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Shore's WWE Smackdown Hit List: Michael Cole voiceovers and The Wyatts vs. The Usos miss, but lots of hits from Randy Orton, Big E Langston, Jimmy Uso, Big Show, Paul Heyman, and more

Posted in: Shore Editorials, MUST-READ LISTING
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Jan 11, 2014 - 12:00 PM

By Chris Shore

WWE Smackdown Hits

Randy Orton vs. Big E Langston: Match of the night hands down. Don't let me oversell this, it isn't some wild indyrrific match with a million shots in it, but it was well planned out and both guys delivered. Orton continues to be a stud in the ring with new talent and Langston showed he belonged with a top star in the ring. I don't know if you should go out of your way to see this, but if you are looking for a good WWE match to watch from this week this is my pick.

Jimmy Uso promo: Color me surprised by this Hit. The Usos have always struck me as very weak on the mic, whether scripted or shooting from the hip. Jimmy showed great fire here and delivered a quality promo. He had one long string of sentences that should have been broken up into two chunks to be most effective, but this is stark improvement over the last time I remember hearing them speak.

MizTV: Big Show was very good here and we all know what Paul Heyman can do. Even after this exchange the Brock vs. Show match feels rushed into, but they had a Hit here so maybe they can build upon this over the next couple of weeks.

CM Punk and The New Age Outlaws vs. The Shield: This doesn't get a Hit for a technical masterpiece, but it was a lot of fun and The Shield got a good win. The continued tease of them breaking up is a little annoying so I'm glad they stayed away from it here, and it's always fun to yell "Oh you didn't know?" at the television.

WWE Smackdown Misses

Luke Harper and Eric Rowan vs. The Usos: The match wasn't bad, but the miss comes from the fact that we have seen this before and it felt stale. Bray Wyatt was conspicuous by his absence, and that type of conspicuousness leads people to watching the ramp instead of paying attention to the ramp. Based on the lack of crowd response for the match, it looks like most of the crowd were watching the ramp.

Odd production values: I'm not sure if something didn't tape right or if WWE changed their mind after the show was in the can or what, but there were several strange production moments on the show where Michael Cole appeared to be dubbed over what was there before. It's not a huge sin, and if they are correcting for tape problems then they had no choice, but the quality of the audio was different from the rest of the show and made it stand out, so I give it a minor miss.

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