James Caldwell, Torch Assistant Editor (6.5)

A mild thumbs up for this week's show based on the strength of C.M. Punk's involvement. WWE teased and teased and teased the audience with a giant dangling carrot of C.M. Punk vs. Christian for the first-time in a singles match at the Royal Rumble with the ECW Title on the line. Perhaps that's why they saved Punk for the last week of qualifying matches to begin a four-week build-up if Punk wins the battle royal next week.

Punk's opening promo with Christian was terrific and he worked a very smart, formula match with Mark Henry that effectively filled 12 minutes of TV time, built up Henry for a strong comeback, and ended with Punk pulling out a victory via the bag of tricks. Punk told a great story with his facial expressions and body language working with Henry's limited, but effective in-ring ability. It was a fine main event.

Chavo Guerrero had a strong showing in the opening match with Shelton Benjamin, who fell in the Kofi Kingston category from Monday night of lacking some sort of edge or spunk to his character. Shelton at least was booked to win his match, but he's lost an edge after the TLC PPV build-up with Christian. Chavo, meanwhile, took it back to the old-school WCW Cruiserweight division with some of his moves during the match. It was apropos considering this week of remembering the first Monday Night Wars.

Zeke vs. Jackson was not poetry in motion. Sluggish, time-consuming match that certainly pushed people to their remote control. WWE hasn't given viewers a reason to emotionally-invest in the characters or their feud, which has changed too often for casual viewers to care about. ... Zack Ryder's promo on Tommy Dreamer was effective for only 45-60 seconds. They easily could have sliced off one minute from Zeke-Jackson and given it to Ryder to have a longer promo on the show.

Tony Donofrio, PWTorch.com Contributor (6.5)

Just another day at the office for ECW as they churned out a solid show, as they seem to do on a weekly basis. The highlight of the show was the first 10 minutes as we got to see CM Punk and Christian go back and forth on the mic. What I wouldn't give to see these two guys doing this on Smackdown over the World Heavyweight Title! Both of these guys are gold on the mic and this edition of ECW was no exception. Christian's line about "does straight edge mean that you don't shower for 2 weeks" had me "lol-ing" (for those that aren't internet geeks, that means 'laughing out loud'). Punk had a strong showing overall and his comments made the ECW Title seem important, which is a very good thing. Zack Ryder's short promo was nice and I'm hoping that he uses retiring Tommy Dreamer (at least from WWE/ECW) as a feather in his cap in the foreseeable future.

As far as in-ring action goes, there was only one big complaint and it is an obvious one. Ezekiel Jackson and Vladimir Kozlov were very hard to watch in a match-up. The crowd was absolutely DEAD for this one too...and I actually can't blame them. No one will probably ever want to cheer for Kozlov (however, I did at one time thing the same thing to be true for The Great Khali). I still don't understand the reasoning behind trying to get him over as a face. It's not like he's John Cena and you can force feed this! Love him or not, Cena at least has charisma. Kozlov has the charisma of a nail. However, enough of the negatives. Chavo Guerrero and Shelton Benjamin put on a decent show. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a five-star classic, but it was a solid match. Shelton was the obvious one to go over in this match, but as I always say, sometimes the obvious thing is the right thing. Punk and Mark Henry also put on a solid match with Punk winning in "Heel 101" fashion with help from Luke "don't call me Festus" Gallows. After talking with a friend of mine, we discovered that The Miz and John Morrison were not given ECW Homecoming qualifying matches. Don't be surprised if at least one of those two somehow get added to next week's battle royal and win it. But overall, another decent show from the land of the not-so extreme.

Dominick Mayer, PWTorch.com Contributor (7.0)

Another good show, though the time is drawing close for questions to be raised and hopefully answered. After this battle royal, what next? The opening promo raised an interesting possible answer to that question. Given Punk is rapidly getting lost in the shuffle on Smackdown, maybe a step back for a little while is in order. He and Christian could have quite the feud. Also, "what next" is essential when the most built-up feud on the show (Kozlov-Jackson) has now officially been proven to be a dud, judging by the crowd's complete indifference and the overwhelming mediocrity of the match. Shelton-Chavo was a gimme conclusion from the start, but it was reassuring to remember that for all the moronic sketches, Chavo can still work a solid mid-card match when called upon. The main event was also pretty strong, as Punk played his character perfectly while also creating enough movement to keep things exciting for twelve minutes. As I said before, strong show, but you have to wonder where this show is headed after the Royal Rumble.

Greg Parks, Torch Columnist (6.0)

There wasn't much in the way of good in-ring work here. Chavo vs. Benjamin was fine, and I'm sure Guerrero was amped at the chance to work an actual match instead of clowning around with Hornswoggle. He sure showed that enthusiasm in the ring. I feel bad for the agent of the Jackson vs. Kozlov match, having been given six minutes to work with. This feud has been terrible from the start, as neither man can go in the ring and we don't really know why we should be cheering Kozlov, who looked like a heel when the feud was first born out.

I'm hoping Punk wins the over-the-top-rope challenge next week and faces Christian at the Rumble. His work against Mark Henry wasn't too bad, but I was disappointed Henry didn't take Tony Atlas up on his offer to accompany Henry to the ring. Those were good times. I liked the follow-up on Tommy Dreamer leaving last week via a Zack Ryder interview. That was smart to put him over even more.

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