By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

ECW HITS

Benjamin vs. Tatsu: After last week's non-introduction of Yoshi Tatsu, it was good to see him in a longer match this week. However, he sold for most of the match and we didn't get to see him on offense much. What we did see was rudimentary for the first half of the match. What he did was fine and he sold well, but his early offense wasn't impressive looking. Luckily, he showed glimpses of what he can do in the ring in the second half of the match. In fact, it is the quality of the second half of his match with Shelton Benjamin that raised the quality of the match as a whole to a Hit. I was impressed with his spring board spinning heel kick. I thought that would finish the match. Benjamin was in control a bit too much, taking away from seeing more of what Tatsu can do in the ring. However, he did enough to make the fans want to see more.

Christian vs. Kozlov: This is a minor Hit. It was better than I expected, considering that Vladimir Kozlov was involved. It was a solid 5 minute match. I don't mind the short time for a main event, as Kozlov is better in shorter matches. It featured nice wrestling action. Christian worked hard to cary Kozlov to a solid showing. I really liked the ending. Christian won the ECW Title from Jack Swagger by using an exposed turnbuckle. It didn't appear that he meant to remove it in this case, but getting another big win in a similar manner worked well. I wish the announcers had mentioned it, but it is potential material for Tommy Dreamer to talk about how the new #1 contender for his Title has used the exposed turnbuckle in the past, to hint at Christian being a cheater to get some tension for their match at Night of Champions.

ECW MISSES

Bellas: This is a minor Miss as the match between Nikki Bella and Katie Lea Burchill was solid for the most part. I have never been a big fan of the twin gimmick, or these particular twins. They are decent in the ring, but nothing more. I honestly don't think either one of them individually would be in WWE without the other. The cutesy "I'm Brie, no I'm actually Nikki" thing before the match was lame. I would actually like the duo better if they were heels, as they have to cheat to win with their gimmick. Bella vs. Burchill was a fine match until the switch.

Ezekiel's ECW Debut: Ezekiel Jackson's inset promo was so short and so nothing special that it would have been the same to not have him talk at all. It accomplished nothing. His match was very ugly. He did not look good in the ring. We saw him in the ring on occasion on Smackdown in the past, and I don't recall him looking this poor in those few showings. Also, unless I missed something, the announcers ignored his WWE past. I'm quite sure I heard one of them say that Jackson was on ECW because of the New Talent Initiative, when in fact he was drafted to ECW earlier this year before disappearing. It seemed like they wanted us to forget that he was The Brian Kendrick's bodyguard on Smackdown for several months.

Convenient Camera: I am a Hurricane fan and hope that this new go around is entertaining. I look forward to seeing Gregory Helms in the ring again. However, it would be hypocritical of me to not give this segment a Miss, as I have given similar segments Misses in the past. I don't like the idea that the ECW director would cut to a shot of some backstage workers for no reason. If that lady hadn't fallen, it would have been a very boring scene. There should be a legitimate reason for every camera set up. There are two easy fixes. One is to do it after a commercial, and have the announcers set it up that the cameraman was in the back trying to find Gregory Helms who was supposed to be getting a word with Shelton Benjamin about his win, and this is the footage he shot during the break. Two is to have the traditional shot of a wrestler making his way to the entrance before the commercial, in this case Abraham Washington. Show him on his way to the ring walking past some stagehands, only to have the woman fall in the background after he walked by. These are two simple ideas that popped into my head in about 10 seconds that would have been much better than the convenient camera they used.

Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's WWE Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw, Smackdown, ECW, and Superstars 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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