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WWE Smackdown Hits
Miz TV: The opening segment of the show was incredibly entertaining. I've never been a fan of these in-ring themed talking segments, even though they have created some interesting moments throughout the years. This was one of those moments. Daniel Bryan and Kane are funny together as long as they stay out of diners and support groups. Big Show's character continues to be good. Dolph Ziggler was passable. Miz was good at the start and then brilliant by the end when he started mocking Booker T. I really enjoyed this segment. Sadly it was almost all downhill from there.
Randy Orton vs. Miz: I saw a lot of the Miz this week between his appearances on the three shows, and he worked hard on ever performance. He nearly got killed on Monday, went 20-plus minutes on Wednesday, and had a good match with Orton on Friday (of course the last two were both taped on Tuesday.) Orton looks younger with his hair grown out. That's all I really have on Orton as he only appears to be making spot appearances while shooting his film. You want to know the problem with WWE in a sentence? Even while only making spot appearances, Orton still goes over clean. Good match. Bad finish.
WWE Smackdown Misses
Sheamus vs. Wade Barrett: We've seen two pretty good matches between these two guys, but that ended with this match. Not only was it not as good as the last two, probably from overexposure, but the finish was the wrong one. I understand they are telling a story with Ziggler, but there was no reason to sacrifice Barrett in the process. Have Show knock out Sheamus for the Barrett win, and then knockout Ziggler to prevent the cash in. The results for everyone else are the same, but Barrett doesn't have to take a loss he doesn't need.
Kane and Daniel Bryan vs. Dolph Ziggler and Big Show: I had high hopes for this match considering the people in it, but it didn't deliver. This was the match I had the most time concentrating through because the wrestling was average, at best, and as fun as the opening segment was, it didn't set this up that well. A surprising miss for me.
Antonio Cesaro: Speaking of being surprised, I was blown away by how mediocre Cesaro's promo was. I don't even blame him, I blame creative. The problem is this act died out in the late 1980s. You might be able to draw some heat by using Arab or Hispanic characters in xenophobic angles, but I get the feeling that most people don't care anymore when somebody hates us simply because we are American. When you add that he's the United States Champion, it just screams Nikita Koloff, except we were in an actual military situation with the Soviet Union. He's Swiss. Are we really supposed to hate the Swiss? They never should have broken he and Aksana up. They had good chemistry and he's not been compelling since.
3MB: I had casual wrestling fan walk in while these three were on the screen and ask who they were. When I told him, his first response was, "DREW MCINTYRE IN A BAND?!" After that it was, "Wow. This is the best the WWE can come up with. What happened to wrestling?" Good question.