ECW on SyFy
Houston, TX
December 8th 2009
Commentators: Josh Mathews & Byron Saxton
Reported 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 show kicks off with a ladder set up in the middle of the ring to promote the ladder match which Christian and Shelton Benjamin will have for the ECW Championship at the TLC PPV. Jackson and Kozlov are feuding over their confrontation last week that closed out the show. William Regal tries to separate the two and restore order to his damaged round table. Regal actually gets to his knees to beg for the two of them to work out their differences and align with each other. Christian, Yoshi, and Shelton come out to the ring to confront and mock them. Shelton tells them to man up and face himself, Christian, and Yoshi in a Six-Man Tag for tonight’s main event! Regal protests that they have no say over what happens on the show, they have no authority.
Cue Tiffany’s music as she comes out to say that she DOES have the authority. She gives Kozlov, Regal, and Jackson the choice of either participating in the Six-Man match, or Jackson and Kozlov can face off. Regal says that they will do the tag match. Tiffany asks Jackson and he says that he wants to fight Kozlov! Tiffany gives Kozlov the deciding vote and he picks the tag match.
So it will be Regal, Kozlov & Jackson v. Christian, Yoshi, and Shelton for tonight’s main event!
Tommy Dreamer v. Vance Archer
The two lock up and Vance Archer uses his strength advantage to take control of the match. Dreamer gets in a punch that momentarily sends Archer off balance, but Vance connects with a full nelson drop slam to the former ECW Champion. Archer stands over Dreamer and then applies his boot firmly to Dreamer’s face. Archer gets behind and locks in a headlock. Archer lets him go and looks to connect with a pump handle slam, but Dreamer counters with a backslide attempt. Vance turn that around with a clothesline and goes for the cover, but Dreamer kicks out.
Archer lifts Dreamer up into the air and connects with a vertical suplex. Tommy kicks out of the cover. Archer goes for a leg drop, but Tommy moves out of the way and heads to the second rope to connect with a clothesline. Dreamer bounces off the ropes and hits a hard crossbody, for the cover. Archer kicks out. Archer throws Dreamer into the ropes, but Tommy pulls down the top rope and Archer crashes to the outside. Dreamer bounces off the ropes and connects with a baseball slide. Archer is still on the outside as Dreamer heads to the apron and connects with a somersault! Both men get back into the ring and Archer quickly hits his finisher the Bull’s Eye, for the win!
Winner via Bull’s Eye: Vance Archer
In the back we see a recap of last week’s WWE Superstars when the Hurricane’s match against Zack Ryder was interrupted by a ?villain?. Tiffany is in her office with this villain and his villainous sister. Tiffany wastes no time to call out Paul Burchill and Katie who have decided to adopt the obvious monikers of ?The Ripper? and ?The Beautiful Disaster?. She says that they are not on the ECW roster, but they make a case that they should be allowed in ECW under the ?new superstar initiative?. Gregory Helms (not the Hurricane) walks into the office and rolls his eyes. Tiffany lets Burchill, I mean the Ripper, know that he can win a contract next week by defeating the Hurricane on ECW!
****Commercial****
In the back we see Rosa Mendes and Zack Ryder flirting, calling each other beautiful and whatnot. Dreamer walks into the frame and Ryder starts to put Dreamer down. He mentions how he saw him wrestle many times back on Long Island. Ryder says that it is time for Dreamer to hang it up and say goodbye. Zack says that if Tommy doesn?t, he might just have to take care of the situation himself.
Trent Berretta & Caylen Croft v. Mark Franks & Danny Vaughn
These two guys have amazing theme music. My favorite probably since Zack Ryder came out to ?Oh Radio?. Last week Byron Saxton informed us that the team of Trent and Caylen warm up for matches by playing Guitar Hero. This week we were enlightened by Mr. Saxton to that fact that to celebrate last week’s match, they purchased Mario Kart for the Nintendo Wii.
The match itself was very quick with Caylen and Trent getting 99% of the action. They quickly connected with their running knee to the face finisher to end the match.
Winners via Knee to the Face: Croft & Beretta
****Commercial****
Christian, Yoshi Tatsu & Shelton Benjamin v. Kozlov, Regal & Ezekiel Jackson
Jackson and Christian are the two to start things off in tonight’s main event. Jackson wastes no time taking the power control and hitting Christian with a strong body slam. Jackson tags out to William Regal. Christian catches him with a backslide and then quickly tags in Yoshi Tatsu. He jumps and lands on Regal’s arm. Yoshi tags in Shelton who does the same. Shelton tags Christian back in and wrenches on Regal’s arm to continue the pressure.
Regal tags in Kozlov who manages to get a grasp on Christian. The ECW Champ manages to tag in Yoshi who backs Kozlov into the corner and then connects with his snapmare/kick combo. Tatsu tags in Shelton. Kozlov grabs Shelton and works his way over to his corner near Regal and Jackson. Regal pulls down on the top rope and Jackson throws Benjamin to the outside as we head to commercial.
****Commercial****
Jackson and Yoshi Tatsu square off in the ring, both having received the hot tags from their partners. Yoshi tries his best to take out the legs of Jackson with buzz saw kicks, but Jackson is a hard man to take to the ground. Jackson looks to the corner for a tag, but Kozlov walks out on him! Jackson is not going to have any of these shenanigans and runs up the ramp after Kozlov and attacks him! Regal comes out to try and separate the two, but in the meantime they get counted out of the match!
Winners via Countout: Christian, Yoshi Tatsu & Shelton Benjamin
After the match all hell breaks loose. Shelton is in the ring and runs to perform a beautiful plancha to the outside square in the faces of Jackson & Regal! Christian heads to the outside and pulls a ladder out from under the ring. Christian sets it up in the ring and starts to climb it to the top to retrieve his Title which had been hung above the ring for dramatic effect before the match. Shelton will have none of that and springboards off the ropes to jump to the top of the ladder and meet Christian! That was insane! The show goes off the air as both men are grasping the Title and shouting in each other’s face about how they will be victorious this Sunday, only on PPV!
ECW Thoughts
Wow, in the past 60 hours I have written over 40 pages of papers for college. If you felt any of tonight’s recap was brief in parts, I apologize as I literally have been staring at a computer screen and typing for three straight days. The best part is that as soon as I got my work finished, it was time for ECW. You have to love when your idea of a relaxing reprieve from writing research and term papers is typing up a recap. What can I say? It’s my life.
Tonight’s ECW was fine. Nothing special that I?m really going to remember, and it is actually causing a bit of an annoyance in terms of the progression of the product. I feel like week in and out we see the same exact feuds and matches. Whether it is the same guys defeating jobbers, or Hurricane and Burchill going at it for the bajillionth time.
Now I will say that I think the Burchill/Ripper gimmick is freakin? hilarious. In fact, JJ Sexay of Plugged In, actually predicted last week during my ECW Recap on his show that this exact scenario would occur. I?m actually going to give them some credit on that matter because if they HAVE to continue the world’s most elongated short feud, then I suppose you might as well throw some humor into the mix.
What I am absolutely annoyed at is the fact that this Jackson/Roundtable dynamic and fallout keeps happening week in and out. Look, forget whatever happened in tonight’s main event. That is actually irrelevant to my point. Under no circumstances should Regal even have thought Jackson could realign himself with the roundtable, let alone not punch him in the face at first site. And Tiffany putting the matter up for vote? Seriously? Every other week Jackson is punching out his team, so why would he even LET them vote. Jackson should have just punched Regal in the face and said, ‘screw you I?m doing what I want?.
Now my personal annoyances aside, ECW tonight was certainly worth watching. They kept storylines progressing (even if some I wish they didn?t), the worked on pushing new talent, built for the TLC PPV, kept things interesting. I loved the ending to the show as Shelton pulled a perfect plancha off from the ring to the outside on Regal and Jackson. The jump into the ring to stop Christian from grabbing the Title almost failed 15 different ways, and yet everything hit in sync. It was a powerful ending that has me excited for their match. I am completely exhausted but the show kept me watching, so well done.
On the subject of the TLC PPV, I am officially picking Shelton to win the Title. It’s time to mix things up!
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.
September 8th ? December 8th 2009
1. Christian ? 54 pts. [l.w. 1]2. William Regal ? 39 [l.w. 2]3. Yoshi Tatsu ? 33 pts. [l.w. 3]
4. Zach Ryder – 26 pts. [l.w. 4]5. Shelton Benjamin – 25 pts. [l.w. 5]6. Ezekiel Jackson – 24 pts. [l.w. 5]7. Kozlov ? 22 pts. [l.w. 7]8. Goldust ? 18 pts. [l.w. 8]9. Hurricane ? 16 pts. [l.w. 9]9. Vance Archer ? 16 pts. [l.w. 10]
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