By Chris Shore

WWE Smackdown Hits

Randy Orton vs. Cesaro: A fantastic match that really went a long way to putting Cesaro on the map, and giving him babyface heat. Cesaro looked like the old Claudio Castagnoli with his offense, and Orton made him look great in the process. Orton takes another hit here with the loss, but the match was so good I do think most people look past Orton's loss and just see a very big win fro Cesaro. He won't win the Chamber match, but he will have a hell of a foundation to build off of afterward. This was a major Hit.

The Shield vs. Daniel Bryan, Christian, and Sheamus: Speaking of Chamber matches, is there any chance Chrisatian wins the thing? He looked like a shmuck here at the end and continues to look weak. That said, this was a Hit because it was one of those wildly entertaining six-man matches that the Shield almost always seems to have. Reigns continues to look like a beast, and I like the fact that they stayed away from showing real friction in the group as they need to look strong as a unit going into the PPV match with the Wyatts.

Jack Swagger vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Mark Henry vs. Rey Mysterio: Another wildly entertaining match on this show draws another Hit, and I also think I see where this is going. Spinning Cesaro off as a babyface seems the most logical step at this point, so if Swagger suddenly succeeds as the Intercontinental Champion, then Zeb will turn his ire on Cesaro for failing to win the world title. Perfect. Regardless of how it plays out, Swagger looked good here and should have a good match with Big E for the title.

WWE Smackdown Misses

The Usos and The Rhodes Brothers vs. Rybaxel and The New Age Outlaws: This was an entertaining match, and usually that qualifies it as a Hit, but this is a mis because they are moving the Usos into a feud with the Outlaws in the weakest way possible, and the Outlaws should't even be the champions. Combine that with the meaningless Rybaxel and the should be champion Brotherhood in there and this, while well wrestled, becomes a mess.

Miz vs. Fandango: Not only was this a pointless match, they basically told everyone who was starting to pay attention to Emma to disregard as she is Santino's comedy girl. I'm genuinely flabbergasted at taking an act that is so over in NXT and watering it down by sticking her with Santino, and THEN using that to water down whatever it is Fandango and Miz might be doing. Complete and total miss here.

Damien Sandow vs Darren Young: A meaningless match with a meaningless brawl afterward. I guess I appreciate the attempt to make the Prime Time Players breakup mean something, but they needed to make the team mean something first. This is just too little, too late, and I say that as a fan of O'Neal and Young.

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