WWE Friday Night Smackdown (1/7): Hits, Misses and "What the Heck?"

This is the first Friday night Smackdown of the year. Throughout the week, WWE has been plugging the World Heavyweight Title match between Edge and Kane and the best two out of three falls match between Rey Mysterio and Alberto Del Rio. Were we going to see the same thing on Smackdown that we did on Raw? Nobody knew, however, I could guarantee that there would be hits, misses and some "what the hell" moments.

HITS

Edge VS Kane for the World Heavyweight Championship. When this match was first being advertised I though "same old match just different people", and to be quite honest that is pretty much the way I felt throughout the match. When it came down to thinking about giving this a hit I realized that I actually liked the match. Lately, as in Morrison vs Miz this past Monday night on Raw, the arena hasn't been used at all. I like how they used the arena in this match and Edge's use of the chairs. You can't hit wrestlers over the head with a chair anymore.  Instead, you have to find a better way other than the same old gut or back shot. Edge was able to throw a chair at Kane and then at Kane's knee. The finish was good, allowing Edge to pick up the victory without making Kane look weak or the win seem like a fluke. 

Barrett on Smackdown. Barrett attacking Big Show during his match was a good idea. keeping Barrett on the screen as the villain while giving Big Show something to do other than dress like Santa Claus and tell jokes. Barrett being split from Nexus will allow him some credible time by himself to see if he can play a good heel character without the Nexus behind him. This also gives the Nexus storyline some breathing room. The WWE creative team can decide where to go from here without feeling like they have to destroy Barrett's credibility when the storyline ultimately finishes.

MISSES

Ziggler VS Kofi Kingston for the Intercontinental Title. As Michael Cole stated, Kofi was given a rematch even though Vickie interference last week meant nothing. It was a non DQ match. Miss No. 1 —Ziggler loses to Kofi via a cross body.  After the match Ziggler hits the Zig Zag on Kofi and Vickie says Dolph is getting his rematch right now. Kingston gets beat up some more and then hits the Trouble in Paradise out of nowhere and wins again. That's miss No. 2. Vickie then inserts Dolph in the #1 contenders match for the World Heavyweight Championship. That's miss No. 3. This segment was a complete miss. In allowing Vickie to be GM or a consultant,  has Ted Long ever heard of a conflict of interest?

Ending to Alberto Del Rio VS Rey Mysterio. The match itself was very good. I liked that Alberto got the win. However, the ending was horrible. After Rey threw Del Rio in the ring, Ricardo held onto Mysterio's leg long enough for him to be counted out. Yes, that's right, what was supposed to be the last match between Alberto and Mysterio ended in a countout. Was anyone thinking when they decided that was a good idea?

"What the Hell"

Announce table. In case anyone missed it, the announcers table was destroyed in the opening match on Smackdown. What the hell was WWE thinking? This spot didn't end the last man standing match and then the announcers had to deal with having no table for the entire night. That is a spot usually saved for the end of the show, or when the spot doesn't break the table. 

McIntyre not able to stay in the ring. Did anyone notice that McIntyre was barely in the ring during his match with Dolph Ziggler, the Big Show, and "Dashing" Cody Rhodes? He was in the ring for perhaps two minutes in total. I don't know if McIntyre staying in the ring was supposed to be funny or if it was McMahon showing he no longer cares what we think of Drew. What was the point of Drew being in the match if he was just going to stay on the outside of the ring and be a non factor. 

This week's Smackdown was better than this week's Raw. I believe Smackdown had some very good matches and my Misses and What the Hell moments for this week were more of a problem with small parts of the matches and not the actual match itself. I am looking forward to next week's Raw and Smackdown and I feel like the WWE got off to a good start.  Hopefully this coming week we will begin to find out who will be in the Royal Rumble match and have a shot of headlining Wrestlemania.