Fatal Four Way: After a less than thrilling start to ECW (more later), things picked up nicely with the opening match between Elijah Burke, Kevin Thorn, Tommy Dreamer, and Stevie Richards. While the match was not great, it was good and went a good length. It was sloppy at times and a little slow paced, but there was still plenty of action and all four guys did a good job of putting on a show for the fans. I was worried given the slightly different stipulations than a normal fatal four way (only one loser and three winners) that they would ignore logic and have some of the wrestlers break up pin attempts. But luckily the announcers backed up my thoughts and the wrestlers had the logic to their match that I was hoping for. Presumably, Burke will be victorious in this Elimination Chase to No Mercy, but other than that, it was pretty wide open as to who would be the first eliminated, so that added some fun to the match.
Punk and Burke: CM Punk and Elijah Burke had a good short meeting in the back. Their brief exchange worked well and was a strong indication that Burke will be Punk’s opponent at No Mercy. It was nice because it was a follow up on one of Punk’s recent statements about not needing luck. I like when they bring up a statement from the past and use it again. That means at least a little bit of thought is going into writing the promos.
Balls Mahoney: Balls Mahoney is playing his love struck role very well. His match with Mike Knox was short and very forgettable, but the storyline advancement was what was important. And that storyline continued to progress nicely as Balls finally got up the balls to ask Kelly Kelly out. Her reaction was very good to the question, and Miz and the rest of the Extreme Expose girls played their roles well too. All in all, it was a good performance from everyone involved, particularly Balls Mahoney, and I continue to look forward to watching this story progress.
ECW MISSES
Opening Segment: ECW did not get off to a good start this week. It was o.k. when Elijah Burke came out to start things off. His promo was decent, but not particularly good. Kevin Thorne came out and broke some of his mystique with his promo, talking way more than we’ve ever heard before (was it just me or did he sound exactly like Robert Roode?). Things continued on as Dreamer and Richards came out. Nobody had anything interesting to say. It really reminded me of how Smackdown has handled many of these “Who gets the title shot?” moments over the years (much more so than Raw). A bunch of wrestlers come out to claim the #1 Contendership only to have the authority figure book some sort of series of matches (or one big match like a Battle Royale) to determine the #1 Contender. I don’t understand how Armando Estrada come up with his Elimination Chase to No Mercy idea so quickly. He came out after the four wrestlers made their seemingly random claims and put them all in a series of matches over the next three weeks as if he had this idea already. That annoys me. It just wasn’t a good way to start the show, but the next few weeks has a chance of having some nice matches on the way to No Mercy.
Main Event: The only thing redeeming about Big Daddy V vs. The Boogeyman is that it should be the end of their feud. It was slow and plodding and ugly to watch. It should have been the opening match (or in the middle of the show) and the Fatal Four Way should have been the Main Event. At least that would have given the fans an enjoyable match to watch. They built it up starting last week, and the feud has been going for quite awhile. That made its Main Event slot make sense. But the match itself was a total squash as Boogeyman got zero offense in. Main Events should not be squashes. But at least it was kept short. Hopefully this will be the end of the feud and we won’t be subjected to any more of these matches.
Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's Hitlist Specialist, providing his point of view in the Torch's hitlist format for Raw, Smackdown, ECW, and TNA Impact each week. Email him at jmezz-torch@sbcglobal.net.
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