By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

I have to start this week's ECW Hits & Misses with a redaction from last week. I gave Gregory Helms as a backstage announcer a Miss, because I wanted to see him in the ring. However, I said at the time that if I found out that he was hurt and unable to wrestle right now, that I would rescind the Miss. That is indeed the case for the former Hurricane. He is contemplating retirement and while doing so, and while waiting to be fully healthy, he is taking the interview position. It will keep him in the minds of the fans in case he does return to the ring, and could lead to a new career if he doesn't. I wish he were healthy as I would love to see him wrestle again, but not if it means possibly doing permanent damage to his neck.

ECW HITS

Bourne vs. Kidd: ECW got off to a good start with this 14 minute two-segment match. It isn't surprising that Evan Bourne and Tyson Kidd could put on a good high energy fun match which featured plenty of high flying innovative wrestling. The match went back and forth and never dragged for a second. Kidd has shown a lot of personality in the ring, particularly how he yells during submission holds. Finlay's attack made sense given the context of his feud with Kidd. It gives Kidd an excuse for losing, while allowing Bourne to hit the Shooting Star Press.

Mark Henry: It was good to see Mark Henry back on tv. I don't think he had been on since WrestleMania. I enjoyed his short and to the point interview with Helms. I like how he said he didn't need to reclaim his dominance on ECW. He also performed well in the ring.

Christian & Dreamer vs. Henry & Swagger: After the aborted main event of Christian vs. Henry, the real main event tag match happened, and it was a good match. It went 10 minutes and featured good tag team wrestling. Henry looked more focused in the ring, and he did a very nice job of showing anger and aggression. It was nice to see both Christian and then later Tommy Dreamer getting hot tags during the match. If WWE wants to continue the Dreamer angle, he has to be booked stronger than usual. Yes, he did take the loss in the end, but he looked strong up until that point, and Swagger cheated to win. It was interesting to see Tony Atlas working with Swagger to cheat. That was a nice touch. I assumed after last week that the Judgment Day ECW Title match would be turned into a triple threat, but now I am wondering if it will turn into a fatal four-way with Henry. Or maybe it will stay one on one.

ECW MISSES

Zack Ryder: Neither Zack Ryder, nor Curt Hawkins impressed me on Smackdown, as a team or individually. I don't have anything against them, but I just figured they wouldn't last very long after being split up in the draft. After all, they had hardly been on tv since the La Familia days. Even then, they weren't treated as anything other than lackeys. Now that Ryder has debuted with his new look on ECW, I don't see much has changed. Maybe this will give him a chance to show some personality, but the gimmick came off as very lame. Things can change, and it might be good down the road, but first impressions are important, and this one sucked.

"Iron Curtain": As I said last week, I don't care to see Vladimir Kozlov used as the angry foreigner anti-American character. Unless I am mistaken, this was the first time that his finisher has been called the "Iron Curtain." Not only is it along those anti-American sentiments that I didn't want to see, but it is also a very dated reference. The Cold War ended nearly 20 years ago. There are a lot of WWE fans who weren't alive when the Iron Curtain phrase was used with regularity. Now, they should learn their history and know what it means, but it just comes across as so lazy. "He is Russian, so we're going to go with a Cold War reference." The great Pittsburgh Steelers defense was nick named the Steel Curtain as a reference to the Iron Curtain well over 30 years ago. Update your references.

Raw Rebound: I hate to have to keep doing this, but WWE keeps flip flopping as to whether or not they will have a Raw Rebound on ECW. They do one week, then they don't the next. In addition to my usual complaint about redundancy, I have something else to point out this week. Bourne vs. Kidd was a very good opening match, that fit into a feud that has been building for the last three weeks. It was forgotten by the end of the show. Instead of a Raw Rebound, how about an interview with Tyson Kidd (and Natalya) about being upset that Finlay cost him the match. It doesn't have to be long, but it would be a nice follow up to the match and a way to advance a storyline. They could have had it right after Zack Ryder talked to Tiffany.

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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