Kansas City News Blog

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Smarmy straight-edge CM Punk couldn't elicit as much hatred as a video of President George W. Bush (although a couple of guys loudly clapped at his cameo on the Titan Tron) even as he berated the crowd, calling them a bunch of boozing, pill-popping smokers at last night's Friday Night SmackDown TV taping. Peter Rugg pointed this out in March after seeing Monday Night Raw, and the reaction was pretty much the same.
Kansas Citians hold a grudge.

Speaking of grudges, the show was built around Punk's rivalry with World Champion Jeff Hardy. They're fighting for the belt in a "Tables, Ladders and Chairs" match at Sunday's pay-per-view SummerSlam. To preview the match, ladders, tables and chairs were set up all around the ring.

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This led to a cool in-ring interview with Hardy sitting on top of a ladder.
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You can't set up tables around a wrestling ring and not expect someone to go through it, right? Wrong. Guess you got to pay for the carnage.  Punk tried to tip over the ladder with Hardy on it, but Hardy hopped down and dropped Punk on his head. This wasn't the last time that Hardy handed Punk his ass. In a six-man tag main event, a reunited Jeff Hardy and his brother, Matt, and John Morrison defeated Punk and the Hart Dynasty (Tyson Kidd and David Hart Smith). Here's Morrison dropping Kidd on his face.
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The Hardys ended up beating up Punk with Matt Hardy hitting a "Twist of Fate" face smash on Punk. Note to Jeff Hardy: Don't trust your brother. He'll only break your heart -- and cause you to lose your title to Punk.

Poor Punk. He still wasn't done getting his ass beat. After getting beat up here, he was thrown into a cage match with Jeff Hardy.
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Punk lost this one, too. Just was not Punk's night. 

Other notes:

• Lots and lots of kids, all wearing Jeff Hardy torn up wrist sleeves or John Cena T-shirts.
• Dolph Ziggler, Chris Jericho and Big Show beat Rey Mysterio and Cryme Tyme in another six-man tag. Two six man tags? Lazy matchmaking.
• Kane said he's not afraid of the giant Great Khali. Then he ran away from him. Boring.
• Beard enthusiast Mike Knox punched old Irishman Finley's face off. Knox was disqualified. Then Knox smacked Finley in the face with the ring steps.
  
• No one cared about the women's tag match.
• Two matches were taped for Superstars on WGN. Shelton Benjamin beat surfer dude Tyler Reks (who has the most generic surf music ever) and a super-popular R-Truth beat Charlie Haas. 
• WWE also taped ECW, which aired last night. It was all about betrayal. ECW Champion Christian picked Ezekiel Jackson to be his partner after the dastardly duo of Vladamir Kozlov and William Regal kicked the crap out of Tommy Dreamer. Christian made a poor choice because Jackson turned on him.
• Byron Allen wannabe Abraham Washington killed the night's momentum with a boring interview segment with Sheamus and Goldust. They don't like each other so they had a staring contest.
• Yoshi Tatsu lost to the douchey Zach Ryder
• Hurrican Helms returned to beat Paul Burchill.