ECW on SyFy
Greenville, SC
January 19th 2010
Commentators: Josh Mathews & Byron Saxton
Report by: David Stephens of WrestleView.com
Are you ready? Then stop questioning your heart and join me, because it’s time for ECW on SyFy!
The Abraham Washington Show
Tonight we have a very special guest host? Santino Marella! Tony Atlas introduces Santino, who enters to a very warm welcome. Santino says that Abe is having some gastric intestinal problems, so that is why he is taking over tonight. Santino tries to teach Atlas some Italian, because ?Antonio? is an Italian name. It does not go so well. Santino introduces tonight’s guest, Vladimir Kozlov. Seriously, I?m baffled as to what is going on right now.
Kozlov and Santino talk about the fact that Kozlov was in a biker gang, yet only lasted three years because someone ran over his face. Atlas starts to laugh, but Vlad tells him it’s not funny. They continue to banter back and forth about living in America. They talk about Rocky IV, and how he reminds people of the bad Russian guy. He talks about other things that he enjoys in America which includes Hannah Montana. Well, at least we agree on something.
Santino tries to get Kozlov to join him to make a Tag Team. Vlad is not up for that challenge. The segment ends with Santino looking rather uncomfortable. Tony laughs us off to commercial.
****Commercial****
Goldust & Yoshi Tatsu v. Trent Baretta & Caylen Croft
There is a lot of quick back and forth action at the start with several quick tags. Yoshi Tatsu is tagged into the match-up and heads to the enemies corner. Yoshi is on the apron, but gets dragged off and hits his head on the steel bar that runs along it. Croft is in the ring now, and locks Yoshi into a side headlock. Tatsu is trying to escape, as the crowd begins to get behind him. Yoshi pushes towards his corner, but Croft is able to tie him up and tag in Baretta. Trent grabs Yoshi and connects with a standing dropkick to Yoshi’s face. Tatsu drops to the mat and is met with a rear headlock.
Croft pushes Yoshi back to the corner, and tags in his partner. Trent is in the ring now and takes a second to kick Yoshi in the back of the head and gloat to the crowd. Yoshi starts to roll away, but Trent grabs and pushes him down. Out of nowhere Yoshi connects with a spinning wheel kick! Trent gets to his corner, and Yoshi connects with Goldust for the hot tag! Goldust rushes into the ring and begins to clean house with a series of punches. He connects with a snap power slam, but Trent kicks out of the cover. Croft runs into the ring, and Yoshi runs in to intercept him. Croft throws Yoshi to the outside and sees his partner about to be pinned by Goldust. Croft clotheslines Goldust, Trent rolls through for the cover, and this match is over.
Winners via Roll-Up: Trent Baretta & Caylen Croft
****Commercial****
Zack Ryder makes his way down to the ring. He puts over his victories over Hurricane, and of course the infamous match in which he retired Tommy Dreamer. He claims that because of this, he should now be referred to as the ?Heart & Soul Superhero of ECW?. The crowd is not too keen on this new proclamation. Ryder makes the ring announcer come into the ring and use his new introduction. She does, but Ryder isn?t happy. She tries again, but it apparently still is not up to par. Rosa Mendes, who had accompanied Ryder to the ring, starts to go after her and berates her in Spanish. The segment ends with The Hurricane running down to the ring and punching out Ryder.
****Commercial****
Christian v. William Regal w/ Ezekiel Jackson
My computer was going in and out, so apologies for my brevity with this particular match. This was very similar to the matches these two competitors have had over the past several months. The pace was incredibly slow at the start as both men focused on the arms of their opponents. The match got explosive towards the end including a really painful attack from William Regal. With Christian’s head placed against the steel post, Regal kicked the living hell out of the Canadian’s skull. Brutal.
Winner via Ezekiel Jackson caused DQ: Christian
Jackson stormed the ring and took out Christian which brought about the disqualification. After the match both Regal and Jackson relentlessly tore at Christian with their finishers, and the Champion was left destroyed in the middle of the ring as we went off the air.
ECW Thoughts
What the heck was that? I?m at a loss for words. It was not bad, though it certainly was not great. It was just an altogether trippy episode of ECW tonight. There was a large amount of non-English dialogue, really terrible (and not terribly good) jokes, and only two matches.
Christian and William Regal put on a pretty solid bout. It certainly stood up to the standards of their previous encounters. The downside is that we have already seen this match several times, so it is starting to feel tiring. I understand the reasoning is to build for the Royal Rumble match, so I?ll give that to ?em at least. This is why I really think it is time for Christian’s reign as ECW Champion to end. He is incredibly talented, and has worn the belt well, but he has exhausted nearly every opponent possibility. Ezekiel Jackson could and should win the ECW Championship, but that’s just my opinion.
I have to say I really like Ryder’s current set of promos. Declaring himself the ?Heart & Soul Superhero of ECW? is absolute gold. This guy really has a solid character down. Count myself as a big fan.
Santino Marella as the guest host of the Abraham Washington show was a letdown. I was actually looking forward to it at first, but it fell flat. I?m disappointed, because he just did not deliver. The crowd was booing pretty heavily during the segment. Not giving them heat, but just booing that the segment was happening in the first place. The positive is that I learned Kozlov is a fellow Miley Cyrus fan, plus I got to hear Tony Atlas? laugh. Works for me.
On a side note, I had the chance to meet the ECW legend Tommy Dreamer this past weekend. He was a very down to earth person and talking with him was a real treat. One thing that never ceases to amaze me with wrestlers is how big they are in person. On TV Dreamer never looked like one of the big guys, but he was massive in person. If you guys have not been checking out his Twitter account you should read some of his posts. They are comedy gold.
Power Rankings
3 Month Rolling Rankings; ECW Title Win 5, ECW Title Loss 4, ECW Win 3, ECW Loss 2, ECW Appearance 1, PPV Title Win 10, PPV Title Loss 8, PPV Win 6, PPV Loss 4, PPV Appearance 2.
October 20th ? January 19th 2010
1. Christian ? 37 pts. [l.w. 1]2. William Regal ? 26 [l.w. 2]3. Yoshi Tatsu ? 23 pts. [l.w. 3]
4. Zach Ryder – 20 pts. [l.w. 4]5. Shelton Benjamin – 19 pts. [l.w. 6]5. Vance Archer ? 19 pts. [l.w. 6]7. Ezekiel Jackson – 18 pts. [l.w. 5]8. Kozlov ? 15 pts. [l.w. 8]9. Caylen Croft ? 14 pts. [l.w. NA]9. Trent Baretta ? 14 pts. [l.w. NA]
So that’s ECW?. Love it? Hate it? Disagree with everything I said? Just want to chat wrestling? I?m always up for reading your thoughts so send them over to me at david@wrestleview.com
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