Reported by Adam Martin of WrestleView.com
On Wednesday, August 27, 2008 at 12:43 AM EST

ECW on Sci-Fi
August 26th 2008
Wilkes-Barre, PA
Commentators: Todd Grisham & Matt Striker
Report by: David Stephens of WrestleView.com

“Yes sir we promised you a great main event”, and because this is ECW not Smackdown, you are actually going to get it!

Hey we have a Diva! Tiffany comes out to introduce Theodore Long. He has a major announcement to make, but first feels the need to dance with Tiffany. Regarding the Championship scrambles of both RAW and Smackdown, Long said that he told Stephanie and Shane that whatever those shows could do, ECW can do better! True story. Tonight is going to be qualifying matches for the scramble!

ECW Championship Scramble Qualifying Match
Matt Hardy v. John Morrison

Hardy takes Morrison down with a side headlock and then knocks him to the ground with a shoulder block. Matt goes for a quick cover attempt but Morrison kicks out. Morrison gets chucked to the outside, but Hardy doesn’t let him stay there and slides him right back in. Morrison takes the opportunity to throw Hardy’s head into the bottom turnbuckle and then starts pounding on Matt’s head with stiff punches. Morrison goes down to the mat to put a side headlock on the former #1 contender. Morrison goes for a pinfall, but hardly gets a two count. Morrison attempts a split legged corkscrew moonsault [starship pain] and it’s amazing, but he meets nothing but the mat. Hardy goes for the Twist of Fate but Morrison lifts him up over the ropes to the apron and then knocks him down to the floor!

****Commercial****

We are back and I have a glass of Coca-Cola. I’m not sure if product placement is allowed in these recaps, but seriously, this stuff is the true “black gold”. In the ring Morrison and Hardy are continuing to brutalize each other, exchanging a few pin attempts. Morrison hits a stiff knee to Hardy’s head and locks in a headlock. Hardy breaks free with a jawbreaker and drives John down with a bulldog. Morrison kicks out. Hardy hits his EPIC elbow off the second rope, but again the pin attempt fails. He goes for the Twist of Fate but Morrison counters with a backslide pin attempt, but the ref breaks it due to Morrison’s use of the rope. Hardy and Morrison exchange a slew of counter and quick pins but neither is getting the upper hand!

Morrison hits an incredibly stiff springboard kick, but not even that can keep the Hardy Boy down. Both charge at each other and hit stereo splashes. They somehow manage to make it to their feet before the ten count. Matt Hardy hits the Twist of Fate and he is headed to Unforgiven for the ECW Championship Scramble!

Winner via Twist of Fate: Matt Hardy

Long is in the back talking with Tiffany and Henry and Atlas come in to interrupt. Henry complains that it isn’t fair due to the fact that he doesn’t even have to be pinned to lose the championship. Long says it isn’t personal and that the truth is up to 3 championships could change hands that night, will Henry be able to hang on to his?

****Commercial****

ECW Championship Scramble Qualifying Match
Miz v. Evan Bourne

Evan rolls around on Miz and goes for a quick pin attempt. Miz is full of taunts this match. Miz hits a couple punches but gets taken down by a Russian leg sweep followed by a pin attempt. No pin but Bourne locks in an arm bar. The two again start trading pin attempts which allows Bourne to lock in another arm bar. The two exchange arm drags into another Bourne arm bar, all without letting go of each other’s arms! Miz finally punches his way out and throws Bourne into the corner. Evan dodges a kick and levels Miz with a dropkick. Bourne tries to catch Miz with his legs but is thrown to the outside. Mix follows him out and slams his gut into the ring apron!

Back in the ring Miz is stomping away at Bourne. Apparently Evan has never been pinned during his time in ECW. How did Knox defeat him then? Miz tries locking up the high flyer and then proceeds with several hard kicks to the gut. Miz hits a face buster which almost hurts to watch. Bourne ends up locked in a body scissors square in the middle of the ring. Grisham and Striker are talking as if this match is going to go to commercial after every three moves; you guys are making this difficult.

Miz is met with a couple high kicks and then in a way only Bourne can do it, is hit with a Hurricarana. Bourne hits a standing moonsault and this match is off the chain! Miz is driven to the corner but manages to keep Evan off and Miz starts climbing up. Bourne hits him with a high knee, CM Punk style. Evan tries to jump up on Miz shoulders for another Hurricarana, but the former Tag Champ moves out of the way and Bourne finds himself bouncing off the top turnbuckle into the ring. Miz hits the reality check and gets the pinfall!

Winner via Reality Check: Miz

****Commerical****

ECW Championship Scramble Qualifying Match
Tommy Dreamer v. Chavo

As this match starts off Chavo attempts to get the initial upper hand, but Dreamer throws him down to the mat and locks in a quick hold. Chavo hits a Russian leg sweep and goes for a quick pin, but no luck. roChavo locks in the abdominal stretch, but I’m not buying the power differential. Chavo jumps from the second rope, but Dreamer levels him and meets him with lariat. Tommy throws Chavo into the corner and then hits a bulldog. Dreamer lifts up the Mexican Warrior and hits a running scoop slam. Chavo manages to hit Dreamer’s head into the top turnbuckle and starts to climb up. Dreamer knocks him down and locks up Chavo in the tree of woe. Bam Neely jumps up and Chavo accidentally knocks Dreamer into Bam. Chavo jumps to the apron and slams Dreamer’s face down into the top rope which lays Dreamer out in the middle of the ring. Chavo goes to the top tope to tribute Eddie, and it’s all over.

Winner via Frog Splash: Chavo

Josh Matthews is at the Democratic National Convention with Batista and Candice. They talk about the convention, but enough of that, let’s talk about the important news: I don’t like Josh Matthews’s hair cut. But, I still love Matthews so please never fire him! Matthews brings back memories of watching Velocity on Saturday nights, because his commentary rocked. Actually, I used to refer to it as “Paulocity” because it was the place where I could weekly watch the one and only Paul London.

****Commercial****

ECW Championship Scramble Qualifying Match
Finlay w/ Hornswoggle v. Mike Knox

Hornswoggle is accompanying Finlay to the ring which can only mean one thing: ECWoggle! ECWoggle! ECWoggle!

These two start it off with a slew of stiff shots to each other. Finlay is thrown into the corner, and ‘swoggle looks concerned. Mike Knox is absolutely intense and is trying to use his size advantage to overpower Finlay. Dave uses his speed to evade Knox and slam Mike’s head into the steel corner.

****Commercial****

As we come back, Finlay has Knox on his stomach and has a hammerlock on Mike. Finlay goes for the cover but only gets a two count. Finlay pulls Knox to the apron and slams Mike’s hand down on the edge of the apron. He slides back into the ring to continue the work on Knox’s arm and Knox decides to slide to the outside to take a breather. Finlay follows him out and walks smack into a quick scoop slam. Knox and Finlay are back in the ring and Knox begins working on Finlay’s neck. He drives Finlay’s throat into the second rope and goes for a pin attempt. No 3 count, but Knox locks him up in a choke hold.

Finlay is being held down for a long time and Knox must really be wearing down the Irishman. The crowd is getting behind Finlay and he starts to stand up but Knox drives him into the corner! Mike grabs at ‘swoggle but only gets his coat. This distraction is enough for Finlay to knock Knox out of the ring and then slide him back in for a couple of lariats and a butt plant. Knox gets up and hits a strong big boot. Finlay manages to kick out. Knox goes to undo the turnbuckle but the ref stops him. Meanwhile ‘swoggle throws his dad a shillelagh. Knox manages to block this first attempt with a kick but the ref sees Knox with the foreign weapon and yells at him for it! Meanwhile Finlay grabs a second shillelagh and knocks out Mike Knox with it! 1..2..3!

Winner via Leprechaun Involvement: Finlay

After the match Finlay grabs a couple kids from ringside and they all go into the ring to end ECW with a jig. Classic.

ECW Championship Scramble Match:
Finlay v. Hardy v. Miz v. Chavo v. Mark Henry

ECW Thoughts

Morrison and Hardy gave everything in their match tonight. I was not only thoroughly impressed, but I didn’t care that Hardy inevitably won. Clearly he was going on to the scramble to continue his feud with Henry, but these two put on such a great match that Morrison in many ways came out on top. This is the way main-eventers should have matches. Both need to come out looking just as strong if not stronger then before the match, hats off to these two.

I wonder if Morrison is going to be upset that his tag partner is in the Scramble? We saw a bit of a more mat based match from Bourne tonight and it was, ok. The match itself was very good, but not the same quality Bourne has given us the past couple of weeks. I suppose this is the start of watching him conform to the “WWE style” wrestling. I hope they don’t go too far that way because it I’ve seen it kill certain wrestlers.

Speaking of amazing wrestlers, Paul London recently had some very interesting comments that I was reading from a fans interaction with him before the Great American Bash. I showed them to Adam, but asked that we not use them on the site because it wasn’t an “interview” and I would never forgive myself if I inadvertently got PL in trouble. One of the things he did say that I will mention is that he is going to start doing the Shooting Star Press again, now that Evan is allowed. This has been confirmed from dark match results. PL said that he is going to start doing it again now that it is allowed because his looks better. I couldn’t agree more! Bourne’s is great. But there is no wrestler in the world that can compare to the Shooting Star Press of Paul London. Don’t believe me? Go youtube the Shooting Star Press, there are video compilations of dozens right after the other. None compare to London’s.

Is Dreamer injured? Tonight he looked very weak. Actually I thought that he looked “old”. I mean that in the sense that Dreamer was moving very slowly around the ring and even when hitting moves looked like he was struggling to pull it off. Just weeks ago we saw Dreamer looking very strong, which is why I legitimately wonder if he was feeling ok tonight.

I’m a bit disappointed that Knox and Finlay had their match tonight. They built it up for weeks and weeks only to have the match occur only as a springboard for the Championship. I’m not sure I follow the thought process used to arrive at this decision. Oh well.

Matt Striker is clearly a Republican. I thought it was actually hilarious how he made a bad face when Grisham mentioned the Democratic National Convention. Though the best moment had to be when he referred to Mike Knox flip flopping like Obama. Priceless.

When Finlay and Knox started things off it was clear that those two were not having a match in order to decide who gets to have the final say on the renovations for their new side porch which happens to be complete with several varieties of hanging pots including ferns and ivy vines. I’m just saying that it’s an important decision that’s all, ok Mike? Mr. “Smackdown Recapper” keeps nagging on me about not having any Divas on this show and yet can’t even pick a paint color. I’m just saying indecision is bad for any relationship. Just like this nonsense about recommending a movie to your readers, I mean who does that?

I would like to recommend that everybody see “10 Things I Hate About You”. It’s been out for awhile but I hadn’t seen it and this girl I work with suggested it. Fantastic suggestion and as such I’m going to pass that recommendation on to you. Since so many of you like Hunter Golden’s rating system on RAW let me rate it in way you will understand: I’d give it a very solid ****9/14.

Tonight’s show was solid, but the first match in my opinion was the strongest and other than the main event the rest of the show was a bit lacking. Even Bourne’s match didn’t have the same luster it usually does.

Now I know many of you probably disagree with me on some things, so let me know! I’m glad to discuss wrestling. I wouldn’t spend the time writing this up each week if I didn’t care. So if you think I’m completely off base, or you think I hit the nail on the head. Send me an e-mail, I respond to everyone! If there is one thing I’ve learned from reading the mail each week, is that ECW fans are a very interesting lot. But that’s probably cause we enjoy the WWE’s best show!

jugglernextdoor@gmail.com

This week’s Reader Response Question:

What member of the Scramble is most deserving of the ECW Championship?

Results of Wrestleview Reader Poll August 19th

Match of the Night
52% Matt Hardy v. Mark Henry
45% Chavo, Miz & Morrison v. Bourne, Super Crazy & Dreamer
1% Ricky Ortiz v. Gavin Spears

Face of the Night
58% Matt Hardy
20% Evan Bourne
16% Finlay
1% Ricky Ortiz
1% Tommy Dreamer
0% Super Crazy

Heel of the Night
54% Mark Henry
33% Mike Knox
5% Chavo
5% Morrison
0% Miz
0% Gavin Spears

Most Impressive Wrestler
56% Bourne
9% Ricky Ortiz
9% Super Crazy
9% Matt Hardy
7% Mark Henry
1% Dreamer
1% Chavo
1% Miz
1% Morrison
0% Gavin Spears

This week’s poll can be found at: this link.