Dominick Mayer, PWTorch.com Contributor (6.0)

This is what I was worried about. Now that the Homecoming angle no longer has the weekly focus, ECW is once again a show in search of a purpose. There was some good development of Baretta & Croft, who (deliberately or not) are obnoxiously dated in the best way. The Santino show fell absolutely flat, but I'd give it another week. Marella can be hysterical, and having him debut with a black hole of charisma as his guest didn't help. The main event was excellent, and showed that even though the Regal-Christian program got a nice run, there could be more to it; this was better than most of the matches they had feuding over the belt. In the meantime, Zeke Jackson gets the Royal Rumble to prove that either a) he belongs in a title feud of some kind or b) he should've never been split up with Kozlov. I'm hoping for A, otherwise the next few weeks of TV (and that match, for that matter) are going to be brutal.

Jon Mezzera, PWTorch.com Contributor (6.5)

With one huge exception, I enjoyed ECW. I liked Baretta & Croft vs. Tatsu & Goldust. I've enjoyed this feud. The match could have gone longer and I wouldn't have complained. Baretta & Croft are showing something. They cheated to win suggesting a rematch for Yoshi Tatsu and Goldust which I won't complain about. I also liked Zack Ryder's promo. The segment would have worked better if he had cheated to beat Hurricane last week, as it seemed like sour grapes for Hurricane to attack him this week. But, this feud has potential and I want to see it continue.

The highlight of the show was the main event. William Regal and Christian put on a very good match. I liked the chain wrestling early on. I liked that it got more physical as it proceeded. The kick to Christian's head knocking it into the ring post from Regal was devastating. It built very well with the counters and near-falls to the end with the DQ from Ezekiel Jackson. That and the subsequent beat down of Christian was very effective in selling their upcoming PPV match.

The one huge exception that I mentioned was the horrible start to the ECW with The Abraham Washington Show. I'm a fan of Santino Marella's, but this made me miss Abraham Washington. At least his jokes are supposed to be bad. I'm not sure if Marella's jokes were supposed to be funny or not. I know that they weren't funny and that they bombed with the live crowd, as did the segment as a whole. Vladimir Kozlov as a babyface isn't working. The attempt is a failure so far. This was one of the most excruciating segments to have to sit through in WWE history.

Greg Parks, Torch Columnist (5.5)

I don't get it: How can you have a talk show air at this point and NOT throw in a comment about the Leno-Conan O'Brien-NBC situation? Unforgivable. The rest of the segment was awful too, but Vladimir Kozlov was unintentionally funny a few times. If that's their best idea to get Kozlov over as a face....yikes. This wasn't Santino's best material either.

The main event was a very good match that at times looked like a real fight, which is what too few matches these days have going for them. The mid-show tag match was OK, but bring back Croft and Baretta's old music! Zack Ryder's promo was fine to continue his feud with The Hurricane. I'm sure they'll mix it up in the Rumble match.

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