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The Specialists
7/15 WWE ECW Hits & Misses: Opening, Bourne, Main Event, Cena-JBL Replay Jul 17, 2008 - 10:59:26 PM
Evan Bourne: Evan Bourne vs. Chavo Guerrero was not long enough at 3 minutes to get a Hit as a match, but Bourne’s incredible athleticism, his great potential, and the fact that he got a win over such a credible opponent add up to a big Hit for the rookie. He is doing things in the ring that nobody else in WWE is doing right now. I am thrilled that WWE has the confidence in him to give him this win. I don’t recall ever seeing anyone get as much air as he did on the standing moonsault. His shooting star press is amazing. WWE could do something very special with some of the cruiserweights that they have, with high flyers like Bourne, Paul London, Brian Kendrick, Jimmy Wang Yang, and Shannon Moore, plus more grounded good technical wrestlers like Jamie Noble and Gregory Helms. Too bad we all know that will never happen.
Main Event: Put the Hardys in a match vs. John Morrison and the Miz, give them 17 minutes and you expect it to be a good match. That is exactly what it was. It was a fun and exciting tag team match. The opening minutes before the commercial felt like a typical Hardy Boyz match from back in the day, with the heels controlling Matt Hardy for a few minutes before the hot tag to Jeff Hardy who would clean house, followed by some nice double team moves, and a swanton for the win. Fortunately, the swanton didn’t come that early and the match continued for another 10 minutes. Miz & Morrison looked like they belonged with the last remnant of the last great period of tag team wrestling in WWE. Like the cruiserweight division, WWE could build a great tag team division, if they got all of their teams on one brand. Even if the Hardys aren’t going to be a full time team, you still have Miz & Morrison, Rhodes & DiBiase, Cryme Tyme, Jesse & Festus, Hawkins & Rhyder, plus potentially Yang & Moore, and London & Kendrick. Again, it won’t happen as WWE is more interested in pushing Finlay & Hornswoggle as possible Tag Team Champs, or ignoring the tag teams all together.
ECW MISSES
Opening Segment: This wasn’t a terrible segment, but definitely not a good one. Last week, many pointed out that it was a mistake to give Mark Henry who can talk a mouthpiece in Tony Atlas who has never been known for having strong mic skills. That certainly came into play here. Atlas wasn’t bad, but really didn’t add anything to Henry’s act. Part of the problem with this is that it went on too long and didn’t accomplish much. It was good to see Tommy Dreamer get the better of Henry, but the vast majority of the segment was devoted to showcasing Henry’s strength. The problem with that is that we already know that he is very strong. It was a very impressive feat, but we already know that he is the World’s Strongest Man. It is right there in his name. So there was a lot of wasted time. It didn’t do anything to set up the rest of the show, and it was the only hype for Dreamer vs. Henry at the PPV.
Cena - JBL Replay: This was a terrible segment on Raw, and I understand the need to show it again as it is being built up as a major angle, but it is a majorly bad angle and I don’t want to be reminded of it. The worst part of the replay is that there were additional camera angles used that were not shown on Monday night, as if the four or five cameras used weren’t already way too many. And, one of the new angles was from inside the car that was smashed by John Bradshaw Layfield! That means that someone had the foresight to actually put a camera inside that car, just in case. Terrible.
Miz & Morrison Lose Again: While I enjoyed the match itself, I have to question the wisdom of having Miz & Morrison lose again. We’ve seen them lose to Hornswoggle & Finlay lately, and here they lose again. Apparently they are in a fatal four way at the PPV for their Titles, but they have no momentum. Perhaps they will be on Smackdown and can have a better showing, but they aren’t looking like strong Champions at the moment. Part of the problem is having the match in the first place. It was too random. There was nothing on the line, and since WWE billed it as “one night only” for the Hardys, you didn’t get the sense that this win would get them a shot at the Tag Team Titles. So what was the point? It was a good match, but WWE needs to think more about the consequences of the outcomes of matches.
Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw, Smackdown, ECW, and TNA Impact each week. Email him at jmezz-torch@sbcglobal.net.
For another view from the original Hitlist author, compare Jason Powell's views to mine by visiting prowrestling.NET's "Hitlist" section here.
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