SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Opening Segment – MISS: This Miss is mostly for The Miz’s long emotional apology to Shane McMahon for losing the Smackdown Tag Team Championship to the Usos at Elimination Chamber. I just don’t care. It was too long. It dragged. I don’t understand why the fans pop and chant for Miz’s dad. He’s a terrible father who was never proud of his son, despite winning a WWE Championship and headlining WrestleMania. Why cheer for a terrible father? Sometimes, I hate the fans. Think about what you’re cheering for. I did like the Usos. They were entertaining and I certainly am siding with them in this feud, but I think they are supposed to be the heels here. Why make the Usos heels when they are super popular, just to get over a very temporary (and likely to break up soon) team in Miz and Shane? I also didn’t like how Shane just sort of said that the NXT wrestlers were impressive on Raw, so he decided to have them on Smackdown too. Without Raw and Smackdown specific authority figures, WWE needs to do a better job of explaining why any wrestler ends up on one show or the other, and starting with the previous NXT call ups to get them fully established on a brand would be a good start.
Black vs. Andrade – MISS: What happened to Rey Mysterio? I’m honestly asking. Did he get hurt and I just didn’t hear about it? WWE had a very good feud going between Mysterio and Andrade. But, Mysterio hasn’t been on the show in three weeks I believe. Since they weren’t on EC, I figured they would have the blow off to their feud at Fastlane. But if that’s the case, then Andrade should be kept strong and having him lose to Aleister Black is a mistake. I considered giving the mach a Hit as it was a good match in a vacuum. We saw these two have a good NXT Title match last year, and it isn’t surprising they’d have another one here, especially considering their talent. However, it was only 9 minutes. I am torn between wanting to see more of it, and thinking that Black as a new wrestler needs to be stronger, so it should have been shorter. He should have squashed someone lower on the card than Andrade who should have been protected.
New Day Backstage – MISS: My fear on Sunday was that Kofi Kingston would be back in the mid card doing goofy pancake humor with the rest of New Day on Smackdown. I was half right. It is a fine line to walk with trying to push Kofi as a serious wrestler who is an actual threat to Daniel Bryan, while keeping his personality which is over with the fans. Kofi got momentum with the fans from his great performances in the ring, first in the gauntlet match last Tuesday, and then in the EC match on Sunday. I was disappointed to see him back to goofing off and playing with pancakes with New Day. They can still have fun and not change who they are as a trio without making Kofi look like a joke which they did in this one backstage skit.
DIY vs. The Bar – HIT: I should probably write “Ciampa & Gargano” instead of “DIY” but “DIY” is shorter and I didn’t want to have to type too much. I still don’t like having DIY back together acting like babyfaces on the main roster. However, I have to give this a Hit. They had a good long match against The Bar. There was a very scary moment with Tomasso Ciampa almost destroying his knee (and Sheamus’ back could have been injured too). Luckily, he seemed fine by the end. Otherwise, it was a very good match. These are four talented wrestlers. Sheamus isn’t as good as Cesaro, Gargano and Ciampa, but he’s still good and he and Cesaro work very well together as a team. Because the mach ended with a roll up, The Bar were protected a bit. Under other circumstances, I would love to see a series of matches between these two teams.
Asuka vs. Rose – HIT: Mandy Rose has improved a lot in the ring. She has gotten over as a heel. She and Sonya Deville looked very strong in the EC match, lasting the entire length of the match only to lose in the end. And when I say that they looked strong, I mean both in terms of their characters looking strong for almost winning the match, and the performers looking strong. They were better than I expected them to be. Rose was better than I expected her to be against Asuka here. I hated the end of the match with the fake injury. That’s a stupid wrestling troupe which I wish would go away. It made Asuka look stupid. They have Deville at ring side. Having her cheat to help Rose win would have been better. But, it was a good 10 minutes of wrestling before that, and I don’t mind Rose getting a Title shot at Fastlane (before hopefully someone better steps up to get a Title shot at WrestleMania).
Charlotte Interview – HIT: This was a short backstage interview which was all that was needed this week to continue to cement Charlotte Flair as a heel and build to the WrestleMania main event. It made the fans want to see Becky Lynch come back and get her hands on Charlotte. It was well performed. Charlotte is clearly better as a heel. It would still be better if WWE had left things at Becky vs. Ronda Rousey and not added Charlotte to the match, but they may be able to tell a good story along the way.
Ricochet vs. Young – HIT: Sanity hasn’t been seen in weeks, so Eric Young came across like a jobber here. Nobody was going to take him seriously, but that’s ok. Ricochet got a strong win and while Young did get in some offense, Ricochet was clearly better in the match and got to show off some of his very impressive high flying offense. He was able to take out the rest of Sanity at ringside in doing so, which made him look even better.
Main Event – HIT: Overall, Smackdown was a good show. It was much better than Raw, but that’s not saying much. The second hour of the show was definitely better than the first, culminating in this six man tag team main event. I liked how Daniel Bryan cut a promo before hand saying that none of the wrestlers in the match would get the Title opportunity at Fastlane. That was a theme of the show, with the announcers talking throughout about how Shane would announce Bryan’s challenger for the next PPV by the end of the show. The match went 13 minutes and gave each wrestler a chance to shine some. It built well to the end with Kofi once again getting the pin fall victory over Bryan to earn that Title match.
For another view from the original Hitlist author, compare Jason Powell’s views to mine by visiting ProWrestling.net’s “Hitlist” section here.
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@yahoo.com. Follow him on Twitter @JonMezzera.
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