By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

SMACKDOWN HITS

Set Up for Hardy vs. Hardy: I was worried early when it was announced that both Hardys would have Money in the Bank qualifying matches, especially when their opponents weren't mentioned. I thought that WWE feels that Hardy vs. Hardy can garner a big buy rate for Backlash, so save it and put them in MIB (which make sense, but would be disappointing). But, I started to get intrigued by various possibilities of where they might go with the qualifiers. Then came the nice scene in the back between Jeff Hardy and Vickie Guerrero where Vickie gave Jeff an opportunity to face Matt at WrestleMania, but Jeff refused. Then came Matt's pre-match promo which was solid, in saying that Jeff couldn't hide from him for long, and that he would get his hands on Jeff in MIB. The intrigue went away a bit when Matt lost his qualifier as you knew he would interfere to keep Jeff from winning his, but it still worked.

Hardy vs. MVP: This was the highlight of the night from an in ring perspective, which isn't saying much on a show with such little wrestling. But, this was a good 8 minute match to remind us all of the storyline that carried Smackdown in the second half of 2007. I would have liked to see a longer match, but it was good while it lasted. I would rather see Montel Vontavious Porter vs. Shelton Benjamin for the US Title at WrestleMania (seriously, Benjamin will now have been in four of the five MIBs, can't we get some new blood in there? What about The Brian Kendrick, Rey Mysterio, Kofi Kingston, Umaga, Evan Bourne, or William Regal?), but they will be good in the ladder match.

Contract Signing: I liked this segment for a few reasons. For one, it featured good mic work by Edge and The Big Show. Edge was good in his accusations towards Vickie and Big Show. It kept up the angle that they might have had an affair. Big Show was good in coming out and hinting at the same thing (as Vickie protested), then switching gears by saying Edge isn't a good Champion. They had a nice verbal exchange, but then were interrupted by the unannounced appearance by John Cena. His quick moves to take out Show and Edge were impressive. I was also intrigued by how he whispered into Vickie's ear. Her reaction to whatever he said was good too. If this were TNA, I would guess that Cena told her that if she didn't put him in the match as well, he would kill her children. That sounds like a TNA babyface move to me. But, since this is WWE, I will guess it is something else, possibly some proof about her and Show's alleged affair. Either way, it was a nice set up for the finish of the contract signing on Raw.

Legacy Stands Strong: This is a marginal Hit. I was glad to see Legacy stand tall after dishing out a beating on Triple H. The beating worked well and looked good. Triple H kept fighting back for awhile, which is to be expected. This showed Legacy to be the smart heels that they should be. It makes sense for them as heels to attack the Game like this. I was glad they didn't start running when he made a comeback. What took away a little was that on Raw, the prospects of having physicality between Triple H and Randy Orton before WrestleMania was not likely given the stipulations that Orton set up. Less than a week latter, they were fighting. It fit in with the stip as Orton provoked Triple H, so he could fight back, but it was disappointing how quickly they went to this. I would have preferred if just Priceless had attacked Hunter. That wouldn't happen as Trips being taken out by Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase alone just isn't going to be in the cards, but it would have been better. Also, Triple H's foaming at the mouth was a bit much. However, as a whole I still liked the beating and the end of Smackdown.

SMACKDOWN MISSES

Undertaker's Promo: This didn't work. I'm looking forward to seeing Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania because of the historical feel of the match and the fact that it should be the best match of the show. However, this did little to add to the intrigue of the match. Undertaker talked more than he has in a long time, and it ruins his mystique a bit. It wasn't poorly delivered, but seemed out of character. Then, the interruption by the Michaels video was odd. It seemed out of place. Then Undertaker started talking about Michaels playing head games and I was confused. Did Michaels have the video shown to play head games with Undertaker? I'm not sure about that. I also don't like Undertaker talking about Michaels wanting to make a name for himself at Undertaker's expense. Michaels isn't like some of his other challengers (like Randy Orton at WrestleMania 21) who try to make a name for themselves. He has a name. He is an icon. This should be about legend vs. legend. Michaels is trying to cement his legacy, while so is Undertaker. Put the feud in those terms, not in terms of Michaels being just another punk.

Videos: Just like on ECW, there were too many videos on Smackdown. It started with highlights of Edge vs. Cena from Raw, which is ok, but then came more highlights during Undertaker's entrance of Kozlov vs. Michaels from Raw, then in the middle of Taker's promo, came the Michaels WrestleMania video. That was the start of a show with many videos, most of which we've seen, some of them multiple times. After the first commercial, the WrestleMania history video played, showcasing WrestleMania 3, which they used already. I'm pretty sure they haven't shown a video on WrestleManias 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, or 20 (I could be wrong on a few, but not all). Why replay one when you haven't shown them all? Then came an amusing Dirt Sheet which worked well as it set up a match for next week's show. After the commercial break before Maryse vs. Eve Torres, they showed the same Umaga video that we saw numerous times when he was coming back from his injury. That was unnecessary. There was a video on "12 Rounds". Then came the same Hall of Fame video that we saw on Raw and ECW. Then came another WrestleMania history video. I was sure that this one would be a new one. Instead it was from WrestleMania 21 which we've seen before. I don't think they've done one for numbers 6, 7, 8, 22 or 23 (I might be misremembering one, but not all). What's the deal? Latter came another "12 Rounds" video, the same one from Raw and ECW. All of those videos took away from the quality of the show and from time that should have been given to more wrestling action. The approximately 18 minutes of action that aired was as bad as Impact. If this is just a result of trying to stretch out the content on a week of double tapings, then at least it shouldn't happen more in the future as those are going to be a thing of the past once Superstars starts.

Maryse vs. Torres: This was not a good match. Maryse has shown some potential, but she isn't going to carry someone as inexperienced as Torres at this point. Torres did throw some nice looking dropkicks, but that is the only positive in this sloppy match. It looked ugly. With a less than good Divas tag match on Raw (which I was probably too generous in not giving a Miss), the clustermess of a Knockouts Fatal Fourway tag on Impact, and this poor showing, Natalya vs. Alicia Fox from ECW was easily the best women's match this week.

End of Hardy vs. Benjamin: Hardy vs. Benjamin was going nicely, but the ending was disappointing. The match looked good until Hardy hit that ugly Twist of Fate. Then came the predictable interference by Matt. I don't mind that he interfered. In fact, it was the right thing to do. I also don't mind it being predictable in this case, as you can't always get around predictability. However, my problem is the way that he interfered. It was clear that he only punched Benjamin to get Jeff disqualified. The referee should have known that. It didn't work. Having him distract Jeff or interfere behind the referee's back would have given Benjamin a pin win, and avoided the silly situation where the referee looked like a total tool.

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 Jason Powell's views to mine by visiting prowrestling.NET's "Hitlist" section here.

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