Randy Orton may have put Christian away for now. But now he has the World’s Strongest Man coming after the World Heavyweight Championship.
Mark Henry won a battle royal to become the number one contender for the title, outlasting many of SmackDown’s top stars as Orton watched on.
The 20-man melee came down to Henry, Sin Cara, Sheamus and Wade Barrett. It looked like Barrett and Sheamus would team up against Henry until Barrett clotheslined Seamus and tried to throw him out. The two fought on the apron until Sheamus kicked him off and to the floor. Sheamus then kept trying to throw out Cara, but Cara kept hanging to the bottom rope; Henru took advantage to carry and toss Sheamus out. Cara tried to get to Henry with a springboard, but Henry caught him, hit the World’s Strongest Slam and then tossed out Cara to be the last one.
After taking the Intercontinental Championship from Ezekiel Jackson, Cody Rhodes showed no fear in their rematch.
Rhodes kept going after Jackson for much of the match, refusing to let the big man get much offense in the ring. When Rhodes slipped out of the ring, Jackson went after him and tossed him around the outside, but Rhodes kicked the steps into Jackson’s foot. Rhodes was on that foot for the rest of the match to keep Jackson down until he finally finished him off with Cross Rhodes.
WWE Champion Alberto Del Rio came to show off his stuff on SmackDown as he faced Daniel Bryan.
Bryan tried to beat Del Rio at his own submission game, delivering a kick from the corner and got Del Rio into a bear hug, but Del Rio backed him into the other corner to break it, took Bryan down with a suplex and got in the crossbody armbreaker to make Bryan tap out.
Afterward, Del Rio tried to hurt Bryan further, until Sin Cara came out and went after the champion, launching at him with a flying crossbody to the floor
Justin Gabriel showed that he can also hang in singles competition as he took on Tyson Kidd.
Both men kept dodging and countering for much of the match. Kidd almost countered Gabriel’s springboard into a sharpshooter. Kidd tried for a superplex from the top corner, but Gabriel threw him off and hit the 450 splash to finish him off.
Natalya tried teaming up with Alicia Fox to take down Divas Champion Kelly Kelly. But it was to no avail in their tag team match between Kelly and A.J.
Kelly looked to have Alicia beat when Natalya broke up the pincover and then tossed A.J. out of the ring. But Kelly didn’t flinch, dodging Alicia’s scissors kick and hitting the Imassoufour for the win.