Two damned good episodes of ECW I was out and about, travelling the country, so I missed the last couple of episodes of ECW. I just caught up with them on my TiVo. I'm not even gonna try to recap them here, other than to say "DAMN!" Between Hardcore Holly trying to kill himself in one of the best matches the new ECW has put on the air to Booker T - er, I mean King Booker - busting out one damned fine match against RVD, all I can say is... "DAMN!"

Serious kudos to Bob Holly for continuing in his match against RVD after cutting his back practically in half. But it was even more impressive than that, as Holly took some more punishment to the back thanks to RVD's wacky offense. A lesser man would've just rolled out of the ring and called it a night. Continuing the match puts Holly in such grisly circumstances reminds me of Mick Foley continuing to wrestle after having his ear ripped off. It's insane, yet instantly garners respect. And Holly just earned a hell of a lot of respect from me.  ¶ 1:54 PM 0 comments

  ECW - September 12, 2006 So the question is: will tonight's epsiode of ECW going to be like last week's disappointment, or the previous for episodes, which were all Good Stuff? I've learned my lesson about being too optimistic about these shows. The new ECW doesn't exactly have a good track record. By my count, there were 5 good episodes and 8 not-so-good (or worse) episodes. So pardon me if I assume that tonight's show won't be brilliant. But that also sufficiently lowers my expectations to the point that I might be surprised.

On a sidenote, why is Super Crazy on Raw? There's no real reason for Super Crazy on Raw. Raw's roster is solid, with a good balance of fan-pleasing athletes, including Carlito and Jeff Hardy. ECW, on the other hand, could use someone with old-school credibility. People know Super Crazy from ECW. They know what he can bring to a match. Crazy could see a following along the lines of Sabu. If only he were send to ECW. Instead of being lost in the mix on Raw.

Let's get to this week's show:

• ECW Live on Tape from Madison Square Garden. And the Boss is out to start things out, as Paul Heyman comes out, flanked by the Bashams, er, security squad. And Heyman is quick to pronounce himself as the messiah, and the saviour of the wrestling industry. And really, you can't argue with that.
• Heheheh... Paulie thanks himself for getting ECW into Madison Cube -er, Square- Garden. Bonus points for blaming the original ECW's demise on the fans! And add a few more for telling the fans "screw you."
• Oh! Here comes Sabu! Sabu gets in a couple of shots on Heyman before the security team comes in. No problem there, though, as Sabu delivers chairs to the helmets. Arabian Helmet Buster!
• Paul Heyman stops things to proclaim that we will have an Extreme Rules match for the ECW Title tonight! The first time the ECW World Title has ever been depended at the MSG. But isn't Paul going against the last, oh, two months of storylines by giving Sabu the title shot? Especially in an Extreme Rules match? Contemplating this is making my head hurt, so I'll stop.
• Rob Van Dam is out, and we are just hurrying this show right along. Looks like they really wanted to pack a lot into the MSG show, which is always a good thing. And the MSG crowd has been pretty into ECW so far, and they appear to be fairly abreast at what is going on. Also very good. And they boo Bob Holly. Even better!
• Holy Crap! Holly with a dive over the top rope onto RVD on the floor? Wow! RVD just about kills himself trying a standing moosault off the ring barrier. He mostly missed Holly, and almost came down head first. Ouch, ouch, ouch.
• Crowd is big-time into RVD. Not so much into Holly, one way or another. The good thing is that RVD carried most of the match, with Holly just being there for RVD to show off his offense.
• Finish has Mike Knox and Test attacking RVD. That is expected. What isn't expected is Stevie Richards joining in. WTF? Why is Richards joining in? RVD actually got in a couple of awesome kicks, one on Richards, and one wicked sidekick on Knox. Sandman and Dreamer come in to even things up, and the ECW originals go to town on the former WWE guys, including Sandman caning the hell out of anything that moves. Stevie gets the worst, eating a cane shot, then a Dreamer DDT, and finally a ***** Frog Splash. Fun stuff, but why Stevie?
• I'm just gonna pretend that they didn't show a promo for The Marine. And that Joey didn't mention it.
• CM Punk! Shannon Moore? I thought we'd save this match for a later date. Oh, well. Surprisingly, the crowd hasn't started up a "You got bitch slapped!" chant yet. Which really, they should.
• OH! Shannon Moore starts things out by bitch slapping Punk! Moore with a quick start offensively, until he misses a top rope splash and gets caught in Punk's Tarantula. And damn
• Renee Dupree? WTF?
• Kelly Kelley hitting on CM Punk? WTF?
• Arial and Kevin Thorn at ringside? WTF? Well, actually, I can handle Arial at ringside as long as she keeps draping herself over the announce desk like that. Yummy!
• Oh, god, Dupree is gonna wrestle. Against Balls, which is why Thorn is out here, of course. Did I miss something explaining why Thorn and Balls are being matched up, btw? I don't recall any reason for the bad blood between them. No pun intended, of course.
• Dupree tries to start out fast against Balls, but he's not called Balls for nothing! No, wait, Dupree actually is controlling major parts of the match. But in a pretty boring way. Best part of the match so far was Joey saying, "I don't want to say 'French tickler' this close to Arial."
• WHOA! Balls with a leg lariat to take Dupree over the top rope! Balls grabs a chair! But the ref takes the chair away, distracting Balls, who falls victim to a, um, something from Kevin Thorn. This sends Balls flying into the ring steps, making him easy pickings for Dupree. Or something like that.This sucked, basically. And Arial looks different this week, for some reason.
• Matt Striker! And he says "giggle water" again. That's funny stuff! As is Striker's verbosity. Striker is definitely trying to improve ECW viewer's vocabularies.
• Main event time! And I just realized that I forgot to pad this episode on my TiVo again! I may have to look for match results on someone else's website. Which is kind of amusing, actually.
• Awesome! Before the bell even rings, Sabu is setting up tables at ringside. The match is pretty much all Big Show, however, as Sabu is selling Show's awesomeness. Highlights include Show smashing a chair to bits, and Show destroying Sabu with a running clothesline. I love that Show added that to his arsenal. It's a very impressive looking move because of Show's size.
• Crap! TiVo just ran out of show. :( According to ecw.com, Show wins. Which both sucks and makes sense, all at the same time.

that's a massive "CM Punk" chant! Punk with his standard offense, then a uranage. Anaconda vice, and that's it? Well... hmmm... On the one hand, it was a clean finish. Which is what we want in ECW. But that was also a waste of weeks of promotion for Shannon Moore. Very strange.
Eh, I guess that wasn't a bad show. There was definitely some extra excitement in the air thanks to the ultra-hot MSG crowd. RVD and CM Punk got the biggest boost out of the crowd, but every segment benefitted.

And that's all I have for tonight, I think. Cheers!  ¶ 10:35 PM 0 comments

  ECW - September 5, 2006 Happy Labor Day, everyone! I am having some problems coming up with anything witty or interesting to type before we get to my recap of tonight's show, so let's just dig right in.

• Unfortunately, ECW apparently isn't interested in getting right to business, as we have a recap of the Big Show -vs- DX feud. What's that? You didn't know there was a feud going on here? I didn't either, actually. But apparently there is, and it has brought Michaels and HHH to an ECW taping. I wonder what's in store with us?
• Ah, now we're on to a match. And we're gonna have RVD -vs Sabu? Awesome! Oh, no, wait, since RVD is joining Sabu as they point to thesky, I can only assume this means we're gonna have us some tag-team action. Ayup! And the opponents are.... Test and Mike Knox? Hmmm...
• Hey, remember how RVD was pissed at everyone, including Sabu, because he wanted a title shot? Well, apparently ECW doesn't remember that. And neither do Sabu nor RVD.
• Awesome little move, as RVD hits Rolling Thunder on Test while, at the same time, Sabu comes over the top and lands a legdrop on Test. Nice. As was a double spinning back heel kick to Knox.
• Sabu with a triple-jump press to take all four men off the ring apron through a table on the floor. Cool, but it took too long to set up. Somehow, some way, that was Knox's fault.
• Oh, before I forget, HOORAY for the contract extension on SciFi! We now know that ECW will be around until at least the end of next year. We can now stop worrying about when ECW will fold, and instead concentrate on making ECW the best it can be.
• Drop toe hold into the steel chair. OUCHIE! Sabu is insane.
• Van Dam skateboards the chair into Test! I don't think Test is used to these types of matches yet.
• Sabu with an Arabian Facebuster! Air Sabu! Triple-jump Moonsault! God, I love the push that Sabu is getting in the new ECW!
• RVD and Sabu going for stereo legdrops onto Knox through the table. But Sabu slipped when he went to jump, which slowed his jump down by about a half-second. That was long enough for RVD to put Knox through the table, and Sabu to whiff completely. Still, it was an awesome looking spot, and kudos for trying out something that innovative. Needless to say, RVD and Sabu get the pin. After the match, RVD and Sabu share some kind words with each other.
• No, seriously, RVD is supposed to be ticked at Sabu. Maybe next week?
• Ariel and Kevin Thorn are making out! And Ariel is licking her Tarot cards. Interesting..., well, not really. But Ariel has nice b00bies.
• Matt Striker! And he's wearing that hysterical short tie again.
• "Divots in the cultural landscape"?
• Striker actually asks for Sandman to come to the ring this week. Interesting. I thought that Striker would play the cowardly heel... Oh, there we go, Striker went running way through the crowd. Excellent, and good job by Joey to point out that Striker might just be playing more mind games with Sandman.
• Joey Styles is the luckiest man in the world, as he gets a Ariel literally right on his lap. Yummy! And for some reason, Ariel is wearing lingirie this week. Double-wow!
• Stevie Richards -vs- Balls Mahoney. Since Balls is apparently getting a push, I assume that this isn't going to go well for Stevie. Which is wrong, 'cuz Richards should get the win here.
• Interesting.... Ariel provides some distraction, allowing Thorn to nail Balls with Thorn's walking stick. Stevie with a roll-up, and the pin! Cool. I dunno about adding Thorn into this mix, but Stevie shoulda gotten the win.
• Luna Vachon! For some reason, she's talking in a falsetto this week. Oh, and there's CM Punk. Interesting. Punk calls Shannon Moore a poser, then slaps the taste right out of his mouth. This is a very weird match up. wtf?
• Ugh... poor Joey, he has to try and sound excited about DX being here on ECW. I think he knows this is crap. But Joey is a company man, and he does his job.
• Show's out first? wtf?
• Sheesh.... the ECW world title belt looks like a toy in Big Show's hands. He's a monster.
• Hey, Paul Heyman's out to the ring with his security squad. This is unexpected. Ah, he just called off the Extreme Rules stipulation for this match. I wonder if saying something like that makes Heyman die just a little on the inside...
• Extremists? wtf?
• Oh, this is easily going to be the shortest main event in the 14-week history of the new ECW. There's simply no time left in this episode.
• The crowd is chanting for DX? I just died a little on the inside...
• LOL! HHH tried to do the Hogan shirt rip thing, but couldn't rip his t-shirt all the way through. Then he couldn't take it off, either, so he ended up standing in the ring trapped in his t-shirt.
• Show is insane, taking DDTs perpendicular to the ring like he does. That looks dangerous when a small man does it. It's even more insane when a 500+ pound monster does it.
• The security squad gets involved, of course, including a double-riot-helmet-headbutt to HHH. I think we need to see who these guys are already.
• Uh-oh! My TiVo just ran out show! Tonight's show must've gone well over the time allotment. Damn! Lemme see if I can find out what happened afterwards...
• Oh, cool, TiVo failed to change the channel to record The Daily Show, so I have the end of the match. HHH is dead on the floor from the riot gear headbutt, so Show is all over Michaels. Show goes for a chokeslam, but there's Helmsly. HHH is a house afire, including a pretty impressive spinebuster on the Show!
• Holy crap! Shawn Michaels just did a flying splash out of the ring onto the floor to take out the security squad!
• Bob Holly in, for some reason, to cause the DQ. And now DX get their asses kicked by the combination of Show, Holly and the security squad. Until HHH finds his sledgehammer, however. Holly and Show bail, the security squad get killed (almost literally, as HHH destroys one of the squad with a wicked sledgehammer swing to the riot squad helmet.
• We finish off the show with DX posing in the ring. Because nothing says ECW like Michaels and HHH?
• WTF?

Seriously, what the fuck? Compared to the last few weeks of the new ECW, this episode was a major let down. This was far too centered on DX and the upcoming pay-per-view. And that's just wrong.  ¶ 9:01 PM 0 comments