ECW on SciFi - 19th July 2008
We’re shown a recap of the ECW title match from Summerslam, its set to epic music, and I think they showed the entire match. Todd Grisham & Matt Striker inform us that tonight’s main event is the rematch from that epic encounter - Mark Henry vs. Matt Hardy with the ECW title on the line.
Our opening contest was to be - John Morrison & the Miz teaming with Chavo Guerrero to take on Evan Bourne, Supercrazy & Tommy Dreamer. Supercrazy and Morrison start off; Supercrazy hits a series of arm drags before tagging out to Evan from Heaven. Morrison cuts off Evan and drags him to his team’s corner, Miz is in and climbs the second rope, Evan breaks free of Morrison clutch and head scissors Miz off the second rope. Bam distracts Bourne which allows Chavo to tag in and beat on Bourne.
Bourne gets double teamed in the corner while Chavo distracts the ref; all 3 tag in and out and work over Bourne. Bourne hit a snap powerslam on the Miz and quickly tagged out to Tommy Dreamer. Dreamer comes in and runs wild on the opposition. Morrison breaks up a pin attempt and the match just breaks down. All the heels are knocked to the outside as Supercrazy dives over the top rope onto them. Evan Bourne makes his way up the top rope and hits an insanely huge moonsault on Chavo and Bam. The crowd are going absolutely wild for this. Morrison grabs Dreamers leg as Miz sneaks in and hits the reality check for the victory. A short, but really fun opener.
Ricky ‘How the hell did I escape the cuts?!’ Ortiz was walking backstage with his piece of rag. Ortiz came out and I sat there in shock as people were actually waving towels around. Ortiz’s opponent tonight was the debuting Shawn Spears from OVW; his name is now Gavin Spears. Spears cut a promo saying he didn’t need towels and catchphrases to win, he had talent!
This was your basic OVW type match with arm wringers and face stomps. Spears looked good, much better than Braden Walker did during his first match. The crowd were chanting and clapping mildly for Ortiz, who I still can’t believe is somewhat over and had people waving his damn towels around. The finish was Ortiz hitting his crappy offense and then he did some wacky splash for the pinfall. I don’t get this whole debuting guys and then having them job thing WWE is doing lately.
Mark Henry was backstage lifting weights as Tony Atlas was shouting encouragement.
Finlay and Hornswoggle came out to a great ovation, the people were all screaming for Finlay to throw his hat in their direction. Finlay tells the people that Mike Knox is wrong; he hasn’t gone soft at all. So what if he likes to dance around the ring and invite kids to join him said Finlay. Didn’t Michael Jackson say the same sort of thing?!
Finlay called Knox out. Knox came out and said Finlay couldn’t handle the pressure of knowing Knox could take him at anytime. Finlay told him to bring, and it seemed Knox was going to until he stopped midway. Knox turned to walk to the back but Finlay went off after him and both men brawled all around the ramp. IRS (minus the tie) and Dean Malenko came out to do Finlay’s old job of breaking up the fight.
Matt Hardy was shown backstage warming up. Striker and Grisham used the quiet tone when describing their feelings on the Jericho punching Rebecca angle (which is fantastic). They showed the same replay from Raw, but damn, I could watch that over and over again.
Matt Hardy was out for our main event, as he was making his way out they replayed the recap from Summerslam. After the usual pre-championship match ring introductions, this bad boy was on!
The people are going wild for Hardy, WOAH! Tony Atlas as an armless shirt on and his arms are freaking huge! Early on in the match, Matt Hardy works on Henry’s huge legs, but Henry eventually has enough and uses his power to slam Hardy. Henry missed an elbow drop and gets hits with an enzuigiri. Hardy comes off the ropes but is met with Herny just body checking him to the mat. Henry pulls Hardy up, but Hardy tries a twist of fate which is blocked by Herny who pushes Matt right to the outside was we go a commercial break.
We’re back with Hardy in a head vice. During the break, Henry hit a superplex off the top, well he [Henry] was on the ground and Matt was up there. Hardy tries to fight out of the head vice but Henry cuts him off. Tony Atlas began to massage Henry’s sore leg. Henry reapplies the head vice and again cuts Hardy off when he tries to fight back. Henry has the ref distracted as Tony Atlas clocks Hardy in the face with a right hand. Striker puts over Mark Henry’s dead lifting abilities. He claims that if you laid Big Show down, put Tommy Dreamer on him and then add Todd Grisham, that is what Henry can pick up. Prove it.
Anyway, Hardy slid out of a full nelson and booted Henry in the gut. Henry yet again cuts off Hardy; Henry picks up Matt Hardy and flings him up in the air making him crash to the mat. Henry misses a splash; this allowed Hardy to finally fight back. Hardy hits the second rope elbow, and then goes back to the second rope and hits the bulldog. The people are going wild for Hardy again as he goes up top, Hardy hits a cross body for a 2 count.
Hardy calls for the twist of fate, as he goes for it, Henry reverses it and picks up Hardy for the worlds strongest slam, but Hardy worms out of that and hits the twist of fate. As the ref counts the pinfall, Tony Atlas again pulls Hardy out, but this time the ref didn’t see it. Hardy knocks Atlas down and returns to the ring. Hardy goes up top for a moonsault, but upon landing he is smashed in the ribs by Henry who got his knees up. Henry picks up Hardy and hits the world’s strongest slam to retain his title. This was a lot better than I expected to be honest.
So, the first ECW show in this post-Colin Delaney era was pretty good. It had two good matches and a fine angle between Finlay and Mike Knox. Knox and Finlay will finally have a match next week, and I’ll be bold here, I think it’ll be great!
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