By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

This was a solid ECW. There was nothing wrong with any of the original content. However, that is not to say that all of the original content was good. Most of it was just o.k. Dreamer vs. Delaney was an o.k. hardcore style match that we’ve seen many times before. Delaney played his part well, but there wasn’t much to the match. Miz & Morrison gave a solid interview with Lena Yada, but it wasn’t good enough to get a Hit. Bourne vs. Neely was another fun showing from Bourne, but we’ve seen the same from him before. I liked his performance in his tag match last week a little more. Finlay vs. Estrada was decent, but nothing special. The strategy session between Matt Hardy and Mark Henry was decent as well. There was a lot going on in this show, and while I didn’t think much of it was that good, very little of it was bad either.

ECW HITS

Ricky Ortiz: I am starting to enjoy the character of Ricky Ortiz. It is still a work in progress, and I’m not sure if I’m supposed to like him or not, but I did enjoy his sales pitch to Teddy Long. I like how he is obsessed with being undefeated, yet is the first to point out that he has only had a few matches. We’ve seen him pitch merchandise ideas to Long before, so it was nice to see that return with his Ricky O-Ralley Rag. I also like how when Long told him he has to continue to prove himself, he accepted it and welcomed the competition next week.

Main Event: This wasn’t a great tag team match, but it was fun to watch. It had some good action, but never really got going. The reason that I am giving it a Hit is that I really liked the ending. Having Matt Hardy win the match out of nowhere with a middle rope Side Effect was a surprise. I have mixed feelings about John Morrison getting pinned in that way, but I like the fact that Hardy won a match with his set up move. That will lead to more convincing near falls with the Side Effect in the future, as opposed to the past when the announcers act surprised that Hardy’s opponent kicked out despite the fact that he never wins with that move. But now, he has won with it. It also kept the match from being the traditional WWE tag team formula. Mark Henry was really good here. Because he is slow and plodding in the ring, he doesn’t get enough credit for what he does well. His facial reactions during and after the match were very good. The ending was predictable, but worked well.

Matt Striker: With the exception of the reference to Duke “the dumpster” Droese, Matt Striker had a good week in his second ECW as color commentator. Like Ortiz, he is a work in progress. He certainly has a long way to go, but he improved in his second week, and his first week was good to begin with. He seems to be playing the part as a true analyst and not a heel or a babyface which is good. He is obviously a natural heel, and I assumed he would be playing up that part. But, Striker isn’t going that route. This is probably more of a challenge for him and I am glad he is taking that challenge. He was able to keep his character traits at the same time with some of his big words, his slightly condescending attitude towards Todd Grisham, and some funny lines like when he said that nobody likes arrogant people. If this does become permanent, I could live with him on ECW each week.

ECW MISSES

Replays: Once again, ECW’s 1 hour was taken up by way too much non-original content. In the middle of Miz & Morrison’s interview, they showed a long video replay of their Dirt Sheet segment from the week before. Later, there was a long Smackdown rebound, just for those few fans who watch ECW, but missed Smackdown. That is more of a possibility this week than most since Smackdown was up against the Olympics opening ceremony. However, WWE showed the same Smackdown video on Raw, and I just can’t imagine too many people out there who missed it on Smackdown, and missed the replay on Raw, but were tuning in to watch ECW. Then they showed a Slam of the Week, which is typical, but this one seemed much longer than usual as it focussed on the John Cena - Batista feud. Give more original content. Let some of those decent matches listed above an extra minute or so. We don’t need to see so many replays on a show that has such a small audience.

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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