By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

Just like last week, most of this week's episode of Smackdown was just ok. I would love to have more Hits, but there weren't any. I am glad that there weren't more Misses as that means the show wasn't bad, but sometimes it is fun to complain about poor wrestling content. It is obviously good that there isn't more to complain about, but I can complain that there isn't more to praise either. The two Hits are for the opening segment, and the main event. So, the middle of the show was really just in the middle in terms of quality. There were a few solid wrestling matches, a little bit of storyline development, and a few nice promos (Jack Swagger's was the closest to being a Hit as I find it amusing when he talks about his Daddy, but it wasn't quite good enough).

SMACKDOWN HITS

Opening Segment: Smackdown got off to a good start this week. One of my complaints about last week's show was how Kane dominated the supposed top four wrestlers on the Smackdown roster. It was good to see them getting some revenge this week (although by the end of the night, Kane was back on top). I liked CM Punk's opening promo. It was good how he incorporated talk about The Undertaker with talk about winning the World Championship at the PPV. He effectively covered both angles at the same time. The trick with Luke Gallows dressed as the Dead Man was very predictable, but still pretty effective. I was disappointed at first when Rey Mysterio and Big Show came to Kane's aid as he was being beat up by Jack Swagger and the Straight Edge Society. Why would they help Kane after what he did to them last week? It was good that WWE had an answer to that question when Mysterio hit Kane with a 6-1-9 and Show followed with a chokeslam. I also liked how Mysterio teased a spring board move, but caught a glimpse of Show and thought better of it. That reinforced the idea that it would be every man for himself at the PPV as opposed to that moment or when they would later team up in the main event.

Mysterio & Show vs. Swagger & Punk: Speaking of the main event, it was a good, but not great tag match. The four worked well together to put on a good 10 minute match. It was a bit formulaic with Mysterio taking a prolonged beating (never saw that coming), but I like that after cleaning house after getting the hot tag, Show had to tag out himself after the big DDT from Swagger. Swagger needed to hit a move like that on Show to prove that he can deliver big offense on the big man. The four showed enough in this match to make me want to see their fatal 4-way at Fatal 4-Way more than the Raw brand fatal 4-way (where anything can happen). Even with Big Show's limitations, Mysterio, Punk and Swagger are all agile and talented enough to create a ton of movement in that match as opposed to the Raw one which has "slow and lumbering" written all over it considering the participants. Looking past this match, I wasn't thrilled that like last week, the show ended with Kane (who isn't in a PPV match) being the focus and looking stronger than the four wrestlers in the Smackdown main event.

SMACKDOWN MISSES

Long - McIntyre: Kofi Kingston said in an interview earlier in the show that nothing good could come out of Teddy Long wrestling Drew McIntyre. He was right. I'm just not a fan of this whole angle. Therefore, I wasn't a fan of seeing the replay videos setting the stage for the "match" during the show. If it were a good angle, then the recaps might have been nice to set things up, but since it isn't, they weren't. The actual in ring confrontation wasn't good. It was more uncomfortable to watch then anything else. They really castrated Teddy Long here. How can he ever have any power for the rest of his tenure as Smackdown GM? Any time a heel is upset about one of his rulings, he can just say "Vince McMahon isn't going to like this." It is interesting that McIntyre is feuding with both Kofi Kingston and Matt Hardy at the same time in very different ways and it will be interesting to see how that part of the angle proceeds. But, this was pretty long and not entertaining to watch.

Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's WWE Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw, Smackdown, NXT, 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.

[Torch art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch.com]

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