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SMACKDOWN HITS

Hit & Run Accident: This is a marginal Hit. WWE is doing better in not blurring the lines between the storyline and the real world here as opposed to the fake news story of Jeff Hardy being found unconscious in a hotel stairwell. That is a plus. It was all obviously staged in this case and nobody would believe the story were true once they actually looked at it. Another plus is that they didn't leave people thinking Hardy was hurt. They said upfront that he and his girlfriend were fine. Also, something had to be done to further the stairwell angle. That just hadn't been developed much sense Survivor Series and this appears to be another step which is good. The actual footage was cheesy, especially the cell phone camera video. That was terrible. WWE has to walk a fine line with this angle. After all, whoever ran them off the road could be charged with reckless driving at the least, attempted homicide at the worst. So we will have to see how things proceed from here. I didn't love it, but it still worked well enough to get a Hit.

Benjamin vs. Undertaker: This was a good 12 minute match. Despite the loss, Shelton Benjamin looked strong in dishing out so much punishment on the Undertaker. There was plenty of nice wrestling action. Benjamin looked good in working over Undertaker's knee. The match told a story, but never got boring. I was surprised when Benjamin kicked out of a chokeslam. We've seen Undertaker pin many people after that move, and I assumed the Gold Standard would be another. I'm glad that he wasn't. The one thing that got on my nerves was Jim Ross and Tazz continually talking about Benjamin's great athleticism. He is a great athlete. But, that was the company line on him when he was underachieving for a few years. He has been the United Stated Champion for several months and has many victories over good competitors in that run. Why not say he's a great wrestler at this point? He is being treated as one.

Tag Title Match: Other than the woeful way that this match was promoted (as in it wasn't promoted at all), there wasn't anything wrong with this match. Sure, it could have gone longer, but at 6 minutes it wasn't too short. It had good back and forth action. Ezekiel Jackson looks strong, but it was good to see Primo & Carlito getting some offense on him as well as The Brian Kendrick. Kendrick looked good in the ring as usual. When he rolled up Carlito at the end I thought for sure there would be new Tag Team Champs. Instead, Carlito surprisingly kicked out and hit the Back Stabber for the win. The little surprise made the match more interesting. I Have enjoyed this feud, and wish WWE would invest more time in it.

Triple Jeopardy (the good): There was both good and bad in Triple H's Triple Jeopardy. Since it was the theme for Smackdown this week, I feel I should address it this way. The format of the match series was good. I liked that the matches were spread out through the show, instead of one after another. I also liked that Triple H was going to have to be in three matches, win or lose as opposed to a regular gauntlet match. Triple H vs. John Morrison in a Tables match was solid. I wouldn't have minded seeing a longer match, but it was good while it lasted. Morrison didn't get buried with the loss. The aftermath with Chavo Guerrero throwing Triple H through the table was good too. The Big Show was the right choice for the Last Man Standing match. The match itself was solid. Triple H did a nice job of favoring his injured arm. Show did a good job with his methodical offense. It was also nice to see Triple H lose in the end. A win would have been way too unbelievable under the circumstances, but I wouldn't put it past WWE. Vickie got her revenge, and it also set up a possible subplot in the Royal Rumble between Triple H and Big Show.

SMACKDOWN MISSES

Kozlov Video: I don't know what the point of this video was. We already know Vladimir Kozlov. This seemed more like a video to introduce a new wrestler. I guess this is better than having him give a promo demanding more competition, but it still seemed like a waste of time. He is undefeated (at least by WWE standards). He has wrestled for the WWE Title. He was just on squashing Hurricane Helms last week. I just don't see the point of the video.

Boogeyman: The VIP Lounge was pretty good this week. Montel Vontavious Porter should be commended for how well he is playing his part as of late. I'm still not a fan of this angle on the whole, and if Mr. Kennedy won't be able to wrestle for at least two more months, then I don't see an end in sight. But, I did like MVP's performance and the idea that his furniture would get repossessed was funny. But, why involve the Boogeyman? He gets no reaction from the crowd, unless I'm missing it as it sounds like dead silence every time he appears. He ruined an otherwise fun segment.

Follow Up on The Big Show: Last week, during the main event, the Big Show walked out on his partner Edge. It was an interesting moment that had some roots early in the show when he and Edge argued a bit. But, it didn't seem totally motivated. I was hoping for some type of follow up. I wanted to see Edge confront Big Show about it. I wanted to hear Big Show's reason for leaving. Instead, it was totally ignored which sucks. And speaking of totally ignoring things, several weeks ago there was a strange video interruption from some cult like guy talking about darkness and other weird things. Whatever happened to that guy?

Triple Jeopardy (the bad): Things weren't all great in Triple Jeopardy. I don't understand why if Vickie Guerrero was making the matches, Chavo and The Miz had to tag in and out during their handicap match with Triple H. If I were her (and hopefully some day I will run Smackdown) I would have had them both in the ring at the same time. They were doing a good job of double teaming the Game, so why did Chavo decide to leave? That didn't make much sense and made me think more about the gapping hole from last week mentioned above. The Last Man Standing match did drag some in the middle. It was pretty slow. Despite taking the loss, Triple H still probably got in more offense than is believable. He has to in order to get the crowd into it, but still. I was particularly turned off by his super human "bring it" motions after taking a beating. That was too "I'm Triple H and I'm a bad ass" for me.

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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