Opening Segment: Smackdown got off to a good start with La Familia in the ring. Edge’s comments to and about Vickie Guerrero are priceless. I was intrigued when it was CM Punk interrupting instead of Batista, Undertaker or Kane. I said in my ECW Hits & Misses that I was intrigued by La Familia vs. The Brothers of Destruction, and adding Punk to the mix is interesting as well. Obviously, he has a history against Chavo Guerrero, and is now starting to build a feud with Edge which has potential to be very good. Punk and Edge were both good on the mic. I like that Punk is getting involved with a Smackdown Main Eventer. The segment also did a nice job of hyping the Main Event of Batista vs. Undertaker, and added the simi-Main Event of Punk vs. Edge.
Miz vs. Moore: This was a nice match to continue the feud between Miz & Morrison and Yang & Moore. Yang vs. Morrison from ECW was solid, but I liked this match more. Maybe it was because I thought John Morrison added more to guest commentary on Smackdown than Miz added on ECW. Morrison’s excuse that he was planting trees all day for Earth Day so he was tired for his match with Jimmy Wang Yang was outstanding. I have never been a big Shannon Moore fan, but he looked good here. I think more can be done to play up his “Reject” character to really make his team with Yang the “Redneck and the Reject.” The fans are responding well to them, and they have exciting matches, which unfortunately are all too short. But, I like this feud and would love to see more of a focus on the Tag Team Championship.
Hardy and MVP: We all know that Montel Vontavious Porter is very good on the mic, and that Matt Hardy is generally solid, yet unspectacular. This week, Hardy was actually better than usual. He did a good job in his verbal sparring with MVP. MVP was very good as usual. This was a nice way to set up their match at Backlash. They did a great job of recapping their history and putting the focus on the U.S. Title. It is nice to see a personal feud that also focuses in a significant way on a championship. The personal issues going back months and months surround the desire of MVP to keep the U.S. Title, and for Hardy to win it. These two have great chemistry together and their storyline despite being interrupted has been well written. There is a reason why their angle was the best thing going on Smackdown for much of 2007.
Edge vs. Punk: This was a very good match. Having CM Punk hang with a Superstar of Edge’s caliber really helps elevate Mr. Money in the Bank. The two worked hard and put on a good match with very good back and forth action. The near falls were very good. The crowd really came to life wanting to see Punk pull off the upset and defeat Edge. That is a testimony to Punk’s appeal as a babyface, Edge’s great work as the top heel on Smackdown, and the quality of the match itself. The match went a good length (16 minutes) and had good action throughout. The loss didn’t hurt Punk because of the outside distraction. Again, I continue to look forward to seeing Punk’s involvement with La Familia going forward.
Main Event: This was another good match between Batista and The Undertaker. It was better than their match last week. WWE did a good job of hyping this match, as it was announced last week, mentioned on both Raw and ECW, and then Vickie Guerrero added the No Disqualification stipulation at the start of the show this week. The match had very good back and forth action. Batista and Undertaker work very well together in the ring. They know each other so well that they can put together a good match with nice counters and reversals. I liked that they kept the No DQ elements to a minimal, just at then end as Undertaker got frustrated over not being able to finish off the Animal. The use of the stairs was great. That spine buster was very intense. Shawn Michaels' interference was predictable, but worked well. The non-clean finish, even in a No DQ match takes the quality down a bit, but that was probably the way to go. This gives Undertaker the victory going into Backlash, keeps Batista strong, and adds fuel to the fire of what for me is the most anticipated match at the PPV, Batista vs. Michaels.
SMACKDOWN MISSES
Women's Division: Natalya looked good in her in ring debut, and I like that she used the Sharpshooter as a finisher. We don’t get to see women wrestlers do submission finishers very often, if at all, so I like the change of pace. But, Cherry isn’t a wrestler. Natalya belongs on Raw with the real wrestlers like Mickie James and Beth Phoenix. She looked good, but she should have dominated Cherry. Cherry got in too much offense, considering that she isn’t a wrestler. If you want to establish Natalya as the new dominant Smackdown Diva, then she has to dominate Cherry. So, my problem isn’t with the effort of Natalya and Cherry, my problem is with how the match was booked. Natalya didn’t look as strong as she should have. And where does she go from here? There aren’t enough wrestling Divas on Smackdown for her to face before moving on to a feud with Michelle McCool. This underscores the fact that WWE should keep all of their legit women wrestlers on one brand, and the pure eye candy on the other. I would actually be in favor of moving the real wrestlers to Smackdown and the eye candy to Raw, but either way, neither show has a strong roster of women wrestlers which hurts the product.
Too Many Replays: There wasn’t enough original content on Smackdown this week. It was made even worse by the fact that much of the old content was the same replays that we saw on ECW, meaning that by Smackdown, we had seen them three times. In addition to those replays, we also saw a video package on the Big Show vs. Great Khali feud, and a video on Undertaker’s new submission choke hold (which desperately needs a name). Smackdown was a good show, and I have little problem with the new content that did air. In fact, Smackdown was better than it has been the last few weeks. But, I would still rather see less old content.
Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw, Smackdown, ECW, and TNA Impact each week. Email him at jmezz-torch@sbcglobal.net.
For another view from the original Hitlist author, compare For another view from the original Hitlist author, compare Jason Powell's views to mine by visiting prowrestling.NET's "Hitlist" section here.
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LATEST PRO WRESTLING TORCH NEWSLETTER #1045 (20 PAGES)
This issue begins with a cover story by Wade Keller on Jake Roberts's indy show meltdown... Keller's BBL looks at WWE's decision to put all three World Champs in a Triple Threat on the MyNetwork debut of Smackdown... Page 2 Buzz with Jason Powell features tons of insider news items from WWE and TNA... Part three of the "Torch Talk" with Lanny Poffo... Pat McNeill's "At the Bar for Unforgiven" column... In-depth coverage of the TNA No Surrender PPV including the newsletter-exclusive Roundtable Reviews from Keller, Mitchell, and McNeill... Plus WWE Newswire, TNA Newswire, and ROH Newswire, Keller's reports on Raw, Smackdown, and Impact, the Top 5 Stories of the Week... PDF EXCLUSIVE features include the Greg Parks's review of the new Mr. Perfect DVD and Brian Hoops looks at pro wrestlers with Olympic backgrounds........
