By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

SMACKDOWN HITS

Opening Segment: This is a marginal Hit. It was a good opening, but not a great one. We've seen the fake entrance for a popular babyface before, but it was still fun to see the fans get disappointed when CM Punk came out dressed as Jeff Hardy, although it was very predictable. Casual fans might not know Hardy's true contractual situation, and WWE isn't always strict in enforcing rules about wrestlers forced to retire or leave the company, so it wasn't out of the realm of possibility for Hardy to just show up again. Punk gave a good promo, trying to put Hardy behind him and transition to the Undertaker. Part of the reason I'm calling this a marginal Hit (in addition to the predictability) is Punk's interrupted statement about vices and anacondas. Some of us remember him using the Anaconda Vice as a finisher in his early days on ECW, but that has been a long time. It seemed like he was babbling at that point. If he had continued to at least occasionally use the move it would have made more sense. The interruption by Matt Hardy worked well in the end to hint at the main event for the show.

Morrison vs. Mysterio: It was interesting to hear a WWE announcer use the term "5 star" match when setting up the Intercontinental Championship match between John Morrison and Rey Mysterio. I don't do star ratings, but that was an incredibly great match. That was one of the best matches (especially for a straight up one on one no gimmick match) of the year. It went 25 minutes and never dragged for a single second. This could have been a PPV main event and we got it for free. Sure there were two commercials, but that still meant we were treated to about 19 minutes of outstanding wrestling action. I could go on and on about the various great spots, high spots, mat wrestling, counters and near falls, but this column would become very long. When we look back at 2009, with all the great matches that Morrison has had especially on free tv (against wrestlers including Jeff Hardy, Chris Jericho, CM Punk - even going back to a great match against Evan Bourne on ECW earlier this year - and now Rey Mysterio), he will have to get some consideration for in ring superstar of the year.

Drew McIntyre: I enjoyed McIntyre's re-debut (or rebut?) last week on Smackdown when he attacked R-Truth before their scheduled match. That worked well as McIntyre was introduced like a jobber, but surprised us all when he jumped Truth. I enjoyed week #2 for him as he did it again. I was happy that he wasn't Truth's scheduled opponent as that would have made Truth look like an idiot. Having him come from the stands helped to protect Truth. He gave a good promo after the beating about being overlooked and not having a match this week. His introduction is going well so far.

Punk vs. Hardy: This wasn't a great match and obviously had the poor misfortune of having to come after Morrison vs. Mysterio, however Punk vs. Hardy was still a good main event. It got off to a good start with the back and forth action early. After the commercial, it slowed down with Punk working on Hardy's abdomen to take advantage of his previous injury. The announcers did a nice job of talking up that injury and putting this match into context as Hardy wasn't trying to win, but to take out Punk. As Hardy's injury got worse however, his goal had to shift to winning and surviving. Undertaker's appearance at the end was too predictable. I don't understand what he did to deserve a Title shot against Punk, or what Punk did to him to deserve being attacked at the end of SummerSlam. Undertaker is one of those WWE characters who can do no wrong in the eyes of the fans despite being often written to do the wrong thing. But, that's just how it goes. Undertaker vs. Punk should still be a very good match, but I'm not sure about the submission format coming in the first match of the feud.

SMACKDOWN MISSES

Write Off For Mysterio: This was a good Smackdown. Not that everything was great, or even good on the show, but there was only one thing that was so bad that it deserved a Miss. That one thing was the nature of how Rey Mysterio was written off the show. In fact, he lost the IC Title, but there wasn't an actual on air reason for him to be gone for the next month. He didn't hurt himself or anything. I thought he might get jumped in the back by Dolph Ziggler or something, but it didn't happen. Also, while I loved his Title match against Morrison, it was way too random to just simply say that Morrison had challenged him and he accepted. It was very odd how WWE handled the situation. It will become even odder if Ziggler defeats Morrison for the Title at Breaking Point (if he's set to become the new Champion, why not have him defeat Mysterio here?). The writers should have been able to come up with something better than this.

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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