By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

ECW HITS

6 Man Tag: This was an exciting 15 minutes of wrestling. Primo, Evan Bourne and Tyson Kidd are high flying young wrestlers with (hopefully) bright futures ahead of themselves. John Morrison has turned into a very good all around performer. Remember when Jeff Hardy made fun of his promos by watching paint dry? That wouldn't work any more, and his in ring ability has improved as well. The Miz has shown that he deserves a spot on the roster for his mic work, as well as his in ring work, not just because he once was a celebreality star. Carlito has had an up and down career, sometimes looking like he deserves a huge push, other times looking like he is just going through the motions. It seems that having his brother around has inspired him. I enjoy watching all six of these guys, and really enjoyed all six in the ring at the same time.

ECW MISSES

Josh Mathews: I have said before that instead of having Todd Grisham doing interviews on Raw, they should use Josh Mathews instead. I don't mind him as an announcer, but I was disappointed to see Grisham and Matt Striker broken up as a team. They've done a very good job together. I didn't know Grisham's fate while watching ECW, but I now know he has been moved to Smackdown, which makes little sense. Neither he, nor Jim Ross should be doing color commentary. Mathews would be better at color than Grisham, as he has at least a small in ring background. Both Mathews and Grisham are dorks, but Grisham's dorkiness seems natural, and his chemistry with Striker was as well. Mathews comes across like an actor playing the part of a dorky announcer. It is more forced. He can get better and the chemistry between him and Striker can improve. But, this doesn't seem like the best solution to losing Tazz.

Opening Segment: This was not bad, but it was uninspired. WWE has presumably had the idea to shift Vickie Guerrero to Raw for awhile. You'd think they would therefore have a plan to replace her on Smackdown. I like Teddy Long, so I'm fine having him on Smackdown. But, this seems like what you would do if you were unexpectedly put in the position of having to replace the Smackdown GM. In other words, if Vickie had quit, and they had to scramble to fill her position, it would make sense to shift Long, and elevate his assistant Tiffany (now that she's the GM, will she get a last name?) to replace him. But, knowing that this was coming, it strikes me as lazy booking. That's the best they could come up with? It isn't bad. Tiffany does a fine job on the mic and she has confidence in her role, but only time will tell if she will be good in the part. Another problem with the opening was the interruption by Jack Swagger. It made sense. But again, it was uninspired. He was an ass and played his part well, but his interaction with Tiffany didn't have sparks. Her announcement of the Elimination Chase was lame. Was it supposed to upset Swagger? I know ECW did this last year, but she still should have explained the rules. They were explained as the night proceeded, but a better initial explanation would have been nice. Another problem was that I wasn't excited about any of the possible #1 contenders. Other than Christian, I don't want to see any of the others face Swagger in a match, and we just saw Christian vs. Swagger not that long ago. I will once again use the term uninspired.

Fatal Four Way: This match bored me. I found myself zoning out. Part of the problem is what I said above, not caring about the winner. That has to do with the participants, but also in the way the match was structured. The winner, as in the wrestler who actually gets the pinfall, is totally inconsequential. All that matters is the wrestler who gets pinned. That takes away from the drama. It doesn't matter that Finlay got the pin. All that matters is that Mark Henry got pinned. The quality of the actual wrestling wasn't high enough to over come my disinterest in the match. Henry has lost countless times over the last year after getting hit in the head with the shillelagh that it has become common place. It is way beyond redundant at this point. I would have preferred keeping Henry around longer. I assume Christian is going to win in the end, so I would rather have gotten the tired Finlay out of the Chase right away.

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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