Quick hits on ECW, WWE Superstars
ECW
• I like the Bella twins, but they sure have been annoying the past two weeks. For babyfaces, that’s not good.
• Katie Birchill’s new look is pretty cool. I loved how aggressive she was against Nikki Bella. Birchill is an underrated talent.
• Shelton Benjamin and Yoshi Tatsu had a good match. I was impressed with Tatsu.
• Ezekiel Jackson looked awesome doing his power moves against an enhancement talent. He’s raw, but WWE might have something here. I’m curious to see how he does when he isn’t working a squash match and he has to sell for his opponent and take bumps. Those are Vladimir Kozlov’s weaknesses.
• Why are the announcers, Tiffany and everyone else backstage acting as if they have never seen The Hurricane before?
• The Abraham Washington segment, with Tommy Dreamer as the guest, was better than last week’s. Then again, it couldn’t possibly have been any worse. If Washington’s gimmick is supposed to be that all of his jokes are lame, then he’s doing a great job. Nobody could write that material and actually think it’s funny, could they?
• Kozlov came off as a cyborg-like killing machine in his training video, but he was a lot less intense for his match against Christian. He didn’t have that goofy grin like he did a few weeks ago, but he was smirking more than scowling.
• In Dreamer’s commentary during the Kozlov-Christian match to determine his opponent for the ECW title at the Night of Champions pay-per-view, he said that Christian may not have been the result he wanted. I didn’t really get that. If he’s saying Christian would be a tougher opponent, that kind of buries Kozlov, who is supposed to be a monster. Plus, as a babyface, wouldn’t Dreamer welcome the competition, and wouldn’t he especially want a guy he respects to get the shot?
WWE SUPERSTARS
• There wasn’t a lot of star power on the show this week. It will be interesting to see if this is the start of a trend.
• The R-Truth-Ricky Ortiz match was better than expected. I didn’t think Ortiz would get in as much of offense as he did. It was his best showing since coming to WWE. As for R-Truth, it seems like the fans are really starting to rally behind him – and he doesn’t even have a towel.
• I figured Tyler Reks, who lost his debut match to Zack Ryder last week, would get his win back here. Nope. He’s now 0-2 on TV. I’m not sure how this gives Reks a chance to get over, but I’ll withhold judgment until I see where this is going.
• I have to admit that I found the Chavo Guerrero-Hornswoggle match amusing, but I’m starting to feel bad for Guerrero, who is one of the nicest guys that I know in the business. How many more ways can he be humiliated? I have a feeling we’re going to find out.
Comments
I was really surprised that Christian won the match i'm glad and hopefully he finally gets the title back and has a nice feud w/ Shelton. it's seems the Vince is on lets humilate anyone with the last name Guerrero its a shame with Chavo because he is very talented and to be doing comic relief for the last year or more is terrible. well hoping to see you tomorrow at MCW.
RESPONSE FROM KE: I'll be there.
Posted by: frank from dundalk | July 10, 2009 9:02 PM
I thought AW's line about Tommy being in a "get to the front of the buffet line match" was funny.
I think Kozlov's time on ECW will do him some good.
Ezekiel is a beast. I was worried they'd forget about him as they have done with Kendrick. I can't wait to see more from him.
Mick Foley doesn't have the WWE look, doesn't look like a superstar, but Hornswoggle does?
Posted by: Killer Tofu | July 10, 2009 9:36 PM
Yet again a talented female wrestler is booked to job to eye candy. It really is a shame what WWE is doing with their women.
This Abraham Washington character is a joke, but not in a good way. I gave him a shot this week, but it was another pointless, embarrassingly awkward effort. I don't even know what he's supposed to be doing there, but whatever it is, it's not working.
ECW is in shambles right now. They need to figure out what they want to do with Kozlov, and fast. At this point, I think he's lost any credibility with the fans as a monster heel. His only chance now is to make a face turn somehow. Either that or it's back to developmental or TNA or the Moscow Mauler.
As for Reks, I can only imagine they're going to have him go on a prolonged losing streak, until he finally has a big, emotional triumph by winning his first match. Problem is, they've already lost the crowd. Dude has lost to a bottom-of-the-barrel mid-carder two weeks in a row on the number four show - that instantly destroys any chance this guy had to get over. More horrendous booking.
I also found the Chavo match mildly amusing, but come on - didn't we have John Morrison - Evan Bourne as the main event on Superstars just a few weeks ago?
Posted by: Michael in Virginia | July 11, 2009 4:45 AM
Oh yeah, Kev - "enhancement talent?" Either that's some subtle sarcasm or you've been drinking Vince's "sports entertainment" Kool Aid! =P
Posted by: Michael in Virginia | July 11, 2009 4:59 AM
I don't think that Ezekiel Jackson has earned his stripes to be able to use The Rock's Rock-Bottom/Booker T.'s Book-End finisher. It's not very original for him to use it.
RESPONSE FROM KE: In all fairness, Rock and Booker weren't original either. The move, a uranage driver, was around before they were.
Posted by: Mike Leigh | July 11, 2009 7:53 AM
"Shelton Benjamin and Yoshi Tatsu had a good match. I was impressed with Tatsu."
_____________________________
Yes. That was the kind of entertainment that I had come to expect from ECW before the trade. I too was impressed with Tatsu. He seemed a bit confused about how to take Paydirt, but aside from that, he gave us a very good television match.
Abraham Washington? I shall stick to the old adage of "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything."
Posted by: Christopher | July 11, 2009 12:56 PM
Four hours of wrestling and doughnuts...too much of a good thing can make you not feel so well. Ha, ha.
Hopefully Tyler can turn it around. Anyone else thinking of Rad Radford with the grunge-surfer gimmick? Radford (Louie Spicolli) ruled.
Did you try sitting through Warehouse 13 on Tuesday? I couldn't take it. It was too cliche, like Bones meets the comedic X-files.
Posted by: Another Wrestling Mark | July 11, 2009 7:33 PM
Tommy Dreamer was pinned by Kozlov last week, so was his comment driven by the fact that he wanted to prove himself against the man that pinned him most recently? I didn't get to watch the show Thursday, so I'll get your judgment on that.
RESPONSE FROM KE: Possible. It wasn't really made clear, almost like it was a throwaway line.
Posted by: Mr. Sarcasm | July 11, 2009 11:08 PM
Hey Kevin,
Future blog post idea... Not sure if you've already done it, but I'd be very interested to read a list and commentary on the top 10 or 20 WWE MATCHES of all time. (not neccesarily PPV)
(I threw in WWE matches there a bit selfishly because I have never watched TNA or WCW or any other program)
Posted by: Rob | July 14, 2009 4:58 AM