With WWE Money in the Bank 2011 right around the corner it is time to start making some matches. We already John Cena vs. CM Punk set for the RAW brand but who will Randy Orton be wrestling? That question will be answered temporarily on this Friday’s SmackDown.
Warning, you are about to read SmackDown spoilers for this Friday’s broadcast. If you wish to avoid spoilers stop reading now. Okay, you have been warned.
Christian won a WWE world heavyweight title shot on the last Friday Night SmackDown. Teddy Long ordered a match between Christian vs. Kane for the #1 contender. A tag team match broke out with Randy Orton and Kane vs. Christian and Mark Henry which saw Henry defeat Orton with the Slam Heard Around the World. Somehow or another that pin resulted in Christian winning a title shot and a third rematch with The Viper, Randy Orton.
[adinserter block=”2″]I speculated last week that it had not been determined where Christian would get that title shot. 90% of the time when SmackDown does a #1 contender match, the winner gets the title shot at the next WWE pay per view. However, a recent match saw Sheamus win a title shot and get that title shot the following week on SmackDown. Well according to reports from the SmackDown taping it would appear that Christian is getting his rematch at Money in the Bank, although that is still up in the air.
SmackDown closes this week with the official contract signing for Christian vs. Randy Orton for the WWE world heavyweight championship at Money in the Bank 2011. Here is how it all went down according to a report on F4Wonline.com.
“Christian got a lot of cheers, although nothing compared to Orton. The major stip is that if the referee makes a mistake in the match, then there is an automatic rematch. Orton signed. Before Christian could sign, Sheamus came out and laid out both men. He then tore up the contract, so it was never signed.”
So you have an interesting scenario here leading into Money in the Bank. It would appear from that angle that the match is still not officially a go. If I had a guess here my hunch is that Sheamus will be involved in the match after being screwed by Christian. That would make the third current feud for world champion Randy Orton right now if you throw Mark Henry into the mix. Is Orton going somewhere or is there a reason the WWE is rushing five months worth of angles into three weeks?
Hopefully plans remain the same and the WWE proceeds with a fourth match, third rematch for Christian. I can’t get enough of the Christian vs. Orton rivalry and I would love to see it finish with even a fifth match at SummerSlam. These guys had an excellent match at WWE Capitol Punishment but it wasn’t as good as their previous ones. I think a lot of that was due to the psychology of the match and having to tell a story involving Orton’s concussion. I would love to see them give it a go once or twice more without having to slow things down to cater to that specific angle.
[adinserter block=”1″]The downside here is that you have a show airing on Friday July 1 with no SmackDown main-event official for WWE Money in the Bank 2011. Presumably this gets resolved on the July 8 broadcast which gives them just ten days to promote the second match from the top on the pay per view. I wrote about WWE pay per view numbers being down for Extreme Rules and I think this is a big part of it. You just can’t throw matches together at the last minute and expect people to care about them.
Additionally, if not for the great matches Christian and Orton had, nobody would be real excited to see a third match. The booking on SmackDown right now clearly has Mark Henry positioned as the top heel and biggest threat to Randy Orton’s title. Throw Sheamus into the mix too and you just have a big cluster in the main-event picture which confuses fans and dilutes the current main-event match. At this rate you may as well throw Sin Cara and Daniel Bryan into the mix.
One can hope right?
WWE Randy Orton: The Evolution Of A Predator DVD
WWE Randy Orton The Viper RKO Tee Shirt
WWE: Greatest Stars of the New Millenium DVD
WWE: Capitol Punishment 2011 DVD
Christian Hit The Switch Authentic T-shirt
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