By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

SMACKDOWN HITS

McIntyre's "Streak": When Drew McIntyre's undefeated streak (which didn't really exist as he had lost in a triple threat match. Seriously. He faced John Morrison and Kane in an Elimination Chamber qualifier. Morrison won. McIntyre was in a match which Morrison won. Therefore, he lost. He didn't win. He lost. Sorry, I had to rant about that as WWE isn't even bothering to say that McIntyre is undefeated in singles matches or that he hasn't been pinned or submitted. They continued to say he was undefeated which wasn't true) came to an end last week against Kane, McIntyre threw a fit and showed more emotion and fire in about 30 seconds than he had in his entire WWE career. I like the idea of continuing his push as Vince McMahon's chosen one by having McMahon expunge (great word) the loss from the record book. An obsession over his streak could be exactly what he needs as a performer to bring more personality to the table. It will be interesting to see how he reacts after losing to Matt Hardy in a solid MIB qualifier later in the show.

Benjamin vs. Ziggler: This match didn't last very long (4 or 5 minutes), but it was good while it lasted. Shelton Benjamin and Dolph Ziggler worked well together. They certainly could put on better matches if given more time. The match went back and forth nicely with neither in control for very long. The end of the match was a bit off as Ziggler didn't seem to quite know how to take Pay Dirt (by the way, I would love to see both of these guys with new finishers as they are similar to each other, and both look like crap). I liked the sequence leading up to the finish, but it was too bad that Ziggler fell the wrong way.

Gallows vs. Mysterio: This was easily the best that Festus/Luke Gallows has looked in the ring. I never was impressed with Festus back in the day. He does seem to have slimmed down which is good. He also showed a nice amount of in ring skill in this match against Rey Mysterio. I enjoyed it. It was a bit formulaic in terms of being a typical Mysterio match where he is dominated for most of the match, makes several aborted come back attempts, before finally getting the win despite the odds. It might be nice to see Mysterio in an enhancement match of his own every once in awhile, to show that despite his size and his ability to get wins despite taking a beating, that he can actually get strong wins too. But, that is a discussion for another time. This good match was bookended by the strong anti-Mysterio promo from CM Punk before hand, and the nice moment afterwards when Punk attempted to hit the GTS on Mysterio, only to have Mysterio one up Punk again. I'm really looking forward to Punk vs. Mysterio.

Edge Pins Big Show: Edge vs. The Big Show was thankfully kept fairly short. It was ok. It wasn't a Hit worthy match, but I won't give it a Miss either. The one thing that I particularly liked about it was seeing the #1 contender for the World Title pinning Big Show clean in the middle of the ring. WWE is doing a very good job of getting the spear over with the fans. This helped. They want the spear to be in the category of a Pedigree, or Sweet Chin Music, or an Attitude Adjuster, or an RKO where the fans see it and know that the match is over. Mission accomplished. In addition to just talking about it and making it a big deal, Edge used it to get the win over Show which makes him look strong heading towards WrestleMania.

SMACKDOWN MISSES

Opening Segment: Smackdown's opening didn't do much for me. WWE is doing a good job of getting the spear over with the crowd. They have accomplished getting the crowd to chant for Edge's finisher. When Edge starts to say that Chris Jericho is going to get a spear, the audience finishes the sentence which works well. However, Edge then starts going "spear, spear, spear, spear, spear, spear, spear....." which is really annoying to me. He sounds like a total goof in those promos. Have Edge start to say it, and the fans say it for him. He doesn't have to keep saying it. Moving on, the rest of the opening was ok at best. Edge was fine on the mic otherwise. Big Show was good for his part, but then WWE went the cheesy route with having Edge make fun of Show's bad breath. That's very cutting edge. It set up the main event and they announced that Show would be finding out his and Miz's opponents for WrestleMania, but they didn't say how those opponents would be determined so that wasn't exactly a hook for the rest of the show.

Jackson's Introduction: I have no problem getting a new wrestler over with squash matches similar to Ezekiel Jackson's win over Jimmy Wang Yang. I can also understand that when moving someone from ECW to Raw or Smackdown, you have to reestablish them with a larger audience. Unfortunately, I happen to be part of the audience that has seen Jackson in numerous squashes before, so it really didn't do anything for me. But, this Miss isn't so much for that. This Miss is actually for the fact that other than a brief video from two weeks ago, WWE didn't do anything else to reintroduce him to Smaackdown fans (he technically did start on Smackdown before moving to ECW). Jackson was the last ECW Champion. Why give him that Title victory over Christian if you are not going to capitalize on it. They didn't mention it. WWE fans know Christian, so make a big deal about how Jackson defeated him in an Extreme Rules match to become the final ECW Champ. This match could have been Vladimir Kozlov vs. Yang, or any new large wrestler's debut and it would have been treated exactly the same. I'm not a big Jackson fan. I really don't care if they make him out to be a big deal or not going forward. But, if you have him win that Title match against Christian, then you have to make it a big deal.

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

We suggest these recent related articles...

10/5 WWE Raw Hits & Misses: Natalya vs. Paige, Owens vs. Cara, Stephanie McMahon, Sasha Banks, Xavier Woods

COLLECTIBLES COLUMN: The History of Foam Hands in Pro Wrestling

9/28 WWE Raw Hits & Misses: Kane's Split Personality, Divas Revolution, Heyman & Big Show, Reigns vs. Wyatt