By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

ECW HITS

Croft & Baretta vs. Tatsu & Goldust: I liked this match. WWE has done a nice job building to it the last few weeks. We've seen two singles matches involving these two teams which were both good as was this inevitable tag match. It went 7 minutes, but I would have liked to see it go longer. The fact that it wasn't very long, and the fact that it ended with Trent Baretta and Caylen Croft cheating to get the win suggests that a rematch is coming. That would be fine with me. ECW needs good mid-card feuds like this. Yoshi Tatsu and Goldust have something to get revenge for.

Ryder - Hurricane: This is a marginal Hit. I liked Zack Ryder's promo. WWE is getting a lot of milage out of Ryder ending Tommy Dreamer's career, but I don't think it can go on much longer. He then effectively brought up how he dispatched Hurricane last week and declared himself the Heart and Soul Superhero of ECW. I dig this new gimmick where he steals other people's nicknames. He was hilarious in addressing the announcer girl. The reason I wasn't thrilled with the segment and am calling it a marginal Hit is that Ryder defeated Hurricane clean last week. Hurricane didn't act like a babyface in attacking Ryder this week. If Ryder had cheated to win last week, then Hurricane's actions would have been justified. That being said, the actually physicality worked. I like the potential of this feud and hope to see it continue. Really, the misgivings were for what happened last week which I complained about at the time.

Christian vs. Regal: I was a bit confused as to why they were having this match less than a week after facing each other on Superstars last week. I liked that match, and I liked this one even more. Christian and William Regal should be commended for having two fairly long tv matches in less than a week that were different from each other. The booking of both was well done. This one had more chain wrestling early and they kept Ezekiel Jackson ringside throughout the match. Having him kicked out last week worked well, but keeping him around this time worked well also. That kick that Regal gave Christian knocking his head into the ring post was devastating (but it was a bit unbelievable that the match didn't end right there). The fans were really into this match and rallied behind Christian as he made his comeback. The match built very well to the end as Jackson attacked Christian for the DQ. I have no problems with that finish in this match as it fit in perfectly well with the storyline and came after 17 minutes of very good wrestling action. The beat down of Christian afterwards was great. I don't think that Jackson vs. Christian is going to be good at the PPV, but this was a very effective way of selling that match.

ECW MISSES

The Abraham Washington Show: I am a fan of Santino Marella, but his stint as a guest host made me miss Abraham Washington. At least Washington is a heel and his jokes are supposed to bomb. Marella is a babyface, and I think his jokes were supposed to be funny (think being the operative word). This was one of the most excruciating segments to sit through in WWE history. I am not exaggerating. It was very very bad. If Vladimir Kozlov is going to be a face, then something had to be done to make the fans like him. This wasn't it. The fans were silent throughout most of the segment. The jokes bombed. The Rocky references bombed. Kozlov as a face bombed. Wow, it was bad.

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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