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Hits & Misses
HITS & MISSES - 4/2 WWE Smackdown: Rollins - Orton, Cena - Rusev, Ambrose vs. Harper, Sheamus vs. Bryan, Two-Minute Divas match, more

Apr 3, 2015 - 6:30:04 PM
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By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

SMACKDOWN HITS

Opening Segment: Smackdown got off to a good start with a nice recap of the major happenings on Raw leading to Brock Lesnar's suspension. Seth Rollins and his Authority goons came out to gloat. Rollins was great here. He continues to shine on the mic in such a heelish smarmy way. Randy Orton was good in his interruption. Orton vs. Rollins in the Extreme Rules main event feels like a big match. WWE is definitely right in going that direction at this point to follow up on their very good WrestleMania match. I hope that it doesn't turn into a triple threat match with Roman Reigns getting involved (not so much because of Reigns, but just because I don't want to see another triple threat title match). Everyone played their parts well here and it was a good way to start the show.

Orton vs. Big Show: That segment set up the opening match of Orton vs. The Big Show. This didn't turn out to be much of a match as J&J Security and Kane got involved about a minute into it. But, I'm not sure I really needed to see more of it. It was fine while it lasted, but the point was to have The Authority trying to take out Orton, so the match itself was secondary. The segment worked on that level. Orton got to show fire despite being greatly out numbered and it set up Ryback to make the save. Ryback has been getting good reactions lately. I'm not sure how much of it is the fans really buying into Ryback and how much of it is just enjoying chanting "Feed Me More!" But, the pop is big for him. I'm thinking this is setting up a match against Big Show, which probably won't be very good, but the build might be fun.

Reigns Interview: Keeping Roman Reigns away from talking in front of the live crowd is probably a good idea. He is better in these types of sit down interviews than standing in the ring holding a mic and cutting a promo. I think a heel turn is the best thing for Reigns' career, but I understand that they don't want to do that until after he has his shot against the heel Rollins. But, when will that come? This was a pretty good presentation of a babyface star. He gave a good performance. The scripting was strong. I didn't like him using the word "borough" as it didn't seem like something he would actually say, but I did like how he said he bought a condo in Suplex City. That was a good line. Like I said above, I don't want to see him as part of the Extreme Rules main event, but I'm not sure who he faces instead. And I still say a long run as a heel would do him a lot of good and he needs to keep improving in the ring, diversifying his move set, and having these types of better performances on the mic.

Cena - Rusev: John Cena gave a very good and impassioned promo about winning the United States Championship from Rusev at WM. He referred back to his strong promo from when he signed their contract which was the only time he was really this passionate and pro-USA during the build to WM. I wish we had seen more of this Cena before hand and at WM itself. I sort of like the idea of an open challenge each week. It reminds me of when Bret Hart first won the WWF Championship from Ric Flair and became the most fighting champion of all time. I do think that title opportunities should be earned and not just handed out as part of a random open challenge, so I'm not a huge fan of the idea. But, it is something new and different enough at this point, and promises to put the U.S. Title on full display on Raw that I think it will work. I am intrigued to see how they handle it. At least it means that the champion isn't going to lose a long string of non-title matches like usual. Rusev and Lana then came out to interrupt and were also good in their role. Rusev has done a great job lately. This set up a rematch at Extreme Rules leading to Cena unfurling the US flag instead of the Russian flag which makes me ask why the WWE crew would always set up the Russian flag for Rusev in the first place?

Sheamus: Many fans have been wanting to see Sheamus repackaged and they have gotten their wish. He has a slightly new look, a new heel attitude and new music. I like the look. I like the new music. It makes sense to start fresh with new music after his heel turn. I like the persona of wanting to beat up the underdogs. He was good in explaining how he is sick and tired of seeing guys like Daniel Bryan and Dolph Ziggler whom he sees as not being real men getting opportunities in WWE. He wants to destroy them. That's fine for a heel character. I particularly liked the line that he is there to crush the hopes and dreams of the fans. My only issue is that WWE is ignoring that The Authority injured Sheamus causing him to be out for 5 months. He didn't address it and I'm sure he won't moving forward. The announcers didn't mention it either. In fact, they didn't even say that he had been out with an injury. They just said he had been gone for 5 months. It was like they feared that saying he was hurt would make the fans remember how he got hurt. But, I guess I expect too much to actually have storylines pay off.

Bryan vs. Sheamus: That promo from Sheamus was followed up by his main event match against Daniel Bryan. We've seen these two enough in the past and they usually deliver good matches (assuming they are given more than 18 seconds). They have good chemistry together and that showed here. Wade Barrett did a nice job on guest commentary actually adding to the enjoyment of the match, unlike what the real announcers (mostly Byron Saxton) do for most of the matches. I was glad to see Bryan defeat Ziggler on Raw so that he didn't lose his first match as Intercontinental Champion. He lost here, but had the excuse of the interference from Barrett. This sets up what has the chance to be a really good IC Title match presumably at Extreme Rules. And it is pretty apparent this was just to get Bryan vs. Sheamus out of the way so that Sheamus can now be free to feud with Ziggler moving forward.

SMACKDOWN MISSES

Two-Minute Divas Match: Natalya vs. Naomi was good while it lasted, but these two Divas have had a feud going along with their husbands' tag teams for awhile now. They fought some during the WM pre-show. WWE seems to be getting behind Naomi for a Divas Championship match against Nikki Bella which is fine. But, it is hard to get excited about the women wrestlers when they so often get such a short amount of time for their matches. There have been some longer Divas matches lately as part of the #GiveDivasaChance movement, but I can't take that too seriously when on WM they got less than 7 minutes, and here these two only get about two. And these two can have a good match together if given more time. Even a 6-7-minute match would have been enough to make the match feel like a bigger deal and allow Naomi a chance to sell herself to the fans to get behind her more for her eventual run at the Divas Title.

Ambrose's Stinky Bowl Movement: It is dreadful that I have to write that at all. I mean seriously? Who thinks this crap is good? The scene started off well with Seth Rollins upset that Kane is considering granting Orton's challenge for a WWE Title match at Extreme Rules. Then, it went downhill when Rollins left saying that the office stinks. Then, we hear a toilet flush and out comes Dean Ambrose. This is the type of humor that makes me embarrassed to be a wrestling fan. This is one of the worst ways that a match has been set up as Kane was so upset over Ambrose's use of his bathroom that he put him in a match against Luke Harper.

Harper vs. Ambrose: This Miss is not for the effort put in by Ambrose and Harper. I was not happy to see a match like this end without an official announcement about the result of the match. Was it a double count out? A disqualification? It isn't difficult to give some type of announcement to make it clear that the matches and their outcomes actually matter. The match also didn't last that long and yet it had a commercial break. I like what we saw leading to the end, but we didn't get to see enough of it. And the announcers spent too much time talking about how Harper is dirty and how Ambrose is crazy ("a cocoon of chaos"? really?) that it became distracting and didn't add to the match. The ending was obviously supposed to make us recall Brock Lesnar's actions from Raw. Harper looked like he might snap and start hurting announcers and officials like Lesnar did. But, that was such a singular moment that it should be protected. I don't agree with the idea of making it look like Harper might do the same thing that Lesnar did.

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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