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Hits & Misses
HITS & MISSES - 3/21 WWE Smackdown: Show Opening with Kane, Sandow vs. Ziggler, MizTV, Tag Team Situation

Mar 24, 2014 - 5:40:11 PM
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By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

SMACKDOWN HITS

Ziggler vs. Sandow: WWE seems to be once again getting behind Dolph Ziggler with a string of recent victories. This was a good match between him and Damian Sandow. I don't like what has happened to Sandow since he won the Money in the Bank ladder match last summer. However, at least the announcers did a nice job of talking about his recent losses. They discussed Ziggler's recent slump that he has been pulling out of in contrast to the current slump that Sandow wants to pull himself out of. It was good analysis. And it was a good match. Unfortunately, it was the only good thing on an otherwise bad show.

SMACKDOWN MISSES

Opening Segment: I'm just not a big fan of the corporate Kane gimmick. So, I'm not a big fan of having Kane come out and do a long solo talking segment. This made Smackdown feel like the B show when much of the opening segment was the replay of Raw's closing segment. Yes, that was a good segment and I understand the desire to show it again, though I wasn't a fan of showing such a long clip right at the start of Smackdown. Kane's promo was fine, but did nothing to get me excited for the rest of the show. It was too much focus on a situation that Kane himself isn't involved in physically. They didn't do much to hype the rest of the show and the big hook to stay tuned after the first commercial break was Fandango vs. Fernando. It was not a good start.

Tag Team Situation: While there were some good parts of the fatal fourway Tag Team Championship #1 contender match, it didn't quite add up to a Hit. What I didn't understand was why was a team like 3MB even in the match to begin with? When was the last time they had a match on Raw or Smackdown? When was the last time they won a match? Why did they deserve an opportunity to become the #1 contenders? I have been (along with many people) assuming we would get a fatal fourway Tag Title match at WrestleMania. Now it appears it will be a triple threat with The Usos defending against The Real Americans and Rybaxel. The Real Americans make sense, but Rybaxel hasn't been positioned as a strong team lately. I expected that The New Age Outlaws would be part of that match since they never got their rematch, but that can be saved I suppose. And I would have liked to see The Rhodes Brothers in this match instead of the lame battle royal. They deserve more of a singular spotlight than that as far as I'm concerned, though I could say the same about some of the singles wrestlers in the battle royal like Sheamus and Christian. The Outlaws instead will likely team up with Kane vs. The Shield. Kane made a deal with the other teams in the match to keep The Shield from winning. But, if The Authority doesn't want The Shield to become the #1 contenders, why did they put them in the match in the first place? What if Dean Ambrose had gotten a quick win early in the match? That is bad writing. And why can every other wrestler including The Miz on this show just name themselves as part of the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, yet 3MB had to be put in the match by Kane? And while The Outlaws make sense to work with Kane given their connection with The Authority's Triple H, the match itself doesn't get me that excited. I was hoping for something better for The Shield at WM, but at least they aren't in the battle royal.

MizTV: The Miz's character doesn't seem well defined to me at this point. I guess he's a heel for making fun of The Big Show's many WM losses. Either way, this segment did nothing for me. It was too random a mix of wrestlers who will be part of the battle royal at WM. I guess they were trying to prove something, by taking part in this mock-battle royal fight, but it didn't mean anything. It was trying to preview the battle royal, but in doing so they made it seem like it was going to be very quick with rapid fire eliminations and that nobody can stop Big Show. I'm sure they are building up Show as the dominant force so that when Alexander Rusev eliminates him to win the battle royal he will look really impressive, but that didn't make me want to see the match any more than I did before.

Big E vs. Del Rio: I don't understand jobbing the Intercontinental Champion in under 3 minutes in any circumstances. That didn't make Alberto Del Rio look strong. It made Big E look weak. He doesn't have any program going, so maybe they are trying to spark one against Del Rio, but I am so sick and tired of these random non-Title matches leading to future Title matches. It is especially annoying when the Champion loses in such a short match. It makes no sense to me.

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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