wow that was an amazing show
I haven't seen a WWE show since Wrestlemania and had forgotten all about the planned ECW show until I saw it trailered on Sky. I never thought I'd see the day I'd be watching ECW with the Sky Sports 1 logo in the top corner. Wierd!
I hadn't followed much of the news leading upto the show so I was greatly surprised when a visibly choked up Joey Styles was wheeled out at the start of the show. Due to his absence from the Rise and Fall DVD I certainly didn't expect him to appear here as Joey working for the WWE just never seemed imaginable, I guess you should never say never in wrestling!, Well with Joey on board it already felt like an ECW show.
I thought the undercard matches, whilst all entertaining and far from being DUDs were all Smackdown/Raw main event length at best, after the show I couldn't help feeling that with less TV time for the Invasion angle then we could have seen longer matches. I guess Paul E wanted to give everyone airtime as being picky we could have easily had a 3 hour show just with Jericho/Storm, Eddie/Benoit and Rey/Psicosis. Out of the undercard the biggest letdown for me was Rey and Psicosis. I was hoping for a repeat of heir ECW matches and their hot opener at Bash of the Beach but alas again it was Smackdown fodder at best, although reading of Reys injury does give me more sympathy about the quality of the match. Gotta laugh at the "put your mask on" chants though.
The RVD segment - wow!!!! Now I never saw much of RVD's ECW work after about 96/97 so Barely Legal promo aside I didn't realise he could work the mic. What he lacked in physical in ring presence he more then made up for on the mic last night. Sabu v Rhino whilst again not being match of the year was certainly entertaining and they got a lot crazy spots into a short space of time.
Eddie v Benoit - Thought the fans attention was taken away by the WWE guys on the balcony but it was cool they way they a)ripped on Edge cool.gif chanted "Eddie Eddie" "Benoit Benoit" as each guy got the upper hand. In fact no matter how much Eddie tried to be his current persona the ECW fans still treated him like a face. I'm sure with both guys on Smackdown the WWE are holding back for something bigger with these two unless Vince is a total retard and overlooks the potential for this feud. Was fricking annoyed they slapped a Vengence promo right as they were eyeballing at the end.
I didn't see much of ECW after Barely Legal so I hadn't really seen any of Awesome or Tanaka before but this was my favourite match of the night for it's all out craziness, my jaw physically dropped on the floor at the way Awesome planchad straight after that powerbomb through the table. Joey certainly made no secret of his thoughts on Mike the Mullet!
The Heyman segment rocked, although shorter then RVD's promo he definately got his point over, the Edge, getting high with RVD and JBL comments were genius. The hairs on my neck were tingling when the fans chanted "Thank You Paul". Was susrprised he thanked Tod Gordon in lieu of everything that happened....
And so to the main event, Tommy looked so proud to be out there again, I marked out like anything when we finally got some original theme music for Sandy. His entrance was an event in itself. Seeing the bWo was funny as always even though Stevie's voice seemed to be totally shot. When the match finally started it was like all the ECW main events I remembered, vlioent with crazy spots and loaded with run ins. Seeing Beulah back in front of the camera was the 187624th markout moment of the night and Bubba selling the "DDT" was hilarious. Markout moment 187625 came when the table lit up, cripes chief!
The end of the show afters was pretty cool, JBL is a total cunt for punking Meanie like that and with Meanie not being anything to do with WWE I'm sure his actions will go totally unpunished. Say what you want about Bischoff but I thought he was quite honourable bumping for ECW like that.
in closing I thought Joey Stykes stle the show, from what I saw of MLW Joey almost seemed bored most of the time but Like most of the workers on the show last night, ECW really brings out the best in them.
ECW LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVES!