rematch with John Morrison defending against Dolph Ziggler. The start of this match sees Ziggler doing amateur takedowns and submission wrestling, which isn’t something I’ve seen from him before, and really doesn’t fit the arrogant and self-absorbed heel character he has, as compared to someone whose amateur background is hyped up as part of what makes him a threat, like Kurt Angle and Jack Swagger. It actually worked in this match because it showed a marked contrast to Morrison’s explosiveness and flashy offense. Maria makes her way to ringside during the match. After Mike Tenay and Don West have tried and failed for the last seven years, Jim Ross becomes the first wrestling announcer to correctly announce Pele’s name, and Todd Grisham immediately gets it wrong, then Ross gets it wrong again immediately after, so I’m guessing Ross got it right by accident. I really like Ziggler’s viciousness in this match, you really get a sense of desperation from him, which really sells well his desperation to finally win a big title match, and that’s something the announcers pick up on so you know it was deliberate. The ending saw Ziggler leave a chair at ringside, but Maria had moved it, so when Dolph put Morrison down with a dropkick and went to grab the chair he couldn’t find it, and, distracted, he allowed Morrison to hit a springboard flying kick for the win. This was another good match between these two, but seriously Dolph has to win a big title match soon before he joins the likes of Lex Luger and Tyler Black as perennial losers that the fans just won’t buy into as a top guy because they can never win the big one.

After commercials, Dolph and Maria are walking backstage, Maria tries to talk to Dolph, but he dumps her and Maria tries to start crying but can’t quite manage it, which was pretty funny. I’m thinking this leads to Maria helping Dolph beat Morrison in their next match to win the title. Just hope they play it like a modern Savage/Elizabeth with the innocent sweet woman who just happens to be madly in love with the guy who treats her like crap, rather than Maria as a conniving bitch turning heel because she’s evil, as firstly I don’t believe she could pull that off, and secondly that’s been done to death.

Then we get Rey Mysterio and Batista in a backstage segment. They hug, and Rey says he hopes Batista doesn’t feel let down by him getting pinned at Hell In A Cell (and that Unified tag title match was excellent by the way, one of the best tag team matches I’ve seen all year). Dave brushes him off and says it’s all good, and they get into some banter about which of them is walking out of Bragging Rights as World Champion. I’m now convinced that the WWE writers deliberately script segments and even entire angles to make people believe Batista is turning heel solely as a rib on the internet, it’s been happening for about two and a half years now and it never leads anywhere.

R-Truth raps his way to the ring, asking everyone “What’s Up?” before a tag team match pitting Truth and Matt Hardy against Drew McIntyre and Kane. Please God we aren’t getting another Matt Hardy/Kane feud are we? The last one, for being so shit, had in the Kane/Lita wedding a segment so awesome there’s no possible way they’d top that. It’s clear that WWE have high hopes for McIntyre, as he was talked up a lot here by the announcers, and he got most of the ring-time in this short match, and got a fairly clean pin on Hardy as Kane hit an uppercut and McIntyre hit his double-arm DDT for the pin, a finish which actually looks devastating when it’s done right and sold right, as it was here.

Then it’s time for The Undertaker to come out and cut his post-World Title win promo. He manages to twist his usual talk about collecting wayward souls by saying that people’s lust for the World Title will make people who usually run scared come after him, and enter his yard, which gives him better chance to take people’s souls. He hypes up the Bragging Right four way, putting over Rey’s heart and Batista’s rage, and the fact that Punk survived Hell In A Cell losing only his title, but says that come Bragging Rights, they will all fall in the shadow of The Undertaker. This was a fantastic promo, and if Taker is healthy enough to run with the belt as a long-term champion it’s the perfect tone to take, because then whoever does beat him will come off like a huge deal. Of course, Bragging Rights is in just over two weeks, so if they switch the title again there then great promo work like this from Taker with potential for a ton of future matches really goes nowhere.

The main event of the show is Batista v. CM Punk. Punk is still selling injuries from the Hell in a Cell match Sunday, coming to the ring slowly and walking with a limp. The early part of the match in the leadup to the first commercial break sees Punk bailing to the outside several times and stalling, while Batista, when he can grab hold of Punk, dominates him with raw power. That’s the perfect way to start off a heel Punk v. babyface Batista match, especially with Punk still selling pain from Sunday.

In a really bad bit of WWE production, which you really never expect from them, Batista finally catching up with Punk so he can get on top happened during the first commercial break, as when we come back Batista is beating up Punk and generally dominating, including Punk quickly getting to the ropes from an anklelock attempt, as the WWE attempt to give Batista a submission finisher. I don’t get why he needs one, he’s an explosive power monster babyface, the spinebuster and Batista Bomb are perfect for him. Punk gets the heat with a knee off the second rope, and is able to ground Batista including use of the figure four headscissors, which is a spot I like because even though it really is your usual time-killer, it still looks cool and is better than your regular chinlock that most guys will go for in that situation. The finish, quite honestly, was fucking brilliant. The commentators had spent the whole match talking about how Batista is on this hot run in singles matches since his comeback of wins over Orton, Kane, Big Show and Jericho, and after a couple of nice spots with Punk and the high knee in the corner, firstly for hitting it and the incredible facial expression Punk had, and secondly for Batista countering it with a spinebuster. Batista signaled for the Batista Bomb, but Punk had rolled outside, so Batista followed him to attempt a Batista Bomb on the floor, but Punk grabbed hold of the top rope, kicked Batista away, and slid back in the ring just before the referee reached 10 to win the match by count-out, so Punk gets the singles win over Batista and the right to brag about it, while the fans know Batista dominated and could kick Punk’s ass, a point accentuated by Batista powerbombing Punk after the match. That’s classic pro wrestling booking, and why SmackDown is the best wrestling show on TV by far right now.