SmackDown - March 25, 2011 - Columbus, OH

With 9 days left before WrestleMania XXVII, SmackDown kicked off with another WrestleMania Rewind match which involved Rey Mysterio going up against CM Punk. A highly competitive match until Cody Rhodes ran down & attacked Mysterio. In his mind, Cody got a little payback by exposing his own knee brace and ramming it into Rey's head.




Wanting to show Alberto Del Rio that his arm was fine, despite the attack last week, World Heavyweight Champion Edge went one-on-one with Drew McIntyre. Drew went after the arm early, but Edge managed to turn things in his favor & made McIntyre tap out for the win. Afterwards, Edge couldn't help himself & speared Drew, thus sending a message to Alberto.




In tag team diva action, Kelly Kelly & Rosa Mendez took on Lay-Cool, who decided to dress up & make fun of Snooki & her TV show, Jersey Shore. Towards the end of the match, Michelle McCool knocked out Kelly & distracted Rosa long enough for Layla to finish her off with her Lay-Out neckbreaker to gain another victory.




For the Intercontinental Championship, Kofi Kingston put his title on the line against Corre member Wade Barrett. As the rest of the Corre looked on outside the ring, the two men went back & forth throughout the match, but towards the end, the Corre started to become a distraction, but Kofi got rid of them quickly. But as he went to deliver the Trouble in Paradise kick, Wade Barrett caught him & executed his wasteland move to win the match and become the new Intercontinental Champion. With one championship remaining, it's only a matter of time before The Corre holds all the gold on SmackDown.




The Undertaker appeared with a messgae for his WrestleMania XXVII opponent, Triple H, stating that despite all of The Game 's accomplishments throughout his career, he would become number 19 at WrestleMania.




With Michael Cole cheering from his Cole Mine, Jack Swagger took on R-Truth. A good match, but once Swagger got a hold of R-Truth's ankle, it was all over as Swagger won the match by tapout. And having Cole talking trash to R-Truth didn't help matters either.




Before the main event between Christian & Alberto Del Rio took place, SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long declared that if Edge or Alberto physically touch each other, both men would be banned from WrestleMania XXVII. With that in mind, Edge was at ringside, watching his friend Christian have a great match against Del Rio. Towards the end, Edge grabbed a chair and hammered down Brodus Clay, thus distracting Alberto long enough for Christian to execute his killswitch finisher to win the match. Afterwards, Edge had the urge to smash Alberto with a chair, but Christian stopped him, reminded him about the stipulation, and nailed Del Rio with the chair himself. All Edge could do was let Alberto know that he will be ready at WrestleMania XXVII.