Mike Roe, Torch Specialist

4/8 ECW Hits & Misses: CM Punk vs. Miz, Hillary vs. Obama, and more!

ECW Hits

Tommy Dreamer versus Colin Delaney: It told a solid story, and while it was nothing special, it accomplished what it needed to. I'm intrigued to see where the tension between Estrada and Dreamer goes, where Dreamer's friendship with Delaney goes, and how Delaney ultimately gets his contract.

Armando Estrada's heel GM character: He seems to actually embrace some of the business side of being this kind of authority figure. He acts like a dick, but he also deals with things like meetings and contract signings. His continual screwing over of Colin Delaney has been fun.

Elijah Burke winning a match: He's a guy with so much potential, as he seems to have both athletic skills and charisma, but he somehow went from being a top heel on ECW, leading the New Breed faction, to practically being a jobber. I don't know that he should have been quite so competitive with Nunzio, but a step in the right direction. I also worry a little for how the match ended, as it looked like Nunzio landed badly, which didn't allow Burke to hit his finisher, but he still picked the guy up and clotheslined him. Probably relatively safe, but this might have been a situation where it would have been safer to just make a cover.

Kofi Kingston: He continues to look like he could be something special, but he could also just end up as a perpetual athletic midcarder (Shelton Benjamin comes to mind). Speaking of which, where was Shelton this week? Anyway, Kofi's great in the ring, but he needs more character evelopment than just being the Jamaican guy who smiles a lot, has fun matches, and does that weird self high-five or whatever.

ECW Misses

C.M. Punk versus the Miz: Unlike Wade and James, I did not, in fact, like this match. Morrison seemed uncomfortable on commentary, and the Miz certainly gave some awkward spots. I think this also needed a little more setup, like an inset promo from the Miz or Punk about what this match meant to either of them.

Chavo versus Kane contract signing: Gets a thumbs down for adding yet another random man to the Chavo/Edge/Rated R Entourage/Vickie Guerrero/Teddy Long faction without doing more to tie together the folks they already have. He looked solid, but nothing special so far, and it was a bit weird to have your new muscle show up wearing a suit and tie, keeping them on through the whole segment. It also takes away from Kane's monster aura to have him sitting at a desk and filling out paperwork like a geek.

WWE advertising a Hillary Clinton vs. Barack Obama match: I'm predicting that these two will not, in fact, be wrestling. I figure it'll be like the "Donald Trump" versus "Rosie O'Donnell" "match" (OK, too many quotes there) they did leading up to Donald Trump appearing on WWE television last year. That was, in fact, horrible, and I don't picture this being much better.

Waiting until end of show to hype Kane and Taker teaming on ECW next week: Why? Seems like something you might want to hype a bit more on your show that's been drawing in the mid-1's. I guess that's why I'm not working on WWE's promotions team, though.

Divas segment: Kelly Kelly and Eve won't be winning Academy awards anytime soon. Layla was really good here, but it ended flat without giving any real hint of what Eve's big announcement was going to be, thus not giving us any real reason to get involved or to think it's going to mean anything. Given the discussion of them both being diva search winners, though, I wouldn't be surprised to see it be something about this year's diva search, such as it being ECW exclusive this year or something like that.

Mike Roe is PWTorch.com's fill-in guy, providing his point of view on Raw, Smackdown, ECW, and TNA Impact until Hits & Misses Specialist Jon Mezzera gets home and kicks him to the curb for the inevitable walk of shame. He loves to hear from the readers, so e-mail him with your feedback at mikeroe@gmail.com!

We suggest these recent related articles...

10/5 WWE Raw Hits & Misses: Natalya vs. Paige, Owens vs. Cara, Stephanie McMahon, Sasha Banks, Xavier Woods

COLLECTIBLES COLUMN: The History of Foam Hands in Pro Wrestling

9/28 WWE Raw Hits & Misses: Kane's Split Personality, Divas Revolution, Heyman & Big Show, Reigns vs. Wyatt