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SMACKDOWN HITS

MVP vs. Finlay: This is a marginal Hit. It was slow and methodical, but it featured good in ring psychology and told a good story. Montel Vontavious Porter seemed more aggressive early on as Mick Foley pointed out. It was nice to see him pick apart a body part like Finlay’s shoulder. Finlay did good in selling that injury, and attempting his own submission holds on MVP’s leg. I wasn’t thrilled with the lame draw ending, but it was still a good match, that barely landed in the Hit column.

Natalya: Natalya looked much more dominant in her match vs. Kelly Kelly than in her previous match vs. Cherry, which is a good thing. Kelly has more experience in the ring than Cherry, so this dominant performance helps her establish herself more as a legit wrestler than her more difficult victory over the less experienced Cherry. She looked good, although it is a short match and it will still take time to really get a good assessment as to her in ring skills. But for now, she is delivering so far.

Morrison vs. Batista: It was very predictable that Batista was going to beat John Morrison, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much offense Morrison got to deliver. Being able to hang with Batista as well as he did should really help his credibility. The match only went about 6 minutes, but it was a good 6 minutes. I wouldn’t have minded seeing more of it, which is often a sign of a good match. WWE seems to be elevating Morrison. He and the Miz will be teaming up against Kane & CM Punk at Judgment Day, which when coupled with this good showing against Batista, could lead to a significant singles push for Morrison with a feud against either Punk or Kane. I am curious to see if my assumptions turn out to be correct and where WWE goes with him long-term.

SMACKDOWN MISSES

Chavo vs. Kane: This was the worst match of the night. It went about 6 minutes, but felt much longer. These two just don’t match up well together in the ring. I don’t buy Chavo having the credibility to hang with Kane as well as he does (other than their WrestleMania match of course). This has not been a feud that I have found particularly interesting, and their matches are not good. I hope that the feud goes away at this point, as Kane has defeated Chavo every time they have faced in a one on one match, and got the victory over him in a tag match on ECW this week. That is enough of these two in the ring.

Other Matches: On a night that rightly focused on the vacant World Heavyweight Championship (WWE played a video recap of the situation twice, Vickie Guerrero started the show with a prepared statement, Mick Foley and Michael Cole discussed the matter throughout the show, they showed a video of fans reacting to the situation, etc.), WWE should have put the focus entirely on that situation. With six matches in the Chase for the Championship, there was no need to have two other matches. They don’t need to do eight matches on one show. It is too many. Six is plenty. They could have given more time to those matches, which all went short, other than MVP vs. Finlay. I would have loved to see Punk vs. Hardy go two segments. It was good while it lasted, but too short to amount to much. It was like the beginning of a good match, that suddenly ended. I gave Batista vs. Morrison a Hit, but it could have gone longer as well. I liked seeing Natalya give a dominant performance, but that could have waited for next week. Vladimir Kozlov’s squash was o.k., but nobody would have minded if his introduction was put on hold for one week. We’ve seen him squash many guys already, so one more this week doesn’t add much to his development. He could have come back with the same squash next week and been in the same exact position. TNA had only four matches on a recent Impact, and those matches all went at least 10 minutes which was nice for a change. Smackdown could have learned from that.

Edge Wins: This was so predictable. As soon as Vickie announced the Chase for the Championship, I knew that Edge would end up as a surprise entrant to win. Undertaker got stripped of the title last week, just to end up in another match for the title against Edge at the PPV? What does that accomplish? Vickie could have banned the choke hold last week, announced the mini-tournament this week to determine a #1 Contender, and had Edge weasel his way into the match the same way, and end up having the same match at Judgment day without the lame finish to last week’s show. Seriously, this is the best the writers can come up with? It was disappointingly predictable as I really hoped WWE wouldn’t go that route. I wasn’t thrilled with the possibility of Batista vs. Undertaker, but I am less thrilled with another Edge vs. Undertaker match. Three PPVs in a row will feature that match, which is boring. Here was an opportunity to elevate someone like MVP. MVP lost the U.S. Championship to Matt Hardy, but could have gotten his momentum back in a surprise victory here. Instead, it looks like he will either continue to feud with Hardy, or feud with Finlay. I’m not particularly looking forward to either one. WWE had a chance with a fake injury to Edge to move him out of the title picture for a month and elevate someone else. Instead, they went the lazy route and are right back to where they were last month, and the month before.

Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw, Smackdown, ECW, and TNA Impact each week. Email him at jmezz-torch@sbcglobal.net.

For another view from the original Hitlist author, compare 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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