By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

ECW HITS

Bourne Wins: It was nice to see Evan Bourne pick up a win in his ECW Homecoming match against Mike Knox. The match was short, but solid. I'm just glad we get a chance to see more of Bourne on ECW in two weeks. Is it too much to hope for Christian vs. Bourne at The Royal Rumble? Probably. After seeing the add for next week, CM Punk might be the odds on favorite (which would make sense to try to help boost ECW's ratings to have him on several weeks in a row before the PPV).

Dreamer's Farewell Address: I think I have written this before so this won't be a huge revelation about myself as a wrestling fan, but I was not a big fan of the original ECW. That isn't because I didn't like the product, but because I live in California, and we did not have a local tv station that showed ECW. I read about it on the internet and saw the cross overs that WWF did with ECW, so I had seen stars like Tazz, Sabu and Rob Van Dam on Raw. I was a WWF fan in high school and college when ECW was gaining popularity and starting to get PPVs, but I never ordered one (hey I was broke and trying to order 12 WWF PPVs a year!). I didn't have a chance to see ECW on a regular basis until it came on TNN. I watched every WWF and WCW show at the time so I watched ECW too which is when I started seeing Tommy Dreamer, Jerry Lynn, Mike Awesome and others. But, I have seen more on dvd in recent years. I have respect for the original ECW, even if I'm not passionate about it like others rightfully are. This is all just to lay the ground work for saying that despite not having a long term emotional connection with Tommy Dreamer, I have gained respect for him during his time in WWE the past eight years. His farewell address was well done. He seemed genuinely emotional. He gave a good speech as a fitting end to his last WWE appearance.

ECW MISSES

ECW Homecoming: I have been giving WWE a pass for the most part in the last few months when it comes to blurring the brand split, because I was so impressed and surprised for several months at how well they actually kept the brands separate. I give them credit for having a real and well explained reason why wrestlers now make special appearances on one of the other shows, like the ECW Homecoming. My big issue here is that this was billed as being ECW Superstars of the past returning to take on ECW Superstars of today. That has hardly been the case. There have been six qualifying matches so far, and only two of them fit that formula, Kane vs. Zack Ryder and Jack Swagger vs. Yoshi Tatsu. Before this week's episode, the other two matches were just ECW matches. WWE did a nice job of hyping former stars Matt Hardy and Evan Bourne for this week's show. But, instead of having them face current ECW wrestlers, they also faced returning ECW stars Finlay and Mike Knox. Can't Hardy and Finlay face any time they want on Smackdown? I don't see how this is as special as if it were happening the way they said it would. Plus next week, they advertised a triple threat match with all three former ECW stars (and Champions).

Kozlov the Babyface: I didn't think the fans would have a positive reaction to Vladimir Kozlov after the rest of the Ruthless Roundtable turned on him a few weeks ago. I was right. Sure, it is early in the turn and the fans may come around and end up cheering for him. I doubt it, but it might happen. The problem is that the fans weren't hoping for a babyface turn. He was kicked out of a heel group without being popular or having any face tendencies before hand. That isn't much to get the fans to rally behind him. Heels in factions turning face have a better shot if they choose to leave the group.

No Extreme Rules for Dreamer: I already laid out my history (or lack thereof) with the original ECW and Tommy Dreamer. My wife has even less history, only becoming a WWE fan in the last five years and only seeing a few ECW matches from my dvds. But even she commented on the fact that she couldn't believe that Tommy Dreamer's final match in WWE wasn't Extreme Rules. It just seems that would have been a more fitting way to go out doing something that he was more known for than just a regular match.

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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