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June 30, 2009
– John Cannon
After the “mystery� trades between the three brands which saw some of ECW’s top talent get shipped off to Raw, it was going
to be interesting to see how WWE’s Tuesday night brand would be affected. While any exchanges of female talent would have little
impact on ECW, many fans of the brand have expressed dismay over the switching of mat wrestler Jack Swagger, powerhouse Mark
Henry, and talented high flyer Evan Bourne over to the WWE’s flagship program RAW. On paper it would appear that ECW only made
about 50% on their return cashing in by receiving the well-rounded Shelton Benjamin and tried and true veteran William Regal. In the â
€œmark it off as a lossâ€� column ECW ended up saddled with the hapless Bella Twins Nikki and Brie as well as the “hasn’t
been funny in a LONG while� twitching and barking Goldust.
After being pleasantly surprised on consecutive nights by solid twists and turns and great action on both Sunday evening’s Bash pay-
per-view and the following night’s Raw programs I held positive hopes that my good fortune would continue on through Tuesday
night’s ECW show.
I generally like my wrestling to start off with a bang (or an interesting diatribe by someone talented on the mic) and well, sadly enough I
would get neither. Instead I found myself having to painfully listen to General Manager Tiffany excitedly shrill on about a “new era of
ECW� and the “New Superstar Initiative.� This was the equivalent of listening to nails being scrapped across a chalkboard.
Luckily the whole intro was kept short and then it was time for some wrestling action. Or so I thought.
--“The Gold Standard� Shelton Benjamin vs. Yoshi Tatsu—
Having always enjoyed Shelton Benjamin’s in-ring work I was excited to see one of ECW’s more talented acquisitions hit the
ring right off the bat. Imagine my surprise when Benjamin’s opponent Yoshi Tatsu, a former Japanese wrestling superstar
according to the announce team, came out to what sounded to me like the kind of really bad music that would play at the end of a
Godzilla movie while the credits are rolling. Always one to give someone the benefit of the doubt I shook off my dismay and settled in for
what I felt would probably be a high-flying, face paced match. While I’ve long been a fan of Benjamin’s wrestling I’ve never
been able to buy into much anything else outside of that…until now. Benjamin’s verbal and visual hazing of the mullet haired Tatsu
was hilarious in particular Benjamin striking the “Crane� fighting stance ala “The Karate Kid.� After bowing to the entire
crowd, Benjamin then decided to bow to Tatsu leaving him open to a kick to the side of the face and giving newcomer Tatsu the quick
one-two-three.
Winner – Yoshi Tatsu
After a brief commercial break Abraham Washington, announced as being part of the New Superstar Initiative, came out to debut new
ECW in-ring talk show “The Abraham Washington Show� and man did this draw a whole mess of boos. Washington, who
according to Matt Striker has the gift of gab, was about as swift on the mic as the Great Khali at a poetry reading. As Washington â
€œreportedâ€� his thoughts on the Bash, in particular the “Three Stages of Hell Matchâ€�, it was apparent that the audience was
completely bored to death even at one part half-heartedly tossing out the “what?� chat between Washington’s pointless
meandering. And as if it could get any worse, Washington’s first guests were the newly acquired Nikki and Brie Bella aka the Bella
Twins. The next five minutes were filled with tasteless questions meant to instigate a conflict between the sisters that in the end,
accomplished about as much as a blind man in a dart throwing
contest. Even Washington’s comment to the Twins “You can feel comfortable I ain’t O.J.�, which uttered by just about
anyone else would probably send me rolling in laughter, fell on deaf ears. I think the only initiative needed here is to find a new line of
work for Mr. Washington. At approximately 10:20, as the show went to a commercial break, I could only think to myself that I had just
experienced twenty pointless minutes that I will never ever get back.
--“The Celtic Warrior� Sheamus vs. Oliver John—
Sheamus, from Dublin, Ireland and yet another new face of the New Superstar Initiative, made his debut on this episode of ECW. Highly
touted by Striker and complete with pale white skin and red hair styled in an 80’s Billy Idol-like spike, Sheamus was pitted against a
superstar of such incredible proportions that the ECW page at wwe.com only listed him as a “local competitor.� Needless to say
the match was a squash with Sheamus leaving John lying flat on his back in a matter of minutes with a nice bicycle kick – Rock Bottom
onto the knee combo.
Winner - “The Celtic Warrior� Sheamus
After the break Tyler Rex walked in on Zack Ryder in the locker room and informed the Long Island wrestler that the two will be facing
each other on this week’s edition of Superstars. Of course this doesn’t sit well with Ryder who then proceeded to berate Rex
and his California upbringing. Oddly enough this does nothing to make me want to tune in to Superstars to check out this match. I could
be wrong, could be a great match, but hey…just sayin’.
Commentators Matt Striker and Josh Mathews Matthews intro the RAW Rebound (the second RAW promo shown) which is basically a
review of the whole Batista guest host plot from Monday night involving Randy Orton and ECW’s latest castoffs Swagger, Bourne, and
Henry.
Just prior to the next commercial break Christian and ECW champ Tommy Dreamer have a short discussion about Christian’s
desire to once again possess the ECW belt. Dreamer then questions Christian’s timing with the pair teaming up in the main event.
--Vladimir Kozlov & William Regal vs. ECW Champion Tommy Dreamer & Christian—
With just a little over 15 minutes left in the program it appeared that an actual match would FINALLY take place and in all actuality…it
did. Starting off with Regal and Christian swapping actual wrestling holds, this tag match turned out to be not only a pretty good main
event (well compared to the rest of this episode’s matches Hogan vs. Ultimate Warrior II would have been a great main event!) but a
pretty good wrestling match as well with Christian at one point actually applying a headlock on Regal. What made this match
entertaining was how well the four different competitors took their individual strengths and made them work for the match. Aside from a
couple of top rope moves by Christian the action was more power and holds than anything else.
In the early going Dreamer pulled down on the ropes to send a charging Kozlov to the arena floor. Afterward Christian executed a flying
drop-kick that prevented Kozlov from re-entering the ring but an attempt by Christian to dive from the top of the turnbuckle on to Kozlov was
thwarted by Regal blocking the way.
Following a few exchanges and pin attempts including a beautiful missile drop-kick by Christian for a near three-count, Regal and Kozlov
put on a wrestling clinic ala Minnesota Wrecking Crew by locking in on Christian’s left arm and working it over between constant
tags. Kozlov applied a nice wrist lock before hitting Christian with a head butt and a belly to belly suplex for yet another near pinfall.
Regal tagged in and got good heat from the crowd by grinding into Christian wounded arm. In a weird exchange Regal ended up going
head first into Christian’s shoulder leading both men to tag out. Dreamer missed with a DDT but got a solid neck breaker on Kozlov
for the near fall. Regal tagged himself in and was almost pinned for his efforts. Regal then stepped out of the way of a charging
Dreamer who ended up going shoulder first into the post. Regal then suplexed Dreamer before getting a blind tag from Kozlov. Kozlov
then hit Dreamer with the Iron Curtain for the pin much to the dismay of his partner.
Winner - Vladimir Kozlov & William Regal
After watching this episode of ECW I almost feel sad. Sad that the WWE is completing it’s bastardization of the brand by turning it
into mainly a vehicle to advertise Raw. During the hour, two segments were dedicated to Raw – one a promo for the Cena / Triple H
match set for this upcoming Monday night and the other, the Raw Rebound which basically was a long look back at a key point from the
previous night’s WWE show.
I am all for introducing new talent but it seems to me as if, instead of spreading a depleted upper tier talent roster around to all three
brands, the WWE has decided to pump up Raw, give a bit of a kick to Smackdown, and in turn make the ECW brand the WWE’s
equivalent of a triple A baseball farm team. Am I to believe that the future of ECW lies in perhaps a feud between Regal and Kozlov or
even Dreamer and Christian? What I witnessed was pretty much a solid 45 minutes of fluff leading up to 15 minutes of quality wrestling.
Now I may be wrong, but if you can get a helluva 15 minutes out of one match then surely with all the talent ECW still has they can
manage to pull out a couple more strong matchups. Get rid of the bad talk show, squash matches, and bad locker room promos
featuring unknown “Superstars� and thrown in a little more action. Hell, watching a Goldust bit is even more entertaining than the
“Abraham Washington Show.�
– John Cannon
After the “mystery� trades between the three brands which saw some of ECW’s top talent get shipped off to Raw, it was going
to be interesting to see how WWE’s Tuesday night brand would be affected. While any exchanges of female talent would have little
impact on ECW, many fans of the brand have expressed dismay over the switching of mat wrestler Jack Swagger, powerhouse Mark
Henry, and talented high flyer Evan Bourne over to the WWE’s flagship program RAW. On paper it would appear that ECW only made
about 50% on their return cashing in by receiving the well-rounded Shelton Benjamin and tried and true veteran William Regal. In the â
€œmark it off as a lossâ€� column ECW ended up saddled with the hapless Bella Twins Nikki and Brie as well as the “hasn’t
been funny in a LONG while� twitching and barking Goldust.
After being pleasantly surprised on consecutive nights by solid twists and turns and great action on both Sunday evening’s Bash pay-
per-view and the following night’s Raw programs I held positive hopes that my good fortune would continue on through Tuesday
night’s ECW show.
I generally like my wrestling to start off with a bang (or an interesting diatribe by someone talented on the mic) and well, sadly enough I
would get neither. Instead I found myself having to painfully listen to General Manager Tiffany excitedly shrill on about a “new era of
ECW� and the “New Superstar Initiative.� This was the equivalent of listening to nails being scrapped across a chalkboard.
Luckily the whole intro was kept short and then it was time for some wrestling action. Or so I thought.
--“The Gold Standard� Shelton Benjamin vs. Yoshi Tatsu—
Having always enjoyed Shelton Benjamin’s in-ring work I was excited to see one of ECW’s more talented acquisitions hit the
ring right off the bat. Imagine my surprise when Benjamin’s opponent Yoshi Tatsu, a former Japanese wrestling superstar
according to the announce team, came out to what sounded to me like the kind of really bad music that would play at the end of a
Godzilla movie while the credits are rolling. Always one to give someone the benefit of the doubt I shook off my dismay and settled in for
what I felt would probably be a high-flying, face paced match. While I’ve long been a fan of Benjamin’s wrestling I’ve never
been able to buy into much anything else outside of that…until now. Benjamin’s verbal and visual hazing of the mullet haired Tatsu
was hilarious in particular Benjamin striking the “Crane� fighting stance ala “The Karate Kid.� After bowing to the entire
crowd, Benjamin then decided to bow to Tatsu leaving him open to a kick to the side of the face and giving newcomer Tatsu the quick
one-two-three.
Winner – Yoshi Tatsu
After a brief commercial break Abraham Washington, announced as being part of the New Superstar Initiative, came out to debut new
ECW in-ring talk show “The Abraham Washington Show� and man did this draw a whole mess of boos. Washington, who
according to Matt Striker has the gift of gab, was about as swift on the mic as the Great Khali at a poetry reading. As Washington â
€œreportedâ€� his thoughts on the Bash, in particular the “Three Stages of Hell Matchâ€�, it was apparent that the audience was
completely bored to death even at one part half-heartedly tossing out the “what?� chat between Washington’s pointless
meandering. And as if it could get any worse, Washington’s first guests were the newly acquired Nikki and Brie Bella aka the Bella
Twins. The next five minutes were filled with tasteless questions meant to instigate a conflict between the sisters that in the end,
accomplished about as much as a blind man in a dart throwing
contest. Even Washington’s comment to the Twins “You can feel comfortable I ain’t O.J.�, which uttered by just about
anyone else would probably send me rolling in laughter, fell on deaf ears. I think the only initiative needed here is to find a new line of
work for Mr. Washington. At approximately 10:20, as the show went to a commercial break, I could only think to myself that I had just
experienced twenty pointless minutes that I will never ever get back.
--“The Celtic Warrior� Sheamus vs. Oliver John—
Sheamus, from Dublin, Ireland and yet another new face of the New Superstar Initiative, made his debut on this episode of ECW. Highly
touted by Striker and complete with pale white skin and red hair styled in an 80’s Billy Idol-like spike, Sheamus was pitted against a
superstar of such incredible proportions that the ECW page at wwe.com only listed him as a “local competitor.� Needless to say
the match was a squash with Sheamus leaving John lying flat on his back in a matter of minutes with a nice bicycle kick – Rock Bottom
onto the knee combo.
Winner - “The Celtic Warrior� Sheamus
After the break Tyler Rex walked in on Zack Ryder in the locker room and informed the Long Island wrestler that the two will be facing
each other on this week’s edition of Superstars. Of course this doesn’t sit well with Ryder who then proceeded to berate Rex
and his California upbringing. Oddly enough this does nothing to make me want to tune in to Superstars to check out this match. I could
be wrong, could be a great match, but hey…just sayin’.
Commentators Matt Striker and Josh Mathews Matthews intro the RAW Rebound (the second RAW promo shown) which is basically a
review of the whole Batista guest host plot from Monday night involving Randy Orton and ECW’s latest castoffs Swagger, Bourne, and
Henry.
Just prior to the next commercial break Christian and ECW champ Tommy Dreamer have a short discussion about Christian’s
desire to once again possess the ECW belt. Dreamer then questions Christian’s timing with the pair teaming up in the main event.
--Vladimir Kozlov & William Regal vs. ECW Champion Tommy Dreamer & Christian—
With just a little over 15 minutes left in the program it appeared that an actual match would FINALLY take place and in all actuality…it
did. Starting off with Regal and Christian swapping actual wrestling holds, this tag match turned out to be not only a pretty good main
event (well compared to the rest of this episode’s matches Hogan vs. Ultimate Warrior II would have been a great main event!) but a
pretty good wrestling match as well with Christian at one point actually applying a headlock on Regal. What made this match
entertaining was how well the four different competitors took their individual strengths and made them work for the match. Aside from a
couple of top rope moves by Christian the action was more power and holds than anything else.
In the early going Dreamer pulled down on the ropes to send a charging Kozlov to the arena floor. Afterward Christian executed a flying
drop-kick that prevented Kozlov from re-entering the ring but an attempt by Christian to dive from the top of the turnbuckle on to Kozlov was
thwarted by Regal blocking the way.
Following a few exchanges and pin attempts including a beautiful missile drop-kick by Christian for a near three-count, Regal and Kozlov
put on a wrestling clinic ala Minnesota Wrecking Crew by locking in on Christian’s left arm and working it over between constant
tags. Kozlov applied a nice wrist lock before hitting Christian with a head butt and a belly to belly suplex for yet another near pinfall.
Regal tagged in and got good heat from the crowd by grinding into Christian wounded arm. In a weird exchange Regal ended up going
head first into Christian’s shoulder leading both men to tag out. Dreamer missed with a DDT but got a solid neck breaker on Kozlov
for the near fall. Regal tagged himself in and was almost pinned for his efforts. Regal then stepped out of the way of a charging
Dreamer who ended up going shoulder first into the post. Regal then suplexed Dreamer before getting a blind tag from Kozlov. Kozlov
then hit Dreamer with the Iron Curtain for the pin much to the dismay of his partner.
Winner - Vladimir Kozlov & William Regal
After watching this episode of ECW I almost feel sad. Sad that the WWE is completing it’s bastardization of the brand by turning it
into mainly a vehicle to advertise Raw. During the hour, two segments were dedicated to Raw – one a promo for the Cena / Triple H
match set for this upcoming Monday night and the other, the Raw Rebound which basically was a long look back at a key point from the
previous night’s WWE show.
I am all for introducing new talent but it seems to me as if, instead of spreading a depleted upper tier talent roster around to all three
brands, the WWE has decided to pump up Raw, give a bit of a kick to Smackdown, and in turn make the ECW brand the WWE’s
equivalent of a triple A baseball farm team. Am I to believe that the future of ECW lies in perhaps a feud between Regal and Kozlov or
even Dreamer and Christian? What I witnessed was pretty much a solid 45 minutes of fluff leading up to 15 minutes of quality wrestling.
Now I may be wrong, but if you can get a helluva 15 minutes out of one match then surely with all the talent ECW still has they can
manage to pull out a couple more strong matchups. Get rid of the bad talk show, squash matches, and bad locker room promos
featuring unknown “Superstars� and thrown in a little more action. Hell, watching a Goldust bit is even more entertaining than the
“Abraham Washington Show.�