By Dominick Mayer, Torch specialist

As everyone and their brother has been talking about the announcement of the brand changes, I thought I'd chime in from the point of view of someone younger who's only gotten to see the best that WWE has ever been, followed by the decline, followed by the kind-of return, and then whatever it is that we have now. Still not sure if we're in a good period or a bad one yet. Anyway, I'm going to go show-by-show and then look at each person who moved.

Raw: But of course! Gouge the rest of the company because of underperformance! Raw hasn't been up to par lately, but I don't think all the blame lies with the same three and a half guys (Batista's hurt too much to be a fourth) main eventing. I don't even think it's an issue of lack of mid-card development, because "lack of" implies that there's even a little bit of it. Basically, the show as it stands is Hunter/Orton/Cena promo segments with filler in between. And by filler, I mean the entire rest of the roster. Now, I'm really trying to find the good in things. I thought the Trump thing, while gimmicky, was a real attempt to shake things up a bit. But no, that got axed after a week. Is it wrong that I hope one of the Big Three gets injured, just so they're forced to change things? Maybe. But that's the state of Monday night right now. On to individual analysis.

Evan Bourne: This really all hinges on the million-dollar question: Can Vince find it in himself to push a cruiserweight in any kind of role that's not jobber to the stars? Bourne has so much in-ring talent that even in a four-minute match he can set himself apart from a lot of other mid-card guys, but I'm almost worried that he's done so well making Henry look like a monster for the past month on ECW that he'll take on the job of wrestling monsters all the time a'la Mysterio a few years ago. This is a wait and see. There aren't any immediate likely feuds, though a Miz-Bourne program could have promise. And speaking of Henry…

Mark Henry: I've dramatically changed my tune in the past two years on Henry. Yeah, he wasn't always the best wrestler even when he was a lot more popular ten years ago. The thing is that Henry's time on ECW has allowed him to hone his character to perfection. He has enough charisma that he's not just a lumbering monster, and he's expanded his moveset enough that he's created the illusion of being able to move, even though he still wrestles very much in a big man style. I'm for Henry getting pushed, but against who is what concerns me. Henry works best when he's with a guy who can move, such as Undertaker or more recently and to a greater extent Bourne. I imagine a Henry-Orton match and shudder, because for reasons I still don't understand, Orton wrestles a big man style half the time with millions of chinlocks. Henry-Hunter wouldn't be much better. I'd say he and Cena would be a decent match, but then you run the risk of a typical Cena promo totally sucking the air out of Henry's character before it even gets going. Again, I'll wait and see, but I hope last night wasn't a one-off thing. (Side note: Now we all know why those Bourne squashes happened. Well played on that one, WWE.) Let's just hope a Show feud isn't in the immediate future.

Jack Swagger: He's going to be a star, there's no doubt about that. My main worry is that he'll play second-fiddle heel to Orton for however long and lose the momentum he's been building since his debut, but I don't think that's a problem either, because let's face facts: Orton's time in the main event might never really go away, but the time of it being credible is starting to dwindle. Only real hazard is that WWE has forgotten how to have one guy cut a promo on a heel without totally destroying the credibility of the character, so I see a lot of lisp jokes in the immediate future. Such is the way of the world. I see a main event program out of the gate, though, so that's good.

Gail Kim: Her return was met with indifference, and I still say she should've come back on Raw. Anyways, if Mickie James wins the Divas belt in a few weeks at Night of Champions, a James-Kim feud would be pretty cool. I can see some viable matches coming out of that. However, "viable women's match" seems to be a swear word these days.

Alicia Fox: Not much to say here other than that apparently her time as Michelle McCool's heel manager is over. It was working for me, so that's kind of a drag.

***

Smackdown: I don't want to say Smackdown got shorted in any way, but more could have been done here. This was mostly a trade to save Raw, so that's well enough. The show's been steadily excellent, though I'm not a fan of breaking up Jericho-Mysterio if that's where they're headed, but it didn't need too much help. So, of what they got...

The Hart Dynasty: I'm actually just a little bit against this. Having watched ECW the past few weeks, I was more of the belief that these guys will be ready in a couple months than that they needed to move immediately. Then again, ECW is basically a place where pushes go to die (more on that in a minute) and WWE probably wanted these three off the show. The only problem is that I have trouble seeing where they fit in. They're not ready for main event (at least Smith isn't; Kidd could be, but again, cruiserweight syndrome), and the tag division is basically there so Jericho and Edge can be on Raw now. They're obvious heels, but again, feuds are mostly locked up. There's Hardy and Punk, Mysterio with Jericho (maybe), and the depth chart as far as faces on Smackdown with real push is kind of a weak point. I'm more interested to see where they go from here, but the other issue is that Smith still needs work, and I'm hoping they don't push him before he's ready , because that could kill this stable before it really heats up. Also, I hope Natalya is more than a mouthpiece; she should definitely be part of a Women's Championship feud.

Matt Hardy: Well, that was quick. As many predicted around the draft, Hardy basically got lost in the shuffle on Raw. Not even the "injury" angle helped, and now Hardy's moved to his third show in the past few months. I think there's more for him on Smackdown, such as a nice mid-card feud with John Morrison or someone else, but it's hard to see him main-eventing because Jeff is basically out of the picture due to that feud concluding and they probably don't want him wrestling Edge again even if Edge turns. (I still remember the Summerslam that Matt got curbstomped on the turnbuckle.) Punk is a possibility, but this might be a step down for Punk if Matt gets elevated. Mysterio seems like the likely feud, but I don't know if I can see those styles meshing. Plus, another mid-card title feud would be kind of condemning right now.

Finlay: I want to see if they totally drop this tweener character Finlay has been working on over at ECW for the past couple weeks. It was an interesting post-Hornswoggle direction, and on Smackdown I can see it working, though he'd still have to skew to the face side due to the aforementioned lack of them at the moment. He could also enter into a mid-card feud, but Finlay is best when paired with the right guys, and there's something about a Finlay-Matt feud that just doesn't excite me in the least. I can see him taking on the Hart Dynasty with a veteran-newbie angle for a while, and that could yield some good work.

***

ECW: I thought ECW was only supposed to get pillaged once a year. This being the show I cover (or have; I'll be back soon with weekly reports), I almost feel personally affronted at how hard this show got shafted yesterday. I'm going to try and see the good, but there isn't exactly too much…

Shelton Benjamin: Of anything, this has the most promise. I've always been a big Benjamin fan, though I made peace with him not getting over the hump years ago. On ECW, he'll be a bigger fish in what's now a pretty small pond, so him being in a title feud is not at all out of the question. Christian-Benjamin has a world of potential for some really great matches. I think he needs some time, though; he's been such a non-entity on every other show the past few years that in order for him to be a credible title contender, he needs some buildup. The question is against who...

William Regal: I'll always back Regal as a wrestler and a credible mouthpiece. As of late he's kind of disappeared a little bit, but it really wouldn't take much to push him into the ECW title picture and have fans buy it. He'd work well with Dreamer, as Regal can make a slower-match engaging and tends to bring good things out of whomever he's working with. Plus, once again, who else do they have? It's shaking out like Dreamer as champion, with Christian, Benjamin, Regal, and maybe Kozlov chasing. Oh, and then there's...

Goldust: You know ECW got gutted when I could conceivably argue for Goldust in a feud for the top title on a show. He's a capable enough worker, and in recent weeks his character has gotten a lot better with just a little bit of mic time. Plus, since I don't think Hornswoggle is going over with him, they need something for him to do, and they can't really stick him on an undercard when the undercard is most of the show. Option B is he's undercard even on ECW and they use him to build up Kozlov, Benjamin, and possibly Regal before title feuds.

Bella Twins: Aside from Tiffany, there aren't any other women on this show. This was unnecessary.

So, in summary: Raw gets something to staunch the bleeding, Smackdown mostly stays put, and ECW is really going to have to get creative with their booking. I actually like ECW's lineup, as in addition to the five or six guys I mentioned above, they also have Hurricane Helms, who's a character I'll always be a fan of. Raw looks like more of the same until Miz or MVP or maybe Swagger and/or Henry make their way in. Smackdown will probably stay lateral, though some face turns are looking necessary, most likely from Edge. ECW just needs guys to start building characters who people can buy in a title feud.

Torch specialist Dominick Mayer covers ECW TV with his "alternative perspective" review of the show. Contact Dominick at mayerdom(at)hotmail.com

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