By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

SMACKDOWN HITS

Jericho vs. Morrison: Smackdown started off great with the promo from Chris Jericho addressing what happened to him on Raw earlier this week and his subsequent match against John Morrison. Morrison picked up where he left off in 2009, having good matches on Smackdown just about every week. I really liked this match. Morrison and Jericho worked very well together. The match went about 11 minutes and featured good back and forth action. Drew McIntyre's presence at ringside added to the match. I loved when Jericho had Morrison in the Walls of Jericho and McIntyre got up to hold the Intercontinental Title belt in his face to mock him. It backfired though as it served as motivation for Morrison to get to the ropes. Jericho picked up a big win over an upper-mid card star, while Morrison's feud with McIntyre was advanced.

Kane vs. Ziggler: I enjoyed this match. Kane needs a smaller more agile opponent to have quality matches with (as opposed to someone like Batista for instance) and Dolph Ziggler fits the bill. This is their third match in as many weeks, and while I liked this one, I am getting tired of the match up a bit and hope they don't have another match next week (at least change things up some). What I have liked about each match is how each one has built on the previous. I don't like the sleeper hold as a possible finisher in 2010. It just seems way too old school and boring of a move that has been well established over the past however many years (10 maybe?) as nothing but a rest hold. That being said, the use of the sleeper has been done well in the progression of these three matches.

Mysterio vs. Batista: I was initially disappointed in how short this match was, but it was good while it lasted. Plus, with the sheer size difference between Rey Mysterio and Batista, this was probably a good length for a steel cage match between them. With Batista's power plus a cage, it would be hard to imagine Mysterio surviving for a long match without escaping as soon as possible, which is what he did. It was well booked to have Mysterio realize early on that he had to change his game plan if he was going to win. Batista plays the cocky heel well. This is the second time we've seen his stalling techniques backfire on him. The ending was well done with Mysterio kicking the door into Batista to block his escape. I have been predicting for weeks that this would end up a triple threat at the PPV. I was wrong. I was willing to put up with WWE stretching this angle out for a few extra weeks when it appeared that was the route they were going. They had to leave Beat the Clock up in the air, since there wasn't going to be just one #1 contender. They had to leave last week's match up in the air (in a terrible way), since there wasn't going to be just one #1 contender. But, as it turns out there is just one #1 contender, which makes the previous few weeks seem foolishly booked to needlessly stretch things out. Undertaker vs. Mysterio sounds good though.

SMACKDOWN MISSES

Punk's Intervention: I'm still not a fan of these segments. They are overly long and don't accomplish much. Punk's character still bothers me. I get the heel aspects of it, but if he gets alcoholics to stop drinking, isn't that good? The balance in his character needs to swing more heavily towards the heel cult like aspects, and away from the altruistic aspects of the character who wants people to stop doing drugs. I don't think WWE and Punk have found the right balance in the character. I was bored with this scene. I know it is a set up to eventually either have someone (possibly a new wrestler) refuse to take the pledge, or for some wrestler to interrupt. But, getting to that point is going to be very boring. Having The Great Khali, Runjin Singh and Matt Hardy come out at the end didn't do much for me. Neither did the announced #1 contenders match for the Unified Tag Team Titles. Of the four possible teams, Punk & Gallows made the most sense, so I suppose it's good that they won.

Undertaker's Promo: Last week's Smackdown had a terrible ending and I was really hoping for some type of great promo from The Undertaker to explain what happened. Instead, he said something about it being a warning which was lame. He seemed to focus more on Shawn Michaels' challenge than his actions last week or his possible opponent for The Royal Rumble. He has Raw on Monday to speak about Michaels, so he could have said less here and paid more attention to what is coming up a lot sooner than WrestleMania. His explanation needed to be much better to forgive how bad that ending was last week.

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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