Shore's WWE Smackdown Hitlist: Smackdown continues the downward slide started on Raw, Alberto Del Rio misused, Sin Cara continues to confuse, so does the Diva storytelling, Randy Orton wins a battle royal and faces Mark Henry…again

By Chris Shore

WWE Smackdown Hits

Zack Ryder and Kofi Kingston vs. Jack Swagger and Dolph Ziggler: This was the only real bright spot of the show. The match was good, and it was nice to see Ryder get another win on Ziggler. His third, by the way, not his second (Thanks to Twitter follower @LatinoHeatEG for setting me straight). But this match suffered from being surrounded by total shit. On a fair show, I would have really enjoyed this match. Instead, I was reminded that the rest of the show was that bad when compared to this. WWE has truly reached a point where their good makes their bad that much worse, thereby dragging down the good. That's been a critique generally reserved for TNA. Not anymore.

Randy Orton vs. Mark Henry: It's a good thing Henry is done with Randy Orton. I can't imagine how many times they would wrestle otherwise. I'm trying to find positive things to say about this show, and this match was good in a vacuum. Henry and Orton have been entertaining in the ring, no doubt. Everything around it was garbage, but the match itself was good.

WWE Smackdown Misses

Battle Royal: Battle Royals are great for live crowds, and they work fine on PPV. But a battle royal, especially one with a ton of guys, is death to TV. The match went on too long, with very little action until the very end, and I wanted to turn the channel so bad it caused physical pain. This is the epitome of lazy booking and hot shotting. It might have made the Dallas crowd happy, but it made this viewer groan.

Beth Phoenix vs. Kelly Kelly: This match shows how bad WWE is right now for the Divas. Kelly is way over. Way, way over. So I understand why you put her out front, even if I do not personally like her. But I do not understand why you job Beth out through Kelly luck, just to build Kelly to her equal (which is the epitome of unbelievable) and have Beth cheat to win the title, only to have Beth destroy Kelly in 90 seconds after the fact. There is no logic here whatsoever, and the poor work rate of the "Barbie" Divas leaves you with nothing to save the segment. Awful.

Alberto Del Rio vs. Sheamus: This was OK while it lasted. You could tell from the pace it was going to be a short match so I adjusted my expectations. But this is a miss because they are using the WWE Champion to get over a feud on the other brand. This isn't a sin in and of itself, but Del Rio has been booked so poorly that all it did was make him look like a joke, and put only marginal heat on the feud. So in the end, the plan was a failure. It was the theme of the night.

Sin Cara: I don't know what else to say other than the fans are so confused, they cheered the Hunico Sin Cara even though the saw him beat up the Mistico Sin Cara. This story had very little chance to begin with, and now it is completely off the rails. Terrible.

Overall show: Raw was dreadful. Smackdown wasn't any better. WWE is in a fantastic tail spin right now. They are so high in the air that they are in no danger of crashing to the ground anytime soon. But that doesn't mean they can't crash to the ground. They most certainly can. And if this trend continues, warning lights will be coming on sooner rather than later.