By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

SMACKDOWN HITS

Opening Segment: I thought this was a very poor episode of Smackdown, but it did get off to a good start with the opening segment involving Daniel Bryan and Mark Henry. I am still not a fan of the idea of turning Bryan heel, but WWE is doing a good job with it, as is Bryan. He is playing his part well and was good in his insincere promo to start the show addressing his World Title match from the week before against The Big Show and blaming Mark Henry for getting involved. Henry then interrupted and the segment proceeded nicely with a strong verbal exchange between them. They were both good in the mic here. I assumed Henry would once again get involved in the Title match, setting up a triple threat for The Royal Rumble (still thinking that will be the end result), so I was curious to find out how things would play out with Henry banned from ringside.

SMACKDOWN MISSES

Slater vs. Gabriel: WWE needs to do a better job with these lower to mid card feuds. They can be quite enjoyable to watch and help build up wrestlers if done correctly. After the first encounter between Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel last week, why have them wrestle right away? Why not have another back stage encounter this week to help build the feud before they eventually face? The match was too short to amount to much. It felt like the length of a squash but was booked to be even. An even match should go longer than 3 minutes. The distraction from Hornswoggle is yet another example of babyfaces acting like heels in WWE which has been very problematic. The problem here isn't Slater and Gabriel, but the booking.

Rhodes's Promo: Going the cheap heel route of insulting the local fans and talking about them all being illegal immigrants was not a good move for Cody Rhodes. He has been able to do some interesting things as a heel. Why go the cheap heat route? It takes so little effort that anyone can do it and get booed. Do something else. He moved on to tout how long he has held the Intercontinental Championship and compared himself to former IC Champs which worked well. It got better as he promised to win the World Championship too. Then, it had the bad ending going back to the Spanish crap.

Hunico & Camacho: I'm not really a fan of playing into stereotypes. I'm not really a fan of starting a feud because you are upset that you didn't get invited to a barbecue. And I wasn't really a fan of Hunico & Camacho's commentary during Ted DiBiase's match against Drew McIntyre. The match was solid, but they did not help things at all. They weren't good. I do think there is potential in the team, but they didn't' show it here.

Sheamus vs. Mahal: My problem here isn't with the efforts of Sheamus or Jinder Mahal. It isn't with the fact that this was mostly just a squash match as Sheamus should be looking strong before the Rumble. My problem with it is that Sheamus destroyed Mahal on Raw in their tag match. He has destroyed him every chance he has had except for last week's Smackdown when Mahal and Wade Barrett double teamed him, and even then he handled himself very well. WWE has done a poor job of making Mahal seem like an actual threat to Sheamus. After he destroyed him on Raw, I said that WWE better not act as if Mahal is still a threat to Sheamus on Smackdown but that is exactly what happened. It was as if the Raw tag match never happened. I said it after Raw and I will say it again here, please let this be the end of their feud.

Tamina vs. Natalya: Another Divas match that goes less than a minute. Give me a break. If a Diva like Tamina (since I know it isn't Natalya) can't have a match that goes longer than a minute (or even 3), then she does not belong on WWE's roster, at least not as a wrestler. Natalya is too good to be getting squashed like this. This was basically the same exact squash they had last week. If you take away Slater vs. Gabriel, you would have had a few more minutes to give this match. Maybe see what they can do in a "longer" match. If they can't deliver, then get rid of them. I don't care who their daddy is. If you only want them to be eye candy, then why have them wrestle at all? TNA has proven that women wrestling can draw. WWE doesn't put any effort into doing that themselves.

Non-Ending: What a terrible way to end Smackdown. Can someone explain to me why the match ended? I understand that A.J. got hurt, but we've seen people at ringside get hurt and taken to the back during a match and the match continued. Poor Randy Savage had to take on The Twin Towers all by himself after Hulk Hogan carried Miss Elizabeth to the back after she got hurt during their match back in the day. Of all the examples, I'm not sure why that one came to mind, but the referee didn't stop the match just because a woman manager at ring side got hurt. This was a World Title match announced on Raw. This was something people tuned in to see. It was hyped heavily throughout the show and then they didn't deliver a satisfying ending. That was a horrible way to end a World Title match. I hated that ending, but if you are going to do it, at least respect the fans enough to give an official announcement that the match had been called off. Terrible.

Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's WWE Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw and Smackdown 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 photo (c) PWTorch.com]

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