By Jon Mezzera, PWTorch specialist

SMACKDOWN HITS

Santino vs. Rodriguez: I have to admit that I found this funny. It wasn't hilarious, but I chuckled numerous times during this "match" between Santino Marella and Ricardo Rodriguez. I loved how Rodriguez announced himself. The bit with the crisscross was funny. I'm not sure what the point of this was. It was really a waste of time. But, it made me laugh on an otherwise pretty poor show, so I am giving it a marginal Hit.

Sheamus vs. Swagger: This was the only highlight in terms of quality wrestling on this show. Sheamus had a solid promo before hand with his non-apology to John Laurinaitis. The match itself was good. Sheamus and Jack Swagger worked well together. I would have liked to see the match go longer, but at a bit over 10 minutes, it was long enough to give the quality wrestling, while also keeping Sheamus looking strong for not taking longer to defeat Swagger. Sheamus did look strong in being able to fight back from the focus on this ankle to get the win. The only problem was the praise that Vickie Guerrero got from all three announcers, heel and babyface, for distracting Sheamus to allow Swagger to get the upper hand. Booker T should not be calling that a great tactic and Josh Mathews should be upset by the distraction.

Damien Sandow: I am really enjoying Sandow's act. It is well written and he is performing it very well. From his entrance music to his ring attire to his mannerisms to his promos to his celebratory cartwheel after winning his match, he is very entertaining. I love the little things like the way he holds the microphone like it is a glass of fine wine. He responded well to the heckling from the crowd. I want to see more from him in the upcoming weeks.

SMACKDOWN MISSES

Opening Segment: I didn't enjoy the start of Smackdown. After an overly long video recap to start the show of the poor Laurinaitis / John Cena / Big Show crap from the PPV, the opening continued poorly with the talking segment, starting with Eve's announcement that she would make Sheamus apologize for running into Laurinaitis on Raw. Didn't we just go through a babyface having to apologize to Laurinaitis? That didn't make for good tv with Big Show, and I doubt it will make for good tv with Sheamus. I wasn't looking forward to that later in the show. Then, came the succession of three Superstars asking for the next World Title match and Eve making a triple threat # 1 contender match between Randy Orton, Alberto Del Rio, and Kane. That didn't get me excited for the rest of the show either. It was clear Del Rio would be the challenger, so I knew right away that at some point Orton would RKO Kane, and that Del Rio would throw him out of the ring and pick up the scraps by pinning Kane. That is the only way WWE ever books these matches. So, the opening segment failed to do its primary goal, which is to make fans want to watch the rest of the show. Plus, the segment wasn't entertaining. None of the mic work was good. None of them made a strong case for himself. Afterwards, Booker T said that they all made a strong case. Kane's entire argument for deserving to be #1 contender is that he is the Devil's favorite demon, and this was episode #666. How was that a strong case? The sad thing is, that was probably a stronger case than either Orton or Del Rio made.

Rhodes's Promo: I want to like Cody Rhodes' promo to Christian about wanting his Intercontinental Championship back. I like the focus on the Title. I liked the actual delivery of the promo by Rhodes. However, the problem here is that a heel should not equate himself with all time greats like Shawn Michaels and Randy Savage without being called out on it by someone, either one of the announcers, or since they are terrible and don't understand the basics of their job, Christian himself. Without it, Rhodes came across as if he were as good as Michaels or Savage. Obviously, you want Rhodes to become a bigger star and having him mention those big stars might help. But, heels shouldn't tell the truth. Heels should come across like they are bragging and talking themselves up more than they deserve. That is how they get heat on themselves. Someone should have questioned his statement. Now, maybe that is coming. So, for now I will call this a tentative Miss.

O'Neil & Young: I'm just not a fan of these guys. They do a decent job of being annoying which is what they are trying to do, but they just aren't good in the ring. Darren Young is better than Titus O'Neil, but that isn't saying much as O'Neil is very bad. He looks poor punching a guy. With so much potential talent in FCW, and so much wasted talent on the current roster, I don't know what WWE officials see in these guys to push them over anyone. I give them credit for actually hitting a double team move without it looking terrible this week, but it is still a weak looking finisher.

Kane vs. Orton vs. Del Rio: I had mixed feelings about Daniel Bryan attacking Kane with a chair before the main event. It was unexpected. It was well executed. However, I'm not a fan of Kane's involvement in the Bryan vs. CM Punk feud, so I didn't want it to continue. Plus, after taking that many chair shots, nobody - even Kane - should be able to compete in the ring. He didn't sell the effects of that viscous attack. Hell, Ricardo Rodriguez was doing a better job selling the Cobra from much earlier in the show. If Kane was going to still be in the match, the pre-match attack could have been played better during the match itself. The match otherwise was uninspired. The action was solid, but the outcome as I pointed out above was predictable (it is fine that Del Rio won despite being the obvious winner, the problem was the manner in which he won). The Bryan distractions were distracting from the quality of the match. It wasn't a good match. Plus, why was Booker upset over Bryan's involvement distracting Kane, but he thought Vickie Guerrero was brilliant for distracting Sheamus? A little consistency would be nice.

The Announcers: I've mentioned the poor announcing multiple times to not give them a Miss. I don't have much to add, other than to say that they need to better define their roles. Who is the play-by-play announcer? Who are the color commentators? Who is a heel? Who is a babyface? Why are all three saying good things about Ryback? Why are they all talking up O'Niel & Young? If Ryback is a babyface, Michael Cole the heel can talk him up by pointing out how impressive he is, but still bad mouth him in some way. If O'Niel & Young are heels, then the babyface Booker or Mathews can say that they look good in the ring, but are too arrogant, or something. They just suck at their jobs.

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

[Torch art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch.com]

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