By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

SMACKDOWN HITS

Ryback vs. Bryan: I enjoyed the start of Smackdown with the match between Ryback and Daniel Bryan. The match went over 12 minutes and was one of Ryback's better matches. Sometimes I have issues with the #1 contender to the WWE Title having longer matches where he has to sell this much in the build up to his Title opportunity. You want Ryback, especially as a heel, to look like a major threat to the WWE Champion John Cena. However, Bryan is well established at this point as a threat in the ring given his status as a former World Champion and current Tag Team Champion, so it made sense that he would be a test for Ryback. And it was a good match, so I won't complain.

Shield Beats Down Bryan: This was a short moment on the show, but a good one. It was effective how WWE had the audio of The Shield beating up somebody without showing it. Then, after a strong promo talking about what they did to The Undertaker last week and what they were going to do to Kane this week, they put the camera down as they always do to reveal that it was Daniel Bryan whom they had beat up. It was predictable, but still well executed and effectively set up Kane being on his own in the main event.

Kane vs. Ambrose: After that strong set up for the main event, Kane and Dean Ambrose had a solid match. It wasn't great, but good enough to get a Hit. I liked how Kane took out Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns before the match to try to even the odds. The Shield is strong, but booked to be strongest as a trio and vulnerable on their own, so this fit in well with how they have been presented. Kane was able to dominate Ambrose early on, but struggled later once Rollins and Reigns had recovered and could get involved in the match again. I'm not sure about Ambrose's bulldog-like finisher, but it is good for him to establish a finisher on his own. I also liked the fire Kane showed after the match in challenging The Shield to come back into the ring. It was a strong finish with The Shield once again standing tall over a vanquished foe to end the show and they are effectively building up the group as a major threat to Team Hell No's Tag Team Championship.

SMACKDOWN MISSES

Del Rio / Swagger / Ziggler / Etc. Saga: From the backstage interviews to the series of matches involving Alberto Del Rio, Ricardo Rodriguez, Jack Swagger, Zeb Coulter, Dolph Ziggler, and Big E Langston, this Smackdown saga just seemed to go on forever and I wasn't really interested in anything WWE did with these guys throughout the show. I was bored with it by the end. And that ending was Ziggler tapping out once again making the World Champion look weak.

Arm Wrestling Contest: In my Raw Hits & Misses, I gave a Miss to the Tug of War contests that Mark Henry participated in. In that Miss I said that you can add Tug of War to a list of the types of non-wrestling contests that I don't want to see on a wrestling show like dance contests and arm wrestling contests. I guess I should have seen this coming after Raw that they would have Henry have an arm wrestling contest against Sheamus. I get what WWE is going here. They are telling the story that Sheamus can't compete with Henry in terms of strength, so he has to find a way to out think him. He has to have a strategy. That's fine. My problem is that he has been acting as a heel. John Bradshaw Layfield was correct in pointing out that it was wrong for him to cheap shot Henry after he couldn't beat him at arm wrestling.

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.

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