By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

SMACKDOWN HITS

Grisham & Striker: I hated last week's episode of Smackdown. I didn't like this week's either, but at least the re-teaming of Todd Grisham and Matt Striker was a Hit when last week there were none. I loved these guys as the ECW commentators and was upset when WWE broke up the team to move Grisham to Smackdown to work with Jim Ross. Now, it is nice to have them back together as the Smackdown team at least until Ross is able to return from his health issues. I particularly enjoyed listening to them during the first match, Dolph Ziggler vs. John Morrison (a decent, but not quite good enough to get a Hit match). I liked the banter back and forth as Striker criticized Morrison for posing saying that when he was a wrestler he never posed, and Grisham shot back that it was because he was always flat on his back. They work well together and I look forward to seeing them regain their chemistry and to seeing Striker on a bigger stage each week.

SMACKDOWN MISSES

Mysterio - Batista: I wanted to be able to give this a Hit, but I can't. I really like the idea of turning Batista heel at this point. And I know it is a good idea to make it seem like a huge deal. Yet, for some reason it felt like over kill when they kept playing parts of the video of him turning at the PPV over and over again throughout the first half of the show. It got annoying after awhile. Both Rey Mysterio and Batista delivered their lines well. Neither is a great talker, but they were solid here. The actual script was just ok. There were some nice moments like when Mysterio started to leave the ring only to refuse and continue to talk to Batista. However, it bothered me that they brought up Eddie Guerrero. I'm not saying that it was offensive, but it felt forced and out of place. It wasn't needed and there were some who probably felt that it was offensive. This angle got off to a good start at Bragging Rights and has a chance to be quite good. But, there was a bit of a slip here.

McIntyre - Finlay: I see some potential in Drew McIntyre and I like that he has gotten a decent push so far. However, when he attacked Finlay before their match even started, it reminded me of how his feud with R-Truth started. In fact, it was practically the same. Is every feud of his going to start with him attacking his opponent before their first match has a chance to start? Come up with something different.

Costume Contest: This was just a waste of time. I did like Layla's Michael Jackson impression. She really should have won. I'm just so sick and tired of these types of segments with the Divas. We've seen them so many times over the years. It always is the same. WWE likes to start Divas feuds based on the losers of dance, costume, swim suit, etc. contests being upset at the winners. Great writing. On a bit of a side note, Natalya tried to clothesline Mickie James, but she ducked. Then, after totally missing her, Natalya accelerated to "accidentally" clothesline one of the other Divas (don't recall which one). That just looked bad.

Punk vs. Armstrong: I'm not sure what this does for CM Punk other than make him look like a bully. But, I'm not sure that he's really a bully heel. I was disappointed that the announcers didn't even mention that Scott Armstrong was a retired wrestler. I kept thinking about the cheesy TNA storyline with referee Shane Sewell from last year as Armstrong fired back early on. I'm seldom (if ever) a fan of getting a referee involved in a storyline like this. Again, I saw this as a waste of time.

Jericho vs. Kane: This Miss isn't just for the match itself, which was ok, but for the idea of the match. I hate it when Teddy Long decides to do the same exact thing as Raw, and this was particularly bad since he outright said that he was making a triple threat for the World Title at Survivor Series since Raw is doing one. Way to be original Smackdown. As I said, the match itself was ok, but I didn't care about the outcome as it was very predictable that Chris Jericho would win. Also, unless I missed something, Kane and Jericho are both heels. The crowd certainly never seemed that into the action, since they didn't really want either wrestler to win. I guess they probably wanted Kane just because they hate Jericho more, but it wasn't a strong babyface vs. heel match-up.

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.

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