By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

SMACKDOWN HITS

MVP: This was a bad episode of Smackdown. I didn’t enjoy it at all. The one bright spot was the intrigue surrounding Montel Vontavious Porter hanging out by himself in a luxury box. I have no idea why he was there, but I am very curious to see where they go with MVP. He has been one of the best performers on Smackdown recently and I would rather see him in the ring or hear him on the mic than just sitting watching the show. But, he has been on a losing streak recently, and if this is the start of something new for him, then I am all for it. I am at least hopeful. It is sad when the only good thing about a show is one of the top stars watching it.

SMACKDOWN MISSES

Finlay vs. Palumbo: This was boring. I enjoyed the first two matches between these two, but when Finlay came out I was hoping he wasn’t facing Chuck Palumbo again. I liked the first two, but that doesn’t mean that I wanted to see #3, at least not right away. The first two matches were intense, but this one wasn’t. Instead of fighting like they had previously, they both spent most of the match looking for weapons. The best part was when Palumbo avoided a shillelagh shot and kicked Finlay. That was the type of hard hitting action that was lacking from this match. Hornswoggle’s involvement doesn’t help when this is supposed to be a serious fight.

Return of Khali: I really thought he was going to be gone for longer than this. He supposedly had multiple commitments in India. He was going to have knee surgery. His knee was reportedly giving him major issues, and I can’t imagine he has had surgery and fully recovered. Why is he back? Who missed him? Who thought that the answer to Smackdown’s lower ratings is the Great Khali?

New Divas Title: Raw doesn’t have enough real women wrestlers to fill out their roster, and neither does Smackdown. Instead of introducing another women’s title, why not combine the two rosters? All the Divas who can wrestle should be moved to Smackdown, along with the Women’s Championship. The Divas who should just be eye candy should be moved to Raw, where they can have all the lingerie pillow fights they want. But, to introduce a Divas Title on Smackdown is lame. Plus, when Vickie Guerrero announced her Golden Dreams match, the Divas acted like they had just won the McMahon Million Dollar Mania, and yet they had no idea what a Golden Dreams match was. If they didn’t know what Vickie meant, then why were they so excited? I hope WWE has at least a nice surprise in store for who will be facing Natalya and that it won’t just be Michelle McCool.

Santino vs. Sal: This was a waste of time, not that I was expecting anything else. Sal at least didn’t look horrible in the ring, but this destroys the credibility of not only Santino, but also pro wrestling in general. It is apparently very easy for anyone to train for one week and win a match. Jimmy Kimmel (who I am a fan of) only had to do one thing, trip Santino, and he screwed that up. I wouldn’t have chosen to show that replay, but I guess the director felt otherwise. I did find the post match scene with Kimmel, Sal and the Big Show to be amusing, but I still would have rather had no involvement from Kimmel and Sal at all. On a show that is lacking in star power at the moment, wasting time like this isn’t the way to go to build new stars.

Main Event: This was a boring and ridiculous match. I am confused as to whether or not Batista won the #1 contendership for the World Heavyweight Championship. I thought Vickie said Batista would earn a title shot if he won, but at the end, the announcers were asking if this would help Batista earn a title shot. So, I am officially confused. Either way, I don’t understand Vickie’s plan. Why even give Batista any chance at Edge’s title? This is the problem with the heel GM character, and it is played out. We’ve seen it too often before. If I didn’t want Batista to ever get a title shot, and I was in charge, I wouldn’t even give him a slight opportunity. So if he did win the #1 contendership, Vickie is an idiot. If not, then why did La Familia look so upset afterwards? I’m still confused. The match itself was just way too redundant. It got a bit exciting at the very end, but that was too little too late after watching La Familia spend several minutes beating on Colin Delaney and Funaki.

Old Footage: Smackdown featured too many videos of old footage. It was light on original content, although considering that the original content that did air was bad, maybe this isn’t such a bad thing. I am fine with some of the footage, as it is important to show recaps from time to time, but not this much. The show started with a video of TLC from One Night Stand. They showed a recap of last week’s Finlay vs. Palumbo match. The Big Show showed footage of his match from One Night Stand. Then he got interrupted by Mark Henry who showed more footage of the same match! He also showed footage of Big Show’s injury. They showed the footage that we saw on Raw a few weeks ago of Ric Flair accepting an award on behalf of WWE. Seriously, that was from three weeks ago, why are they showing it on Smackdown now? They showed a recap of the Santino Marella and Cousin Sal feud. Plus, they showed the highlights of the Million Dollar Mania press conference from earlier in the week. That wasn’t old footage, but it wasn’t exactly original Smackdown content, now was it? Maybe my reaction to this is partly because this is the first Smackdown that I have watched “live” in a while, without being able to fast forward, but it really bugged me how little content actually aired for a two hour show.

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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