By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

ECW HITS

Return of The Hurricane: It has been interesting the last few weeks to see Paul Burchill playing the role of saying the obvious, that Gregory Helms is the Hurricane. Their brief verbal encounter during the interview followed by Burchill blind siding Helms was well done. It was predictable that Hurricane would show up as Burchill was beating up Yoshi Tatsu after their short match, but it was still fun to see Hurricane in the ring after seeing him backstage several times. The best part was his pose which stopped Burchill in his tracks. Assuming Helms is healthy and can go, it will be fun to see him wrestle again. Burchill can play a good foil also.

Regal Named #1 Contender: This is a marginal Hit. At the end of the not-too-terrible Abraham Washington Show, Washington announced that William Regal is the #1 contender for Christian's ECW Championship. The Hit is for Regal being the #1 contender. They needed a heel for Christian to face after the babyface vs. babyface feud with Tommy Dreamer. Regal makes the most sense given the ECW roster. The marginal nature of the Hit is from the fact that Regal didn't do anything to earn the Title shot. He has had a series of matches with Yoshi Tatsu, and won the last two (I think), but that doesn't seem enough. This was a simple case where a slight tweak would have been better. Have the announcement be that if Regal defeats Dreamer the former Champion and former #1 contender, that he will have earned a Title shot. Regal could cut basically the same promo on Christian at that point.

ECW MISSES

Length of Ryder vs. Benjamin: This was very good for 3 minutes and under other circumstances, I wouldn't mind a very good 3 minute match. However, WWE spent way too long (in a brutally bad segment) last week building up to this match to give it just 3 minutes. That was very disappointing. While thinking about the bad Abraham Washington Show from last week, I kept thinking "at least it will end with a good match between Zack Ryder and Shelton Benjamin." And yes, I think in full names. While it was good, it was way too short. Also, Ryder deserved a better showing than this. I wrote in my Raw article this week about a feud that elevates both wrestlers which is what Ryder vs. Benjamin could have been. Now, where does either go from here? WWE will likely keep the feud going which is silly considering how quickly Benjamin was able to defeat (with his finisher, not on a roll up) Ryder.

Kozlov - Jackson: After week one and even week two of this program, what started fun and interesting has turned boring and repetitive. Whatever step two in the storyline is better get here soon. Watching the same thing every week is growing stale.

HHH - HBK Replay: Question. Did we need to see this again? Answer. No bloody way! (There's a News Radio reference for any Andy Dick fans out there).

Too Much Happening: Too much happened on this week's episode of ECW. There were five matches which is too many for a one hour show. In addition, there was a recap video, a back stage interview, another recap video, a backstage encounter, and a long talk show segment. The longest of the five matches was the main event, Regal vs. Dreamer at 5 minutes. There were two squashes involving jobbers. Do we need two squashes on one show? I already complained about Ryder vs. Benjamin needing more time. While Regal vs. Dreamer was good, it deserved more time as the main event. Burchill vs. Tatsu was less than 2 minutes. It was just a set up for Hurricane's return, but why not have more of a match before hand? I understand the urge to cram as much as you can into ECW. They have a roster of wrestlers needing air time, and only one hour. With everyone who appeared, I was disappointed that there wasn't a follow up to the Goldust vs. Shaemus situation from last week. TNA had the same problem with Impact back in the day, but it was worse for them since they had to feature as many wrestlers as possible each week to hype their monthly PPVs. WWE doesn't have that problem with ECW. Did Tyler Reks' squash have to happen this week? Couldn't they have skipped a week in the Vladimir Kozlov - Ezekiel Jackson angle? I ask again, did we need to see a recap of DX? Cut out the two squashes this week (which cuts out not only the time of the match itself, but ring entrances etc.) and give more time to the opening match and the main event.

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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