Triple H

Smackdown Results - January 4, 2008

Smackdown was a fun episode this week as a Beat the Clock challenge was used to determine a new challenger for Edge's World Heavyweight Championship.

Rey Mysterio Blinking Pin

Beat the Clock Challenge Using the Beat the Clock challenge here was a brilliant idea. This gimmick is great for making the matches appear more important than they usually are. It's also an easy way for the writers to come up with a new challenger for the World Heavyweight Championship. WWE jumped the gun, though, by doing a feud between Edge and Rey Mysterio. That's a high profile feud that should have been saved for a big pay per view like Wrestlemania, Summerslam, or the Surivor Series. With the Royal Rumble match itself being the highlight, this match will be overlooked a bit. The Royal Rumble will already sell itself because of the big battle royale. Plus, a lot of fans will probably tune in to see Jeff Hardy getting his first pay per view WWE Heavyweight Championship match. It didn't need a big match like that from Smackdown. The writers could have just done a "stall feud" by having Finlay winning the Beat the Clock challenge and going up against Edge at the Royal Rumble. While Finlay would have no chance at winning the belt, he's a skilled performer who could have had a great match with Edge. Plus, it would have been cool to have seen Edge interacting with Hornswoggle in that feud. That would have been good comedy.

Closing Thoughts

The Beat the Clock challenge really made the entire episode entertaining and interesting to watch.

Batista vs Curt Hawkins & Zack Ryder

Nice way to keep Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder relevant by putting them into a Beat the Clock challenge. It also allows Batista to lose without really losing.

Jonathan Coachman

Vickie Guerrero and Theodore Long announced that Jonathan Coachman was Smackdown's new color commentator. Probably not the best choice to make.

Rey Mysterio gets the win to become the new challenger for Edge's title. Getting the pinfall victory also makes it look like he can beat Edge. He won't, though.

These guys were given time to work since it was the first match in the Beat the Clock challenge. Kind of surprising to see Finlay getting the win here.

Chavo Guerrero beat Funaki

This was Chavo Guerrero's Beat the Clock challenge opponent. We have a feeling there's some sort of alliance with Vickie Guerrero and Chavo Guerrero.

After losing, Chuck Palumbo yells at Michelle McCool and abandons her. We should be seeing a full heel turn from Chuck Palumbo really soon.

Undertaker vs Mark Henry

Undertaker was unable to put away Mark Henry in time to beat the clock. Probably should have had Big Daddy V come out to attack afterwards to tease a feud.

In order to build up Jimmy Wang Yang and Shannon Moore even more as the top challengers for the tag titles, they were booked to beat Deuce & Domino.