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SMACKDOWN HITS

Noble - Polumbo - McCool: This continues to be a very good mid card angle. All three play their parts well. It was interesting to see Michelle McCool try to get Jamie Noble and Chuck Polumbo to work together, but I am glad that it didn’t last. There have been too many reluctant WWE tag teams lately, and this one only lasted about a week. Polumbo is definitely more fit to be a heel than a babyface. His facial expressions showing frustration and anger have been very good. His beat down on Jamie Noble after McCool got injured was well done. Beating up the referee was a nice touch to show how much Polumbo had snapped. WWE has handled his heel turn very well, and the fans are really going to want to see Noble get revenge in the end.

MVP and Flair: Montel Vontavious Porter was his usual good self in his promo about ending Ric Flair’s career. His funny pictures comparing his and Flair’s future were very amusing. He predicted both the end of Flair’s career, as well as his own great achievements yet to come. Flair interrupted and gave a good short promo. This wasn’t as great a verbal exchange as we got in the VIP Lounge last week. I would have rather seen Mysterio & Flair vs. Edge & MVP to hype both of these Royal Rumble matches. But, both guys delivered well on the mic. So while WWE could have done a better job hyping this match, the verbal exchanges the last two weeks have been fun and I am looking forward to their match.

Undertaker: The Dead Man should get a bonus every time he has a watchable match with someone like Mark Henry, or in this case Big Daddy V. It is pretty amazing after all these years that he can continue to adapt his style. Michael Cole and Coach did a good job of selling how he has adapted to various types of opponents over the years. From a storyline perspective, it makes perfect sense. But in reality, it is also true that he has continued to develop as a wrestler over the years. He is incredible to watch. It was very interesting to see him first try a triangle choke to take out Daddy V, since he was not going to be able to do a Tombstone and the choke slam hadn’t finished Daddy V off. Daddy V proved too large for that move, so he ended up using a new, similar move to get a tap out victory. The idea that Daddy V tapped out so quickly was odd, until the blood started coming out of his mouth. That was a good visual aid to drive home how devastating that submission hold is.

Main Event: This was a good t.v Main Event. It was cool to see WWE give a bigger slot to CM Punk in the Smackdown Main Event vs. Edge, the World Champion. This was a great opportunity for Punk, and he delivered. Yes he slipped on a spring board move, but those types of mistakes are believable in that they would happen if wrestling were real. Rey Mysterio did a great job on guest commentary covering for Punk by saying that he had slipped many times over the years. That was the only sloppy moment in an otherwise good match. It had good back and forth action. Punk focused on Edge’s arm early. He hit an innovative suplex type move with Edge’s arm twisted behind him which I don’t recall ever seeing before. It was good that Edge got the clean victory going into the Rumble. Punk got a rub from facing Edge, and won’t be hurt too much by the loss (certainly not as much as when he was getting destroyed by Big Daddy V).

SMACKDOWN MISSES

Non-Ending: What was up with the non-ending in the Belfast Brawl? The match was no count out and no disqualification. The weapons being used by Finlay on The Great Khali were perfectly legal. The bell never rang. So, why did Finlay just leave with Hornswoggle? Why did his music play? That was really stupid. I was enjoying seeing Finlay snap on Khali like that. His assault on Khali was very impressive. Why did it stop? There was absolutely no reason to stop that match. I don’t understand why WWE would do that. If they booked that finish, then why make it a Belfast Brawl? Having Finlay get disqualified would have made more sense. Once Khali got busted open and couldn’t defend himself, the ref could have stopped the match. That would have been weak, but at least there would have been some explanation as to why the match stopped.

Hype for Edge vs. Mysterio: WWE has done a good job in hyping the Royal Rumble. The build towards Jeff Hardy vs. Randy Orton has been outstanding. The build to the Rumble match itself has been very good, from various promos predicting victory (like Batista’s short but good promo this week), to video packages like the one about the Rumble’s history. The hype for JBL vs. Jericho has been solid on Raw. I doubt their match at the Rumble will be the end of the feud, so they will have time to continue to develop the storyline going forward. The hype for MVP vs. Flair has been solid as well. But, the hype for Mysterio vs. Edge has been weak. Mysterio won the Beat the Clock Sprint to become the #1 contender, but since then he hasn’t done anything particularly good. His win in the handicap match vs. the Edge Heads was o.k. Edge vs. Mysterio should be a very good match, just from an in ring action perspective. But, the crowd won’t be nearly as hot for that match as they will be for Hardy vs. Orton, partly due to the lack of hype. The match seems secondary to the Edge, Vickie and Chavo Guerrero story, which is a shame, because with better build, this could be a match that fans are really looking forward to.

Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's Hitlist Specialist, providing his point of view in the Torch's hitlist format for Raw, Smackdown, ECW, and TNA Impact each week. Email him at jmezz-torch@sbcglobal.net.

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