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Kevin Wang of Dallas, Tex. (6.5): Best Match: Jim Ross and Matt Striker on commentary. Worst Match: Ricky Ortiz on my TV. When I heard Good Ol' J.R.'s voice to start the broadcast, I found myself actually smiling at the prospect of him calling the show with Matt Striker. Naturally you expect the pairing to work, but I think Ross called things with a little more enthusiasm since Striker's commentary meshes so well with Ross's wealth of knowledge of wrestling. It made the evening's events feel a lot more important, even for being little old WWECW. While I am still scratching my head over why we got a Maryse vs. McCool match, it was pretty solid, and I really like that Ross and Striker drove home that the divas were a special attraction normally on Smackdown. I also like that they used Smackdown graphics for their names, since that's their home brand. (Incidentally, Evan Bourne had a Raw graphic on Monday night. Yes, I noticed, it's a pet peeve of mine.) I think Jack Swagger has a lot of potential, but he needs a ton of work to polish the whole package. He still looks unsure of himself, but if he can develop some finesse and presence in addition to his proficiency for power moves, he could become something special. Finally, I would be happy if I never hear of or see Ricky Ortiz again. I don't know if they're legitimately trying to make this guy a friendly face, or if he's going to slowly show his heel colors. In any case, he's too goofy to pull either off convincingly. If they're trying to copy Santino and make him the entertaining dork, it's not working. You can't manufacture that kind of charisma. I am much more interested in some potential character development for Bam Neeley.

Terrie Neilson of Las Vegas, Nev. (9.0): Best: Miz vs. Morrison Worst: Teddy-Tiffany-Ricky promo. Tonight's show got an awful lot of constructive work done. While the opening went round and round a little too much, Tddy Long added more endorsement for the the New Superstar Initiative, making that concept more important. Miz/Morrison further established themselves at the top of the ECW food chain. Finlay-Bam opened the door for Bam to take his first steps, and Bam looks to have some potential. Third time's a charm for Michelle-Maryse. This one was very good; the more they work together the more their chemistry is clearer and the smoother their matches have become. The fact that the three came fairly close together can lend to the idea that Maryse has been scouting Michelle while in ring. Henry made a simple vow to win at No Mercy. Matt Hardy is surprisingly absent; should I guess he's appearing on Smackdown this week before next week's triple-champion match? I would have substituted the Kozlov Rebound for build in the Hardy side of the ECW Title match. Swagger clearly establishes he is a heel after picking up the pieces of Stevens then Dreamer. The powerbomb finisher he's been using was perfectly fine, but he would make the awkward transition to pin his opponent when the powerbomb itself puts the opponent into a pinning position. This possible new finisher is equally or more vicious looking. Now he needs to work on getting smoothly to that finisher and "Swaggah!" will be set. Miz-Morrison did something that most heel-heel matches don't do: get the crowd invested in it. The longer the match went, Morrison was the clearer match heel. This gave the crowd some semblance of someone to cheer for. Plus the crowd was getting into the match...because it was a very good match. A clean finish is definitely being saved for later, and the countout wasn't from something lame as both came down in a pretty ugly way. In-ring countouts are almost unheard of, so the finish was unique. Think the crowd didn't like Ricky coming out for the TV finish, but he'd been plugged all night, so some people might have felt cheated if he didn't come out.

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