Shore's WWE Smackdown Hitlist: Live Super Smackdown is anything but super; Roddy Piper, AJ, and Daniel Bryan steal the show, Jimmy Hart and Mick Foley crap on the tag division, and Cody Rhodes continues to be devalued

By Chris Shore

WWE Smackdown Hits

Daniel Bryan, AJ, and Roddy Piper: I said it in my report, I said it in audio, and I'll repeat it here: This was the best talking segment in WWE since CM Punk's breakout moment last year. All three people were perfect in this segment, and brought so much interest to the characters involved that Bryan alone is carrying the heat for his re-match with Sheamus. Of course part of that is because Sheamus is feuding with John Laurinaitis at the same time, but that just makes what happened here even more important. I don't know if putting the strap back on Bryan so quickly is the best idea, but watching this story with AJ play out certainly is.

Randy Orton vs. Mark Henry: This is somewhat of a pity hit in that I hated everything else on the show so much that I felt like I should try to find something nice to say where I could. This wasn't a great match, but it wasn't bad either. Both guys worked hard and told a story. The problem with it was that you expected Kane to show up at some point because you knew he couldn't be done with Orton yet, and because Henry is locked in to face Punk on Monday. It's hard to get into a match when you know there isn't going to be a finish. Still, the effort here was nice and about 300 degrees better than the rest of the show

WWE Smackdown Misses

The Usos vs. Heath Slater and Tyson Kidd: I would have a hard time ranking how much most everything else on the show stunk, but I would have no problem picking this as the worst moment. When the announce team says, "Oh yeah, there's a match going on," you know you have hit the top of the failure scoreboard. The tag team division is not just an afterthought anymore, it is actively mocked now. This segment was about Jimmy Hart and Mick Foley, because, you know, they're on the show each and every week.

The Great Khali, Alicia Fox, and Natalya vs. Drew McIntyre and the Bella Twins, plus Mae Young appears: Watching this must be like watching a train derailment. The bad stuff started and then just kept piling up. McIntyre runs off with no followup, then the match lasts for two moves, then Mae Young shows up and tries to sexually assault Khali. When it was all over, I wasn't sure exactly what I had seen, I just knew I was worse off for having seen it.

Sheamus: Even though he did a good job in the opening segment, he killed everything with the terrible segment with Mean Gene. He was just placed on permanent probation and fined $500,00 and yet he's cracking wise about getting drunk after the show? I understand not letting Laurinaitis see you sweat, but come on. This didn't fit the character at all.

Cody Rhodes devaluation: I cannot understand why WWE has spent every moment since WrestleMania making Cody Rhodes look like a punk. The kid is a future main eventer. He's not damaged beyond repair or anything, but why continue to do this? Big Show doesn't gain anything, he's as over as he's going to get, and Cody isn't earning any heat from it. So why do it? Baffling.

Overall Show: Yet another live Smackdown special comes and goes and we can expect another round of bad ratings. I don't understand why you put the time, effort, and expense in doing a live show only to saddle it with a terrible gimmick that leads to a terrible show. Unless SyFy is still pushing for live Smackdown, and WWE is pushing back by giving them shitty shows when they go live, I can't get my head around it. The idea of gimmicks like the Legends is to get people to tune in and then hook them with something on the show. Outside of the Daniel Bryan segment, nothing else provided a hook to stay for next weeks show.