ECW on Sci-Fi: December 18, 2007
by Samoa Rowe
This show has been on somewhat of a roll lately. Can the positive momentum continue?
They are airing from Rochester, NY. Our hosts for the evening are Joey Styles and Tazz. They hype tonight's main event of CM Punk vs. MVP.
John Morrison and The Miz vs. Jimmy Wang Yang and
Shannon Moore
Last week these four men put on a very good tag team
match. Can lightning strike twice? Moore kicks things
off against The Miz, and catches Mizanin off guard
with some roll-up attempts. Moore quickly goes for
another cover after a drop toe hold, but Miz tags in
Morrison. Moore is knocked out of a waist lock attempt
and eats an uppercut. Morrison delivers the hip toss
and his break dance elbow drop. Moore rebounds with
some deep arm drags and a kick to the face for another
cover. Moore snap mares Morrison into position for
newly tagged Yang to hit a drop kick to the face. Yang
goes to work on Morrison's arm. Morrison escapes the
arm lock, but takes a big time tirt-a-whirl head
scissors takedown. Cover by Yang gets 1. Moore tags in
and springboards onto Morrison. Morrison desperately
hit's a shot to the throat and tags in The Miz. Moore
directs Miz into a tag to Yang, who hit's a big
drop-kick. Stiff chop by Yang, complete with a scoop
slam. Yang knocks Morrison off the apron and drops Miz
beside him. Moore and Yang go for stereo baseball
slides, but Moore and Miz block. And cue the
commercial. So far, so good.
Back from the break, and Morrison has Yang trapped in
a headlock. The move is broken, but Morrison prevents
Yang from making a tag. Yang kicks Morrison off and
makes the tag to Moore, who cleans house on Morrison.
Swinging neck breaker by Moore, but Irish whip is
blocked. Moore kicks Miz off the apron and goes high
risk. The distraction allows Morrison to climb up to
attempt the superplex. Moore shoves Morrison off, but
Miz leaps up and pushes Moore to the mat. Miz tags in
and aggressively pounds away on Moore. Miz applies a
neck vice on Moore. The hold is broken by an arm drag,
but Miz retains control, and tags in Morrison. Miz
holds Moore in place for an elbow drop by Morrison.
The team of Miz and Morrison continues to impress.
Morrison applies a modified Japanese sleeper on Moore.
Hey, at least these rest holds are interesting.
Morrison leaps off the second rope, but Moore
drop-kicks him in mid-air, accidentally hitting the
knees instead of the gut. Yang and Miz get tags, and
Yang cleans house. All four men take themselves out
with launches to the ringside area. Miz is isolated in
the ring, and takes a flying cross body from Yang, but
rolls through into a very close near fall. They
exchange waistlocks, Morrison tries to interfere with
a roundhouse kick, but accidentally takes out Miz.
Yang hit's a moonsault on Miz to pick up the victory!
There were a couple sloppy spots this week, but this
was another satisfying tag team match, complete with a
fun upset win, **3/4.
Winners: Jimmy Wang Yang and The Miz
-We take a look at the climax of Kane and CM Punk vs. Mark Henry and Big Daddy V from Armageddon. Punk got pinned by Viscera, so Styles ponders whether Punk is ready compete again tonight or not.
-After a break, Tazz is in the ring with Shelton "The new gold standard" Benjamin and a jobber. Tazz asks the jobber for his name, and it turns out to be Colin Delaney. Guess where he's from? If you guessed Rochester, NY, then you would be correct. Uh oh, looks like a local boy is going to get his ass kicked. That will really make the home viewers hate Shelton. Tazz asks Delaney how much experience he's had, and it's revealed to be the jobber's first match.
Shelton Benjamin vs. Colin Delaney
Delaney is obviously playing up the nervous role.
Benjamin catches him with an exploder suplex right
away. Delaney slaps back, but gets taken down with a
boot for his troubles. Benjamin aggressively pounds on
the poor jobber and power bombs him into the
turnbuckle! That spot never gets old. Benjamin hits
the leaping inverted bulldog and picks up the victory
in about a minute. SQUASH!
Winner: Shelton Benjamin
-After the match, Benjamin embarrasses himself by taking a microphone and simply shouting "Ain't no stopping me noooooooooooooooooooooooow." Here's a lesson to you kids, never turn a line from your entrance music into your catchphrase. It's okay if it happens in the reverse, but this just will not work. However, I do like the repackaging of Benjamin as a whole.
-A new Kofi Kingston package airs. This time he attacks a thief who was robbing some bikini clad women. It will be interesting to see how this guy works in the ring.
Kenny Dykstra (with Victoria) vs. Nunzio
It would be awful if I did not mention that Nunzio is
dressed as an elf and he hands out gifts to some first
row fans, thus justifying the price of their $200
tickets. The match starts with Nunzio offering Kenny a
candy cane. This doesn't impress Kenny, who hits an
aggressive clothesline. Delayed vertical suplex by
Kenny, and more pounding. Kenny dumps the bag of candy
on Nunzio, because he is a mean person. Nunzio gets
some token comeback shots, but Kenny snap mares him
into a chinlock. Kenny has been studying Randy Orton
matches. Nunzio fights out only to get hit with a back
body drop, landing in a pile of candy canes. I have a
feeling this is the closest to an "extreme" spot we'll
get all night. Nunzio gets some more token offense in
before getting flap jacked off the top tope. Kenny
goes high risk and hit's the flying leg drop for the
victory. Fine for a squash, 3/4*.
Winner: Kenny Dykstra
-Hype package for Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP), the reigning United States Champion. MVP has had a great 2007, it will be sad when he eventually gets traded to Raw where he will be buried.
MVP vs. CM Punk
The match starts during a commercial break. MVP is
working a headlock on Punk, who counters out with a
drop toe hold. MVP goes to work on the arm and
transitions into a fireman's carry for a near fall.
Punk fights out and drops an elbow. Snapmare by Punk
into a leg scissors submission. MVP counters into the
headlock, but it's countered back into Punk's leg
scissors. They continue to try and out counter one
another, with entertaining results. MVP tries to kip
up out of the leg scissors and finally succeeds. Punk
snap mares MVP into position for a drop-kick to the
back. MVP fights back with a running boot to the ear.
Cover by MVP only gets 2. Rest hold by MVP, but he
quickly gives it up in favor of stomping. MVP goes
back to a neck vice. Punk fights to his feet, but MVP
hit's an aggressive series of knee shots to the face.
Cover by MVP gets 2. Punk has had enough and hit's a
slap to the face. MVP dodges a drop-kick and hit's a
boot to the face. More resting, stomping, and cover
attempts by MVP. None of this works too well, so MVP
applies a modified camel clutch. I'm ready for Punk to
make his comeback so this match can end now. Luckily
for me, Punk gets to his feet and drops MVP on his
back. MVP goes for the suplex, but Punk stops him with
a knee to the face. Running knee lift by Punk, and
then a cover attempt of his own for 2. Knee to the
face and a running bulldog by Punk, who then prepares
for a springboard clothesline, which connects. Punk
covers for a long 2 count. MVP fights back with a
German suplex into a close cover. Enziguri by CM Punk.
Punk goes high risk, but MVP knocks him off the top,
into the tree of woe position. MVP capitalizes with
stomps. MVP chokes Punk, and refuses to hold off, and
earns himself a disqualification. Too bad, the match
was finally picking up around the time the lame finish
came around, **1/4.
Winner by DQ: CM Punk
-After the match, MVP hits another running boot to the face, just to make sure you didn't think CM Punk had any sort of fighting chance. Punk stays in the ring recovering, and is vulnerable to a sneak attack from the returning Chavo Guerrero! Chavo hits a very deliberate version of the Three Amigos snap suplexes. You know, if John Morrison and Miz had to apologize to Punk for making him look bad, I'd say the ECW writers owe him one big-ass apology. Chavo continues the beat-down to no crowd heat whatsoever.
Final Thoughts: ECW continues to have some nice undercard consistency, as Miz, Morrison, and Benjamin are becoming weekly highlights. This show's weakness is the poor handling of the main event scene. Punk has somehow managed to be booked worse as champion than Rey Mysterio was when he was the World Heavyweight Champion, losing matches left and right and being dominated by just about everyone. Also, there was no follow-through with what happened at the Armageddon pay-per-view, as it seems that Mark Henry and Big Daddy V are going to be moving onto other things. The return of Chavo was a nice surprise, but it would have worked better had Punk been booked as a stronger champion. Joey Styles asked the question "Why has Chavo Guerrero targeted CM Punk?" Well, I have an answer for you. CM Punk holds a title and appears to be pretty easy to defeat. A better question might by "Why isn't everyone else targeting him either?"
Thumbs in the middle.
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