A live perspective on ECW
Here are some thoughts on Tuesday night’s ECW, which I watched live at 1st Mariner Arena in Baltimore:
• New ECW champion Christian and Zack Ryder had a really good match. This was an important match for Ryder and he delivered. He was treated as a legitimate threat to defeat Christian, and that means WWE must see something in him.
• What’s more humiliating for Shelton Benjamin, losing to Yoshi Tatsu in a matter of seconds, or being told that he’s “not entertaining enough” to appear on The Abraham Washington Show? I think it’s the latter. When Benjamin told ECW general manger Tiffany that he would show her how entertaining he can be, I thought for sure that he was going to interfere in the Christian-Ryder match to kick off a program with Christian. In retrospect, I’m glad that he didn’t, because it would have taken away from the match.
• It seemed like the majority of fans at the show don’t regularly watch ECW. I got the sense that many in the crowd didn’t know Sheamus and thought he was some enhancement guy out there to put Goldust over. Goldust got a bigger pop than I expected.
• Ezekiel Jackson got a babyface reaction when he came out to stare down Vladimir Kozlov after Kozlov’s squash victory. However, when Jackson picked up the limp body of Kozlov’s opponent and hit a Uranage, he was booed. I think that was another example of fans not following ECW, because Jackson was just doing the same thing that Kozlov did last week. I don’t think the intention was to get heel heat on Jackson.
• Tyler Reks and Paul Burchill had a decent match. Burchill has to be one of the most underrated guys in the company.
• Drew McIntyre defeated Slam Master J (formerly Jesse) in a dark match. McIntyre has a great look. I was a little surprised at how much the crowd was into SMJ.
Comments
Kev,who was the "local competitor" for Koslov,as billed by WWE.COM?
Any spoilers for S.D. to be released?
RESPONSE FROM KE: I believe his name is Bill Baine.
Posted by: Gregory Asch | July 29, 2009 1:37 PM
I'm hoping Slime Burger J turns out to be an entertaining character! So far he's been making me laugh in the Word Up segments with Cryme Tyme...
Also, I hope Paul Burchill gets a good push some day, along with some mic time... I 've always enjoyed his work...
Posted by: Omar Hernandez | July 29, 2009 1:39 PM
Since the show was in Baltimore, I must say that Frog from Season 2 of The Wire would be a big fan of Slam Master J.
Posted by: Quin | July 29, 2009 2:40 PM
Thanks for the burchall props. Couldn't agree more.
Where's regal? Oh how i wish he never was suspended amidst his biggest push....
Posted by: Andy | July 29, 2009 5:18 PM
Maybe it's just me, but I feel like Ezekial & Vladimir are headed towards becoming a tag team. They're wearing the same colored tights & they as a tagteam together would look pretty imposing.
Posted by: Benny | July 29, 2009 5:23 PM
Kev, my favorite part of the show was this little exchange:
*Tyler Rex comes out*
*crowd is absolutely silent*
Posted by: rubxcubedude | July 29, 2009 5:36 PM
What would you think about Kozlov and Jackson becoming a tag team instead of rivals? Then again they wouldn't have anyone to face on ECW...
Posted by: e | July 29, 2009 7:04 PM
Hey Kevin I tried to post this earlier but got an error message so I'm not sure if it went thru but I wondered if you saw what Joey Styles and Chris Jericho posted on Twitter last night about the arena. I dug up the comments.
Styles: "OMG, the Baltimore Arena is a dump. It's no better than the Original ECW Arena."
Jericho: "I completely agree. Time to pony up for a new arena city council..."
Posted by: Dean | July 29, 2009 8:23 PM
Jesse's new character is such, that he will likely be main eventing Maryland Championship Wrestling next time he comes to the area.
Posted by: Elevation | July 29, 2009 9:00 PM
Nobody does thugged out white boys like WWE.
Really, I think Vince has a hard on for white boys in baggy clothing who speak ebonics. It must make R-Truth cry at night.
Posted by: Cliff | July 30, 2009 9:38 AM
Was that "Goldust, Goldust, Goldust" chant's I heard?
I hope Burchill get's into some kind of program, he reminds me of Arn Anderson a little bit, he'll never be a main event player but you'll have to go thru him if you want to get there.
Eck, I don't think you got a chance to see this unless you taped ECW and watched it later, but they did one of those "Here's what Tyler Reks had to say earlier in the day" promos while he was comming to the ring. And he said something along the lines of "I'm not your typical surfer type," blah,blah,blah.. I just thought it would be great if they played that up, like he was just a "surfer dude." How great would it be to have a Spicoli like character? He could have a pizza delivered in the middle of a match, if he got hit in the head with a chair he'd scream "That was my skull!" and so on.
Posted by: Andre The Midget | July 30, 2009 8:37 PM
He could have a pizza delivered in the middle of a match
--- That literally made me laugh out loud -- though that was always my favorite scene in Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
Posted by: Bob Buscaglia | August 1, 2009 2:37 AM
I don't know what the bigger joke is: Washington having said that Shelton is not entertaining enough to be on his show, or Shelton wanting to be on his show, in the first place.
Posted by: Christopher | August 1, 2009 12:53 PM