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SMACKDOWN HITS

Big Show Feel: This was a hard show to analyze as there was so much going on and so many good and bad moments, sometimes even in the same segment. But, I will start by saying that WWE did a great job of giving this show a big time special feel. From the opening montage, to the new opening video and song, to having Jim Ross and Todd Grisham introduce the show from the ring instead of the announce table (a small change that added to that big night feel), the first few minutes of Smackdown gave the impression that this was going to be a big show. They reinforced that throughout the night with special Smackdown moments, the appearance by The Rock, the Eddie Guerrero tribute, and the special guests and the party.

Party (the good): Speaking of the party, there both good and bad in the party scenes, and as I mentioned above, sometimes good and bad in individual party scenes. It started off well with the first scene as Teddy Long went from happy to distraught as he greeted people, was interrupted by CM Punk and then Vickie Guerrero (Excuse Me!) and her new man Eric Escobar. That was all pretty good, including Michael Cole starting his drinking and getting in a "vintage" line. There was quite a bit of crap following that scene. But, the party had a strong ending with the fight between Drew McIntyre (who gave a good toast) and R-Truth to continue that feud.

Morrison & Kingston vs. Ziggler & Miz: This was a good tag team match which hyped two PPV matches, the Intercontinental Title match and the US Title match. It was interesting to watch Jack Swagger abruptly end his guest announcing to focus on watching the match. It was also interesting to watch Miz and John Morrison square off against each other to start things off. But, was it necessary to have their first physical confrontation in a throw away tag match on Smackdown? The match had good wrestling action and was fun to watch. I liked how Miz and Dolph Ziggler attempted the old Miz & Morrison slingshot double team move, but it would have been nice to hear the announcers acknowledge it. There were a few questions about the match, but a particularly strong ending helped carry it into the Hit column.

The Rock: It was great to see The Rock back on Smackdown, even if it was just in a pre-taped promo. The opening of the video as Rock tried to come up with the right words was very funny. He even got in the amusing "who in the blue hell is Dolph Ziggler?" line. Then, once he went into full Rock mode it was very fun and nostalgic to watch. I particularly liked when he talked up the Undertaker and accidentally said that he had beaten him up many times, only to correct himself and try to get the director to edit that part out. That was a clever way to get in another classic Rock catch phrase, "it doesn't matter what you think!" Too bad it wasn't the Coach. And of course, he teased a future guest host gig for Raw which will be a lot of fun.

8 Man Tag: There sure was a hell of a lot of star power in the main event with Triple H, Shawn Michaels, John Cena and Undertaker taking on Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes, Ted DiBiase and CM Punk. It was a good final sell for the three biggest matches at Hell in a Cell. I really liked the interaction between Michaels and Undertaker early on. I was actually thinking about and wondering if they would acknowledge their WrestleMania masterpiece, and was delighted how they handled it. There was a lot of good wrestling action in the long match. It was good to see them given 20 plus minutes considering the number of top wrestlers in the match. I didn't like how Triple H dominated Punk. But, the ending sequence with the babyfaces hitting their finishers on all their opponents was pretty good.

SMACKDOWN MISSES

Batista vs. Kane: I don't think too many fans were clamoring for this match once Batista shifted to Smackdown. There were a few nice spots, like when Batista shoved Kane out of the ring to escape an arm lock, and the double big boot, but it wasn't good otherwise. What was Batista going for when he leaped off the top rope? He occasionally does a flying shoulder from the top, but that wasn't it as he was caught for a chokeslam attempt. Did anyone not see the ending coming a mile away as soon as Kane started to mount Batista in the corner? Kane never does that move, but he conveniently does it here so Batista can have him in the position for the Batista bomb. The only other opponent Kane would ever mount in the corner like that is Undertaker to set up the Last Ride. After two weeks of making a big deal about how Kane had not been pinned or submitted since his return to Smackdown, he was pinned and they didn't make a big deal out of it. Also, this was hardly a good way to hype Batista's PPV match.

Party (the bad): I know I said in my Hit for the good part of the party above that I liked Cole's first "vintage" line. However, it got less funny each time he said it. I like bringing back old stars from Smackdown, but I'm not sure why they brought back really old stars like Sgt. Slaughter and the Iron Sheik who had nothing to do with Smackdown. The scene where Cole threw up on Chris Jericho causing him to make a goofy face and Big Show to throw up also was really bad. It was a total waste of Jeri-Show.

Lumberjill Match: This was bad from top to bottom. I didn't like how Jim Ross interrupted Todd Grisham's attempt to name all the Divas at ringside and told him just to say the generic tag line they've been using for the Divas lately. That reinforced the notion that this is a group of hot women, not individual women wrestlers. The match itself was way too short for a Title match that has been brewing for a long time. Michelle McCool and Melina deserve better than that. And to top it all off, it just seemed random that Jillian Hall and Beth Phoenix from Raw would get involved in a Smackdown match like this. Sure, Phoenix and Melina had history on Raw, but it seemed like a pure heel cheating for the sake of being a heel booking. It was bad.

Notably Missing: While watching Smackdown I was aware of three names that seemed to be missing from the celebration. The first name was Edge. The more I thought about it though, the more I decided that it was actually a good idea to keep Edge off of tv until his eventual return. He has been a big part of Smackdown over the years, but it would have been a mistake to feature him at this point. The second name isn't a big one, but it would have been nice to see Ron Simmons at the party. If they had Joey Styles there (yes, I know he still works for the company) to say "Oh My God!", couldn't they have had Simmons on at some point, with all the party stuff to say "Damn!"? The third name which to me was the biggest shame of them all was John Bradshaw Layfield. He still has a good relationship with WWE. I think he still has a WWE Universe blog (not totally sure about that). JBL was a HUGE part of Smackdown as both a wrestler and an announcer. I don't recall seeing him in the video package that started the show, but with so many clips it is possible I missed him. He should have been on in some capacity. And now as I am writing this, I realize that Vince McMahon wasn't on. He has been recently, and I can understand not wanting him on, but maybe he could have welcomed the viewers to the celebration in the ring at the beginning instead of the announcers. There are probably other notables who were missing, but those were the ones who popped into my mind. Any others? Feel free to add in the comments section.

Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's WWE Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw, Smackdown, ECW, and Superstars 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.

[The Miz art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch]

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