Opening Segment: ECW got off to a pretty good start this week. It was not nearly as good as Raw’s opening, but good for ECW. Miz cut a solid promo to start the show. It followed up nicely on what happened the previous week between him and John Morrison and Big Daddy V. It also followed up on Kelly Kelly going against Miz’s demands and actually going out with Balls Mahoney. The opening continued to advance multiple storylines which was good. John Morrison was good on the mic as well in insulting Miz and making his case for being CM Punk’s opponent at Cyber Sunday. The segment ended well with the run-ins by Mahoney and Punk. It is too bad there was too much heel vs. heel promo time so that the fans couldn’t get more into the opening (more later). But it was still good enough to get a Hit. Unfortunately, the show went downhill from there, as nothing else was Hit worthy.
ECW MISSES
Big Daddy V vs. Kane: This match was exactly what everyone was expecting it to be, which isn’t very good. They kept it short which is good, and it had a commercial break interrupt it which was also good. I don’t usually root for a commercial, but in this case I did. Last week on Smackdown, I was thinking that despite his many shortcomings in the ring, I would much rather see Mark Henry on Smackdown attacking Kane than Big Daddy V. I guess I should be careful about what I wish for. Because, now in addition to Big Daddy V fighting Kane, we also have Mark Henry and The Great Khali! I can’t imagine anyone out there actually looking forward to their Monster Mash Battle Royale next week.
Main Event: This was a disappointment for me. I know that Balls isn’t the greatest worker in the world, but with Punk and Morrison in the match, and even the Miz, I was expecting more. The problem here wasn’t the effort by the wrestlers. The problem was that whoever booked the match, really didn’t allow for anything exciting to happen. It was the bare-bones WWE-style typical tag team formula match. I can accept this type of booking for an under card tag match. But, when it is the Main Event, and you involve the ECW World Heavyweight Champion, a former Champion, and a possible future challenger, you should do something more than just the typical formula. I got bored watching Balls take the very prolonged beating (even more so than typical tag matches due to this match being longer than most t.v. tag matches). Yes, the Miz hit some nice moves, and Morrison got to show off his athleticism, and Punk got to hit his signature moves when he got the hot tag. But, none of that made up for the boring match.
Where are the Faces?: The biggest problem on this show was the lack of babyfaces. The fact that the opening segment featured two heels for the most part almost kept it out of the Hit column. In order to have a Big Daddy V feud, they have to bring in a face from Smackdown. And in doing that, they also brought in two heels as well. Elijah Burke vs. Nunzio was a solid match, but there was nobody for the fans to cheer for. ECW creative doesn’t have faith in Balls Mahoney as a face, or they would have booked the Main Event in a more creative way instead of just having him take a very long beating. Punk is the only face on the show who is treated as someone that the fans really care about, which leads to the fans only caring about him. Balls has had a nice feud with Miz, and a budding relationship with Kelly that is finally getting underway. But in the ring, he is constantly taking a beating, so it is hard for the fans to get behind him. Where has Tommy Dreamer been since getting destroyed by Big Daddy V? What about Stevie Richards? He was getting a nice push and getting decent reactions, at least decent enough to build on them in order to get bigger and better reactions. But they stopped building on his momentum and now he is no where to be found. I was thrilled with the news last week that it looked like ECW’s days were numbered. But now they have signed an extension with Sci-Fi, meaning that the show will be around for at least 14 more months. So, WWE has to do something to make fans want to reinvest in the brand, and having some Smackdown wrestlers show up each week isn’t the answer. But developing a few more top babyfaces who actually connect with the crowd to counter balance Miz, Morrison, Burke, and V is essential.
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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