By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

SMACKDOWN HITS

Kane vs. Orton: I believe it is a mistake to give away PPV rematches the week after the PPV, especially at WrestleMania, so it was not a good idea to give away this no DQ match between Kane and Randy Orton. However, Kane and Orton put on a good brawl style match. Their WM match was solid, but this was better. It went back and forth nicely and they did a nice job booking it around the no DQ stipulation. Orton needed to get some heat back, so it was good that he got the win here. I'm not really sure where either of them goes from here (unless they keep feuding for a rubber match).

Daniel Bryan: WWE clearly wants to keep Daniel Bryan a heel and doesn't want to give the fans the babyface Bryan that they want. I don't really feel like debating that decision. For now, I will say that if the goal was to get more heel heat on Bryan, then this was a very good segment. Plus, Bryan's performance was right on. It was well written to take the cheers and the "yes" chants and turn them around on the audience, having him claim that the fans weren't supporting him, but mocking him instead. Bryan delivered the promo very well. AJ was good in her part too. I was happy that WWE didn't just ignore the obvious fan support for Bryan. They could have used that support to turn him face, but this was they way to go in order to keep him heel. However, I would love to hear the actual audio from the live crowd in Orlando. I'm betting that Bryan got more cheers than we heard on tv, and that the "Hey, Hey, Good-bye!" chant for AJ was louder as well. I could be wrong, but that was the feeling I got watching it.

SMACKDOWN MISSES

Opening Segment: My worries over too much tv time for John Laurinaitis appeared to be justified during the opening segment of Smackdown as instead of starting off the show with the new World Champion, they started off with the new general manager in a long boring talking segment. This did nothing for me. Laurinaitis can be good in small doses, but he really isn't that good. He isn't good enough to justify this much air time. Teddy Long was good in his response, but the segment kept going. Now we get a lame angle with Long forced to keep working for the company because of some college fund for his grandchildren with a preposterous contract where the fund is controlled by the Smackdown general manager. That doesn't even make sense. The writers were really stretching to find a reason why Long would agree to work for Laurinaitis and that was apparently the best they could come up with. I don't look forward to the next several weeks of Laurinaitis humiliating Long. I don't look forward to him abusing his power. Michael Cole was so much better during WM when he was (for the most part), just calling the matches and not acting obnoxious. Having Laurinaitis on both shows practically forces him to play up his heel character which is not a good thing.

Ryback: Where to start? Lord Tensai on Raw had a storyline reason why he has changed his name since the last time we saw him in WWE several years ago. There was no such explanation as to why Skip Sheffield is now Ryback. Ryback is a stupid name. The announcers barely mentioned that he was on NXT without mentioning the fact that he was then part of the original Nexus on Raw which dominated the brand a few years back. Are we supposed to have forgotten that? If Sheffield had disappeared back to FCW after being eliminated from NXT, then you could make a case that he was on the competition show, lost, and has spent his time since then training and improving to get a new contract, but this just came across as lazy.

Show - Rhodes: I enjoyed the storyline heading into WM of Cody Rhodes trying to embarrass The Big Show about his past performances at the biggest PPV of the year. Their match was ok at WM. I liked the follow up on Raw the next night with Show turning the tables on Rhodes. However, that felt like the end of the feud. It would have been an appropriate moment to end it, and move both on to something else. As much as I have enjoyed the angle, that doesn't mean that I want it to continue. I get that Rhodes should have an automatic rematch for the Intercontinental Championship, so I suppose it has to continue. I just don't see where they can go from here to keep things interesting. The feud was about WM, and now it needs to be about something else. I also didn't like seeing Big Show knock Heath Slater out after their match. That was not an admirable thing for a babyface to do.

Divas: Man, do the Divas need a shake up. We are getting another Nikki vs. Brie Bella feud. We are getting another Kelly Kelly vs. Beth Phoenix feud. We've seen these before, and I don't recall enjoying either of them. Phoenix has had nothing interesting to do for a long time. Another feud with Kelly isn't the answer. I also wasn't a fan of how Kelly got involved in the match. I have to agree with the heel commentator in this case, Michael Cole who said that Kelly didn't belong at ring side in this match. She wasn't exactly acting admirably in distracting Phoenix during her match with Nikki either.

Del Rio vs. Sheamus: I was well on my way to giving this match a Hit. I enjoyed it until the end, but the end was so bad, I have to give it a Miss. Alberto Del Rio and Sheamus probably do deserve a Hit for their effort in this non-Title main event. They put on a good match. The booking of the end was what got in the way. It was so lame that the referee would disqualify Sheamus just for holding a chair. At least when Eddie Guerrero would do this bit, he would hit something to make a noise to make it appear that he had been hit by the chair. The referee looked stupider than a WWE referee usually looks in this instance. This didn't really help build up Del Rio as he totally lucked into this win. It basically negated the entire match. The story of the match was Del Rio working on Sheamus' arm to counter his power advantage, but that story never had an ending. I get why Sheamus was angry at the ref, but once again we had a babyface on Smackdown acting in an non-admirable way. I don't think that not being able to control your temper is a great babyface trait.

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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