WWE SMACKDOWN HITS & MISSES 2/14: The return of The Dirt Sheet, Corbin attacks technician, Goldberg-Fiend announcement, Fatal Four-way main event, Cesaro vs. Elias, Corbin-Reigns continues

The Dirt Sheet – MISS: I thought re-teaming John Morrison with The Miz would be good for Miz who was floundering as a babyface after (really starting before) his feud with The Fiend. Instead, it has been rather lackluster. I was a fan of Miz & Morrison back in the day and enjoyed many of the old episodes of the Dirt Sheet. This felt like a re-run of a bad episode of what was otherwise a good show. It was dull. It wasn’t entertaining. The New Day couldn’t breathe any life into this opening segment. It was odd how it felt like the Usos came out to challenge Miz & Morrison, but instead were just going to face Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode. That didn’t work well. And it failed to get me excited for the rest of the show.

Usos vs. Ziggler & Roode – HIT: At least that odd set up payed off well with a good tag match. Hopefully, this puts to bed this part of the Roman Reigns vs. Baron Corbin feud as their two support teams have now faced off one last time with the babyface team coming out on top.

Corbin Attacks a Technician – MISS: Stuff like this totally takes me out of the moment. WWE should be presented as if it actually were real and taking place in the real world. In the real world, a wrestler like Corbin attacking and beating up a technician would be fired on the spot. The technician would sue Corbin and WWE for millions of dollars and would win. Management would never allow itself to be up against that type of litigation so they would get rid of Corbin immediately. But, that doesn’t occur to WWE writers who don’t think about this stuff. I can’t take it seriously when there is such stupidity in the writers room.

Cesaro vs. Elias – MISS: After last week, Sami Zayn’s troupe needed a win here. I get that Elias is just back from injury and traditionally you want to give returning wrestlers a series of victories. But, the heel group has been so ineffective lately with Shinsuke Nakamura losing the Intercontinental Championship to Braun Strowman last week followed by Cesaro looking foolish in a fight against Elias. Considering what was planned for later in the show, having Zayn’s group have some momentum with a win here would have made much more sense and would have given their attack on Strowman later in the show more impact.

More Reigns vs. Corbin – MISS: One of the problems with the Saudi Arabia deal is that WWE has more “big” shows to promote. They already have to build towards WrestleMania with another PPV (Elimination Chamber) in the middle which can get in the way, although it doesn’t have to. But, now they also have to build to this Saudi Super Show which is really just a glorified house show with some big extra star attractions. To fill out house shows at this point, they often go to matches that are already played out on tv. But, when you do the same on a show like this, it means continuing feuds on tv longer than they should. Last week should have been the end of the Reigns vs. Corbin feud, but they have to get one more match at Blood Money to fill out that card which means tv viewers are subjected to more of them feuding even though it should be over after last week.

Goldberg vs. Wyatt – MISS: I don’t care what WWE puts on Blood Money as I won’t watch it. And I don’t care to see Goldberg vs. The Fiend at all, so it really doesn’t matter to me that the match is happening at Blood Money instead of a traditional PPV. But, it does make me sad that big stars who made millions of dollars in their careers and are retired now and should be comfortable are willing to take all this blood money to come out for one more match. And the way this was set up was hokey (big surprise considering everything Bray Wyatt is involved in is hokey). Did Wyatt know that Goldberg was going to challenge him and have a Firefly Funhouse ready to go? Or did he get it ready, just in case? The fact that Goldberg never got a rematch a few years ago after losing the Universal Title to Brock Lesnar was a flimsy excuse to say that he deserves a Title shot now.

Sheamus vs. Apollo Crews – MISS: Sheamus’ character isn’t good. His character is basically a big guy who doesn’t like small guys, so he beats them up. Part of the problem is that he always beats them up. I suppose they will build to him getting his comeuppance at some point. That can be good in the end, but getting there hasn’t been good so far. And Chad Gable continues to be the biggest joke on the roster.

Fatal Four-Way – HIT: This is a marginal Hit. I was just criticizing WWE for having these multi-wrestler matches to become the #1 contender with an obvious winner. Miz & Morrison were obviously going to win when they were the only team in the match feuding with the Champions. Ricochet was obviously going to win when he was the only one in the match involved in a program with the Champion. Naomi was the predictable winner here as she had just started a program with Women’s Champion Bayley. But, she didn’t win. Carmella won. I’m not particularly interested in Carmella at this point, but at least she is a new challenger for Bayley and WWE can keep building up Naomi to create some anticipation for her eventually being a challenger for Bayley down the line. The match itself was ok, but not particularly good.

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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