ECW on Sci-Fi Report Card for 8/29
ECW on SciFi was a mixed bag this week. This was a week where the fact that I was told Vince Mcmahon was worried about the ECW rating because of RAW's moving (apparently they think ECW gets most of it's audience from the ads for it on RAW, which I think is BS), lot's of hotshotting, and some "gaga" I probably could have done without, but there was a lot to like on this show, so I'd have to give it a thumbs up still for the week.
Let's break it down (and that pun will make more sense to you as we go along):
Paul Heyman Promo: Paul E. is just a great promo cutter, his intensity and delivery is right up there with the best in the business as he is probably the best non-wrestler interview in the company these days. I also think he does a great job playing this psycho character. Good stuff to open the show with. Grade: A
RVD vs. Hardcore Holly: Van Dam and Holly had a really solid match, the switch to ECW is already doing wonders for Holly, and RVD continues to be solid. I like the idea of RVD having to "re-earn" a title shot. Frankly, Sabu and Big Show is a good program right now, and I think RVD deserves to be held out of the main event picture for a little while due to his indiscretion in july. That said though, the company is being smart in putting him in a good feud with a veteran in Holly, and not treating him like a jobber as they often do with guys on punishment. The after match beating with the chair was good stuff, and put across that RVD does not care about winning or losing, but just beating the crap out of Holly here. This is a great use of the DQ finish I think. Grade: A
Dupree promo: Sounds like Rene is going to be debuting soon (probably next week) good, the vignettes have done all they can to establish him. I wonder if they plan to go the obvious route of having him say he'll be extreme, but when the time comes, he'll completely wuss out for heel heat. He's a pretty boy, and these fans will hate him for that to begin with. Grade: B+
Big Show interview: The promo itself was good, Show continues to look like a monster, a dominant champ, and a main event level guy. But the problem for me here was the content, he kept talking about being the most dominant champion in WWE history, and it sounded like he thought he was on RAW or SD! for the duration. I know ECW is a part of WWE, but the less we're reminded of that, the better the show is going to do I feel. I like the idea that Show called out DX to come in, as it makes Show seem totally unafraid of them, hopefully he gets a lot of offense in on them next week before the innevitable screw job ending. They really should use this oppurtunity to further making Show look like a vicious monster.
Shannon Moore Promo: Let's just debut him already, these promos just absolutely suck. Grade: F
CM Punk vs. Stevie Richards: Another week, another CM Punk win, but I like that he's put into competitive matches instead of outright squashes. Stevie and Punk had a very good match. My only complaint was the commentary in which Joey Styles said that Stevie was "CM Punk's toughest challenge yet" uh...he did beat a former ECW World Champ twice, that should be a tougher challenge then a former tag champ and one time title contender. I just hate stuff like that, because it takes me out of the match. Grade: A-
Matt Stryker segment: This was probably the biggest mixed bag of the night kind of segment. Matt Stryker cuts a good promo, that's obvious, the man has skills in this area. I've also spoken about him with a friend of mine who was a referee for WXW who worked with Stryker many times and described him as a "solid hand". But with all that said, his teacher gimmick is terrible, it's so mid 90's bad cartoon era and I hope they go back to the drawing board on it soon. I did like the "giggle water" comment though. But why, oh why, is he calling out Sandman? Isn't Sandman still in a feud with Mike Knox and Test? Or did they just blow that off last week and not tell us? This stank of hot shotting. I understand they want Sandman on the shows, and that giving Stryker a feud with someone who is just completely against his type, but why the fuck use someone who is already in a feud? Why not like Balls Mahoney who isn't? That means that they do one of three things:
1. Ignore this segment
2. Simply drop the tag feud he's been involved with, screwing over three other performers.
3. Have Sandman fight Stryker plus the other two.
I say do option 3 now, but knowing WWE, they'll just choose to drop something else for this. The fingerprints of Vince were all over this thing. Grade: C-
Balls Mahoney segment: Oh, I guess that's why he couldn't fight Matt Stryker, we needed him to look at Kelly's goodies so that we can all have our weekly dose of Kelly Kelly. What a waste of a talented performer (Balls, duh) and good air time. Grade: D
Sabu vs. Paul Heyman: This one comes down to whether or not you like this sort of thing. Me? I was happy with the booking and the work in this one, they made Sabu look like the screwed over hero, but that he refused to go down fighting. Paul E. was great in being a complete coward, and a sadistic oppurtunist, Big Show and the Bash...I mean, security did a good beat down. RVD and Holly played their roles perfectly, and there was a ton of plunder involved and some good spots with it. I think that even though this angle was hot shotted, and stinks of the kind of thing you can find on RAW, it was still pretty well done, and enjoyable. Not to mention it put a lot of heel heat on the main heels of the ECW shows right. Grade: A-
Overall Grade: B+
Sorry it's short this week, but my computer is having some problems, and I'm trying to catch up on some stuff after being sick the last couple days.
