WWECW

[Jimmy Redman]

How can anyone hate that Survivor Series match? Do you hate rainbows and sunshine and 'Murica and FUN??

 

"Mike Knox superkicked right away" is the most hilarious undersell of that whole opening gambit, Holy shit haha.

[Matt D]

Even on an ironic level you can enjoy Hunter and Shawn palling up with the Hardyz and Punk.

[El-P]

Even on an ironic level you can enjoy Hunter and Shawn palling up with the Hardyz and Punk.

 

That's actually the only part that was funny, indeed, especially the fact Hunter put over CM Punk, seeing he was getting loud chants (yeah, about sucking it, it was really sucking the heat of a better guy here, like he did pretty much during his entire career).

 

Aww come on, the HBK/Melina spot was fun! Can't wait for the December to Dismember recap. Hope you have a good Le quatorze juillet.

 

Micheals was doing the exact same thing with Sunny in 95, when they were both good looking. But yeah, like I said, Micheals, Punk & Nitro was the only good part of it, so Melina gets thrown in too.

 

Thanks. The definite article wasn't necessary though. (damn, I just came back from a course with a hungarian girl, and you make me work *again*)

[El-P]

Episode 24

 

RVD vs Sabu was the best thing on the show, a trip to memory lane for the old ECW fan in me. It's striking how most of RVD's stuff looks shoddy compared to Sabu's in term of accuracy. Good little match between the two, the kind of stuff they can do while sleeping. They work one or two interesting spots though, specially the counter to the springboard swinging DDT which looked nice. I really wish Sabu would have been the chosen one to be pushed, but I guess what they gave him was already better than anyone could expect, really.

 

CM Punk vs Test was short and got nowhere fast, ending in a double count out. Punk shouldn't do some of the kick he does, his leg lariat reminded me of Kawada's early stuff, when he was working a bit too much juniorish despite his build. Again, it shows how much opportunity and card placement plays a big role in having good matches, because there's no way CM Punk can't have a much better match with Test than RVD (+ weapons) had.

 

To build the second match for the PPV, which is the following Sunday, we get the Hardys vs Elijah Burke & Sylvester Terkay, who I guess are JTTS. Man, Terkay sure looks like one, with his plain black singlet. He's kinda like the Rip Morgan of ECW. Not particulary good either. I forgot how much Matt's key spots annoyed me. MNM show up, so that's your undercard for the PPV.

And then we get an odd main event of Big Show vs Bobby Lashley. I say odd because Show never looked so active and motivated. I guess because he knew Lashley can't do shit so he had to carry the whole match. So he beats up the big hoss who then makes a comeback from nowhere, absolutely no-selling the beating. Lashley is comically bad (that spear, ah ah ah).

 

So, we have a PPV with one undercard match and one main event. What is this ? In Your House ?

 

2006.11.28 Sabu vs RVD

[El-P]

December to Dismember 2006

 

I knew going in that this PPV has all awful reputation, so let's see.

 

MNM vs Hardys was a really good match. When they got to the second heat segment, I thought it was going long for the purpose of going long, but it built to an exciting finishing stretch. I'm not a big fan of the Hadys, hate the Side Effect by Matt, but they are solid in their own way. MNM is a great act, the entrance, the look, the music, Melina. Everything is a success. As far as workers, well, Nitro is much better as a heel and he's not as insanely spotty as he is on LU, and Mercury is pretty good. I can't believe that Joey Mercury from late ECW fame actually became this WWE lifer (or so it seems). Anyway, the work is not the crispest or the most compelling during heat segments, but still, good tag match dynamic. Melina is terrific, working like Sherri used to, acknownledging the crowd and flipping them off after a "crack whore" chant (classy), screaming her lungs off, booting guys outside and talking a great bump, in heels and boots too. So yep, liked this quite a bit.

 

Matt Striker vs Balls Mahoney

 

Contested under extreme observation of the rule. Ah ah. Striker is actually very solid, I like his work on the arm there. Mahoney, deprived of his gimmick chairshot, is much better too, and he actually sells well. So this is a fun little transitionnal match. Striker's odd and awesome tights get an hilarious comment from Joey (or Tazz, don't remember) about "Sitting on his own face".

 

Hey, this PPV is perfectly fine… oh wait. Sabu is down backstage. No Elimination Chamber for him. "Bullshit" chants. Ok. Now we get the FBI withe Trinity, who's not gonna do any moonsault in *this* attire, vs Burke & Terkay. Ok, Guido still looks like old Guido, and some parts are okay, but this isn't good. And Terkay looks totally out of place in 2006 WWE (not that it should necesseraly be a bad thing, but in his case, it is), and just isn't very good. So, there's that. And then… oh shit. Tommy Dreamer vs Daivari. You know, Daivari might be one of the worst worker I came across in a long time. He absolutely sucks the life out of LU when he's on, and I see he was just as bad back in 2006. Khali throws Dreamer on the steel platform after the match. Ok, that's a feud I really want to see more of…

 

Back to business. Twilight Fanboy & Ariel vs Mike Knox & Kelly Kelly. I guess because they kinda hint at a feud on TV, but it's the fourth un-built and un-announced match on this card. Knox vs Thorne just isn't very good. I like Knox, but he's not having a good match with the metrosexual vampire. Ariel on the other hand, beats the shit out of Kelly, who's clearly not a worker, but whose facial expressions do a terrific job of creating sympathy. I mean, the poor girl is litteraly crying, to the point I was wondering if she was not terrified for real. I love Ariel. She shows some ass, and I don't mean she's selling for Kelly. And then, Knox refuses to tag back, letting Kelly suffer the torture. And you know, the execution was really good, Knox came off cold, calculating and quite dirtbaggy. After the pin (and Ariel litteraly sit on Kelly's face, in a creepy way), the Sandman beat up Vampire Boy. All in all, not a good match, but a decent, well executed angle.

 

Elimination Chamber match. So, Holly is replacing Sabu. I'm not overly familiar with the gimmick, nor have I any attachment to it, being away from the WWE for ever in the 00's. This is right RVD's alley, since the structure allows him to do some crazy spots like that Spiderman jump on the fences, or a rolling thunder jumping above the top rope to the steel floor. So it was pretty good, if gimmicky, but that's the point anyway, during the first part of Holly vs RVD and then CM Punk. Then Test gets in and works hard, I must admit. CM Punk gets eliminated, then Holly (with a big fuck up from the ref who doesn't count to three but still eliminates him), then RVD in no time (Test's elbow from the top of the pod was quite the spot). Then it gets stupid, with Heyman's guys preventing Lashley's pod to open. Bullshit chants again. Lashley vs Test was bad, of course. Then to the last part, and I'll admit I enjoyed it more than pretty much any Big Show match since the beginning. As far as giant vs green big hoss, it was pretty decent. Or maybe I just enjoy watching Lashley despite, or because, he's kinda "bad but fun". I have no idea if busting up the plastic stuff from the pod is a cliché spot by now or if it was unique to that match, but it sure looked cool (for a while, after the fourth time, it kinda made the pod look like a joke). Anyway, Lashley wins after a soft spear. New WWECW champ. Goodbye Show, you were a godawful champion.

 

Really, I thought it was pretty much a mixed bag, but nowhere near as awful as I've heard it to be. The opener was really good, the Striker match was fun, the mixed match worked as an angle and the Elimination Chamber, bullshit booking aside (replacing Sabu during the PPV, eliminating both RVD and CM Punk, the two favourites of the audience, to let Lashley vs Show work the final) had its moments and oscillated from "blah" to "fun", with some memorable spots. So yeah, a 2 hours PPV with basically two announced match and a bad middle undercard is not what I'd call a good PPV. But I wouldn't call it horrible by any means either. Of course I understand it rightfully collapsed with the buyrates, which makes sense since they didn't announce the card. It was like an old IYH, really.

 

2006.12.03 : MNM vs Hardys

 

(okay, I'm still saving only one good match out of this PPV, so… maybe super low expectations helped)

[El-P]

Episode 25. Okay, I said Lashley was bad but rather fun to watch, but I really don't need to see a 15 minutes match against the Big Show. Of course, it was terrible. Like much of this show was BTW, with yet another Dreamer vs Daivari match. This is the useless feud that won't end.

 

Hardcore Holly & Test vs RVD & CM Punk was pretty decent for the time it went, but it all ended with a shit finish, as Heyman's security jumped on the babyface. Do I need to say again how much I hate non-wrestlers/non characters like these getting so much importance on any wrestling show ? Hopefully we won't get a match with those guys…. hopefully…

 

The best part of the show was the angle following Kelly Kelly vs Ariel, which Kelly won via flash pin. Mike Knox kneels down before Kelly with a bouquet of flowers and begs her to forgive him. I thought that was well done, until the cliché transition of "I'm sorry… I didn't do it sooner.", which was kinda lame, although Knox I thought was quite good here. Throwing the bouquet right in Kelly's face was terrific, and should have been enough, but of course we need some violence against women, so he puts his finisher on her. Remember when Jake Roberts simply slapping Liz got nuclear heat ? Anyway, apart from the rather cliché revelation that he was infact not apologizing, I thought this was pretty well done. Kelly is truly a likeable figure, and Knox is a good psycho boyfriend. (this is everything Brian Lawler and April was not)

[goc]

I always liked Kelly Kelly and the first time I ever saw her in a match on ECW it was some mixed tag match where her crowd reaction totally blew me away. She was getting really loud Kelly Kelly chants while she was the FIP.

[Jimmy Redman]

I am #1 on the Kelly Kelly Bandwagon. I don't care what anyone says, I loved that girl. She was having good matches by the end of her run too.

[NotJayTabb]

I've always kinda liked December To Dismember, bar the main and the Daivari/Dreamer chin lock fest. Thought Striker was great in his match, and I enjoyed the Knox/Thorn segment of the mixed tag match.

 

The main was a fucking disaster though. Logically, RVD is lucky Test decided to turn on Holly, because pinning CM Punk had left him facing 2-1 odds. Also, there were two periods of guys left on their own with no-one else in the ring, which is inexcusable.

[goc]

I forget whether it was Heyman or CM Punk who told the story, but Heyman wanted CM Punk & Big Show to start and have CM Punk make Big Show tap out before anyone else got out of their pods.

 

Vince flipped out thinking it was stupid so he called Big Show in thinking Big Show would hate it but Big Show put it over and wanted to do it (probably because he was really hurting and it got him out of the match really quickly) which pissed Vince off even more.

[The Chief]

I forget whether it was Heyman or CM Punk who told the story, but Heyman wanted CM Punk & Big Show to start and have CM Punk make Big Show tap out before anyone else got out of their pods.

 

Vince flipped out thinking it was stupid so he called Big Show in thinking Big Show would hate it but Big Show put it over and wanted to do it (probably because he was really hurting and it got him out of the match really quickly) which pissed Vince off even more.

I think Punk, Heyman and Show all agreed on that.

[El-P]

They don't even try anymore, as showed by Episode 26, which was a complete nothing.

 

RVD vs Test was the best match on the match (gasp), rushed and obviously pre-planned, but they kept things moving so it never dragged. Spotty but for what it is and for a RVD TV match, that was fine.

 

Of course CM Punk vs Hardcore Holly was better for the time it lasted, which was too short to amount into anything and had a stupid finish with Holly getting DQed because he wouldn't stop hitting Punk in the corner. Really ? The booking is lame as fuck most of the time.

 

And then, a one minute match between Dreamer and Daivari, which is too long already. How many weeks has this stuff been going on ?

 

A Matt Striker segment with him luring Balls Mahoney in and kicking him in the balls.

 

And yes, Bobby Lashley vs …. Heyman's security. I have no idea who played the part, but like I say, I hate that kind of stuff.

 

This show was about 100% filler. Maybe after firing Heyman they still didn't know where to go, but it felt formulaic and tired like never before.

[NotJayTabb]

Heyman's security were the Basham Bros

[El-P]

Episode 27 and last of the year. I feel like I'm watching the same show every week. There's no effort put into it at all, and the WWE production and robotic promos gets more and more annoying with guys liek Lashley around.

 

So yeah, we get Lashley semi-squashing Rene Dupree after he was paying hommage to the troops in the middle-east. Feel the xenophobic undertones here, although Styles didn't go all political, thankfully. Dupree has looked better since his debut, so maybe he was worth something, but the gimmick is nothing and he's a JTTS. Hell, most everyone feels like a JTTS on this show.

More Matt Striker vs Balls Mahoney, which was a fun little match and more cool argile tights by Striker. Mahoney is much more tolerable when he doesn't have a chair to swing around.

 

More Dreamer vs Khali feud, after the monster squashed Shannon Moore. This time Khali dropped Dreamer on the steel steps, and Dreamer did the exact same "I'm very injured" routine he did at the PPV. Really Dreamer, was the office job so boring that you had to come back for this kind of stupid stuff ? Theresa must have been glad...

 

More über short Hardcore Holly vs CM Punk match that was pretty good while it lasted, but Punk had to tap out Holly in three minutes, so that tells you how far this could go.

 

A bad, WWE ™ promo by Mike Knox, with deliberate delivery and awkward timing before cutting to the following match. Kevin Dunn sucks. What's awful is that the production hasn't changed a bit, it's the same horrible stuff today, like it was a few years before. 15 years without one bit of evolution.

 

As a main event, a fitting three-way between RVD, Sabu & Test, which wasn't good. The usual, same old same old stuff, really.

 

Yep. Big Show being gone is good, but Lashley's time of being "fun" already overstayed its welcome to me, because let's be honest, he's a bad worker with zero charisma and looks like a robot. What a boring show.

[El-P]

My list of WWECW matches for 2006 :

 

2006.06.11 FBI vs Tajiri & Super Crazy

2006.06.11 Rey Mysterio vs Sabu

2006.06.11 Mick Foley & Edge vs Terry Funk & Tommy Dreamer

2006.06.25 Edge vs RVD

2006.06.27 Kurt Angle vs RVD

2006.08.08 Sabu vs Kurt Angle

2006.08.15 Sabu vs RVD

2006.09.19 King Booker vs RVD

2006.09.26 Hardcore Holly vs RVD

2006.10.03 : RVD vs Test

2006.10.17 Matt Striker vs Sandman

2006.10.31 Sabu vs Kevin Thorne

2006.11.14 CM Punk vs Mike Knox

2006.11.21 RVD vs Bob Holly

2006.11.28 Sabu vs RVD

2006.12.03 : MNM vs Hardys

Funny thing, when you look at this list, one could think RVD is clearly the MVP of the promotion and the best worker of the bunch. When really, he isn't, not even close. RVD's case as a worker is the most blatant exception to the "good matches theory", because he must be the crappiest worker to have so many good matches. Part of this is opportunity to work matches that get the time to ge good, part of it is the fact that despite his inherent crappiness, RVD brings some element of goodness, even some spectacular stuff (in term of spots), to his game that, if used at the right moment and in the right context (like with Holly), can negate somewhat the otherwise shittiness of his work when it comes to basics. Anyway, guys like Guido, Angle, Sabu, Holly, Striker and Punk are better then RVD (no idea how good Richards was at this point) but they didn't get the same opportunities. The Big Show was pretty horrible all year long. I was never high on Paul Wight, but this ECW stint made him drop like crazy in my eyes. This is also clearly Heyman's worst work, on all level. Mike Knox, Kelly Kelly and Ariel were the nice surprises with potential in term of work and/or characters. The announcing was decent, but Styles just isn't the same anymore (I liked it quite a bit in the mid-90's), I'd say Tazz was carrying the load here.

That's all for now. It was just as bad as I was told it would be, and it felt pretty much like a mid-00's WWE TV show. Which is a pretty bad thing to me.

[goc]

More Dreamer vs Khali feud, after the monster squashed Shannon Moore. This time Khali dropped Dreamer on the steel steps, and Dreamer did the exact same "I'm very injured" routine he did at the PPV. Really Dreamer, was the office job so boring that you had to come back for this kind of stupid stuff ? Theresa must have been glad...

It was more that he was still so drunk on the ECW kool aid that he had to come back to represent the 3 letters despite the fact that it really wasn't much of a continuation especially after the first few months.

[(BP)]

It was probably reasonable of him to assume he'd get a nice push as a legacy member of a new ECW. It's funny that he actually had his big run during the latter part of WWECW when it was nothing like the original promotion.