By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

ECW HITS

Christian - Punk: Last week, I speculated after seeing CM Punk advertised for an ECW Homecoming match that he was the likely winner. WWE presented more evidence of that likelihood when Punk came out at the start of the show to interrupt Champion Christian's opening promo. This was a good segment to start the show. The mic work from both was strong. It underscored the importance of the Homecoming while setting up the two final qualifying matches for this week's show (on a side note, those matches, Punk vs. Mark Henry and Shelton Benjamin vs. Chavo Guerrero were both solid. Neither was quite good enough to get a Hit, but they were not bad either, so no Misses). It was also a good tease for what could be a fun series of encounters between Christian and Punk if Punk wins leading to the Royal Rumble.

ECW MISSES

Jackson vs. Kozlov: I have not been looking forward to this rematch and my misgivings about it were proven correct with this boring match. Nobody cares about Vladimir Kozlov the babyface so nobody was cheering for him to defeat Ezekiel Jackson. Nobody cares much about Jackson either. William Regal had good heat on him at one point, but he has been hurt by this angle. He is lost on ECW right now. I just don't care about this feud. Jackson and Kozlov don't have styles or skills that go together well in the ring. The match was mercifully only 6 minutes, but it actually felt like it was longer than that. The only good thing about it that I can see is that Jackson's win was pretty convincing and that hopefully that is the end of the feud.

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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