WWECW

[EricR]

This thread will be for the definitive "Best Matches in WWECW History". As I watch the shows I'll post the matches that I think would make a comp, you all can follow along and comment as well.

 

 

~Vince MacMahon, Shane MacMahon & Umaga vs. Rob Van Dam (5/8/07)

~CM Punk vs. Steven Richards (5/15/07)*

~Yoshi Tatsu vs. Shelton Benjamin (7/9/09) **

~Vladimir Kozlov vs. Christian (7/9/09) **

~Christian vs. Shelton Benjamin (7/14/09) **

~Paul Birchall vs. Yoshi Tatsu (7/14/09) *

~William Regal vs. Yoshi Tatsu (7/21/09) **

~Tyler Reks vs. Paul Birchall (7/21/09) *

~Sheamus vs. Goldust (7/28/09) *

~Christian vs. Zach Ryder (7/28/09) **

~Sheamus vs. Goldust (8/4/09) **

~Extreme Rules Match: Tommy Dreamer vs. Christian (8/4/09) **

~William Regal vs. Tommy Dreamer (8/11/09) ***

 

 

*** = MOTYC

** = Comp Slam-Dunk

* = Really Fun Comp Filler

listed = Borderline Comp Filler

[EricR]

So Will and I were talking not long ago about the WWECW thread that got started in the Shilling section, and how everybody said it was better than the original match-wise, yet the thread sputtered out immediately when he asked what matches people would recommend. So I said fuck it, I'll go back and re-watch the stuff and make a definitive list. I picked kind of a random starting point, which was only because it was the first disc I found of it in my stacks. So I'll post my thoughts here and add all the best matches to that first post up above. Depending on how many matches I think are worthy of making the cut, I may come up with some sort of star system to determine if it's a Slam Dunk nomination or a slightly less nomination.

 

 

WWECW 7/9/09

 

 

1. Nikki Bella vs. Katie Lea Burchill

 

Seems like kind of a horrible show to start off on when this is the match that leads things off, but then Nikki takes a giant bump to the floor to start and I shut my mouth. Nikki doesn't seem to be very good but it works for her as it makes her bumps way more dangerous (one spot sees her supposed to land on the apron but she ends up tumbling all the way to the floor), making Katie's backbreaker seem more brutal and taking a neckbreaker more painfully than most girls would take it. The match was only 3 minutes long but you've seen way worse Diva's matches than this.

 

2. Yoshi Tatsu vs. Shelton Benjamin

 

So...when did Shelton Benjamin get good? I don't remember liking his stuff around this time, and I know I didn't like his ROH stuff, but he was pretty great here as a smug methodical heel (as opposed to his usual role of black guy who jumps high, which has since been filled by Kofi Kingston). I mean there are not many 8 minute Shelton singles matches that I enjoy, but this was really good. Tatsu's comebacks were peppered in nicely and Shelton had a cool fighter's way of trying to block Yoshi's kicks. And when Shelton would cut Yoshi's offense off it was always followed by him actually selling prior damage! The fans were getting way behind Tatsu here and that's just further evidence that Shelton was working as an effective heel. Match was also worked in a way that whenever Shelton tried any of his high jumping antics, they would always backfire and would lead to Tatsu getting the advantage, but when he stuck to clubbing and throwing Tatsu around he stayed in control (he hit a vicious standing overhead belly to belly which is like something Dave Taylor would pull out). Only complaint was with his finisher, which was that awful jumping leaping DDT-ish faceplant-y sort of thing that always looks like he's taking the move and the other guy is not sure how to land. That needs to go.

 

3. Ezekiel Jackson vs. Jack Meridol

 

AWESOME squash match. Jackson just beat the snot out of this kid. All his clubbing shots sounded like Meridol was getting hit with a 2x4 and Zeke was tossing this guy around recklesssly and it looked awesome. He just plants Meridol with a urunage and my spine ached. Is Zeke even still employed by WWE? I haven't heard his name in over a year.

 

4. Vladimir Kozlov vs. Christian

 

Boy not quite 4 years later and this show is just a total graveyard of past WWE talent. Is Christian still with WWE? I don't remember the last time I saw him. This is a number one contenders match for Tommy Dreamer's title (boy the ECW title looks awful), and boy this match was awesome. I know Kozlov has been involved in matches I liked, but it seems like he had become a genuine good worker at this point (although Christian was really great at working TV matches during this period). The opening mat exchanges are all really good, and then Kozlov takes a great bump over the top to the floor after missing a charge. Christian was never one to allow somebody to top him with stupid over the top bumping, so a minute later Kozlov knocks him off the apron and Christian lands on his side in a nasty way. All Kozlov's offense looks cool and painful, especially his sit out torture rack that ragdolled Christian. Kozlov also leans into a missile dropkick head first and that's awesome. Match was really good.

[Eduardo]

Thanks for starting this thread.

 

Just to be clear, would WWECW matches on PPV be eligible as well?

[Dylan Waco]

I watched a shit ton of 08 WWECW a few years back on Hulu. No clue if the episodes are still up or not, but I came away thinking it was every bit as good as 09. I've been following Eric's reviews at Segunda Caida and this thread will make a great resource

[Jimmy Redman]

I've been watching 2007 recently so here are my thoughts on some matches worth considering:

 

ECW Originals vs New Breed (Extreme Rules), ECW 3rd April 2007

 

Possibly the most ECW match that WWECW ever had.

 

This is Under Ten Minutes and an exercise in complete and utter chaos. All action, all spots, all throwing metal objects in people's faces. Balls to the wall. Lots of brutal headshots in this, the best ones being Monty giving Dreamer a Cena Spinny Side Slam and cracking his head on a chair, and Thorn going for the Tower of London and getting horrifically chaired in the face. Finish, like the rest of the match, just walks up and hits you upside the head. Total unadulterated fun from beginning to end, and like I said this felt more like an ECW match than possibly any other WWECW match in its history.

 

John Cena vs Johnny Nitro, ECW 26/6/07

 

Cena in '07, thats all I'm saying. They had a couple of good TV matches in this period actually, this was their best and also a great example of the style (by "style" I meant champion vs midcarder TV match). Nitro just pummelling Cena with rights and Cena as Jerry Lawler ruled.

 

CM Punk vs Mark Henry, ECW 6th Dec 2007

 

WOAH. So as it turns out, Punk and Henry have always had chemistry. This was like a proto-version of their 2012 match. Its all there - the trash talk, Henry's offense, Punk's selling, the comebacks, the cutoffs, the screwy finish. This one ended just when it was starting to peak, which was a shame, but man, as six minutes of TV, this rocked.

[Exposer]

Oh man, I'm going to love this thread. Keep it up Eric. WWECW was the greatest thing on television when I was in high school.

 

I should have thrown out some recommendations in the old thread but here are a few:

 

Big Show vs. Flair (7/11/06) - This was an Extreme Rules match and has Flair taking a tac bump post-match and bleeding everywhere. The visual of him covered in blood and tacs with fans chanting his name and ECW is surreal. I've always loved Dylan referring to Flair as the American Onita during this time period and this is the perfect example of that.

 

John Morrison/Miz vs. Jimmy Wang Yang/Shannon Moore (12/11/07, 12/18/07, & 1/8/08) - This was a really great TV tag series and mini-feud. The last match is a 15-minute Ironman match which might be the best. Morrison and Miz were a shockingly good team at the time and had some good matches with other teams but this was my favorite of their stuff. Yang and Moore ruled as the underdog babyface tag team.

 

CM Punk vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr. (3/4/08) - This is a really great match and marks the end of another great TV WWECW feud. They have a couple other matches in the few months prior to this that are pretty good too if I remember correctly.

 

Matt Hardy vs. Mark Henry & Finlay vs. Mike Knox (Summer of 08) - These two series were fucking awesome and there is one out of this world great Hardy-Henry match from I think August. The Finlay-Knox feud just rules. They have this wild brawl to open the show at one point but I don't think it's a match. They do have good matches though.

 

Anything with Christian, Bourne, and Regal rules in 09.

 

The Sheamus-Goldust series is fucking AWESOME and is possibly my favorite WWECW feud ever besides maybe Christian-Regal. These matches are around summer of 09.

 

That's all I got off the top of my head but yeah I'm stoked for this thread.

[Exposer]

Is Zeke even still employed by WWE? I haven't heard his name in over a year.

Yeah, he's still around. Hilariously, he sent out a tweet on Raw about Kofi beating Cesaro for the IC title I think. He's been injured for a good while. I think he may be scheduled to return soon.

[Guest Andrews]

This thread is already reminding me of a "who would you fuck" conversation from High School where you were limited by a dubious selection of girls from Biology.

 

I'm off to watch Super J Cup 94, enjoy Sheamus vs Goldust....

 

[Phil Schneider]

You realize everyone posting in this thread got over the Super J Cup 94 period of their lives 15 years ago right?

[Bix]

Is Zeke even still employed by WWE? I haven't heard his name in over a year.

Yeah, he's still around. Hilariously, he sent out a tweet on Raw about Kofi beating Cesaro for the IC title I think. He's been injured for a good while. I think he may be scheduled to return soon.

 

He was at Axxess doing one of the secondary photo opportunity things, so one would think he's due back soon.

[Exposer]

This thread is already reminding me of a "who would you fuck" conversation from High School where you were limited by a dubious selection of girls from Biology.

 

I'm off to watch Super J Cup 94, enjoy Sheamus vs Goldust....

 

It would be great if all the comments in this thread were relevant. I guess they're not.

[tigerpride]

Regal and Christian had a great series of matches too.

[Guest Andrews]

You realize everyone posting in this thread got over the Super J Cup 94 period of their lives 15 years ago right?

It would be great if you could spot sarcasm.... I guess you're not as with it as you think you are...

[Loss]

You realize everyone posting in this thread got over the Super J Cup 94 period of their lives 15 years ago right?

It would be great if you could spot sarcasm.... I guess you're not as with it as you think you are...

 

This is a positive thread. If you don't have any match recommendations to contribute to it, stay out of it.

[Exposer]

Miz/Morrison vs. Jimmy Wang Yang/Shannon Moore (15 Minutes of Fame 1/8/08)

 

I re-watched this today to see if it still held up. It's a really good TV match but there are some things that I didn't think were all that great.

 

I forgot that Miz used to wear a fedora. Him strutting around with a title while wearing it reminds me of a kid I always see at local Indy shows here in Chatt. Maybe I'll ask him next time I'm at a show if he's a Miz fan. I love the Jimmy Wang Yang cowboy gimmick. It makes me think of the minorities at my high school in North Georgia who used to follow the status quo by wearing dirty jeans, dip tobacco, and drive over-sized Fords with a song similar to Wang's theme blasting. Good times. The early frantic pace they went with was something I liked. The execution wasn't always there, mainly because I thought Morrison was pretty pedestrian in the early exchanges. I liked his running knee to Moore. His full rotation bump on the monkey flip from Yang was passable even though it's a bit business exposing. It went along with the chaotic early pacing. The early saves in this were really well done I thought. Especially, Shannon's save of Yang from a cheap fall by knocking Morrison's hand off the ropes and breaking the pin. This was followed up by Miz distracting the ref which gave the faces a visual three but the distraction prevented it. This leads to Yang getting rolled up by Morrison for the first fall after he knocked Miz off the apron. So, the pacing of the first section of the match leading up to the first fall was really smart. It really put a lot of focus on the fact that there were only 15 minutes as opposed to say 60 to get things done. The next little bit is consumed almost entirely by commercial interruption which is pretty aggravating. It's hard to really measure the match in it's complete form when 4 minutes of a 15 minute match are missing. At least they showed a near fall from the faces that happened during the break. Yang is in peril after the interruption but it's brief. He ends up hitting his moonsault press on Morrison who was out of place and ended up falling instead of catching Yang resulting in a marginally awkward landing. That got it tied up though. I wish the move had looked better and maybe it would have from a different camera angle but it looked like Morrison was out of place there. Anyways, Miz came across as the best guy in this match in my view which is admittedly a strange thing to say. His aggression really meshed well with the pacing of the match. I loved him immediately just undercutting Yang's leg to take away from his high flying offense that was the central problem his team was having early on. Miz and Morrison then work on Yang's leg and it's really aggressive, tight, and strong limb work. They slow the match down and drain the clock. That's smart psychology as they are simultaneously taking away Yang's strengths and killing the clock. Unfortunately, the crowd isn't as into this as one would want them to be but they're fine enough. I think a hotter crowd would have really pushed the heat section over the edge. Part of that may be Miz and Morrison's inability to connect with the crowd as heels but their work was good here nonetheless. Meanwhile, they continue the work on Yang's leg who doesn't seem to be selling the damage as much as he should. I liked him crawling for the tag which indicates his leg isn't of great use but once he's on his feet his sprinting some and doing high spots. That's not particularly great limb selling. Moore gets the hot tag soon enough and we get a really hot stretch run. Moore hits a great running tope con hilo to the floor that's followed up by Yang finally selling his leg a little bit then diving to the floor. Moore gets a great near fall off of a twisting corkscrew from the top rope on Miz. The wild pacing is back and Yang comes back in. He gets a couple of good near falls on Miz as time starts to really run out. He then hits the moonsault press and actually only gets Miz with his leg leading him to selling it. That may have been unintentional because Yang seemed to have possibly actually hurt his leg a little but he sold it and that's what ended up costing his team the match. He wasn't able to make the cover in time for the three. Therefore, the finish was really good but it may have been unintentional. Still, I liked it. Overall, this had it's flaws like the questionable selling from Yang, Morrison making a few mistakes, and the commercial interruption cutting it in half but I thought it had really good pacing, strong work in the heat section, good structure, and a really good finishing run and finish. Yeah, I still like this a good bit even if I did find some obvious flaws in it.

[Chess Knight]

I watched the majority of Christian's run recently (last year, this year, IDR), and it kind of blew me away. I didn't bother looking up specific matches but instead looked at every single match he had week-to-week and I cannot remember a really disappointing match. I couldn't find links for all of them and I stopped around September, but his output of good was outstanding. Worked with Swagger, Dreamer, Regal, Ryder, Kidd, DH Smith, Tatsu, Benjamin, Kozlov.....all really good. Picking which matches that WOULDN'T show on a comp would be tough as hell. Of the thirty+ I watched there were probably five I didn't think were THAT good, and, again, I didn't finish.

 

I've been saying for months I want to watch all of 2008 ECW and I will do it some day for sure. Finding the links may be a bitch b/c I don't get Hulu.

[EricR]

Thanks for starting this thread.

 

Just to be clear, would WWECW matches on PPV be eligible as well?

I'm kind of on the fence on this, so I'll just let everybody else decide. I think December to Dismember should definitely count, but what else would I count? The ECW title matches on all the 3 brand PPVs? Should I count the One Night Stand PPVs?

[EricR]

WWECW 7/14/09

 

 

1. Christian vs. Shelton Benjamin

 

Well this makes two straight shows and two straight Shelton Benjamin performances I really liked. I watched very little ECW at the time (didn't have SyFy) so most of this I'm seeing years removed, but I still watched PPVs and Superstars and all that stuff and I didn't ever remember thinking "Hey Shelton is looking GOOD lately!" But damn if he hasn't been looking awesome in July '09 ECW. This was another trademark good Christian TV match with Shelton working over Christian's left arm in all sorts of cool ways, like hyperextending it over his knee and dropping knees on it while prone. Christian is a champ and sells it great throughout the whole match. Shelton is a real stand out here with his offense and overall viciousness that I've never seen him display at all. He hits a running knee lift here that looks just super painful, and also finally utilizes his amateur wrestling that always gets talked about but never actually gets used in his matches. He had a couple cool takedowns and a rad Oklahoma roll that really felt like he could have shoot pinned Christian if he wanted to. His big leap to the buckles spot actually gets built to perfectly, with the first attempt failing and allowing Christian to transition back to offense, and the 2nd seeing him hit a great single arm DDT off the top on Christian's bum wing. Christian also is the only guy who knows how to take Shelton's goofy finisher, as Christian is always great at spiking himself on DDT-type moves. Color me a Shelton Benjamin fan. Who woulda thunk.

 

2. Paul Burchill vs. Yoshi Tatsu

 

I remember Burchill when he started as a pirate, when he wasn't very good and the only thing that people online hyped him for was his indyrageous Spanish Fly finisher. But somewhere along the way he apparently got really good and started wrestling like a Regal/Finlay hybrid. He drops a GREAT elbow, hits a mean senton and then starts choking and fish hooking Tatsu. Good lord. Yoshi blows a springboard spot and Burchill doesn't miss a beat by picking him up and planting him with a nasty Saito suplex. Ending is both disappointing and satisfying, with Yoshi reeling and hitting a flash head kick. The kick looked good and I like them pushing his kicks as lethal, but I wanted more than the 3.5 minutes they gave me. Bittersweet.

 

3. Goldust vs. Zack Ryder

 

Yessss. I'm been jonesin for some Dustin lately (one of the reasons I popped in some ECW discs) and he looks every bit as great as you would expect. The surprise is that Ryder looks pretty good, too. His stuff works much better as a heel than as a goofball face. He went over super clean and that's pretty lame, as if you thought Benjamin's finisher was silly then Ryder's is just ridiculous. It takes forever for him to set it up, holding his shin to the back of a guy's neck and then taking a back bump. It's like he saw an old Murdoch match and dug the Cattle Branding, and then thought "How can I take that concept, but make it look like absolute dogshit?" And man did he succeed. Rest of the match was cool with tons of great Dustin punches and a tremendous butt-butt. Way too short (barely over 4 minutes) but any Dustin on my TV is a very good thing.

 

4. Sheamus vs. Roman Cornell

 

This has to be pretty soon after Sheamus' debut as nobody seems to know who he is. Whoever Roman Cornell is/was, he looks better than Sheamus in this match. He threw some pretty nice punches and leaned way into the (not yet named) Brogue Kick. This was short and inoffensive.

 

5. Vladimir Kozlov vs. Tommy Dreamer

 

This will be a good test to see how good Kozlov got at this point. And you know? The match kinda works. Dreamer obviously tries and sometimes his stuff doesn't look good but he throws a bunch of shit at the wall. It's actually kind of funny how much different moves he busts out here, like a super chubby Rocky Romero. I like a lot of individual spots in this one though they don't totally add up to much. Great spot on the floor with Koslov dishing kicks at Dreamer, and then missing a high kick and nailing a ringpost. It made a real satisfying clang and Kozlov didn't hold back on it. It didn't really lead to anything, but in a vacuum it looked cool. Kozlov goes over nice and clean which was a shock as Dreamer was still champ and Christian won the #1 contender last week. Sets up a decent feud I suppose.

[Dylan Waco]

Stuff like Christian v. Swagger or Christian v. Regal from ppv should count

[Matt D]

And the god damn Chavo vs Kane match from Backlash which I can never convince anyone to watch but shows just how great Chavo was in 08.

 

The first half of 08 does stand up, though the Punk matches really don't as well as you'd think.

[Jimmy Redman]

Yeah I think ECW Title matches on PPV and the two "original" One Night Stand shows should definitely count as WWECW canon.

[NintendoLogic]

3. Goldust vs. Zack Ryder

 

Yessss. I'm been jonesin for some Dustin lately (one of the reasons I popped in some ECW discs) and he looks every bit as great as you would expect. The surprise is that Ryder looks pretty good, too. His stuff works much better as a heel than as a goofball face. He went over super clean and that's pretty lame, as if you thought Benjamin's finisher was silly then Ryder's is just ridiculous. It takes forever for him to set it up, holding his shin to the back of a guy's neck and then taking a back bump. It's like he saw an old Murdoch match and dug the Cattle Branding, and then thought "How can I take that concept, but make it look like absolute dogshit?" And man did he succeed. Rest of the match was cool with tons of great Dustin punches and a tremendous butt-butt. Way too short (barely over 4 minutes) but any Dustin on my TV is a very good thing.

The other day, I was wondering if Zack Ryder has ever had a good match. I figured that if he did, it happened in WWECW, so thanks for this. The match was too short to leave much of an impression, but it was good while it lasted. For what it's worth, I don't think the Zack Attack is that terrible a finisher. It's better than a standard Overdrive, at least. Granted, that's an exceedingly low hurdle.

[Exposer]

And the god damn Chavo vs Kane match from Backlash which I can never convince anyone to watch but shows just how great Chavo was in 08.

 

The first half of 08 does stand up, though the Punk matches really don't as well as you'd think.

I remember that Chavo match because I saw this particular show at Hooters. I don't remember much about it other than the fact that I thought it was shockingly good. Hell, I'll watch it later today and throw my review of it in here just for you Matt.

 

EDIT: If I could find the match in whole I would watch it. As of right now, I've yet to find a full version.

[Jimmy Redman]

The other day, I was wondering if Zack Ryder has ever had a good match.

Cheating a bit, but he also had two really good matches with Christian. The first one was 28/7/09, I think the second one was in October or something.

 

Also non-ECW, but the match where he won the belt off Dolph at TLC 2011 was really good too.

 

There was that random Harry Smith match on Superstars too.

[tim]

There's a cool Goldust/Ezekiel match from October 2009. Stuck out for me at the time because Goldust does two really cool spots: he keeps dodging Zeke's attempted elbow drop, eventually rolling to the outside of the ring and hitting Zeke between the ropes as he tries to get after him; and at one point he starts a comeback attempt when Zeke is trying to lift him off the mat, starting throwing shots at his legs and thighs, then moving up to body shots, then moving up to a jawbreaker into mounted punches in the corner. It looks a lot cooler than it's possible to describe it.

 

Man, I loved 2009 ECW so much.

 

Also, does anyone have a link to the Chavo/Bourne match? I can't seem to find it on YT or DM.