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September 9, 2009

Quick hits on ECW

• I think WWE might be on to something with Vladimir Kozlov and Ezekiel Jackson as a monster heel tag team. They looked good in their victory over Christian and Tommy Dreamer in the main event of Tuesday’s episode. Whatever weaknesses Kozlov and Jackson have as workers are much less apparent in tag team matches than they are in singles matches. The duo also is benefiting from their association with William Regal, as his heel heat is getting transferred to them. Plus, he’s there to cut promos for them, which allows Kozlov and Jackson to come across as mute mauling machines.

• Here’s an excerpt from last week’s ECW post: “I was surprised how much the fans were behind [Shelton] Benjamin, who I think has turned babyface, although I’m still not 100 percent certain.” Sure enough, Benjamin was a heel on Tuesday’s show, although he may have turned babyface (again?) since he and tag team partner Sheamus brawled with each other after their win over Goldust and Yoshi Tatsu. I have no idea what the creative team is trying to accomplish by scripting Benjamin to be such a wishy-washy character. In Tuesday’s tag match, Benjamin “stole” the victory from Sheamus by making a blind tag and covering Goldust after Sheamus had him beat. That’s a heel thing to do, so when Sheamus punched Benjamin after the match, the crowd cheered. However, I don’t see Sheamus turning babyface, so I think the idea was to get the fans to sympathize with Benjamin. I guess we’ll find out next week. Or not.

• Hurricane and Paul Burchill had another good match. It’s great that these guys were given enough time (the match lasted about 12 minutes) to actually put together a match that builds.

• When Zack Ryder’s opponent was announced as Rory Fargo, it immediately made me think of Jackie Fargo, a legend in the Memphis territory in the ’60s and ’70s. He was Jerry Lawler’s mentor and also formed a famous tag team with “brother” Don Fargo. Right on cue, Matt Striker said to Josh Matthews: “I wonder if he’s any relation to The Fabulous Fargos? You have no idea what I’m talking about.” Matthews proved Striker right by just ignoring the comment. On a side note, Rory Fargo has also wrestled under the name Rory Fox. You may recall him appearing on an MTV documentary about pro wrestling a decade ago. He was just starting out as an independent wrestler and was doing a paper boy gimmick as “Rapid Delivery” Rory Fox.

Posted by Kevin Eck at 2:16 AM | | Comments (8)
        

Comments

Glad to see that FCW former Queen and wrestler Angela Fong is finally being used by WWE as the backstage interviewer during last night's show. Not happy that they have named her "Savannah", but hopefully in time they will name who she really is. At least she is on national TV and ECW too.

Wow, I actually remember that MTV documentary you mentioned. If I recall his paper-boy gimmick was kind of silly and lame. Good for him for making it to the "big time." Wasn't John Cena also featured briefly on that documentary when he was still working the independents? There was some scene where he was riding a charter bus with the other guys on some sort of a tour.

I guess Shelton Benjamin is the WWE's answer to the Motor City Machine Guns.

I was watching an AWA re-run from 1986 on ESPN Classic and there was a jobber named Don Fargo - with swastika tattoos! Same guy?!?

RESPONSE FROM KE: Pretty sure that's him.

I just wish Regal would have been used like this on Raw or smackdown and i do hope he becomes champion with his Army and has a lengthy title reign.

I think this is what Barney is talking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ENh7nbo110

I liked the main event also. They kept things nice and simple for Vlad and Jackson.

What happened to Courtney Taylor? Savannah is fine, but I don't think that there should be a carousel of backstage interviewers.

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About Kevin Eck
The Baltimore Sun's Kevin Eck blogs about professional wrestling.
E-mail Kevin.
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