So I got bored last night and looked around Hulu.Com, and noticed that the site appears to have every episode from this one until the last one. Since I haven't seen any of them, I figured it would be a good opportunity to add more content to the blog, so I'll be going through all these shows...
-From Birmingham, AL
-Hosts are Joey Styles & Tazz
-Tonight is the ECW Debut of World Heavyweight Champion Edge's talk show, "The Cutting Edge", and that starts the show. Edge plugs his world title defense VS Rey Mysterio at the Royal Rumble. Edge says the match won't be competitive because of what happened on Smackdown. A video airs, showing Rey beating Chavo Guerrero, but then taking a 3-on-1 beating at the hands of Edge, Curt Hawkins, & Zach Ryder.
Edge calls out his guest, ECW Champion CM Punk. Edge asks Punk who he's really beaten, noting that his recent victories over Chavo have come via count out and DQ. Edge asks Punk what would happen if Chavo were to challenge him for a third time. Punk says he'd accept. Punk says not only can he beat Chavo anytime, but Punk can beat Edge too. Edge doesn't take it too seriously, and just as things look like they'll get heated, Chavo interrupts.
Chavo challenges Punk for tonight. That leads to a 2-on-1 beatdown on Punk. Punk's shoulder looks to be injured after he's rammed into the ringpost. Good opening segment. After 3+ years, it's weird to see A.) babyface CM Punk and B.) Chavo being taken seriously as a challenger for anything. Although it was weird to see Chavo as a challenger then too.
-ECW ad during ECW. It's like they're on TNN all over again.
-Replay of the final moments of the opening segment.
-Edge is shown walking out backstage.
-Match 1: WWE Tag Team Champions John Morrison & The Miz VS The Highlanders (Rory & Robbie McCallister) [Non-Title]
-To illustrate the state of the Smackdown/ECW tag team division at this time, the champions main challengers are Jimmy Wang Yang & Shannon Moore. Short match as Rory is face-in-peril for a bit for Robbie gets the tag and cleans house, but soon falls victim to the Reality Check (knee lift/neckbreaker combo) from the Miz for the pin. Short and sweet.
-Kofi "the phony Jamacan" Kingston vignette. Some asshole kicks sand in some kid's face, so Kofi beats his ass. Kofi makes his debut next week.
-LAST WEEK: A diva dance-off between Kelly Kelly and Layla. The ring announcer Leina Yada enters, and naturally declares herself the winner.
-Kelly comes out to announce that in ECW'S HD debut, there will be a "best body" competition between herself, Leina, and Layla. Kelly shows herself off in a skimpy bikini.
-Tazz is in the ring with a very bandaged up Colin Delaney. A replay of him getting killed by Shelton Benjamin, Big Daddy V, and Mark Henry airs. This leads to...
-Match 2: Colin Delaney VS Kane
-Kane's amused look at Delaney as he puts his fists up is tremendous. Quick squash (no shit), and Kane finishes with the chokeslam. It was cool seeing a local Western NY guy get a shot at WWE. Colin is a pretty charismatic guy. I remember going to an NWA Upstate TV taping, and some kid dropped Skittles off the floor...so Colin ate them.
-The trainer makes sure CM Punk wants to wrestle tonight.
-LAST NIGHT ON RAW: Jeff Hardy lays out WWE Champion Randy Orton, then gives him a swanton off the stage. This one segment made people really want Jeff to be WWE Champion. Good thing it didn't happen, as Jeff got his dumb ass suspended before WrestleMania.
-Armageddon DVD ad.
-Joey gives an update on the condition of Jeff & Randy, starting a run down of the Royal Rumble card.
-Match 3: Shelton Benjamin VS Nunzio
-Extended squash that the crowd barely reacts to. Shelton tosses Nunzio around and pounds away. Nunzio comes back with a dropkick. Shelton catches Nunzio in mid-air and powerbombs him into the corner. Jumping complete shot (I forget what Shelton calls it) finishes. Needed more Shelton manhandling Nunzio and less Shelton punching Nunzio.
-Match 4: ECW Champion CM Punk VS Chavo Guerrero [Non-Title]
-If Chavo wins, he gets another title shot. Edge comes back out to join in on commentary. Punk continues to sell the shoulder injury. Commentary spends the first part of the match talking about Edge VS Rey instead of this match. Punk backdrops Chavo over the top and out, so of course there's a commercial break.
Back from break, Punk lands some kicks as Joey & Tazz aren't aware that we're back from the commercial break. Chavo starts to work Punk's arm over. Punk gets an enziguiri, but Chavo comes back with a dropkick to the injured shoulder. Chavo keeps working over Punk's injured shoulder as the crowd doesn't react to anything he does. Punk gets some offense to wake the crowd up, but Chavo sends Punk to the outside, and Edge takes the opportunity to blast Punk in the back of the head with the World title belt. Punk is counted out, and Chavo is the #1 contender to the ECW title. Match was technically fine and Punk did a good job of selling the shoulder, but no one was buying Chavo as a possible champion.
-Logic says that this would lead to a CM Punk title defense over Chavo at the Royal Rumble before moving on to another challenger, but no one's ever accused WWE of being completely logical...
-An OK show, but this is the time when the ECW title really became devalued (this will be illustrated shortly) and the show started to become Sunday Night Heat with a championship. None of the matches were particularly good, and I could never get over Chavo Guerrero being given this spot. The fact that he did pretty much jack shit after his ECW run showed what he meant to the company.
No comments:
Post a Comment