By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

SMACKDOWN HITS

Hardy's Multiple Leg Drops: After a decent opening match of The Big Show vs. Jeff Hardy, Smackdown picked up nicely with the post-match attack by Matt Hardy on his brother. The sight of Matt dropping several leg drops in a row was quite memorable. I don't remember ever seeing that many leg drops in a row. Matt is really starting to find himself as a heel. I hope he will be able to retain his heel heat and momentum after his feud with Jeff (hopefully) comes to an end at Backlash with their I Quit match. I still think that a feud with Shawn Michaels could really elevate Hardy to the next level. Of course, despite being on different brands, his feud with Jeff may never end.

Truth vs. Morrison: I wish this match would have been longer than 4 minutes, but it was fun while it lasted. R-Truth looked better in this match than he's looked in any of his other matches since returning to WWE. Obviously this wasn't the great match that John Morrison vs. Evan Bourne was from ECW, but it was still a good match. It left me wanting more which is a good thing. I understand having the match short since Morrison's ECW match was taped the same night. But, that calls into question the booking of this match in the first place. Maybe if it had been saved, WWE could have given it more like 8 or 9 minutes and it would have been even better.

Benjamin vs. Undertaker: This was a good 10 minute match. Shelton Benjamin continues to show why he deserves a bigger push. Does he give great interviews? No, but neither does Vladimir Kozlov, yet he got a bigger push at the end of last year than Benjamin who can actually have good matches. Obviously, Undertaker can have match of the year matches. They worked well together and put on a match with plenty of really nice wrestling action. It went back and forth and built well to the end. It was interesting how Benjamin's cockiness got the better of him, leading to his loss.

Batista vs. DiBiase: I enjoyed the main event. We really haven't seen that much of Ted DiBiase in singles matches. At 11 minutes, this was probably his longest on WWE tv, and he looked good. I have been more impressed by him in the ring than Cody Rhodes and he showed his skills in this match vs. Batista. Batista looked good in the ring too. He hasn't had many matches since returning from injury, but the time off hasn't hurt. He isn't great, but given the right opponent he has shown he can have good matches, and that was the case here. Batista did a nice job of selling the knee injury. It will be interesting to see if Legacy continues to focus on that injury next week or if it is just forgotten.

SMACKDOWN MISSES

Brand Split: What do Big Show, Matt Hardy, Maryse, Triple H, Randy Orton, Montel Vontavious Porter, Batista and Ted DiBiase all have in common? They are members of the Raw brand, yet they all appeared on Smackdown four days after the draft. What was the point of the draft? You could make a case that Big Show and MVP were on Smackdown before, and their matches were contractually obligated before the draft, but not when MVP was facing former Raw wrestler Dolph Ziggler. Batista and DiBiase weren't on Smackdown before the draft. Neither was Randy Orton. There are eight wrestlers listed above. There were only eight other wrestlers on the show — Jeff Hardy, Khali, Gail Kim, R Truth, Morrison, Benjamin, Undertaker, and Ziggler. That means that on the first post-draft Smackdown, half of the wrestlers weren't on the Smackdown roster. What is the point of the draft? How has anything changed?

Khali Kiss Cam: I'm sorry, but I just find the Khali Kiss Cam to be incredibly boring. I'm glad it went away for quite awhile, but now it is back, and I'm not so glad any more. Any humor in the Santina Marella character is totally ruined by The Great Khali. He isn't funny. Is the fact that a large man gets kissed supposed to be funny? Is the fact that he is stupid enough to believe Santina is actually a woman supposed to be funny? He is a babyface now, but he is an idiot. "Some Like it Hot" was from 1959. Forty years later, I don't need to see a remake with Khali playing the role of Osgood.

Triple H - Orton: This was not a good scene. For one, that mood music that played while Randy Orton talked was odd and totally out of place. I remember WWE doing the same thing a few months back with Matt Hardy's big promo after bashing Jeff with a chair at the Royal Rumble. It just makes the whole scene seem staged. The same can be said for the clips of what Orton did to the McMahons that were edited into the promo. Those remind the audience of the fact that Smackdown isn't live. I don't think they were needed to get the point. They didn't add to the moment, but they took away from the live feel that every wrestling show should have. My other problem with this scene was the announcement that their match on Raw will be no disqualification. I don't see how that is an advantage for Triple H. Can't Orton use a weapon just as much as the Game? Can't the rest of Legacy interfere without causing a DQ? Isn't this going to turn into a six man brawl? Also, who made the stipulation? This plays into the fact that Raw is getting convoluted with the authority figure picture. Vince McMahon said that Orton couldn't have a WWE Title rematch, but then Vickie Guerrero gave him one. Now, Vickie made a match, and presumably McMahon has added a stipulation to it. So, who is running the show?

Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's WWE Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw, Smackdown, ECW, and Superstars 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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