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By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

ECW HITS

Extreme Rules Tag: Tommy Dreamer & Colin Delaney vs. The Miz & John Morrison was a fun Extreme Rules match. This worked in part because WWE doesn’t do these types of matches that often, as opposed to the days of the Hardcore Title. This was the first time that Delaney got to show that he can actually do some wrestling moves. Of course, most of his offense consisted of using weapons, so it will be interesting down the line to see what he can do in a regular non-squash match. The “What’s Up?” flying headbutt with the football helmet was a very fun spot. I was impressed by Morrison’s moonsault with the trash can onto Delaney on the outside. This was a great tease as it really looked like Dreamer & Delaney were going to win the Tag Team Championship. Ultimately, this helps Miz & Morrison as they were able to triumph out of their element.

Overall Wrestling: I would have to say that the overall wrestling action on ECW this week was very solid. While the Extreme Rules match was not a traditional match, it was still fun to watch and had some good action. Other than the Great Khali squashing Stevie Richards, the other matches were all enjoyable, although none stick out as individual Hits. Deuce vs. Kofi Kingston was just a short match to highlight Kingston, but it worked. That was the best he has looked in a match, which is an important development, as he has been steadily improving. WWE seems behind giving him a push (for now) and he needs to look more like he did here than he did when he first debuted. Festus vs. Elijah Burke made little sense from a booking standpoint, but I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t a squash. Burke actually got in a good amount of offense. It was nice to see Festus actually having to sell. We hadn’t seen that before, as he has always just ran through opponents after getting a hot tag. The Main Event wasn’t great, but what Big Daddy V match is? It was solid though, and it had a nice David vs. Goliath feel. It was well booked to have Punk trying to get the monster off his feet. The count out victory made perfect sense in this instance. I liked that Punk was counting with the referee. He has had his problems with V in the past, and this was an important match for him, so of course he would be excited about getting a win in any way possible. These matches show that there is talent on the ECW roster and WWE has to find a way to better utilize it.

ECW MISSES

Khali Squashes Richards: I was disappointed last week when Stevie Richards’ push seemed to come to an end when he lost to Shelton Benjamin, although it was a good match. I understood though that Benjamin is being built up going into WrestleMania and with the thin roster, it made sense to give him a win over the rising Richards. But this week, there is no excuse to have him job out to the Great Khali. This match should not have happened at all. Khali should not have been on the show. After Armando Estrada announced the Battle Royale at WrestleMania, Chavo Guerrero should have come out to address the 24 potential challengers for his ECW Championship. That would have been a better use of the time. It is interesting that Mike Knox is back in the picture attacking Richards after the match. Apparently the same thing happened last week on a WWE Mobile alert, but the vast majority of fans who don’t have WWE Mobile were left out in the dark. WWE didn’t even bother to show the footage from last week. They are trying to rebuild Knox at the expense of Richards, but Richards has to be reestablished in order for that to work, and he isn’t going to get there when he is squashed like this.

Festus Beats Burke: While the match was better than expected, I don’t understand why Elijah Burke would lose to Festus. Festus is a tag team wrestler from Smackdown, and Elijah Burke is one of the top midcard wrestlers on ECW. It makes no sense. Just two weeks ago, Burke was in a triple threat #1 Contenders match with Shelton Benjamin and CM Punk. Now he is losing to a tag team wrestler. Why? He could have faced Stevie Richards. Before the match, WWE could have shown the WWE Mobile of Knox attacking Richards the week before. Then, after a competitive match, Knox could have distracted Richards allowing Burke to get the win. That would have kept Burke strong, without hurting Richards, and would have been better to advance the Richards vs. Knox feud. Festus gained nothing from his win, but Burke was hurt.

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.

For another view from the original Hitlist author, compare Jason Powell's views to mine by visiting prowrestling.NET's "Hitlist" section here.

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