James Caldwell, Torch Assistant Editor (4.5)

I've determined nothing happened on this show. MVP broke his losing streak, but instead of a huge celebration, the focus was on Triple H. Victoria retired from the ring, but WWE didn't hype it, focus on it beyond bell-to-bell, and didn't show her post-match retirement speech. Jeff Hardy showed up, but he was then blown up in another McMoney-type ridiculous angle.

The only noteworthy element of this show was ECW champion Jack Swagger looking up at the lights to take his first three count in WWE. Just inexplicable. Kind of goes hand-in-hand with sheer disappointment over the development of the mid-card on this show. TBK and Zeke just aren't doing anything of merit, while R-Truth is a one-dimensional character.

I have no idea where the tag champs, Carlito & Primo, went. Not even an update. Meanwhile, Maryse has disappeared from TV with her injury and the new divas champion can't even get a video package on her whereabouts. Michelle McCool is fine in the new heel role, but WWE is missing a lot of pieces of the puzzle right now. They need to hurry up and end the Jeff Hardy ridiculousness and get Triple H in a legit program. Hopefully the rest of the show will fall in place as a result.

Jon Mezzera, PWTorch.com Contributor (3.5)

3.5 may seem like a harsh score, but Smackdown just left a bad taste in my mouth. I did like some of what I saw. I enjoyed the backstage scenes between Triple H and Montel Vontavious Porter. MVP vs. The Big Show was a good, but not great Last Man Standing match. I have issues with the way that MVP's losing streak came to an end, but it was OK. Victoria vs. Michelle McCool was a good match, but I wasn't thrilled with how Victoria's retirement was handled. It seemed like they could have done more for her send off considering how long she's been in the company (but I guess it is better than how long time wrestlers Val Venus and Hardcore Holly got sent away). I also liked the end of the show with the "accident" with Jeff Hardy being injured by his pyro.

That is a fair amount of positives for such a low score, but most of those positives have a bit of negative too. Plus, I really hated the two encounters between Triple H and Vickie Guerrero. They didn't work. Their chemistry was off. Guerrero's total lack of power and her announcement that Triple H has to face Vladimir Kozlov next week were jokes.

Jack Swagger losing in the tag match was a huge Miss and a big reason for the low score. That alone brought the score down at least a point, if not two. I don't understand that decision at all.

I was also bored by Undertaker's edict. There were too many videos during the show, which felt like filler. Other than the ending, nothing felt that important, not even MVP's losing streak coming to an end or a wrestler's retirement. There were some nice moments, but over all the show wasn't good.

Greg Parks, PWTorch.com Contributor (5.0)

I guess I liked the Jeff Hardy ending more than most. It makes sense and it fits in with things going wrong for Jeff that end up coming from Edge's camp. It looked brutal too on replay, with Jeff taking the brunt of the fireworks in the face.

The rest of the show was just there. No explanation for an entire match of ECW guys being on Smackdown. A middling R-Truth vs. Kendrick match, just there to make sure we know they're both in the Rumble. Big Show vs. MVP told a good story, but they completely forgot that this was MVP's first win in forever. Speaking of forgetting, they forgot it was Victoria's last match to apparently and cut away as soon as her match with Michelle was over.

I prefer seeing Vladimir Kozlov in video packages as opposed to in the ring at this point. This didn't have the usual ***+ match that Smackdown is used to hanging its hat on, but the tag match was closest to it, I would say. Still, the Hardy vs. Edge storyline is much more interesting to me than any Triple H vs. Vickie stuff they can come up with at this point.

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