Smackdown Preview 01.30.09

This past Sunday's Royal Rumble saw a shocking turn of events in the WWE Title match between Edge and Jeff Hardy. Hardy seemed to have had a recent string of "coincidental misfortunes" over the past several weeks, with the Rated-R Superstar, Edge, blamed for the incidents. Jeff vowed to successfully defend the title despite being involved in a recent hit and run car accident and having his pyrotechnic display blow up in his face on Smackdown. At the Rumble, Smackdown GM and Edge's lover, Vickie Guerrero, changed the match to a No Disqualification for the WWE Title. Despite Chavo Guerrero interfering in the match, it seemed as if Jeff was handling his own en route to a successful title defense. Vickie Guerrero also got involved, preventing the ref from counting Jeff's pinfall on Edge. Jeff's brother Matt rushed down and seemed to be helping Jeff as he tossed Vickie into the ring and provided Jeff with a chair. Just when it seemed there would be a Hardy Con-Chairto delivered, Matt betrayed his own flesh and blood, smashing the chair across Jeff's back. With Jeff layed out, Edge was shocked but took the pinfall and the WWE Title. Now with Matt's recent release from ECW he is officially re-joining Smackdown. How will Matt explain his shocking actions to the WWE Universe? Will Jeff Hardy be present to confront his brother who cost him the WWE title?

The Royal Rumble also saw one of its marquee stars, Triple H, survive nearly 50 minutes in the Rumble, eliminating the most superstars of anyone. Unfortunately, Triple H found himself outnumbered in the Final 4, with Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes and Ted Dibiase of Legacy ganging up on him. Despite The Game's perserverance to eliminate Rhodes and Dibiase, an opportunistic Randy Orton was able to grab HHH and toss him out of the ring to win the 2009 Royal Rumble. The Game was one man away from winning his second ever Royal Rumble, and earning a headline spot at Wrestlemania 25. During the match, he also eliminated one of his Smackdown foes in Vladimir Kozlov, a man he's been unable to defeat. Will Triple H set his sights on Vladimir Kozlov to prove he's the better man? Or will Triple H continue to incite Vickie Guerrero and turn his attention to Edge's WWE Title?

The WWE Universe learned during this past week's episode of Raw that there will be two Elimination Chamber matches on the card for the No Way Out Pay-Per-View, Sunday, February 15th, 2009. One match will see Raw's John Cena defend his WWE title against 5 other competitors, while the other match will feature Edge defending the WWE title against 5 Smackdown competitors. Raw has already produced several of the Chamber participants through a series of qualifying matches. Cena now knows he will face Kofi Kingston, Rey Mysterio and Chris Jericho in the Chamber with 2 more opponents to be named. Will Smackdown use the same format to select its Elimination Chamber competitors? Which superstars will qualify for the grueling match inside the steel structure?

Catch all the action of Smackdown at 8PM EST on MyNetworkTV Friday nights!