The Edge-Alberto Del Rio-Christian program took another turn on Smackdown Friday night, as Del Rio defeated Christian in a No. 1 contender’s match and more seeds were planted for a feud between Edge and Christian. Del Rio got the win after Christian was momentarily distracted by Brodus Clay. Edge immediately speared Clay, and the announcers played up the fact that it was Edge who had inadvertently distracted Christian.
After consecutive losses to Christian and then getting beaten by Edge at WrestleMania XXVII, Del Rio needed this victory to get some heat back. He’ll face Edge in a ladder match for Edge’s world heavyweight title at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view on May 1.
Earlier in the show, Edge and Christian were sitting together in the locker room good-naturedly talking about a potential match between the two. When Edge walked away, he left the championship belt behind, and Christian got up to take a closer look at it. Then Edge came back to retrieve it, and a surprised Christian said with a smile, “You better keep an eye on that thing.”
That was good stuff. Other thoughts on Friday’s show: I liked Del Rio’s show-opening promo in which he said that his loss to Edge at WrestleMania simply meant that his destiny was being delayed. …
Just wondering: Since Christian has beaten Del Rio twice and Del Rio just lost to Edge, why was there even a need for a No. 1 contender’s match? Shouldn’t Christian have been awarded the title shot automatically? Perhaps that will play into Christian’s motivation if he turns heel. …
It was nice that WWE gave the eight-man tag match between The Corre and the team of The Big Show, Kane, Kofi Kingston and Santino Marella nearly 20 minutes for their rematch from WrestleMania, where they were given just 92 seconds. The result of this two-out-of-three falls contest was the same, however, as The Corre was defeated (the heel group lost the third and deciding fall by disqualification). Wade Barrett, Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater may all have gold around their waists, but they sure haven’t looked like champions as of late. …
Marella setting up for The Cobra and then helping Big Show and Kane chokeslam Ezekiel Jackson was pretty funny. … We moved one step closer to the LayCool split (how many times have I written that sentence now?) It seems clear that when it does happen, Layla will turn babyface – which is how I always thought it would go. …
Layla wants her and Michelle McCool to attend couples therapy, so I’m guessing that there will be some vignettes coming. That could be really good, really bad or so bad that it’s good. …Michael Cole doing a victory lap with Jack Swagger was so corny that I couldn’t help but laugh. …
Cole continues to own Booker T. in their verbal sparring match. Speaking of Cole, I loved it when Josh Matthews asked him why he wasn’t wearing his singlet, and Cole replied, “Because I’m not wr -- … I’m not entertaining tonight.” That was funny on a couple levels. …Sin Cara looked good again when he came out and hit a couple of his acrobatic moves on Swagger.