Straight Blazing: ECW Report For 05/05/09

Straight Blazing: Championship Chaos

Welcome back Ladies and Gentleman to Straight Blazing! After a little hiatus last week its time to come back with a fury! I wanted to touch base on some things that happened last week and at Backlash! Well as you all know at WWE Backlash we saw Christian Cage win the ECW World Heavyweight Title from Jack Swagga! It was a decent match on a PPV that I found to be one of the best that WWE has put on in awhile. So now finally Captain Charisma, Christian, has a world title around his waist and is ready to lead ECW into the promise land! Or so we hope..

Last week on ECW we seen the following matches happen, Christian v Tommy Dreamer for the ECW Championship and Finlay v Tyson Kidd. Now neither rmatch was an amazing match but for once it didn’t seem that bad of a show. Vladimir Koslov cut a promo in a Military uniform and said how he will be ruling ECW and wrestling soon and for being in broken English it was decent.

Tyson Kidd picked up the win over Finlay in an average little match when Natalya distracted the ref and Tyson hit Finlay with the Shillelagh on his lef. This caused him to get the victory over Finlay. I really hope they push Tyson Kidd and Natalya and also that rumors are true and DH Smith will be coming up to the main roster to create a sort of Hart Foundation 2.0. Another little good segment that happened was Gregory Helms announcing on ECW and interviewing Evan Bourne until Paul Burchill interrupted him and set up a match for Superstars airing on Thursday. Not sure how that match played out but both are very talented.

The main event of last week saw Christian v Tommy Dreamer for the ECW Championship. The match ended up a run in finish when Jack Swagga, who was told he will get his rematch at Judgment Day, came out and attacked them both. He stood above Christian and made this feud gain a little momentum going into their 5th match so far since Christian returned. All in All last weeks ECW wasn’t bad.. But it wasn’t great.

Now moving onto this weeks ECW! It kicked off with a bang as we seen Tyson Kidd v Evan Bourne.

This is the future of wrestling right here. Matt Sydal and TJ Wilson are two of the best young stars in the wrestling business and to watch them tear it up on ECW was my pleasure this past week. The match started off very technical and not so much high flying. Back and forth action for a good bit had me hooked into this match right from the start. The first high spot was a cartwheel springboard head scissor take down of sorts that looked VERY pretty from Evan Bourne. Then we get a commercial break as usual.

Coming back from the break it still seems neither has the clear advantage in the match and a nice spinning heel kick from Bourne gives him the advantage for a bit. Then Bourne goes to jump on TJ on the turnbuckle and he lands on the second one. Tyson proceeds to dropkick his legs out from under him and then takes over control of the match and works a true heel style little match. Working on the injured leg of Evan Bourne and also keeping it grounded a lot, showing he can play a true heel.

Evan Bourne reverses a back body drop into a body splash and gets a close 2. Tyson Kidd then proceeds to take back over the match and continues to show that he can work a heel style flawlessly. And might I say many close ups of Natalya during this match is making me a happy boy. She is by far one of the most gorgeous divas in the WWE. Evan Bourne struggles to get to his feet and begins his offensive back in the match until Tyson nails a spinning back breaker and ends that momentum quick and goes for multiple pin attempts.

Tyson continues to keep the advantage in the match working a Camel Cluth for a good part of the match in diferent variations. Rvan then finally gets the advantage and the two exchange kicks back and forth. Evan Bourne hit’s a springboard kick to the head on Tyson and gets the advantage. He starts his comeback in the match and goes through a decent little combination of various kicks and high flying moves. Natalya distracts Evan Bourne and pulls him off the apron as TJ Wilson does a baseball slide to Bourne. Finlay comes running down the ramp and hits TJ Wilson from the top of the rope with the Shillelagh and he falls down and the Bourne hit’s the Shooting Star Press for the win.

Match Rating: 4/5
Match Review: This proved why these two are the future of this business. What an entertaining little match that showed a mix of styles from high flying to technical with a little bit of old school thrown in there. Beautiful opening match and it set a pace that the show most likely wouldn’t be able to keep up with.

Jack Swagger comes out for a promo and is looking sharp in his suit and looks ready for business. Josh Matthews is in the ring ready to give an interview and Swagga is all smiles. Swagga mentions how he is the best and etc and by the end of the decent promo Tommy Dreamer comes down to the ring and rips Swagga out of the ring but he makes his exit up the ramp before Dreamer can do anything. The two stare off at each other as we go to Tiffany’s office. Zach Ryder is sporting a new look and is talking crap about how great he is going to be and such. Tiffany makes a match for Superstars between him and Finlay. We get a nice promo vignette on Vladimir Koslov then its off to commercial land!

Vladimir Koslov is up next with a match against some local jobber from Pittsburgh that I forget his name even as I just watched it. Lol. Well he simply destroyed the jobber with a couple belly to back suplexes as well as his trademark head butt to the chest. He ended it with his Rock Bottom like choke slam and then gets on the mic and says a few words in Russian I believe. Overall just another poor squash match for Mr. Koslov.. I think they are burying him..

Match Rating: 1/5
Match Review: The only reason this got a 1 is because atleast there was some wrestling in it.. But they SERIOUSLY have to get him off of this jobber streak..

Raw Recap.. Got to love the Raw Recap being longer than the last match on the show. Lol.

Gregory Helms continues his being an interviewer role by doing a Mark Henry interview where he says more or less that he is gonna beat Christian. We got to a commercial break again and come back ready for the main event!

Christian makes his way to the ring to a big pop from the crowd and looking good with the ECW Title around his waist. Odd that the champion is making his way to the ring first as most times the champ ends up coming out last. The match was literally just getting good when out comes Jack Swagga to interrupt the match and give Mark Henry the loss by DQ. Tommy Dreamer comes out from the back and attacks Swagga and we have two teams staring each other down as Tiffany comes out and declares a tag team match!! Commercial break time!

We come back from the break and the match is already underway and Swagga and Christian are in the ring but not for long as a nice double team move brings in Tommy Dreamer. Tommy Dreamer starts to get beat on by Swagga and then he makes the tag to Mark Henry who comes in and starts demolishing Tommy Dreamer completely. After working on him a bit he tags back in Swagga and he starts working a heel type match and slowing things down by working the injuries of Dreamer. Christian gets the hot tag in and starts to take out Henry and Swagga the best he can. He struggles with Henry but finally gets him down before Swagga interferes but he takes care of him only to turn around into Mark Henry taking him down. Swagga becomes the legal guy and works on Christian as the match is winding down. A nice back and forth exchange from Swagga and Christian leads to them both being down on the mat. Dreamer gets the hot tag in and takes out Henry out of the ring and takes Swagga to the ground. Dreamer sets up Swagga for the tree of Woe and Mark Henry tries to break it up and runs into Swagga. Dreamer does a suicide dive after Christian does to Mark Henry and he rolls back into the ring to finish off Swagga. He gets planted into the turnbuckle steel and he nails the Gutwrench and Jack Swagga picks up the big win on ECW.

Match Rating: 3.5/5
Match Review: Pointless run in for a singles match when you could have just scheduled it as one. But the match was a decent match and didn’t seem to dissapoint at all.

Overall Show Grade: B+
Overall Show Review: Well what can you say? An amazing opening match set the pace for a show that had some low points with Koslov match but all in all the two big matches you get from an ECW delivered nicely. I was very impressed by this and feel that the Swagga/Christian feud has some serious momentum.

Now I wanted to touch on this little thing before I end this article. I mentioned above in my post about a “Heel Way” of working a match. I want to explain this to some of you being in the business for 10+ years and watching since a little kid. A “heel way” to work a match is when a bad character, or a heel, will work on a spot they injured before. It also means that they will mainly keep the match grounded and will also do dirty stuff such as holding a move til the refs 5 count. As well as other backhanded things such as having the manager distract while they do something bad. Thought I would clear that up for you the readers!

Well I hope you enjoyed this weeks Straight Blazin. Remember that Judgment Day is in 2 weeks already and we have a lot of wrestling to look forward to. Stay Blazin!