By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist




SMACKDOWN HITS

Jericho vs. Axel: This was a good match between Chris Jericho and Curtis Axel. It went about 11 minutes and featured good back and forth action. Paul Heyman added to the match doing guest commentary. I enjoyed this match better than either of Axel's matches against John Cena on Raw the last two weeks. The ending with CM Punk's music playing to distract Jericho allowing Axel to get a roll up win was a bit cheesy, particularly how easily fooled the announcers were when I think most of us knew that Punk wasn't actually there. But, it was still a good match. I understand why Jericho snapped afterwards, but WWE isn't exactly making Axel look strong.

Sandow - Sheamus: It was good to see WWE finally have Damian Sandow getting the better physically of Sheamus. This little feud had been so one sided that it was hard to even call it a feud. WWE finally realized that and had Sandow snap on Sheamus and hit him in the head with the microphone and then physically dominate him ramming his head into the table multiple times. I also enjoyed the segment up to that point. Hearing Sandow yell "silence!" at the super computer was ridiculously funny. It was bad that Cole called Sandow hitting Sheamus a cheap shot since Sheamus was standing face to face with him challenging him to a fight. Sheamus also does seem more heelish often in this. That is a bigger problem that WWE really has to address.

Rollins & Reigns vs. Orton & Bryan: Once again, The Shield was involved in a Hit worthy match. Which of course is far from a surprise. I just keep looking forward to seeing them wrestle on Raw and Smackdown each week. And it doesn't hurt that they are in big matches with guys like Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton. This match didn't go as long as the ones they've been involved in on Raw lately, but it was still good. It told the story, with help from JBL on commentary, of a great united team facing off against two great individual wrestlers who are not united. It was fun to watch. The back and forth "Yes!" kicks from Bryan to both Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins were the highlight of the match and the show. I am curious to see where they go with what happened afterwards with Orton RKOing Bryan. He got booed, but Bryan has been acting like a heel, so it didn't really seem like a heel turn other than the crowd reaction.

SMACKDOWN MISSES

Miz TV: As much as I have enjoyed Daniel Bryan in the ring over the last month or so and have loved to see and hear the huge pops he's been getting from the live crowds, I have also been worried about WWE positioning Bryan as the heel coming out of his team with Kane. That seemed to be the case once again on Miz TV. Bryan is getting cheers, but I would argue that he is acting like a heel character. The verbal sparring between him, Kane and Randy Orton with The Miz stirring the pot wasn't fun to watch. I also think that heels work better as talk show hosts like this than babyfaces. Miz came off like a heel, though that is pretty normal for him. This just points to the fact that WWE doesn't really know how to present babyfaces. This opening segment did set up the big main event, but I loved how Teddy Long said that he had no choice but to have Orton and Bryan team together to face The Shield. Really, just because Kane didn't want to be there, he had no choice?

Wasted Segment: Watching Smackdown on the DVR means you get to fast forward through commercials and any other content that you don't want to see. For me, that includes replays of things that happened earlier in the show, last week on Smackdown, or earlier this week on Raw. After Jericho vs. Axel, there was a segment (commercial to commercial) that was a total waste that I could fast forward through almost the entire segment. They talked about the theme music for Payback. They showed the first video of the Wyatt Family from the week before. It was a good video, but do we need to see it two weeks in a row when we will be seeing the new one later in the show? Then they did the Raw rebound. They previewed a match for Raw that Vince McMahon already has said won't happen, so it is hard to get excited about. Then the segment ended with Ricardo Rodriguez introducing Alberto Del Rio for a match against an unnamed opponent. That segment didn't make me want to stick around for more Smackdown after the commercial break.

Kane vs. Ryback: This match gave me bad flashbacks to some bad matches that Kane had against Batista back in the day. Kane has had plenty of good matches against certain opponents. Batista had plenty of good matches against certain opponents. They did not have good matches against each other. That is probably going to be the case with Kane and Ryback, at least if this match is any indication.

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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