By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

SMACKDOWN HITS

Money in the Bank Hype: WWE didn't do much on Smackdown to really sell the importance of winning the Money in the Bank briefcase at WrestleMania, but they did a nice job of hyping the action that will likely occur at the PPV. I know several people have criticized WWE for doing too many of these tag team matches to hype the ladder match, and rightfully so. But, some of them have been fun to watch, and this 8 man tag was no different. I like that they shuffled the teams up a bit, and had heels and babyfaces on the same team. The action was solid, and they even teased tension among the teammates. They also did a nice tease with a big ladder spot after the match when Finlay tipped the ladder over, throwing Christian out of the ring and onto the others on the ground. There's plenty more where that came from.

Mysterio vs. Guerrero: I would have liked to see this match go longer than 5 minutes, but we have seen it before. Rey Mysterio and Chavo Guerrero work well together and they put on a high energy action packed 5 minutes of wrestling. It had plenty of counters and reversals. I particularly liked how Guerrero was able to duck the first attempted 6-1-9. That was well done. It had a good ending with Mysterio finally hitting the 6-1-9 before hitting the big top rope splash. The build for the Intercontinental Championship has been halfhearted at best, but at least they are trying to make some issue out of it with John Bradshaw Layfield blindsiding Mysterio with a big boot after the match.

Cena's Promo: The build for the triple threat World Title match at WrestleMania has been poor, but John Cena gave a good promo to hype the match this week. It wasn't great, but it was certainly the best hype for the match so far (hopefully it won't end up being the best, as they still have a week to promote it better). What I liked about it was the way that Cena sold the idea of WrestleMania. He made a huge deal out of it and even talked about the 75 trucks that will bring the event to Houston (that seems like a lot of trucks to me). He admitted to the silliness of his storyline, by referencing Jerry Springer. In the end, he just simply said he was coming to fight and win. The Big Show's appearance was ok. I don't understand WWE constantly giving away parts of the triple threat. We've seen Cena vs. Edge numerous times. On Raw, we saw Show vs. Edge, which luckily was kept short. Next week on Raw, we will see Show vs. Cena, which should be similarly short. But, the verbal exchange between Show and Cena was solid as was Cena's dumping Show over the top rope. Show's anger was cartoonish, but it was still fine.

Michaels - Undertaker: I have a gut feeling that this will be a polarizing segment. I suspect some fans really enjoyed it, and others hated it. I for one, enjoyed it. There are only so many ways to build to a match with Undertaker involved. We've seen mock funerals before (which is why I didn't like the grave yard scene from Raw). But, this was different. It was very interesting to see Shawn Michaels doing an Undertaker impression dressed in all white. The dark/light contrast worked well. We all know that Michaels is a born again Christian, so it makes sense to have him quote scripture. His promo talking about the similarities and differences between himself and Undertaker was well written and well delivered. It was fun to see him break into his classic character and the end. Undertaker's appearance was surprising and well executed. Michaels played his part well of being shocked and first, but then cocky once he escaped. The build to this epic match has been Hit or Miss, but it was a Hit on Smackdown this week.

SMACKDOWN MISSES

Hardy Promos: Matt Hardy's mic work during his promo was strong. The problem was the dog. I found it very distracting how he kept interrupting himself to kiss the dog. I don't know, it was just strange. The idea of using the real life death of Jeff Hardy's dog to get more heat on Matt doesn't work for me. They can have Matt as an ass by pointing out all of Jeff's screw ups without the dog. I wasn't high on Jeff's reply later in the show either. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. It was too short to amount to much. I think WWE wanted it short so that the moment when Jeff said that he and Matt aren't brothers any more would stick out. But, it felt like he didn't build to that moment. His delivery wasn't great either.

Divas Championship: I have a couple of problems with this match, and they have nothing to do with the effort of Maryse or Michelle McCool. The first is that it is ridiculous that a Title match would happen without any type of hype at all. There has been a bit of a feud between these two, but the match should have been announced earlier in the show. It was going to be short and have a non-ending, so I understand the desire to not want to over hype it so that the fans aren't disappointed, but it is disrespectful to the Title (even the meaningless Divas Championship, which doesn't have to be meaningless). They want us to care about the Title, otherwise why have Gail Kim debut and show the sign that she wants the Title? Her debut is my other problem with this match. It has been a few weeks since WWE showed a Gail Kim vignette, and they only showed two of them. It has been quite awhile since she was in WWE. Newer fans who don't watch TNA have no idea who she is. She is a former WWE Women's Champion. They could emphasize that she won that Title in her first match in WWE. They could then bridge that to her current situation of trying to win the Divas Title now that she has returned. But, her return meant nothing. And the crowd certainly didn't respond.

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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