By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

ECW HITS

Morrison vs. Bourne: Matt Striker called this a Match of the Year candidate. I don't know if I would go that far, but it was great. It was certainly one of the best free tv matches of the year so far, and one of the best ECW matches ever. It went 18 minutes and featured so much great action, high flying moves, mat work, strikes and kicks, submission holds, and it told a story. John Morrison looked great. He did a good job of trying to ground Evan Bourne. His submission hold mid-match might have been a bit too long, but it was different. It looked better and more punishing than a simple head lock. And, there was so much high flying offense, that who cares if there was a long rest hold in the middle? Bourne did some amazing aerial feats as you'd expect, but Morrison showed his flying ability as well, particularly the enziguri to Bourne on the top rope that led to the finish. Two spots stood out. The first was when Morrison jumped into the ring with a surprise dropkick to Bourne's knee. The second mirrored that move, when Bourne surprised Morrison with a cross body out of the ring. They took advantage of each other's lack of concentration in similar ways. It is nice touches like that that made the match so good.

Tiffany - Swagger: This was a nice scene between ECW General Manager Tiffany (she has to get a last name) and ECW Champion Jack Swagger. It continued the bit of tension between the two that was started last week when Tiffany was announced as the interim GM. What I like about it so far is that it isn't totally antagonistic. You could tell Swagger was annoyed that she didn't use his suggestion, but she wasn't upset at him. It wasn't over the top. She even complimented his match vs. John Cena from Raw. I also like the fact that she announced the finals of the Championship Chase for the debut of Superstars. There isn't much time between WrestleMania and Backlash, and setting up a #1 contender for the ECW Title in a three match series means that without Superstars, the #1 contender would be announced on the last ECW before the PPV. This way, there will at least be one full week of knowing the #1 contender for some type of interaction between him and Swagger on ECW next week. Hopefully, Superstars will be used in this way fairly often.

Triple Threat Main Event: Round 2 of the Elimination Chase was much better than Round 1. I still am not a fan of the fact that there is no advantage to getting the pinfall, as the other wrestler who isn't pinned is just as much a winner. But, it was nice to hear the announcers say what many fans were thinking, that Christian should stay tied up at the end, so he couldn't be eliminated. The match featured better wrestling than the fatal four way last week. I was never bored this week. Christian, Finlay and Tommy Dreamer worked hard in the match. It was well booked and went 15 minutes. The last few minutes were particularly strong with a series of near falls. It was a good main event.

ECW MISSES

None: I really can 't find anything to complain about. Sure, I could complain about Vladimir Kozlov's squash, but I won't. I don't need to see him squash jobbers at this point, but I understand why WWE is doing it. He hasn't hardly even been on Smackdown the last month or so, and now he is on a new show, so they want to establish him as a dominant force once again. I don't agree with it being necessary, but I understand it, and if they don't do it too much it will be fine. Last week I complained about Josh Mathews. He wasn't as bad this week. I still miss the team of Todd Grisham and Matt Striker on commentary, but Mathews and Striker were better together this week than last, and hopefully they will continue to improve. Also, there were no video packages! Really, I should probably give that fact a Hit. At one point, Mathews and Striker talked briefly about the Triple H vs. Randy Orton feud. I was about to leave the room assuming they were going to go to a long video recap of the feud. Instead, they moved on to talk about the supplemental draft, then it cut backstage to Tiffany and the Burchills. After that, they didn't even hint at a recap video. And, I doubt anyone missed them.

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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