Shore's WWE Smackdown Hit List: One match gets a hit, almost all the promos get misses, as does the build for the Royal Rumble in a very disappointing Smackdown

By Chris Shore

WWE Smackdown Hits

The New Age Outlaws and The Shield vs. The Usos, The Brotherhood and Big E Langston: The only Hit of the night was this match and that's only because it was entertaining to watch, not because it actually did anything. Most of the men in this match have had good to great matches recently, so it should be no surprise that they were able to mix everything together for a fun match. The cheap finish even came across OK because they had so many men involved that the post-match brawl, which turned into the patented pre-Rumble locker room brawl, hid the cheesy DQ.

WWE Smackdown Misses

Royal Rumble hype: Once again WWE failed to make either the Rumble PPV, or the Rumble match, feel important enough to purchase. The Rumble by the Numbers videos are neat, but we've seen them before. The mad brawl at the end of Smackdown is also one of those "been there, done that" moments that we get every year. They have had guys talking about the Rumble, but most of the promos on this show were weak and flimsy and did little if anything to move the needle. I'm very interested to see the numbers for this show because I just don’t think they have set up the spectacle well.

Bad News Barrett, Miz, and Brodus Clay: This might have been the worst segment in WWE history, not because it was the most horrid, but because it was horrid enough and they had one of their own performers pointing out how horrid it was. For the life of me I cannot comprehend why you would have a guy out there shitting on the product when it's actually bad. Does no one in the company understand marketing? Could you imagine these guys running Twinkies? "Eat a Twinkie. Look at how fat your ass is!"

AJ vs. Cameron: Everything about this segment was clunky. The match was clunky with Cameron attacking Tamina for no reason. Then Naomi just watched while Tamina attacked Cameron. Then her attacks on AJ were miss-timed. And then for some inexplicable reason, she covered AJ in a post-match beat down! It would be funny if it wasn't so bad.

Kofi Kingston: Was this the worst promo Kingston has ever cut? Possibly. It was certainly the weakest as far as intensity. And his sheepish grin afterwards was the icing on a crap cake. If any of you saw this promo and suddenly thought Kofi might be the winner then see a doctor about getting your meds changed. Your perception of reality is all screwed up.

Daniel Bryan: Bryan just tried too hard here to cut a Bray Wyatt-esque promo and missed big time. As Jake Barnett said in the All Access Smackdown Audio Review, Bryan is just too nice of a guy for this too work. Wyatt needs someone heady to go down a rabbit hole together and Bryan just isn't the right guy for that. This promo proved his point well.

Kane: CM Punk's promo was OK, neither a hit nor a miss, but Kane's promo legitimately almost put me to sleep. His droning on of the word "zero" was borderline mesmerizing and I found myself nodding a little bit with his monotone approach as a whole. Punk saved the segment from knocking me out by finishing it out and having his mucis play, but Kane gets a big miss for delivery and content.