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Smackdown Hits

The video package of Raw's Flair farwell: Still awesome. I thought that include the beginning of Triple H's entrance was a little unnecessary, but overall, just beautiful. Throwing in the old clips of Flair with some of the wrestlers here was a nice touch. They better put this on a Hall of Fame DVD, or a Flair DVD, or something. I'd love to see the non-TV stuff on there as well with Vince McMahon and the Undertaker. Thank you, Ric.

Shawn Michaels/Batista confrontation: You can really feel the emotions coming from both of these men. It's the kind of reality based storyline that isn't based on behind the scenes stuff or pointing out how fake the rest of the show is, but simply utilizing real emotion and passion in a logical, realistic storyline. It's also interesting because fans could easily take either side, with both men having logical arguments. The only downside of this segment was what both of these men were wearing. Seriously now. Michaels in his goofy cowboy hat, and Batista with his diamond earring and a too small leather vest.

Matt Hardy versus MVP: While I question the decision to give away this match on free television, Matt Hardy needed this boost after losing in his first match back on Raw. Given, that match was with Randy Orton, and it helped him just to be in the ring with the guy, but Hardy needed a win shortly upon returning, and he got it tonight. The match itself was a good TV match.

The Rated R Entourage: Better name than "Edgeheads." I'd like to see them given a mission in their matches that tied into their gimmick, such as taking out guys they think could threaten Edge. It would elevate guys like Festus to have Edge's goons going after him for this reason.

Big Show backing down the Great Khali: It has been intriguing to watch the first man Khali seems consistently scared of. I also enjoyed Khali leaving the ring when Show showed up, but then pausing on the ramp to raise his arms in victory! Should be fun to see where this feud goes, even though Khali's interaction with the Smackdown tag division was a thumbs down.

Michael Cole's contempt for the Coach: At least they're starting to find a dynamic. Cole sarcastically calling Coach the best color man in the business was fantastic. I also enjoyed Coach trying to seem cool by noting that Tajiri had called him the other day.

Smackdown Misses

The Undertaker versus Kane: Well, this was boring. On the plus side, the show closing show with them holding their belts and looking back over their shoulders at the men they'd won them from was pretty excellent. However, the storyline involves them not really wanting to fight each other, but they have to, and we have to watch it. Kane shoving Taker helped bring things up, but it was just hard to become invested in this match. A match just thrown out there without any build-up, when it could have been a strong main event if they'd just given it a bit more hype. Speaking of which...

Giving away Matt Hardy versus MVP on free television: So, this feud was hot before Matt Hardy went out, dealing with various ailments. They kept MVP in a holding pattern, and Matt made his big return at Wrestlemania by taking MVP out of contention for the Money In The Bank briefcase. So, do they keep the tension building, with Matt acting crazy and continuing to strike at MVP when he least expects it? No, they just throw the match out on television with no build. The match itself was good, and I look forward to watching this feud continue, but just throwing this out there took the feud a step down.

The Edge/Chavo alliance: This is something that could have been a really cool partnership, but they've never given much of a mission statement for why they've been hanging out together. They're also apparently a horrible alliance, as they get murdered in the final segment of the first Smackdown after Wrestlemania. When they walked out on stage at the beginning of Smackdown, they looked like a faction, with Edge, his Edgeheads, two Guerreros, and Teddy Long, but everyone else besides Edge is apparently just window-dressing without that driving force to this alliance. You'd think that they could do more with two members of the Guerrero family coming together, but they hated each other, then got together, and there really wasn't much more to it.

Vladimir Kozlov: Kozlov doesn't seem like he's remarkably better than during his last run, when Vince McMahon realized his yes men hadn't told him that Kozlov was actually horrible and sent him back to developmental. I was more interested in seeing Matt Bentley in his new gear here, and was hoping they used this as a backdoor way to introduce Bentley instead of the obvious Kozlov squash. I did like Kozlov coming out to simply darkness with no music, though, and assuming that was all intentional, it seems like a cool, scary way to have this guy show up each week.

Morrison and Miz as tag champs: Have they had any actual feuds as tag champs? They just seem to face a random tag team each week, and maybe be on the way to an actual feud, but then nothing really ever comes of it. We don't get promos, we don't see things build, we just get another decent tag match each week. And no, telling us to go watch the Dirt Sheet on WWE.com doesn't count as build when you don't replay any of it on television.

Great Khali killing everyone: Was there a point to this? I think we get that Khali is a big man who can kill people by this point. It would have been totally consistent with their prissy heel characters to just have Morrison and Miz escape while Khali killed the Redneck and the Reject, but no, the Smackdown tag champs had to get killed too. Ugh.

Mike Roe is PWTorch.com's fill-in guy, providing his point of view on Raw, Smackdown, ECW, and TNA Impact until Hits & Misses Specialist Jon Mezzera gets home and kicks him to the curb for the inevitable walk of shame. Email him with your feedback at mikeroe@gmail.com.

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