By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

ECW HITS

Christian vs. Tatsu: This is an example of WWE doing everything right with one exception. This match for the ECW Title should have been at the PPV. Accepting the fact that it wasn't, you can see just how well WWE executed this match. First of all, they announced it a week in advance. Second of all, they put the focus on the main event right from the start of the show with the opening video on Yoshi Tatsu. They followed that up with another good video on the rising star. The announcers talked about it during the show. ECW Champion Christian gave an interview about his mentoring Tatsu and his thoughts on the match. Then the match came and it was very good in and of itself. It went 17 minutes and they did a great job of selling that Christian might actually lose with several very close near falls for Tatsu. Of course, Christian got some near falls as well. The wrestling action was great through out. They worked really well together. And, Tatsu came out looking like a bigger star than he was before, despite taking the loss. Plus, afterwards William Regal and his Ruthless Roundtable attacked both men, making a statement that he still wants an ECW Title shot.

ECW MISSES

Abraham Washington Show: This was a bad start to ECW. Actually, the very beginning of the show with the Tatsu video was strong. But, the Abraham Washington Show was in some ways worse than usual. Washington himself has grown on me some (but, very little) and I enjoy Tony Atlas' role. So, the quality of the program is based somewhat on the guest and how he or in this case she interacts with Washington. Tiffany was ok in her performance, but her script was weak. How ridiculous did she sound when she said that ECW made a tremendous impact at Bragging Rights despite not having a match since former ECW stars like Kofi Kingston and John Morrison got their starts there before moving on to Raw or Smackdown? That is particularly stupid considering that Morrison as Johnny Nitro was a multiple time Tag Team and Intercontinental Champion on the other shows before ever coming to ECW. Even if that wasn't the case, it still sounded lame. I am glad that they addressed the reason that Shaemus was able to leave ECW and that he would have one last match against Shelton Benjamin. However, Tiffany stets up a dangerous precedent that if any wrestler is unhappy, she will let him walk. That doesn't make much sense.

Shaemus vs. Benjamin: This is a minor Miss. The match wasn't bad, but failed to live up to my expectations. There were some very good moments, like Benjamin's crazy spring board moonsault on the outside before going to commercial. There were some nice exchanges. But, in the end the match was just decent and I was expecting more. If this weren't the end of the feud before it had a chance to really get going, I might be more forgiving. But, considering this was the blow off match, it didn't do much for me. My major problem with it was the ending as it seemed to come out of nowhere. It was anticlimactic. Also, Shaemus has won both of his matches this week with the bicycle kick instead of his uranage back breaker. I really hope that is not a sign of things to come. So many wrestlers do bicycle kicks (Mike Knox on Smackdown and Matt Morgan in TNA come to mind) that it doesn't seem like a strong finisher. Sure, it looks good, but not as a finisher. His other finisher was unique and quite impressive looking. Hopefully he goes back to it.

Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's WWE Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw, Smackdown, ECW, and Superstars 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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