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Thanks to Mark Bright:

SmackDown started off this week with the announces plugging the upcoming events on the show, the main event of Batista v. Rey Mysterio and the special live edition of The Dirt Sheet with John Morrison and The Miz bringing back their Slammy Award Winning wwe.com show. And when I say the announcers, I mean Michael Cole and Todd Grisham, as Jim Ross was given the week off to celebrate his wedding anniversary. With Cole being a RAW announcer it gave them time to hype the interpromotional aspect of the Bragging Rights PPV, even though it was weird to see Cole so pro-RAW and anti-SmackDown after being the voice of that show for nine years.

Teddy Long stood at the top of the ramp talking about the RAW v. SmackDown match taking place at Bragging Rights, and he introduced Chris Jericho as the SmackDown team captain. Jericho then walked to the ring, ignoring Long as he walked by, which was great. Jericho got to the ring and cut his usual promo about how great he is, before bringing up the possible move to SmackDown of John Cena. He reminds everyone that he’s the face of SmackDown, and says that when Orton beats Cena at Bragging Rights, Cena needs to remember that Jericho is the face of SmackDown and the locker room leader. I really like that the idea of Cena joining the other shows is discussed and talked about, if only because it raises the possibility in the eyes of the fans.

Jericho then turns his attention to DX, including ripping up a copy of their book. I can’t believe the DX book, given how huge a merchandise draw they are, went straight to paperback. Maybe they didn’t want it to clash with the Rey Mysterio autobiography that’s coming out soon, but surely they could’ve just delayed/moved forward the respective release dates so there’s a greater gap between two potentially huge money-spinners. Jericho talks about how he needs to build a team of miscreants in his own image, and therefore will be keeping a close eye on the qualifying matches.

Kane interrupts, and I spend the time he takes to walk down the ramp and the duration of his promo trying to remember if he’s a heel or a babyface right now and I’m really none the wiser. He acted somewhat heelish, but in a Kane way where it’d be how he’d act as a babyface too. He says he’s taking a place as co-captain, so Jericho gets a laugh from the crowd (and he’ll probably be one of the only heels around right now who will actually hate that) for backing away and saying of course Kane’s the co-captain he was just about to announce it. Kane says that DX and the rest of Team RAW will go up in flames. Jericho was excellent as usual here, and he showed good chemistry with Kane, who is always a good “make up the numbers” addition on a PPV multi-person match.

The first Bragging Rights qualifying match was a triple threat between Finlay, Dolph Ziggler and Mike Knox. The action was fine, but it really hit home that it feels like I’ve watched these men wrestle each other a hundred times now in various combinations, and while it’s always decent and sometimes very good, nobody is any higher up the card than when the feud started, and if anything the one with most forward momentum, Ziggler, is actually brought down a level by getting involved with the other two one more time. The finish tried to play off a previous match, as Finlay hits Knox with the shillelagh at the same time as Knox hit a flying crossbody. But the problem here was, even with a third guy in the match where a natural distraction could be created, they didn’t even bother and Finlay just whacked Knox with an illegal weapon right infront of the referee who is staring straight at him, and somehow this was OK and not cheating at all. When Finlay went for the pin, Ziggler yanked him outside and got the pin himself to, in Cole’s words “steal one.” It was the right result, and I just hope for Ziggler’s sake the PPV match goes well for him and he doesn’t get treated like a joke who’s out of his league against guys like DX and Big Show.

The second Bragging Rights qualifier saw Cryme Tyme beat The Hart Dynasty and this time I really feel like I’ve seen this match a hundred times, and given they’re the only permanent tag teams on the brand I’m sure we’ll be seeing it a hundred more times before the year is out. Much like the previous match, they’ve worked together enough that it’s really good, even changing things up and letting the Harts work over the big guy and having JTG run wild after the hot tag worked well. I think JTG is pretty good, but I hope WWE aren’t looking at it that way and thinking “yeah he is lets break up another tag team too early” because Kidd and Smith need people to work with and they’re the only face team on the show. JTG pinned Kidd with some move.

Chris Jericho is backstage talking to Teddy Long about how he needs a bunch of vagabonds on his team, and then talks to Michelle McCool about the (as yet unspecified) divas match at Bragging Rights. He again makes sure SmackDown is seen as the heel team for the main event by stating that he can’t guarantee Morrison is going to beat Miz, and McCool says that while Jericho is the best in the world at what he does, McCool can beat any diva any place any time. Mickie James enters, and says she has already beaten every RAW diva, so she should represent SmackDown. McCool ignores her and walks off, to be met by The Glamazon Beth Phoenix, who stares at McCool’s Women’s Title belt, then looks at her and says she’s taking the title. That would presumably place Beth in a babyface role, and I think that would really work for her.

Vince McMahon is backstage on the phone and CM Punk interrupts. I bet Vince kills people with his bare hands for interrupting his phone calls in real life, so to see him ignore the call and talk to Punk was weird. Punk wants Vince to cancel the Fatal 4-way, and while Vince says it’s a stupid idea and the reason why Teddy Long is still on probation, Vince does say he liked Punk’s suggestion from last week, so on next week’s show it’s going to be Undertaker defending the World Heavyweight Title in a submission match against Punk, with Teddy Long at ringside and Scott Armstrong as referee.

They’ve built up the potential for another screwjob finish here so it’ll be interesting to see how they get out of that, unless Punk’s getting the belt for one weekend. Punk loved this idea and shook hands with Vince, who then went back to his phone call. Punk and Vince have excellent chemistry on screen together, and I’m increasingly praying that Vince turns heel at joins forces with Punk at some point, although I’m not sure I’d be able to take the combined level of awesome that would bring.

Then it’s time for something I’ve missed on SmackDown these last few months, Vickie Guerrero standing infront of a live crowd booing the shit out of her as she says EXCUUUUUUSE ME! It’s still awesome. She introduces Eric Escobar for the next qualifying match, against Matt Hardy. Hardy lost, which I’m sure means he’ll go on the internet to complain about the internet.

Vickie faked an ankle injury which distracted Matt, so Escobar ran him into the ringpost and pinned him. The match was pretty basic stuff, and really I think Escobar is in the Bragging Rights match for the surprise early elimination cameo appearance.

Then we got the return of The Dirt Sheet, as US Champion The Miz and IC Champion John Morrison were in the ring to debate their Bragging Rights match. They had a cool set-up with the canvas being split half red and half blue. They got into an argument talking about famous double-acts of the past where one has faded into obscurity and one has been a great success, culminating of course in The Rockers, and they argue over which one is Shawn Michaels and which one is Marty Jannetty. The truth, of course, is that both are far too good to be Jannetty and neither have a fucking prayer of ever being Michaels, but their arguing back and forth was entertaining.

Miz says he’s The Miz and he’s awesome, and Morrison mocks him for never having anything interesting to say besides his catchphrases, and rresponds to Miz saying RAW is the better show by saying SmackDown has action and drama while RAW is a variety show, asking if Big Bird would be the next guest host. Would’ve been a perfect opportunity for Miz to either plug that it’s actually Snoop Dogg or even say the reason people watch RAW is him so it doesn’t matter who the hosts are. Morrison eventually gets in Miz’s face and challenges him to start the fight there and then, but Miz runs down the “b-town and b-show” and says if people want to see him fight, they have to pay for it. That’s a great line and a theory that all top heels should subscribe to, especially champions. Mick Foley kind of had the right idea when he was the World Champion in TNA recently but he overplayed it and it turned to nudge-wink comedy.

This segment was excellent, Miz and Morrison played off each other really well as tag team partners and the same is true of them as opponents. I especially like how they would interrupt and talk over each other during promos, it made it seem like a real argument rather than two guys taking their scripted turns to speak, which is the way it should be.

They showed a video package of all the recent brawls between Drew McIntyre and R-Truth before they faced off in the final Bragging Rights qualifier. This was yet another match I feel like I’ve seen a lot before. McIntyre got the win via count-out when he and Truth were brawling on the outside, and McIntyre kicked Truth’s leg out from under him and he landed back first on the steps, unable to prevent McIntyre getting back in the ring before the ten-count.

It’s clear that McIntyre has the kind of look that the WWE wants, and in the ring he’s OK, but it’s going to take more than count-out wins over R-Truth for fans to take to him as a top guy. I guess we’ll find out at the PPV how true the reports are that HHH and HBK are really high on him and see him as a future main eventer. It’s a waste of R-Truth who I still maintain if allowed can cut promos at main event level and has good energy in the ring, but just doesn’t seem to get the kind of push that deserves.

Rey Mysterio and Batista have another friendly conversation in the back, and Batista says he doesn’t want to fight Rey in the main event, but Rey jokes around about maybe Dave is scared of him, and even asks Batista to take it easy. They’re fucking with the internet bigtime, people have been calling for a Batista heel turn forever and it’s got to the point where they’re hinting so strongly that I’m almost certain it doesn’t happen now.

We then went to an Undertaker promo, talking about next week’s match, saying history may repeat itself, but not in his yard. Even though Bragging Rights is a four-way, he’s clearly focusing much of his promo work on Punk so you’d assume that may still be the main feud going forward. Also, using the World Heavyweight Title as bait to capture wayward souls is just about the best thing Undertaker has ever done, I just wish he was healthy enough to hold the title long-term.

Then it was main event time, as Batista took on Rey Mysterio. In many ways, this was a babyface version of the Big Show v. Chris Jericho match that took place on this week’s RAW, in that it was friends forced into a match together who didn’t really want to face each other. Well, Dave didn’t want it, but Rey was happy to use his quickness to outsmart Batista and avoid contact, until Rey went for a 619, which pissed Batista off for some reason so he speared him, sending Rey crashing all the way to the outside.

Batista then worked Rey over in your usual big man v. small man spots, that didn’t have as much sympathy heat as Rey can normally get for them since people still like Batista. That will also be a problem when Rey is in the ring with Undertaker at Bragging Rights. Eventually, Rey made the comeback, and hit the 619 and a huracanrana for the pin, although Batista clearly had a shoulder up, on the blind side to the referee. Batista protested, but eventually calmed down and left Rey to celebrate in the ring. As Rey was celebrating, CM Punk came in through the crowd and laid Rey out with the Go To Sleep, then ran away through the crowd before Batista could get to the ring to get his hands on him. The show ended with Rey and Batista hugging.