By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

ECW HITS

Opening Segment: ECW got off to a good start with the special appearance by Ric Flair. Flair cut a solid promo about being the first active wrestler inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. The interruptions by both Elijah Burke and Shelton Benjamin worked well. Burke shouldn’t be bringing up the New Breed at this point, seeing as how that angle played itself out months and months ago. But, it was good to see Burke in a meaningful role on ECW. He has too much potential to not be utilized more. He was the one who brought Benjamin to ECW, so it was nice to see them acknowledge that they have no problems with each other. I loved Flair’s line about their combined careers never coming close to his sixteen world championships. The brief brawl that followed, including CM Punk’s save worked well to set up the Main Event.

Giving Kofi Mic Time: Note, this Hit is for the fact that after yet another squash win for Kofi Kingston, Joey Styles joined him in the ring to give him some mic time, not for the actual promo itself. This is the first time we’ve heard him speak since his introductory vignettes and it was good that WWE gave him a chance to talk. The promo itself wasn’t anything special. It wasn’t bad, just not good. It started out well with his first few lines about ECW being paradise to him, but then he should have stopped before the silly “boom, boom, boom” line. He should probably rethink that catchphrase. But, if he is ever going to get over with the crowd, it isn’t just going to be because he does some unusual things in the ring.

Main Event: Benjamin & Burke vs. Flair & Punk was a good t.v. Main Event. It wasn’t great, and there were some sloppy spots, but it was still good. There was a lot of energy in the match, and it never got boring. The crowd got to actually see Flair hit a move from the top turnbuckle, which is always a nice bonus. After the first attempt was botched, Benjamin and Punk delivered a nice spot where Punk avoided a powerbomb into the corner and hit Benjamin with a crazy enziguiri. It is too bad it happened on the second attempt. The match had a good finishing sequence as Punk cleared Benjamin out of the ring, Burke missed the Elijah Express, and Flair finished him off with the Figure 4. The respect shown to Flair by Tazz, Styles, and Punk throughout the broadcast was touching as well.

ECW MISSES

Where Was the Champ?: There wasn’t a lot to complain about this week. My one complaint is the absence of ECW Champion Chavo Guerrero. He is the Champion of this brand, so he should be on in some way every week. He had a big successful title defense against his rival at No Way Out. He should have had at least some promo time to gloat over that victory. WWE wanted to focus on Punk teaming with Ric Flair, but that hurt the importance of the title, as Punk lost his chance to win it back, but never addressed that either. Even a simple backstage promo from Guerrero would have been sufficient to put over his title win at the PPV. It doesn’t take much to actually make the Champion and the Championship seem like a big deal.

Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw, Smackdown, ECW, and TNA Impact each week. Email him at jmezz-torch@sbcglobal.net.

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