By Chris Shore

WWE Smackdown Hits

Shield vs. RVD, Kofi Kingston, and Dolph Ziggler: Even though I was looking forward to the US title match, this was a nice consolation prize and a definite Hit. The Shield proved they are still the standard bearers as it relates to chaotic match finishes, and the babyface team was the perfect mix to pull it off. The Shield also needed a win after their defeat on Monday, and I don't feel like the babyfaces lost anything off of their loss. Hard to be better than that.

Primetime Players vs. Real Americans: A surprising Hit out of two tag teams that haven't had a lot of good things to write about. It's not entirely their fault because they, and the rest of the tag division, haven't been booked very well. The knock on both teams is that they don't act like teams, especially when it comes to tandem offense. If they can find a way to work together more, perhaps this can be a good feud down the road.

WWE Smackdown Misses

Build for Battleground: It's hard to believe that we are only a week away from the next WWE pay-per-view and only three matches have been announced. Other than Paul Heyman's promo and the brief battle between RVD and Alberto Del Rio, the show did absolutely nothing to sell the PPV. I realize there are two PPVs within the month of October, but that doesn't mean WWE should short sell either one.

Cobra Charming: The cobra gimmick is bad, but passable comedy. But when you add in borderline racist, and way over the line stupid, snake charming by the Indians on the roster it becomes a complete miss. Let's not forget that these two men somehow managed to charm another man's arm with a sock on it to the point to where his hand almost attacked him. Read that sentence again and you get a feel for how stupid this truly was.

Randy Orton vs. The Miz: This isn't a miss because of anything bad per se, it's a miss because no one in the audience seemed to care at all about what was happening. There weren't significant boos for Orton, nor were there significant cheers for Miz either in their match or in his opening talking segment with Triple H. They built the bulk of this show around these two men and they simply failed to deliver an appreciable reaction from the crowd.

Triple H: Speaking of poor reactions from the crowd, I think we're all starting to get a little numb to Triple H. If Daniel Bryan runs the risk of getting stale because of the formulaic approach to his matches, then Hunter runs the same risk with his promo work. They are all starting to sound the same and run together, and I found it hard to concentrate on his promo because of it. That's not a great way to start a show.

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