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James Caldwell, Torch columnist (5.5)

Dang it all if I can't get Kofi Kingston's entrance music out of my head an hour after the ECW show ended while trying to write this Roundtable review. S-O-S something something. S-O-S doo-doo-doo-doo. Something about fighting mixed in there. Maybe a boom-boom-boom. If anyone has the lyrics, please email to my attention so I can have peace of mind about this on a Newsletter deadline night.

The story of the show was Ric Flair being Ric Flair. His special appearance should give ECW a nice boost in the ratings, with the bookend of an opening promo and a figure four submission victory at the end of the show to leave TV viewers with a smile on their faces.

I don't know if there's anything they can do with C.M. Punk at this point, though. He seems to have hit a ceiling in terms of what he can contribute to ECW. Shelton and Burke certainly stood to benefit from rubbing shoulders with Ric Flair, as Burke got his face back on TV, but I'm seeing the same song and dance from Punk on Tuesday nights after that two-or-three month stretch of him getting beat up by WWE's Monster Division every night.

Punk certainly wasn't too concerned about losing the ECW Title match to Chavo Guerrero on the PPV. Speaking of Chavo, he finally wins a match to look somewhat credible as champion, and now he's nowhere to be found two nights later to gloat about it. Must be a deal where they wanted to cool him off after he was cheered in Las Vegas because of the (pause for sarcasm) brilliant idea to have Punk channel the ghost of Eddie Guerrero. ECW's only PPV match last Sunday has apparently been erased from the record books. It never existed.

Lots of smiling babyfaces on this show. Kofi Kingston, with that darn music that I can't shake four paragraphs later, is catching on slowly, but surely. Stevie Richards is ahead of him right now, though. Stevie has more history to draw from, and his pre-return promo a few weeks ago set him up nicely for the comeback. There's something missing with Kofi's presentation that explains how to connect with his character. OK, so he's here to clean up ECW. And he's cleaning it up by beating jobbers who probably couldn't beat Colin Delaney? I'm not feeling this just yet.

Speaking of Delaney...sigh...his program used to be the highlight of Tuesday nights. Now, it's just, well, blah. Maybe my expectations are too high, but I'm dreading WWE pulling the carpet out from under him, as they did with Jamie Noble's greatness as a comedic heel, which led to this "repeat-the-beating every-two-weeks" program with Chuck Palumbo that's going nowhere. Greg makes some good points on the build-up for Colin, though. Read his points, as I'm suffering from expectations being raised too high a month ago.

***

Greg Parks, Torch specialist (6.5)

ECW seems to have settled into its role nicely, using the few guys that they have very well. The TV is very rarely noteworthy, but lately there hasn't been much bad either. They're developing some very nice characters and feuds, which should serve them well for the long haul.

Tonight's show was another example of the workmanlike effort the writer's have put forth. One question coming out of Raw was why Ric Flair didn't get promo time after he was announced as the first Hall of Famer of 2008. It's good that they started ECW off with him. I like how they got Shelton Benjamin and Elijah Burke involved; Burke did better on the mic than I expected. It gives two young heels some rub by being in the ring with Naitch.

Kofi Kingston is a unique character with some unique moves, but something tells me he'll get reigned in once he starts wrestling some name sports-entertainers. There's a lot of comparisons to Rocky Maivia with his smiling persona, but I think there's a Jamaican stereotype that everybody there is kind of happy-go-lucky, and I think that's more what the writers are pushing here.

I also liked the Delaney segment. WWE made the right move but having Colin get only a little offense in this time; I think there might've been a temptation to give Delaney the win here, but they wisely held off. Every week a little progress should be made for Colin as he begins to climb out of the hole he's in. A few punches landed this week, a few kicks next week in addition, and just keep building. The end with Dreamer and Colin winning the tag titles can be seen a mile away, but if they play it right, it still can be very effective.

I'm wondering what took them so long to take advantage of the Stevie surgery story, since he's been on payroll for years. Maybe it's the shallow ECW talent roster, but I'm all for giving him a chance. I don't know where his deal is heading, but good for him for getting some TV time after being treated as a virtual jobber in the company for forever.

The main event tag was fun and Punk seemed grateful to be in the ring with Flair. Seemed strange that Chavo, who retained the title on Sunday, wasn't on the show though.

Listen to Caldwell and Parks next Monday night for post-Raw audio breaking down Week 2 of Mayweather vs. Big Show and whatever they do with the King of Kings.

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