The announcers give us a quick run through of everything that is happening tonight, just three nights before Ground Zero. The contract signing between Randy Orton and Kurt Angle with special enforcer GM Brock Lesnar, the crossover matches of Cody Rhodes vs. Jack Swagger and Ted DiBiase vs. Dolph Ziggler, the announcement of the final FrontlinE card for Ground Zero, and tonight's opener to determine the second team who will be competing against Husky Harris and Michael McGillicutty for the EPW Tag-Team Championship.
Triple Threat Tag-Team Match
The Empire vs. Beer Money vs. World's Greatest Tag-Team
All three teams knew what was as stake in this match and seemed to compete at a higher level that we've seen before. The Empire showed weakness and dissention between McIntyre and Barrett, not working well together at all. Beer Money proved to be in sync with each other and controlled a large part of the match. The first showing of Charlie Haas, Shelton Benjamin's tag team partner was a surprisingly successful one as he locked in the Haas of Pain on Wade Barrett for the submission victory that had McIntyre walking out on his partner in shame.
Winners: World's Greatest Tag-Team
Singles Match
Dolph Ziggler vs. Ted DiBiase
Before this match starts we are informed that if Cody Rhodes or Jack Swagger get involved in this match, they will forfeit their match later tonight and will also not be allowed to compete at Ground Zero, the same applies ofr Ziggler and DiBiase in the Swagger-Rhodes match later tonight. As soon as the bell rings, Ted DiBiase shows off his strength by locking up with the smaller Ziggler and backing him into a corner. As the referee begins to count him to let go, DiBiase gets a poke in the eye followed by a foot stomp. As Ziggler wanders into the center of the ring unable to see clearly, DiBiase lands a hard clothesline and immediately covers for two. Ziggler is once again put into a corner but is this time lifted up onto the turnbuckle and is given a superplex for another two-count. Ziggler slips out of a Dream Street attempt and locks in a sleeper that catched DiBiase off guard. Showing early wherewithall, he manages to get to the ropes to force the hold. Ziggler tries to put the match away with a ZigZag, but DiBiase holds on to the ropes to avoid it. He then covers Ziggler using the ropes for leverage to steal the three.
Winner: Ted DiBiase
DiBiase quickly escapes up the ramp as he points to head, signalling that he outsmarted Ziggler. The cameras then move backstage where Michelle McCool is walking down the corridors. She stops suddenly as she had passed a fellow diva, a tall blonde much like herself. She turns to the woman and smiles, "You know.. you're hot. I feel like I should know you." The other diva showed a kind of ditzy attitude and nodded. "I'm Lacey." "That's nice - I've got an idea. How about you come down to the ring for my match tonight? That would be so nice of you." "Umm.. sure." "Great." Michelle wore a certain smirk on her face as the show goes to commercial.
When the show comes back we are shown Randy Orton in his locker room with his arm still at his solarplex, holding the invisible championship belt. Lauren Jones is the interviewer and she starts by asking him what he thinks about Brock Lesnar enforcing a no physicality rule for the contract signing later tonight. "I think it's clear to everyone that that rule was made for the benefit of Kurt Angle. I possess the self control necessary to wait until Sunday, but don't be fooled.. if Kurt even looked at me the wrong way I would have no qualms with RKOing him right through the table." Lauren nods and then asks if he has any doubts going into this Sunday's Ground Zero pay-per-view against a technician like Angle. "A guy like Kurt makes a living off of capitolizing on other's mistakes. The only problem with that is.. I don't make mistakes. There will be nothing for Kurt to take advantage of. And when he's laying in the center of the ring, staring up at the lights while my name is being announced as the winner and new champion.. he'll be rethinking his entire career."
Singles Match
Matt Hardy (w/ Mark Henry) vs. Michael McGillicutty (w/ Husky Harris)
Matt turned to singles competition in an effort to pick up his first win in EPW, and went right after McGillicutty. The match seemed back and forth for a bit, with Hardy getting the better of several exchanges. As he looked to be poised for victory and nailed a Side Effect, the Twist of Hate was reversed into a McGillicutter for a disappointing three-count.
Winner: Michael McGillicutty (w/ Husky Harris)
Singles Match
Michelle McCool (w/ Lacey Von Erich) vs. Taylor Wilde
From the start of this bout, it became very apparent just why Lacey was accompanying Michelle out to the ring. Taylor Wilde came out eager to make a statement in her first match but when Lacey was able to distract the referee using her feminine ways, Michelle was able to take advantage of it by nailing a brutal kick to the back of Taylor's head who was trying to get the referee to pay attention to the match, inevitably costing her.
Winner: Michelle McCool (w/ Lacey Von Erich)
A split screen view is shown for tonight's main event between Jack Swagger and Cody Rhodes, with both men walking down hallways while doing their last minute stretches as they head into their first opportunity to main event an episode of FrontlinE. The announcers run down the interference rules one more time before cutting to commercial.
Singles Match
Jack Swagger vs. Cody Rhodes
Swagger looked to use his wrestling skills to get Cody out of his gameplan, but the wiley Rhodes was too smart to fall in the same trap that DiBiase had fallen in. Rhodes continued to slip out of takedown attempts by Swagger and used his quickness to make him pay with an enzuigiri that sent Swagger to the outside. Swagger recovered and entered the ring, ducking a springboard kick and hitting a belly-to-back suplex. He then ran from one corner to the one that Cody was laying in, using to the turnbuckle to propel himself upwards as he nailed a big splash and then covered for two. He then lifted Cody up for the Gutwrench Suplex but Cody was able to maneaver out of it and pulled Swagger back, before planting him with the Cross Rhodes for the three.
Winner: Cody Rhodes
As soon as the match was over, DiBiase decided to add injury to injury as he came into the ring from the crowd and nailed Swagger with a Dream Street from behind. We go to one final commercial as Swagger gets helped to the back and the ring begins being set up for the contract signing.
As the show comes back, the ring is shown with an orange carpet covering the ring, a large wooden podium displaying the FrontlinE logo, a long steel table with a chair on either side for the two competitors. Brock Lesnar is the first to make his entrance, followed by Kurt Angle, and then finally by Randy Orton. All three men take their positions and seem to be ready to get the signing over with. "Before we get this signing underway, I'd like to take a second to remind everyone of the contributions FrontlinE is making for this Sunday's Ground Zero pay-per-view. For the EPW Tag-Team Championship, the team of Husky Harris and Michael McGillicutty will take on the self-proclaimed "World's Greatest Tag-Team" comprised of Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas. Jack Swagger and Ted DiBiase will fight to crown the first United States Champion while Dolph Ziggler and Cody Rhodes will have their anticipated rematch for the Television Championship. And finally, these two men.. Randy Orton and Kurt Angle will battle it out in what will surely be an explosive contest to determine who will become the first ever EPW Champion. That being said, are both of you men ready to sign some paperwork?" Both Angle and Orton nodded and Randy took the clipboard and flipped a few pages over before signing the bottom line. He then passed it over to Kurt who never once took his eyes off of Randy and signed the next page over before giving the clipboard to Lesnar. "Alright, thank you gentlemen. Would either of you like to say anything to the other? Last chance before Sunday..?" Brock asked, as if he was tempting them to become confrontational. Kurt took the mic and said "I don't need interviews, I'll do my talking this Sunday." He said as he threw down the mic and left the ring, his music playing as the show came to close.
