By Jon Mezzera, PWTorch Specialist

SMACKDOWN HITS

Edge, Bryan, and Kane: I enjoyed the opening segment of Smackdown with the surprise return of Edge. WWE had to stretch a little to have a purpose for him beyond the plug of his appearance on "Haven" after Smackdown, but it worked well with him commenting on the Daniel Bryan - Kane situation. All three performed their parts very well, from Edge trying to figure out what is going on, to Bryan trying to control his anger, to Kane inviting Edge to hug it out. The facial reactions were spot on. It was very entertaining. I liked the interruption from Damian Sandow as his promo was very good. I just love the way he words things like calling Smackdown a "serial." That was great. It also set up a post-commercial break match.

Orton & Sheamus vs. Del Rio & Ziggler: I didn't like that this wasn't the main event. What did Booker T have in mind for the main event before the impromptu main event eventually came about? I don't really see where WWE is going with the World Title picture. They have more time between PPVs this time than usual, so I don't mind that. I like the fact that it appears that they are going to take their time and build to a World Title match. I also like the fact that at least for now it looks like it won't be Alberto Del Rio facing Sheamus again. If I didn't know that Randy Orton was about to leave to film a movie, I would think they might set up something between him and Sheamus after they teamed together here. The match itself was good. It wasn't long enough with this type of star power for my tastes and I wasn't thrilled with Dolph Ziggler taking the loss as he needs to be protected more as Mr. Money in the Bank, but the match was still good enough to get a marginal Hit.

SMACKDOWN MISSES

The Kane & Bryan Show: Smackdown could have had a different title this week. I don't mind an angle getting a lot of focus on an episode of Raw or Smackdown, but by the end of the show, the incredible amount of air time given to Daniel Bryan and Kane was over kill. While I did enjoy most of the segments individually, when you add them up, it came out to a Miss. As I said above, the opening segment was great. Kane vs. Sandow was a squash until Sandow picked up the cheap win after Bryan's distraction. It was ok. After the next commercial though, we had another scene, this one a backstage segment between Kane and Bryan with Dr. Shelby. That was at least the first 30 minutes of the show devoted entirely to these two. That would have been fine, but there was much more to come! Next we saw Bryan face Cody Rhodes. This was very predictable with Kane costing Bryan the match. I was disappointed that we only saw 2 minutes of a match before that. That would be ok if it didn't look like Bryan was on the verge of victory when Kane interrupted. It should take longer than 2 minutes to have a wrestler the caliber of Cody Rhodes in position to tap out as he was here. And, there was more to come. I liked the argument between Kane and Bryan, though not as much as the first one (see law of diminishing returns). It set up a tag match, for even more content with these two. This could have played out over at least 3 weeks, but instead it all happened in one night! The tag match against Rhodes & Sandow was short, but fine. I liked the moment where Bryan went to hit Rhodes with a chair, only to stop and give the chair to Kane to hit him instead. That was great, but it should have happened next week at the earliest. Then came the repeated chair shots to Sandow and the tag teams who were watching at ringside and it got uncomfortable to watch. They went from silly humor (which works for them for the most part), to this sadistic use of chairs all in one show. Again, it would feel different if it were stretched out over a few weeks.

Cesaro Dumps Aksana: I'm not a fan of the relationship between Antonio Cesaro and Aksana, but that doesn't mean I wanted to see them break up. This felt like it came out of left field. WWE has done this too many times in the past and it doesn't work. They haven't allowed this duo to fully be established with the fans before they break them up. They have to do a better job of building them up before breaking them up. I get that they probably want Cesaro to look like a total jerk who is obsessed with winning to the point where he would do what he did after she accidentally cost him his match, and they might be setting up a relationship between her and Santino Marella (or his cobra). That does make some sense, but you have to have more patience than this and you have to do a storyline leading up to it.

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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