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ECW HITS

Push For Richards: It has been good to see Stevie Richards back on ECW the last few weeks. He seemed to be starting to get a push last year in his inclusion in a mini-tournament to determine a #1 Contender for the ECW Championship. Then he disappeared. As we’ve recently found out, he had to have another in a long line of surgeries. So far, his return has been handled very well, from his sit down interview with Joey Styles, to his work with jobbers reintroducing him to fans. I don’t know if the sympathetic babyface gimmick will work. It has potential and time will tell. But, he is a talented wrestler and talker. He can be used in many different ways to improve this show, and so far things are off to a good start.

Dreamer & Delaney: The relationship between Tommy Dreamer and Colin Delaney was advanced nicely this week. It was good to see some of the bandages come off of Delaney. The pre-match backstage moment between the two was very good. Dreamer was solid in his pep talk to Delaney and Delaney was hilarious in asking Dreamer about the chance of getting his own music some day. Their match against the Tag Team Champs wasn’t great from a wrestling prospective, but it was very fun to watch. I liked seeing Delaney get a little cocky in tagging himself into the match. We still got to see him take a beating so that was good too. The end was great as Dreamer capitalized on Delaney’s already injured head to get the win over the Miz. It will be fun to watch this story progress and to see these teams face again next week.

Shelton Benjamin: Shelton Benjamin saved the Main Event from being a Miss. There was a lot of talent in that ring, and I was greatly looking forward to the match. Unfortunately, there was too much sloppiness to give it a Hit. It had a good start, and a good build to the end of the match, but the middle had too many sloppy spots between CM Punk and Elijah Burke. They seemed at least a step off at times, maybe even two steps off. But, Benjamin was right on. I loved his kick to Burke at the beginning of the match. That was one of the best starts to a triple threat match that I can remember as it came out of nowhere. He also provided two great spots during the build to the finish. The first was when he jumped over Burke and Punk and flipped in the air to sunset flip Punk off the ring apron. That was awesome. As I said last week, I am always amazed when he jumps to the top rope like he did when he threw Burke off. Benjamin was on his game this week, and if Punk and Burke had been as well, that could have been a very good Main Event.

ECW MISSES

Chavo on Commentary: Another distraction during the Main Event was Chavo Guerrero doing guest commentary. He just wasn’t good. I complained last week that he wasn’t on the show, but maybe he should be kept off if he isn’t going to add to the broadcast. Under the right circumstances, Chavo can deliver on the mic. He isn’t great, but he can be good. That wasn’t the case this week. WWE has to know that some guys can pull off commentary like this. Edge is great at it, Randy Orton isn’t. That doesn’t mean that Orton can’t cut a promo or deliver in a conversation in the back. It just means he isn’t good at commentary and the same in true of Chavo. I like that he seemed confident in taking on any of the challengers, but that isn’t enough to justify giving him a headset.

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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