By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

SMACKDOWN HITS

Hardy's Opening Promo: This wasn't a great promo, but a good one. Jeff Hardy did a nice job of recapping his feud with CM Punk, putting over how happy he is to be World Champion, and hyping his match against John Morrison in his first Title defense. He accomplished those three goals in a short amount of time (in other words he didn't drone on and on and on like some other babyface champions have done in the past). It was the first step in a great first night as Champion for Hardy.

Cryme Tyme vs. The Hart Dynasty: My first thought about this match is that it is nice to see a match between two tag teams with tag team names. WWE has so few teams, and lately so many of their teams, even their best teams and Champions haven't had a team name (Miz & Morrison, London & Kendrick, etc.). It was nice to see a match between two established teams with something on the line. And, the match itself was good. Usually JTG gets the prolonged beating before getting a hot tag to Shad, so it was nice to see them change things up a bit here. You knew that Cryme Tyme was going to win, but it was still fun to watch. The post-match verbal confrontation between Cryme Tyme and The Big Show and Chris Jericho was fun too. Cryme Tyme held their own on the mic and Shad did a great Wookie impression. It will be interesting to see how WWE builds to this match between two well established future Hall of Famers, and two relatively new and unproven wrestlers.

Knox & Ziggler vs. Finlay & Mysterio: This was an odd match up in terms of randomly teaming Mike Knox with Dolph Ziggler and Finlay with Rey Mysterio. But, it was good. I complained last week about Knox not being better utilized on Smackdown. It was good to see him in a more competitive match this week, one where he could actually demonstrate some of his skills. His surprise leaping cross body block early in the match was quite impressive. This was just a formula tag match, but it was well executed to get the fans riled up to see the hot tag to Mysterio. The ending was a bit off with Ziggler appearing to be in the ropes when he was pinned, which took away a little from the match, but it was still good.

Morrison vs. Hardy: In my Superstars and Smackdown Hits & Misses over the last few months, I have given several John Morrison matches Hits, and catalogued a long list of wrestlers who have had very good matches with Morrison in that time including names like Edge, Chris Jericho and CM Punk. On Superstars this week, Tyson Kidd added his name to that list. On Smackdown, Jeff Hardy added his, only his name stands at the top as this was the best of the group. Morrison vs. Hardy was a great great Smackdown main event. It went 24 minutes which means even after the commercials we saw 17 or 18 minutes of outstanding wrestling action. The match went back and forth as there were several counters and reversals, and it had a ton of high flying offense. Morrison and Hardy worked well together. There were a few early moments where they seemed off a bit, but they got it together quickly and put on this great match. Morrison was clearly elevated despite taking the loss. It was everything it needed to be.

Punk Beats Down Hardy: After the great main event, Smackdown had a very good ending with CM Punk coming out to "congratulate" Hardy on his win, only to snap on him and give him a severe beating. This was the heel turn for Punk. Up until this point, he was still playing a bit of a tweener role, although he was more and more a heel every week. Now he is a full-fledged heel. I hope they show his viscous side like this more often. He needs to be this type of heel, not the preachy kind he has been for the most part. This was a very memorable and strong ending to a very good episode of Smackdown. I can't wait to see Punk vs. Hardy next week, and hopefully a triple threat with them and Morrison at SummerSlam.

SMACKDOWN MISSES

Morrison's Promo: John Morrison was so good on the mic during his long run with The Miz on ECW. He had issues with his mic work before that, but had finally found a voice. When he turned face on Smackdown, I was worried that his character was much more of a heel character than a babyface. He has been able to get over huge with the fans with his wrestling ability and his unique in ring style without doing much talking. This was his first big interview during his push as a top babyface on Smackdown and he didn't deliver. He was totally bland and didn't deliver his lines well. It was disappointing. He took a giant step backwards. It was like WWE didn't want him to talk the way he did as a heel, but that was the character that worked for him. Those were the mannerisms and the sayings that worked for him. They were gone. I was a bit worried a few weeks ago when he sang Michael Jackson songs with Teddy Long. I am even more worried here. If he is going to stay in the upper card on Smackdown where he belongs, he needs to do better than this. I wouldn't mind him acting more like his heel self if it means giving good and memorable promos. The fans will still cheer for him.

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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