Championship Chase to Judgment Day on SmackDown!

photo: courtesy wwe.com

Friday, May 9, 2008 - London, Ontario

source: Mitch Passero wwe.com - After stripping Undertaker of the World Heavyweight Championship last Friday, SmackDown General Manager Vickie Guerrero declared The Deadman would have an opportunity to regain the gold in less than two weeks at Judgment Day. To determine his opponent, the GM set up the Championship Chase to Judgment Day.

In the first qualifying match for the main event, Mr. Money in the Bank CM Punk faced United States Champion Matt Hardy. Hardy defeated Punk to advance.

The next qualifier pit MVP and Finlay against one another. With a controversial finish, both men were awarded the pin & the GM both would advance to the main event.

For the third match in the Chase, Batista went one-on-one with Morrison and Batista moved on.

Big Show and Tommy Dreamer were the next to vie for a spot in the main event. The ECW Original gave it his all, but fell to The World’s Largest Athlete, as Big Show defeated Dreamer to move on in the Chase.

The final qualifier was a WrestleMania XXIV rematch between ECW Champion Kane and Chavo Guerrero. Despite interference from Bam Neely on the outside, the Big Red Machine was again able to top the Mexican Warrior and move one step closer to facing his brother at Judgment Day.

After winning the hard-fought qualifying matches, the six competitors - Kane, Big Show, Batista, Finlay, Hardy and MVP - battled it out in the Over-the-Top-Rope Challenge to declare the final winner. Each man showing fatigue, they all pushed themselves to the breaking point, with an opportunity at SmackDown’s most prestigious title hanging in the balance.

It came down to three men: Kane, Batista and Big Show. Kane and Big Show battle it out before Big Show eliminated Kane and then there were two. Big Show smirked as he went to eliminate The Animal, but Batista pulled him over instead, as the fans erupted with cheers. But before Batista could celebrate, fans learned Edge had "just" been medically cleared, and would be a part of the Championship Chase, yeah, the one that had just ended. A thoroughly taxed Batista was speared through the ropes and a rematch of last month's PPV is now slated for Judgment Day. Yea