James Caldwell, Torch Assistant Editor (3.5)

This week's Thunder...er...ECW TV wasn't a disaster like last week's first "FCW national TV special," but the show didn't have much life to it. I liked the Shelton Benjamin vs. Yoshi Tatsu match and I liked Tommy Dreamer on commentary for the main event, but the rest of the show was weak.

First, the Abraham Washington show. Wasn't as bad as last week, then again AHam could have just recited the Declaration of Independence in a "Bueller...Bueller" voice and it would have been an upgrade. WWE's joke material is so tired, dated, stale, hackneyed, and eye-rolling. Apparently 2001 just arrived in the WWE bubble with a Snoop Dogg joke. Follow that up with a Jenny Craig line and I'm ready to watch Undertaker vs. Damien Demento. Bad segment.

Christian vs. Kozlov was very short for a #1 contender's match. Then again, if it had gone two more minutes with Kozlov settling into some rest holds, I would have complained it was too short. Basically, you can't win with Kozlov working a match with something on the line. Christian didn't stand out much in the victory, as the focus was more on making fun of Dreamer (cause that's not played out already!).

Ezekiel Jackson returned to WWE TV...and they botched a squash match. Not sure if it was the jobber's fault or Zeke's fault, but there were two blown spots in there. Rough day at the office. ... Bellas doing the ol switcheroo routine on Katie Lea was what it was. At least they weren't play-fighting over their weaves.

Dominick Mayer, PWTorch.com Contributor (6.0)

This week's show essentially had the task of running damage control after last week's quasi-successful reboot. The results were mixed. The Bella match with Katie Lea was good, but I think the switch-up between the twins is more of a heel move than a face one; it reminded me of Finlay using a weapon to end every match and getting cheered. Ezekiel Jackson looked good in his return. The Benjamin-Tatsu match was good, but Benjamin looked dominant throughout, and with him getting the win I'm curious to see where Tatsu goes from here, especially when the crowd was popping pretty huge for him.

The Abraham Washington segment was a dud again, enough so that they really need to take a new tact with him. Tommy Dreamer tried his best to make that work, but it still didn't work. The booking at the end was uneven, because all the build was to a Dreamer-Kozlov match, only to have the "swerve" of Christian getting the shot. That just made no sense in context of the rest of the show. Also, I find it interesting that Seamus, who probably looked the best of the new recruits last week, was MIA this week.

Greg Parks, PWTorch.com Contributor (4.5)

Boy, this "new talent initiative" sure hasn't done much to improve the ECW show. In fact, there was nothing really wrong with it in the first place prior to the big 15-person trade that pillaged ECW's roster. The opening match with the Bellas was OK, but I thought they've moved beyond the double-switch, which they were doing when they first debuted. And did they already drop the feud it appeared they were starting with them last week?

I like how the announcers acted as if this was Ezekiel Jackson's WWE debut, saying he was part of the new talent initiative, even though he was taken in the Supplemental Draft. He's got the look, but beyond that, who knows if he can put a decent match together. I wasn't that impressed with Yoshitatsu vs. Shelton Benjamin. Didn't really stand out in my eyes. The main event was fine and other than Tommy Dreamer's opening over-exuberance on commentary, he did well there. As for Abraham Washington, at least they seem to be turning him heel instead of having him play the straight man as he did last week.

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