"ECW" Report
Oh My God!: Big Show beat Sabu via disqualification in the main event, but Sabu left his mark.
You Fucked Up: Matt Striker has joined the tribe of the extreme. Next week, Tatanka.
He’s Hardcore: Hardcore Holly is also in ECW, and in a feud with Rob Van Dam to boot.
The Extreme Rundown:
1. Tommy Dreamer, Sandman and Torrie Wilson beat Mike Knox, Test and Kelly Kelly. This started as a bikini contest between Kelly and Torrie. Knox and Test stopped Kelly from stripping, at which point Sandman and Dreamer came in and made the challenge. Torrie attacked Kelly, and gave her the stink face. Knox and Test worked over Dreamer. Knox got more “you can’t wrestle” chants, and did nothing to dissuade that notion with punches and kicks. Dreamer hit a neck breaker on Test and tagged Sandman. Sandman came in with punches, a side Russian leg sweep and somersault senton off the top on Knox. Test broke up the cover, so Sandman threw him into the post. Sandman tagged Dreamer, who hit Knox with a DDT for the pin.
Paul Heyman tried to talk the Big Show out of his match with Sabu, but Show was very calm. They then did a vignette with Matt Striker, who is coming to ECW. Just when you thought the roster couldn’t get any worse. Filling the ECW roster with the bottom of the barrel of WWE’s lower card might be justifiable, if only they picked guys down there that actually had talent. Striker has nothing.
2. Kevin Thorn beat Balls Mahoney in an extreme rules match. Balls dominated early with punches and kicks, and rammed Thorn into the announcers’ table. Thorn came back with a clothesline, and repeatedly attacked Balls with his staff. Balls responded with punches and a sit down power bomb, but Thorn kicked out. Balls brought a chair into the ring but Ariel bit his leg and Thorn kicked the chair into Balls’ head. He hit the stunner for the pin.
3. CM Punk beat Christopher W. Anderson. It was nice to see Anderson again. Styles described Anderson as having a “cup of coffee” in ECW, and Tazz rightfully took him to task for that one. Anderson went after Punk’s arm and shoulder briefly. Punk came back with a knee, bulldog, and kick. Anderson hit a spine buster for a two count, and went for another. Punk avoided that, and hit some slaps and a kick. He hit the uranage, and applied the anaconda vise for the submission.
4. Rob Van Dam beat Danny Doring. He dominated basically the entire match with a drop toe hold, spin kick, clotheslines, a monkey flip, a kick off the top, rolling thunder and the five star. Prior to this match, Paul Heyman had met with Hardcore Holly. He talked about Holly letting out his anger. He said nobody wants him in ECW, so he has to make an impact. Holly did this by hitting RVD with a chair from behind after the match, and hit Doring ridiculously hard in the head with the chair. He gave RVD the Alabama slam. Holly is yet another guy with the WWE reject feel, but I actually think he’s a good fit for ECW because of his style and demeanor.
5. Big Show beat Sabu via extreme disqualification. Show hit some chops early, as well as a press slam where he dropped Sabu on the ropes. He followed that with a body slam, clothesline and bear hug. After a ref bump, he hit a fall away slam. Sabu took advantage of the opportunity to throw two chairs at Show, and hit him with a chair off the top rope. He hit the triple jump moonsault and Arabian face buster. Another referee came in to count, but Show kicked out.
Sabu then hit Show repeatedly with a ring bell in front of the second referee for the disqualification. He concluded by hitting him with a bell, which knocked Show over the top rope through a table. Disqualification finishes in ECW with WWE formula ref bump finishes are really lame, but the end scene made for a cool finish to the Show. Big Show would be more effective if he got in shape, but I give him credit for being willing to take a lot of punishment in ECW and for dealing with all the crap he gets as champion.
Please Don’t Go:
There wasn’t much of note on this show. It was pretty typical of what the “ECW” brand has been thus far. They need to be really careful in bringing in all these WWE rejects.
You Fucked Up: Matt Striker has joined the tribe of the extreme. Next week, Tatanka.
He’s Hardcore: Hardcore Holly is also in ECW, and in a feud with Rob Van Dam to boot.
The Extreme Rundown:
1. Tommy Dreamer, Sandman and Torrie Wilson beat Mike Knox, Test and Kelly Kelly. This started as a bikini contest between Kelly and Torrie. Knox and Test stopped Kelly from stripping, at which point Sandman and Dreamer came in and made the challenge. Torrie attacked Kelly, and gave her the stink face. Knox and Test worked over Dreamer. Knox got more “you can’t wrestle” chants, and did nothing to dissuade that notion with punches and kicks. Dreamer hit a neck breaker on Test and tagged Sandman. Sandman came in with punches, a side Russian leg sweep and somersault senton off the top on Knox. Test broke up the cover, so Sandman threw him into the post. Sandman tagged Dreamer, who hit Knox with a DDT for the pin.
Paul Heyman tried to talk the Big Show out of his match with Sabu, but Show was very calm. They then did a vignette with Matt Striker, who is coming to ECW. Just when you thought the roster couldn’t get any worse. Filling the ECW roster with the bottom of the barrel of WWE’s lower card might be justifiable, if only they picked guys down there that actually had talent. Striker has nothing.
2. Kevin Thorn beat Balls Mahoney in an extreme rules match. Balls dominated early with punches and kicks, and rammed Thorn into the announcers’ table. Thorn came back with a clothesline, and repeatedly attacked Balls with his staff. Balls responded with punches and a sit down power bomb, but Thorn kicked out. Balls brought a chair into the ring but Ariel bit his leg and Thorn kicked the chair into Balls’ head. He hit the stunner for the pin.
3. CM Punk beat Christopher W. Anderson. It was nice to see Anderson again. Styles described Anderson as having a “cup of coffee” in ECW, and Tazz rightfully took him to task for that one. Anderson went after Punk’s arm and shoulder briefly. Punk came back with a knee, bulldog, and kick. Anderson hit a spine buster for a two count, and went for another. Punk avoided that, and hit some slaps and a kick. He hit the uranage, and applied the anaconda vise for the submission.
4. Rob Van Dam beat Danny Doring. He dominated basically the entire match with a drop toe hold, spin kick, clotheslines, a monkey flip, a kick off the top, rolling thunder and the five star. Prior to this match, Paul Heyman had met with Hardcore Holly. He talked about Holly letting out his anger. He said nobody wants him in ECW, so he has to make an impact. Holly did this by hitting RVD with a chair from behind after the match, and hit Doring ridiculously hard in the head with the chair. He gave RVD the Alabama slam. Holly is yet another guy with the WWE reject feel, but I actually think he’s a good fit for ECW because of his style and demeanor.
5. Big Show beat Sabu via extreme disqualification. Show hit some chops early, as well as a press slam where he dropped Sabu on the ropes. He followed that with a body slam, clothesline and bear hug. After a ref bump, he hit a fall away slam. Sabu took advantage of the opportunity to throw two chairs at Show, and hit him with a chair off the top rope. He hit the triple jump moonsault and Arabian face buster. Another referee came in to count, but Show kicked out.
Sabu then hit Show repeatedly with a ring bell in front of the second referee for the disqualification. He concluded by hitting him with a bell, which knocked Show over the top rope through a table. Disqualification finishes in ECW with WWE formula ref bump finishes are really lame, but the end scene made for a cool finish to the Show. Big Show would be more effective if he got in shape, but I give him credit for being willing to take a lot of punishment in ECW and for dealing with all the crap he gets as champion.
Please Don’t Go:
There wasn’t much of note on this show. It was pretty typical of what the “ECW” brand has been thus far. They need to be really careful in bringing in all these WWE rejects.
posted by Todd Martin at 12:22 AM
7 Comments:
I think what WWE needs to be more careful of is just putting out an ECW product that drives away people like me, who are willing to be forgiving on things like the roster. It's just not a compelling show right now. I get up at four in the morning for work, and on Tuesdays I've already begun using ECW as a sleep aid. I'll tape Raw, but if I miss ECW, I'm more than willing to hop online the next day and see what happened.
If ECW wasn't a WWE product would anybody be willing to televise it or write about it?
Congratulations to Tommy Dreamer. Apparently, he finally won a match. I still say Barry Horowitz kicks Dreamer's ass.
ECW was always about bringing in "rejects" and people who couldn't get over elsewhere. They did not however keep their same gimmick. But that was a different time and most guys today, their gimmick is somewhat an extention of their personalities. Over/Under 4 weeks for Striker to take a cane shot to the mouth. Holly is a good fit as most fans like him as they have been exposed to both the professional side and some have also seen him as a trainer on TE so they can identify. Its unfortunate they got pussies for tough enough I because I thought the show was very good. In fact it was ultimate fighter before ultimate fighter and amazingly it was during one of WWEs peak periods if I'm not mistaken. I guess if the New York Post is preparing an article for ECW someone is willing to write about it. Funny for a newspaper with a writer (mushnick) who has been down on pro wrestling for some time. Last night was one of the better ECW shows up to this point and you could feel that the crowd was taking to the product as well as the talent. The you cant wrestle chants are lame and everyone knows it. Big Show wasn't booed heavy during intros because of the Smackdown crowd so some people out there still have some respect for a guy 7-3 500lbs whose willing to bump and bleed for guys 1/2 his size. RVD was good last night and it was nice to feature him and expose the crowd to Doring at least. This was the same style match as Angle-Credible from a month ago. CM Punk needs to be television champion. ECW needs a television title. At least this way each week the fan is gaurenteed at least 1 good match. Last night allowed WWE to exhale and the fact there wasn't an overwhelming amount of backlash leads me to believe that some people out there see this product has potential and legs. One of the few problems I have is the ECW title not being defended under 'extreme rules' every time. I mean what does ECW stand for? I know WWE is hiding it, but really. Is there anything more telling then tuning into an ECW show and not hearing...."This....is extreeeeme".
With a compelling episode of Denis Leary's "Rescue Me" on at the same time, I neither recorded last night's episode of ECW or missed it.
Maybe, just maybe, I'm breaking free of WWE's stranglehold. One can only hope.
- Matt in Anchorage
If it wasn't for the Observer and the good DVD's out there, my interest would be lower. Has anyone heard any info on the Pillman DVD such as matches?
Just heard about the December PPV being moved. Word on the net is it was Vince's decision. That guy really knows how to draw some heat. Uses the internet and it's "readers" for everything it's worth. For the people who say Vince McMahon is stale or has "go away heat", all he would have to do is show his face in the ballroom. And he knows it. That might be the best and worst part.
I saw Matt Striker have a really good match at an ROH show in NYC last July. He got a "Please come back" chant from the type of crowd that isn't always easy to please. He hasn't shown much in WWE, but then again it's hard to show much when you're wrestling four minute matches on Sunday Night Heat with the Gene Snitsky's of the world. I'm not saying the guy is Chris Benoit all of a sudden, but I wouldn't say he has "nothing" either.
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