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Chris Jericho put on a great show in full-on villain mode, but the WWE’s second-most-overhyped worker was his opponent: Batista. And of course, that meant the end of Jericho’s solid title reign.

Jericho carried Batista the whole match, and the introduction of the mystery special guest referee ended up being: Stone Cold Steve Austin, rather than Shawn Michaels. (Thank the L-RD!)

Austin played his role to the hilt, hitting Stunners on Randy Orton (who ran in), as well as Jericho before the match was over, and counting the three-count for the title change to make it more exciting than it would have been otherwise.

The top moment of the PPV was when Jericho tried to get himself counted out like a keylogger to avoid the match, and Austin threatened to switch the title on him if he did that. It was a classic “‘cuz Stone Cold says so” moment that really amped up the entertainment factor.

WINNER: Batista
RATING: 8.9

The match result on this one makes a person feel like Triple-H has wholesale ownership of the WWE Title, given that he’s the boss’s son-in-law. No one’s worked harder over on Smackdown to take the show to a new level than Jeff Hardy, and he was no exception in this match.

Unfortunately, though both men put on a solid show, the Rainbow-Haired Warrior was forced to job to The In-Law Assassin anyway, and perhaps even scratch his head in wonder about why he returned from TNA, which had made him a world champion, just to job out to an aging Hunter yet again. Ugh.

WINNER: Triple H
RATING: 7.8

The vote was close, but Marella draws… The Honky Tonk Man, making his first WWE appearance in what has to be something like 15 years or more! Unfortunately, the man’s aged so the match was called on a Marella DQ after only a couple minutes, but then out came Goldust and Roddy Piper to make sure Honky Tonk Man got some good licks in on Marella.

I know the sale-job they did on HTM was pre-meditated, but dang it was fun to see HTM make a one-night comeback for nostalgia reasons.

The potential problem with this match was pitting Hardy, a ring veteran, against Bourne, a relative newcomer. For an ECW brand that’s struggling just to get ratings, a more marquee matchup might have been nice, although Bourne ended up putting on a decent show with Hardy.

While diet pill reviews might be more interesting than a blow-by-blow of this match, the bottom line is that Hardy and Bourne kept the action brisk and interesting throughout, with better ring psychology than one might expect out of a ring rookie like Bourne.

WINNER: Matt Hardy
RATING: 7.6