By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

SMACKDOWN HITS

Cutting Edge: When the announcement was made during Superstars that there would be a special ladder edition of the Cutting Edge on Smackdown, I was intrigued. I was happy during Smackdown that the segment lived up to my expectations. Edge was great on the mic, in both setting up the match and in telling Jeff Hardy exactly what he will do to him at Extreme Rules. I think Jeff has been better on the mic recently than he was here, but he was still strong. He has been better over all on the mic the last few months than what he has shown for most of his career. I don't know if they can live up to the expectations of the match at the PPV. It should be outstanding. The physicality at the end wasn't executed as smoothly as it could have been, which distracted from the quality of the segment, but it was still a great way to kick off the show.

Jericho - Truth: Chris Jericho once again gave a good promo taunting the fans and promising to unmask Rey Mysterio. I am still not a fan of the unmasking angle, but that doesn't mean that I can't enjoy Jericho's great mic work. He was also great in his look when he was interrupted by R-Truth. Just as it was nice to see Truth in the ring with some upper card wrestlers in a tag match on Superstars, it was nice to see him in the ring in a singles match with Jericho on Smackdown. I liked the fact that he got some mic time of his own before the match. It was a nice exchange. The match itself was good while it lasted, but it wasn't quite long enough to get a Hit.

Punk Hits the GTS on Umaga: I don't understand why WWE chose to give away this PPV match (minus the strap stipulation) for free two days before the PPV. The match itself was pretty good though. I was really impressed when CM Punk was able to hit the GTS on Umaga. It is nice to see someone who doesn't look like an action figure (ie John Cena) showing that type of power.

Mysterio vs. Edge: If built properly, this could be a PPV main event. Rey Mysterio and Edge put on a great 19 minute match. There were two commercials, so we only saw about 13 of those minutes, but I will take that type of quality wrestling for 13 minutes every week. We just don't see matches of this quality on Raw any more, but I guess without Shawn Michaels and losing Mysterio, Jericho and Punk to Smackdown will do that to the show. Anyway, the match itself featured a ton of great wrestling action. I loved some of the early spots as Mysterio used his great athleticism to avoid some would be big moves from Jericho, particularly when he flipped over the stairs on the outside. There was one sloppy spot in the middle when Edge looked a bit late in kicking out of a leverage pin attempt, but it came in a flurry of near falls so it wasn't too bad. The match built so well in the final few minutes. It was everything you want in a wrestling match. There were several counters and near falls. You knew Edge wasn't going to lose, but they executed the match so well that it was easy to suspend your disbelief and just enjoy the match.

SMACKDOWN MISSES

Benjamin vs. Morrison: This Miss is more for the feud between these two than for their match on Smackdown this week which was decent, but only 5 minutes. John Morrison has dominated this feud, so it isn't even right to call it a feud. He's gotten the better of Shelton Benjamin every time they have faced, and his sometimes tag team partner Charlie Haas. Morrison does have the bigger upside at this point, so he should get the better of Benjamin in the end. But, watching him win each match doesn't make for an interesting storyline. Hopefully this is the end of the feud, because they need to move both of these guys onto something else. It will look really stupid if Benjamin comes out next week and challenges Morrison again.

Having Punk vs. Umaga: As I said above, I just don't understand giving away a PPV match two days before the PPV. Now, it could be worse. It could have been a higher card match than Umaga vs. Punk. I don't think that match is going to increase the PPV buy rate. And I understand the fact that the PPV match will have the strap stipulation so it won't be exactly the same as this match, however I still think it is dumb. It is a bad precedent to set. You don't want the fans to think that it is ok to skip a PPV because they have a chance to see one of the matches either right before or right after the event. I will say that this was probably better than the PPV match will be, as the strap match is one of the lamest gimmick matches ever (Umaga will drag Punk around the ring touching each turnbuckle, without realizing that behind his back, Punk is touching each one too, then Punk will surprise Umaga on the final one and flip over his back to touch the final one and get the win. Even if that doesn't happen like it usually does, just having to touch turnbuckles to win a match is ridiculously idiotic).

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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