By Chris Shore

WWE Smackdown Hits

Daniel Bryan vs. Alberto Del Rio: My first inclination is to crap on the whole show because it was too many short matches that were disconnected from main storylines. But I'm going to give the individual matches the benefit of the doubt so it's not an all miss list. Bryan vs. Del Rio was far too short for my taste, but they went all out for the three and a half minutes they gave us. I hate they had these two meet for the first time like this, but it did give us a glimpse of what their feud down the road could look like. Wade Barrett's beat down on Bryan gave their feud a little more heat, and as best we can tell, they will have a match at SummerSlam, even though it isn't listed on the SummerSlam site.

Mark Henry vs. Johnny Curtis: At under a minute, this obviously wasn't much of a match, but I liked several things here. Curtis was able to drop some of silliness that surrounded his character, and Mark Henry continues to look like a bad ass. And even the Sheamus run-in was effective in selling their match for the PPV. Overall, this was probably the best segment of the night.

Christian vs. Sheamus Speaking of "The Great White," this was another glimpse into a potential feud, though this one could be sooner rather than later. Sheamus is getting over big time as a babyface, and even though he is a weak heel, Christian still provides a good heat mirror for guys to use to get over. His running away from Sheamus added to both guys heat nicely.

WWE Smackdown Misses

Overall Show: This was the worst show we have had in a long time. It worked more like a highlight show than a cohesive one, and that's not exactly the best thing heading into a PPV. We did get some minor storyline stuff with Christian and Hunter, and Sheamus and Henry. But other than that, the show did nothing to hype SummerSlam, or make me want to tune in next week.

Randy Orton vs. Great Khali: Other than the RKO on a seven footer (which Khali took like a champ) this match was a typical slow and plodding Khali match. I don't understand why you put these two together as the last thing you see before a PPV. Sure, Christian came out and cut a meaningless cryptic promo, but the last wrestling anyone saw was Khali. And I thought he and Jinder Mahal had a story. Now they're back to being jobber fodder.

Cody Rhodes vs. Ezekiel Jackson: Cody winning the Intercontinental Title is a hit, but the match itself was a miss. Cody isn't a guy who can pull good matches out of people, and Zeke is a guy who needs someone to pull a good match from him. In fact, the post-match attack on Ted DiBiase was better than the actual match. So besides being a bad match, they erased it from everyone's memories immediately after. Hm, maybe then this should have been in the hits after all.

Sin Cara: Different body style, different move set, and different finish. There can be no doubt that there is someone new under the mask for even the most casual of fans. The original Sin Cara was smoother in the ring, though certainly not crisp. This guy was neither incredibly crisp, nor smooth. He hit all his spots, but Kidd had to do a lot of work to make them look good. It could have been nerves, so I'm not going to kill the guy. But "Sin Cara" is proving to be a tough act for WWE to produce.

RECOMMEND THIS ARTICLE: