-- 6/9 ECW TV Reax

Terrie Neilson of Las Vegas, Nev. (9.0): Best: Kidd/Smith vs. Swagger/Christian. Worst: Atlas vs. Bourne. While I wish ECW would get a few more people on its roster, I'm liking what they're doing with they have. There was the nice piece of follow-up that Dreamer winning the ECW Title earned him a new contract. This falls in lines with past storylines of wrestlers attempting to earn contracts (e.g. Colin Delaney and Armando Estrada). There was also the nice follow-up that Christian's powerbomb of Dreamer onto the table was a "receipt" for Dreamer getting the better of him previously. It made him a heel in the moment, but tweener at most in hindsight. It didn't seem clearly explained why Atlas and Bourne matched up. It could go back to when
Atlas accepted Henry's offer to "carry his bag." With Atlas causing the DQ, he may have offered to take on Bourne to make up for his mistake. But Henry only followed up on Bourne, not Atlas, so there are a few holes to plug up on that story. Kozlov suddenly smiling? Hmmm. Well, there was the issue of the torn up equipment involving someone wearing green. Hornswoggle may be on Raw, but it's not to say that he doesn't visit his father Finlay on ECW (and both wear green). Hornswoggle is also known for mischief making and may have caused the ruckus with the equipment. Kozlov's smile could be some deluded sense of fixing the problem by (off camera) attacking a visiting Hornswoggle and/or taking out Finlay for sticking up for his son. Curiosity has me on that one. The main event tag match gave the Hart Dynasty a needed win. Christian was the wiser choice to take the loss, as it fit better for the Dreamer save and stare down leading to Monday. I liked how there was no attempt at Christian and Swagger getting along. It was some time ago (Michaels/Kennedy vs. Haas/Murdoch, January 2008 in a Raw Roulette "Strange Bedfellows" match), but I gave kudos that last time when enemies-as-partners were booked this way. It shouldn't be so often to kill the mystique, but it's more realistic to see. Kidd's long-distance moonsault was just as sweet as Bourne's SSP. A solid little TV package put together this week.

-- 6/12 WWE Smackdown Reax

Terrie Neilson of Las Vegas, Nev. (8.5): Best: opening segment; Edge vs. Jeff. Worst: Khali vs. Dolph. What a difference a day makes. Smackdown didn't leave me with nearly as many unanswered questions as TNA Impact did. I got my question answered about how Punk was coming out of cashing in the Money in the Bank case. The door was open to turn him heel, but something key was missing. If Punk were going for Straight Edge heel he would have to follow the exploitation path with Jeff. Instead, WWE chose to acknowledge that cashing in wasn't a popular decision; it was just one that was following the essence of what the MITB contract is. It's simple and credible and not easy to dispute. Edge did his usual party-crashing to buffer the
majority of the noise against Punk with Hardy in the ring at the same time. The list of Punk emulating Edge had one glaring omission: Punk cashed in on Edge the first time in 2008. Both Edge and Jeff stated their cases very well on their rights to a re-match. Booking a contenders match comes across as a fair way to handle the situation of who's in line first. Jericho would seem to follow since he's the IC champion. JR wondered aloud about that point in a more "devil's advocate" fashion, and Long even put over the issue. It would continue to be an appropriate argument made during the Punk-Jericho match. The Khali-Dolph feud needs to be over now; I'm done being patient with it. The divas tag match was sloppy with a predictable challenger-gets-non-title-match win finish. The Hass/Benjamin vs. Morrison/Truth match left me feeling that the IC title picture is lying in wait while WWE tries to figure out what to do with Chris Jericho. I'm very sure that neither Edge nor Jeff were selling much in the way of injuries in the main event. But they managed to pull off a decent match considering. Somewhere, I figured a triple threat was coming, especially in the spot where Edge launched Hardy at Punk. My only complain about that was that it became predictable. Punk stood tall at the end. The usual has been busted recently (Dreamer holds the ECW title after standing tall twice in the build toward). Hopefully another one of those is being planned. A loss now for Punk the MITB credibility is all but shot. Raw is top- loaded on Monday for three hours. Hopefully it won't be bottom-feeding to fill in the rest of the time.

We welcome your 0-10 score and comments on this show for a "TNA TV Reax" feature in the Torch Feedback section of PWTorch.com. Just to add a twist to this feature, include not just your hometown, but also your occupation (mechanic, lawyer, stay-at-home-dad, college student, etc.) so readers get a flavor for what everyone does as "day jobs." To contribute your thoughts on Impact, click here.

We welcome your 0-10 score and comments on these shows for a "TV Reax" feature in the Torch Feedback section of PWTorch.com. Just to add a twist to this feature, include not just your hometown, but also your occupation (mechanic, lawyer, stay-at-home-dad, college student, etc.) so readers get a flavor for what everyone does as "day jobs." To contribute your thoughts on ECW and SD, click here.

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