All those Edgeheads out there who were about to start experiencing Edge withdrawal got a pleasant surprise at the end of Smackdown Friday night.
Edge – who announced his retirement last week due to injury and had said that he was "going off the radar for a while" – came out to interrupt the mock retirement party that was thrown for him by Alberto Del Rio.
I knew that Edge had accompanied the WWE crew on the European tour, but I figured he would only appear before the live crowds in a non-televised role. I was expecting Christian to be the one to confront Del Rio.
As it turned out, Christian made the save when Del Rio ordered Brodus Clay to attack Edge after "The Rated-R Superstar" had cut a promo on Del Rio. Before Clay could get to the "defenseless" Edge, Christian hit him from behind with a ladder. Christian proceeded to take out Del Rio as well. Then he put the ladder in the ring, climbed up it and grabbed the world heavyweight title belt, which had been suspended from the ceiling, just as it will when Christian and Del Rio wrestle each other for the vacant championship on the Extreme Rules pay-per-view May 1.
The scene of Christian clutching the gold belt on the ladder while Edge looked on approvingly from the stage and Del Rio grimaced in pain outside the ring made for a nice visual to end the show.
Other thoughts on Friday's show:
The retirement party bit with Del Rio was pretty funny, mainly due to Del Rio's delivery and mannerisms. The appearance of a super-sized "Lita" was the highlight of the segment. ...
The Rey Mysterio-Cody Rhodes match was good. Mysterio avenged his loss to Rhodes at WrestleMania, but Rhodes got his heat back by getting the better of a brawl on the floor after the match. It was announced that the two will face each other in a Falls Count Anywhere Match at Extreme Rules. ...
Rhodes cut a decent promo. I'm not sure the bit with the paper bags really worked, but I'm betting that we start seeing fans in the audience wearing them. ...
LayCool appears to have finally broken up, as Michelle McCool attacked Layla during their couples therapy session. I'm looking forward to seeing these two wrestle each other. I just hope Layla doesn't get buried. ...
Speaking of breakups, I'm more than ready to see the members of The Corre go their separate ways. ...
I was happy to see The Big Show and Kane win the tag team title from The Corre's Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater. The belts are instantly more prestigious now that they are off two guys who are pretty much booked to be glorified enhancement talents. ...
The match in which Wade Barrett successfully defended his Intercontinental title against Kofi Kingston was OK, but the finish was sloppy. Kingston has to win a match again at some point, right? ...
I like it when WWE books Jack Swagger to look like the beast that he is, which it did by having him quickly squash Trent Barreta. ...
It was nice to see Drew McIntyre back in the win column. If he had lost to Chris Masters, I would have rioted. Well, not really, but I would have been mighty upset. ...
I wonder if Michael Cole is wearing Booker T.'s old cape from the King Booker days.