Career Mode

From Smackdown! - Wiki on Neoseeker

This year the Private Jet will take the role of the Locker Room seen in previous games

When Road to WrestleMania was announced and we heard you could only use 7 wrestlers, many SmackDown! fans were asking for something more and Career mode is what they got. This new mode being introduced in SmackDown! vs RAW 2009 lets you take control of any wrestler in the game, that includes Divas, unlockable characters, created wrestlers and anyone on the regular roster. Once you've chosen a wrestler you can choose which title to challenge for, all Championships are available to select, however they may not all be selectable from the start depending on which wrestler you choose. After you've chosen your path you'll be shown 4 other contenders and a mystery champion, your goal is to defeat the 4 wrestlers to become the number 1 contender and eventually become champion, along the way you get to pick the order in which you fight the contenders and also the match type, as you progress through Career Mode more match types will become available.

After you finish each match you get given a match rating, this will be decided on 3 factors:

Match Result
Excitement
Technical

There's no word as of yet as to what the points you earn in the match ratings can be used for.

Career Mode will keep track of all you wards and how many times you've achieved them.

Unlike last year where you had to increase you attributes by doing training sessions, this year your attribute are decided upon how you perform in the matches, for example: doing lots of aerial moves from the top turnbuckle will increase your speed, while reversing a lot of your opponents moves will increase your technical stat.

Another new feature in this years game will be the awards, these can be unlocked in Career Mode by doing specific things within a match such as arguing with the ref a certain amount of times or going an entire match without striking your opponent. Some of these awards can give your attributes a special boost such as the Continue the Pain award which will give your Charisma a boost if you lift your opponents arm of the mat during a pin count 4 times.