By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

SMACKDOWN HITS

Opening Segment: Smackdown got off to a good start this week. Batista continues to do a nice job in his heel role. I liked the addition of having him stop on his way to the ring and demand a spot light. His verbal exchange with Rey Mysterio was strong. I was a bit confused about why Batista would refuse to fight when he should have wanted to squash Mysterio and get a World Title shot. But, other than that their exchange worked well. It fit in with their feud and set up their main event #1 contenders match for later in the show.

Kane vs. Ziggler: This was a good follow-up to their draw in the Beat the Clock Challenge last week. Dolph Ziggler seemed to be on the verge of a push last year that stalled after his multiple unsuccessful attempts to become Intercontinental Champion. Lately, he has been on Superstars more than Smackdown. It was good to see him back in a prominent role on Smackdown last week and then again this week. A feud with Kane who is well established and pretty popular can help get him back going. This was a good match. It built on the end of their match from last week with the sleeper hold from Ziggler. The count out victory was fine as it was a clean and legit win for Ziggler to help elevate him without diminishing Kane at all.

Truth & Cryme Tyme vs. Jericho & The Hart Dynasty: I find it a bit hard to believe that I am giving a tag match involving Cryme Tyme facing the Hart Dynasty a Hit as I got really tired of seeing these two teams facing in different ways in 2009. However, this was a good match with the addition of R-Truth and Chris Jericho. I'm not sure what happened to the budding feud between Truth and CM Punk. So, I wasn't thrilled with this sudden involvement with Cryme Tyme. But, I like where WWE seems to be going with Jericho and the Hart Dynasty. They seem to work well together. Having him involved in the team can lead to some good things for Tyson Kidd and David Hart Smith. Time will tell where they are going. I also liked how Jericho got the clean win with the Walls of Jericho.

Divas Development: I am enjoying this storyline involving Mickie James, Beth Phoenix and team Lay-Cool. Layla and Michelle McCool have good chemistry as a team. Phoenix was really good in her performance this week. I like how James came to Phoenix's aid only to kick her to get revenge for what Phoenix did to her last week. This all seems to be building to a tag match, but the team of James and Phoenix obviously don't get along. It will be interesting to see the angle continue to develop over the next few weeks.

SMACKDOWN MISSES

Punk's Intervention: Halfway through Smackdown, it looked like WWE was going to put on a great show. I was really enjoying it. However, this overly long segment came on and the show's quality went down pretty quickly. It just went on forever. I still have problems with Punk's character. There are over the top elements in it that make it a heel character, but in the end he was trying to help someone quit smoking. That does seem admirable for a heel. The cult leader quality of his promos and interactions with Luke Gallows and his new follower are what work. But it still was way too long and boring. It didn't really advance a storyline or do much to advance a character. I assume that this is leading to what will eventually be the introduction of a new wrestler who comes from the crowd, but that is usually cheesy and unbelievable. I just don't want to see this again next week.

Mattel Toy Push: The DX skits pushing their merchandise, or wweshop.com, or the new Mattel WWE action figures like this week's Raw are bad enough. But, this was terrible and way worse. It was such a waste of time. It was a cheap plug for Maria's appearance on "Celebrity Apprentice" and the new toys. It made no sense that Vickie Guerrero would randomly ask Maria to plug the toys to test her ability to sell a product. It isn't her job. Then we get more fat jokes from Teddy Long and The Great Khali. It was a really poor segment.

Non-Finish: This was a terrible way to end Smackdown. Mysterio vs. Batista was looking like a good main event. Mysterio can be added to a relatively short list of wrestlers who can get good matches out of Batista. It was predictable that there would be some sort of non-finish in this match leading to a triple threat at the Royal Ruble with The Undertaker. However, I could not predict how cheesy and poorly done the non-finish would be. The lights went out twice during the match, we heard Undertaker's gongs, then the lights came back on only to have first Batista, then Mysterio seemingly beat up by the Dead Man. The referee seemed to disappear the second time it happened too. What was that all about? Why would Undertaker get involved at all? Does he want a triple threat match? They might have been trying to hook the audience with a cliff hanger to make us tune in next week to see what happened, but it was so bad that they probably turned viewers off. Undertaker didn't even appear. So, what's the point? This seems like a clear case where the writers knew where they wanted to go, the triple threat match, but had no idea how to get there. I find it hard to believe that this is what they came up with.

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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