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