Years ago, my father used to take me to baseball games in New York. Whether it was the Yankees, or those loveable, laughable Mets (no, not this year's version!), my eyes lit up like a christmas tree looking at the wonderful ambiance that made up the experience I had at the ballpark. And when the players came out on the field to take batting practice, I would say Dad, who is this, who is that, where did this fellow come from? Well, my father proceeded to buy me something that they called a scorecard, and said to me: "This gives you the names of all the players. You know, you can't tell a player without a scorecard".

Well fast forward to last night's ECW telecast, and Lord knows that I should have had a scorecard on hand with me, because four new prospective superstars made their debuts last night. Yes, I said prospective, because in my eyes, you do not get dubbed a superstar until you not only get a few appearances under your belt, but also gain some sort of aceptance from the biggest audience you can perform in front of in our industry, that being the WWE Universe!

As mentioned in my blog analysis on this past Monday's 15 superstar trade between brands, I thought overall that ECW General Manager Tiffany's (yes, obviously during this past week the "Interim" was dropped from her title with no fanfare; kudos to her for that) involvement in this swap mart left a lot to be desired!  But it's history now. And last night to compliment the current ECW roster and its newest acquisitions from the trade, Tiffany decided to bring back a page from the Theodore Long GM reign, the "New Talent Initiative", which I feel is a great way to give tomorrow's stars a chance to jump on board the ECW train, and hopefully ride it to some great destinations going forward.

So we had four individuals debut last night in some form or fashion. Thankfully, I've made a makeshift scorecard that's now in front of me, so will give you my thoughts on each of them, subscribing to the theory that "first impressions can't be lasting ones" ! :)

YOSHI TATSU

This fellow from Japan had the unenviable task of facing the returning Gold Standard, Shelton Benjamin. I really can't form an opinion on him because all he did was one kick on Benjamin, which was good enough to gain an upset win ! For the element of impact and upset over an established WWE superstar, I  was impressed! But I need to see more of him in the weeks to come before giving my views.

ABRAHAM WASHINGTON

I am impressed with this young man. He showed poise, and kept things going for himself. But to me, the length of the Abraham Washington Show should be shortened up a bit. However, it does have promise, and so does he. Just get rid of the index cards my friend, and think on your feet, or on your couch!

SHEAMUS

I liked what I saw in the man from Dublin, Ireland. He was very impressive from the opening bell to the end of the match. This young man who sports the best farmer's tan that I've ever seen made fairly short work of his opponent last night. There's something about Sheamus that for his ECW debut last night, spells p-l-a-y-e-r, sooner than later

TYLER REKS

Another new face, who was only just that last night. He faces Zack Ryder this Thursday night on WWE Superstars. I'll get back with you on him :) But he did sound confident in himself in his verbal joust with Ryder last night.

New talent always piques my interest, as it did last night. You might think that too many of them debuted within one show, and that thought did cross my mind. But it came across fine, as long as my trusty scorecard was close by!

This and That: I liked the pairing of new acquisition William Regal and the returning Vladimir Kozlov (gotta call it as I see it) against ECW Champion Tommy Dreamer and Christian. Kozlov, resplendant in "Russian Red", seemed more than happy to gain the victory for his team, so much so that he startled Regal when he made the tag to enter and wrpa up the match..... No sign last night of the other new ECW acquisition, Goldust. I truly believe that he is going to become a very entertaining part of the show once he gets going.... With all the new talent arrivals last night, I got to thinking about Ezekiel Jackson. He was moved to ECW in last April's Supplemental draft, and he's still nowhere to be found..... Finally, in watching the Raw Rebound on last night's show, and seeing Randy Orton run the gauntlet against Evan Bourne, Jack Swagger, and Mark Henry, I could not help but think that these three former ECW superstars served their former brand well,and now they've moved on to hopefully do the same for Raw, with Bourne and Swagger starting as "works in progress" when they arrived in ECW; they've come a long way! But but I firmly believe that after the effects of the mega deal from this past Monday die down, ECW will continue to be a fast paced, action packed sixty minutes of entertaining and exciting television, for sure!!

And as a reminder: Next week, ECW will seen on a special day and a special time. It will be Thursday, July 9, at 7 PM ET on Syfy. Yes, Sci-Fi becomes Syfy next week.

Thanks for reading, and remember you can also follow me on www.twitter.com/howardfinkel . Thanks for reading, and feel free to leave a comment on the new ECW talent arrivals.