By Chris Newth, PWTorch contributor

As WWE gears up for its second-biggest PPV of the year tonight, let's take a look at their best feud on the card. Not surprisingly, their most intriguing rivalry is once again the battle between the intrepid and charismatic Jeff Hardy and the self-righteous, disparaging CM Punk. It almost looked as though WWE was going to squeeze John Morrison into the framework of the feud, but they pulled back slightly in recent weeks, perhaps setting the stage for a Morrison-Punk rivalry once SummerSlam wraps up.

I would be remiss not to compare Smackdown's headlining storyline with the one Raw is offering. Although a Cena-Orton feud could have been more prominent and more streamlined, WWE's creative use of celebrity guest hosts got in its way. Of course, everyone has seen Cena and Orton battle before, and they've been involved in countless combinations of feuds with other top stars like Triple H. The main problem with their rivalry came just a couple of weeks ago when Cena entered the arena in an unusually angry state for no apparent reason.

It was as though WWE decided overnight to fuse a lot of emotion and tension and anger between Orton and Cena even though we've all become accustomed to the way John Cena constantly downplays Orton's clout as WWE Champion. We usually witness Cena in the back joking about his opponent in a really flippant way as he messes with the announcer interviewing him. But suddenly, out of nowhere, Cena walked to the ring with an attitude to get right in Orton's face and start yelling. It was surprising—but more importantly, not believable. If the Orton-Cena feud had a chance to garner strength, it had to happen from the outset, not thrown into some kind of artificial overdrive just the other week for no good reason.

As for the Punk-Hardy storyline, it's about to reach its big culmination tonight at SummerSlam. Their rivalry has been extended a significant amount of time, and it's given them—particularly CM Punk—time to grow as characters. Remember, Punk started off as a babyface during the early stages of this rivalry, and now the full transformation into his main event heel role is complete as the feud reaches what will likely be its ultimate conclusion on tonight's PPV.

Jeff Hardy's uncertain future with WWE gives his upcoming World Heavyweight Championship match with CM Punk a conflicted appeal. On the one hand, it may be a little predictable since the plan almost has to tilt toward the title change. However, on the other hand, despite the match's likely outcome already known, there is significant intrigue in the idea that Jeff Hardy may put on one of the best matches of his professional life knowing that it might be his last for a long while.

As a feud, WWE played it out very nicely, tossing in hints for future feuds involving people like John Morrison, who will likely pick up where Jeff Hardy leaves off. Also in the mix: Matt Hardy, who may retain what has been a main-event status since returning to Smackdown just last week. Perhaps the company plans on keeping a Hardy in the brand's main event landscape no matter what—which would be great news for Matt, who has always been perceived as an upper midcard talent with very few opportunities beyond his impressive tag team success.

Punk's character has been very strong, and he's a great speaker, but I'd be interested in seeing how his role evolves once he's not pitted against someone who was pretty open about his personal past drug use. Jeff Hardy is the perfect guy to balance CM Punk's arrogant, clean lifestyle against, which is probably why the Straight Edge Superstar has taken off so successfully. But how will Punk adapt to the situation in a storyline against someone like John Morrison—a man with whom Punk has already had an extended history during the earlier days of ECW. Against another opponent, how will Punk define himself? And if he maintains his particular self-righteous attitude, how can he use it against someone like Morrison or whoever ends up being his next likely opponent?

Overall, this feud has been crafted very nicely, but SummerSlam is a fitting place to draw the finishing storyline stroke. Even if Jeff's future with the company were not in doubt, the feud should end after tonight's PPV so that Smackdown can continue its job establishing new, fresh talent in the main event. So far, the brand is really benefiting from the new faces holding the World Title.

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