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The Specialists
4/11 WWE Smackdown Hits & Misses: Michaels/Batista, Punjabi peace, & more! Apr 14, 2008 - 1:46:23 AM
Michaels/Batista confrontation of the week: Awesome. It's a really interesting dynamic, working in realistic aspects without moving into "we're shooting, brother" territory. It was interesting to see the acknowledgment of the importance of size in WWE, and it works in both the storyline context, as well as on another level for fans who know more about the business. Looking forward to what Shawn can do with Batista, if there's a full heel turn or more of the letting the fans decide stuff, and everything else to come.
Miz and Morrison as Jimmy Wang Yang: Last week, I mentioned how great it would be if they used some of the Dirt Sheet clips of Miz and Morrison to get them over on TV. Well, they did it! Yay! It's one of the first times during Miz and Morrison's tag reign where I actually cared about one of their storylines, since they've spent most of their time just having matches without much story backing. Thumbs up to WWE for figuring out a way to use a little synergy between their television and online offerings to strengthen both of them, as it makes the TV storyline better, and will likely encourage more viewers to check out the Dirt Sheet feature on WWE.com. The match itself was solid as well.
The chemistry between Edge and Vickie: They're so wonderfully silly yet hateable together. I'm actually kind of rooting for them to be together forever now (and, given Edge's history, in real life too, come to think of it), just because they're such fun. I'm curious to see where this all leads, particularly with Edge no longer being champion.
MVP on commentary: What greatness. He got over himself, his feud with Matt Hardy, Hardy himself, and the Hardys DVD. He also did his damnedest to get over the match, though he didn't have much to work with. (Hey, it's a Chuck Palumbo match, he's not a miracle worker!) I also got a kick out of him taking shots at Coach's commentary and noting how Cole and JBL had been ranked the sixth greatest commentary team of all time, but they had now become the worst commentary team of all time.
Jesse's promo: I thought that his promo was really solid and actually made me think, for the first time, that Jesse could have a real future. I'd like to see him get more chances to talk. Maybe having Festus as the guy who kills people, and just have Jesse cutting promos for him while moving away from the tag team thing, could be an interesting way to go with it.
Undertaker vs. Festus: A solid match. Not a great breakout match, but Festus is elevated just by being in the ring with the Undertaker. I was bummed to see him not getting to show his usual fire since he didn't have guys doing a ton of selling for him, but I'm intrigued by where they're going with selling that he was in Taker's hold for a long time after the match.
Smackdown Misses
Punjabi peace ceremony: Big Show making cartoon faces. Cultural insensitivity. Any show with an opening that upsets me more than anything on this week's Impact is a miss. I didn't think this was so absurd that it was funny (as Jason Powell over at ProWrestling.net did), and it wasn't well written enough to be funny on its own merits.
Finlay vs. Matt Striker: I was all excited for Finlay to murder Striker, but we end up getting "comedy" with Hornswoggle shooting him with a super soaker, hitting him with an inflatable shillelagh, and a vaudeville gag involving an umbrella, confetti, and a bucket of water. Ha. Ha?
Nattie Neidhart's debut promo: Without giving today's fans some more detail on Jim Neidhart, like playing an old promo of his, Nattie's promo didn't make much sense. Random observation: Nattie has a strikingly deep voice.
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. He loves to hear from the readers, so e-mail him with your feedback at mikeroe@gmail.com!
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