By Jon Mezzera, PWTorch Specialist

SMACKDOWN HITS

Seth Rollins: Seth Rollins continues to play the best heel in WWE. He is doing great work. I loved his promo talking about the triple threat WWE World Title match at The Royal Rumble. It takes a good heel to be so over the top in bragging about a match that he lost. I loved how he bragged about breaking Brock Lesnar's ribs and said that John Cena and The Undertaker can't say the same thing. His scripting is strong as are his performances. The open challenge part wasn't great. But it was good enough with Ryback, Erick Rowan and Dolph Ziggler coming out to get their hands on Rollins. J&J Security were able to run way too much interference for my tastes given the caliber of the three babyfaces they were fighting. But, it was still a good segment and presents some potential opponents for Rollins at Fastlane.

Rusev - Cena: Rusev is also playing a great heel right now. Lana has always been good since their debut last year, but Rusev has shown a lot of improvement on the mic. He was good here in ranting about being angry over being the last man eliminated in the Rumble. I liked how Lana was so upset that she started ranting in Russian. This was very well done. He targeted John Cena and his disappointment over having to face him at Fastlane. Cena was good for the most part in his interruption. I didn't like some of his groan inducing ho jokes. But, he was serious and intense in trying to get Rusev to fight him right then and there. The fact that Lana stopped Rusev from fighting was a good touch. Heels should back down from fair fights like this. But, I don't think the United States Championship is on the line. Is it? I don't think they called it a Title match, yet afterwards Cena said he would say "the Champ is here!" Are they trying to make it seem like the Title is on the line, even though it won't be? I wish the US Title was on the line. It should be. But, it was still a good verbal encounter that built anticipation for their match at Fastlane.

Kane vs. Bryan: This was a good casket match main event for Smackdown. WWE did a nice job of building to this match throughout the show. Kane had a solid promo early in the show and they cut to Kane by the casket multiple times and had the announcers talk about it and how special it is to have a casket match on Smackdown. This is a gimmick match that hasn't been done much lately with Undertaker being semi-retired for the past several years. So, that did make it seem like a bigger deal than just a steel cage match for instance. Kane and Daniel Bryan do work well together. The match probably went on a bit too long. It was over 20 minutes and had two commercial breaks which is annoying. I would have rather seen a 15 minute main event with one commercial. But, it was still a good match. I liked some of the clever ways they used the casket like when Bryan applied the Yes! Lock in the casket. It built well nicely to Bryan knocking Kane into the casket with his running knee for the win.

SMACKDOWN MISSES

Opening Segment: If Triple H is a heel, which he is, then why is he in the role of WWE cheerleader? He came out to talk about how WWE Network has reached a million subscribers, how despite the weather they still put on a show for Raw and how they are putting on a show for Smackdown. It was all rah-rah stuff that WWE fans should cheer. However, why should we cheer for anything that Triple H says? He is a bad guy. He fired Ziggler, Ryback and Rowan for no reason. He has tormented Bryan. This shows why having the authority figures being heels is a mistake. Triple H went on to make some lame deflategate jokes about balls. He also talked a lot about how the Royal Rumble was full of controversy. But from a kayfabe standpoint, what was the controversy? There is a behind the scenes issue with the fans rejecting the storyline of Roman Reigns winning instead of Bryan (or even Ziggler or Dean Ambrose). But, on camera what was controversial? The guys who cheated lost. Bryan was eliminated fair and square. I don't get what he is talking about. He did provide a big hook for Raw in terms of his big earth shattering announcement (I'd love to see Bryan vs. Lesnar at Fastlane be that announcement). But, I'm not a fan of this backstage talk. I didn't like how they acknowledged on Raw that some fans see Reigns as being the chosen one. In the storyline, Seth Rollins is the chosen one by The Authority. Triple H is against Reigns. So, why are they talking about this stuff? It makes no sense. Reigns was good for his part in coming to interrupt. But it didn't help much at that point.

Reigns vs. Show: This was a boring match. Reigns isn't going to get more over with the fans by putting on lackluster matches like this where he reinforces the negative view of his in ring work by doing such a limited move set, mostly just a series of punches and clotheslines. He doesn't seem to be working on his game. I don't see how anyone can think that he is ready to be the top star in the company. He has a lot of improving to do before he is at that level.

The Announcers: I continue to not be a fan of this trio of announcers with Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler and Byron Saxton. They did not do a good job this week. Part of the problem is their scripting and what they have to work with. But, they could do a much better job. One example is that before The Ascension vs. The Dust Brothers, Goldust and Stardust were arguing over who should start the match. It went back and forth for a minute with neither of them wanting to get out of the ring. This was part of a story that they were trying to tell which started at the Royal Rumble and continued at the end of their match when Goldust got upset over Stardust tagging himself into the match, which cost them the win. But, the announcers never once pointed out the obvious tension between the brothers before the match. Just pay attention and do your job.

Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's WWE Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw and Smackdown each week. Email him at his NEW email address - jmezz_torch@yahoo.com.

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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