By Anthony O'Reilly on August 6th, 2008
Hello Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to the best part of your Wednesday: One Night Blog. My name of course is Anthony O’Reilly and I’ll be reporting to you the happenings of Tuesday Night Wrestling otherwise known as ECW. First off I want to thank everyone for an absolute drama free blog last week. I really don’t care that only fourteen comments were posted on ONB last week because it was 14 intelligent comments and not 50 lunatic rants.
My first pre-show note comes from Monday Night Raw. Now if I were Luke I would’ve named his blog: THIS IS BS. Two young and upcoming superstars lose the tag team titles to two pieces of garbage. If you want to build up a match between two superstars you make them kick the crap out of each other, not make them tag team champions. If this reign lasts too long I’ll throw my TV out the window.  Â
Next are my thoughts on Mike Adamle. I know last week I seemed a little hostile towards the action of putting him in charge but he did an all right job on Monday. Granted he read from a piece of paper but he’s on the right track. Let’s see how he does this Monday.
I’m not in the mood for pre-show thoughts lately because I’ve been extremely busy. So without further ado let’s get on with this week’s ECW.
We’re welcomed to Hotlanta by Todd Grisham and his partner for this week: Matt Striker. For those who don’t want to be spoiled please proceed to the next paragraph. For those of you still with me Tazz will be filling in for Mick Foley on Friday Night Smackdown. This is so that Foley can sell his injuries.
Our first match for the evening is a tag team match between Chavo Guerrero and the ever useless Bam Neely taking on Evan Bourne and Ricky Ortiz. Matt Striker pulled the Adamle on it by rolling the R’s a little too much. This match was good to open the show. Bourne and Ortiz made some interesting double teams and Bourne continues to roll out new moves week after week. I still don’t get Bam Neely though. He can’t wrestle that good and he’s not intimidating. Now Ezekiel is intimidating. Anyway Bourne makes the pin after a unique roll up on Bam Neely. So Ricky stays undefeated and this feud is heating up between Bourne and Chavo.
We’re reminded of the Live Dirt Sheet tonight. For those of you who don’t know the Dirt Sheet is a weekly show on WWE.com where Morrison and Miz discuss current events in the wrestling world. It is hilarious and totally worth watching every week.
When we come back from a commercial break Mike Knox is standing in the ring. He delivers a promo on how Finlay has gotten soft. He shows a clip of him dancing with Hornswoggle from the Summerslam commercial. I actually have to agree with all this. Face Finlay sucks. For God’s sakes he uses Hornswoggle’s music. Speaking of the music it hits and Team Ireland is out to the ring. Finlay talks about how he loves his family and that if Knox has a problem with it then to do something right now. In classic heel fashion Knox walks away. Like I said last week I think that this feud has the potential to be great. Both guys are sluggers and could make for some great matches.
When we come back from commercial Armando Estrada is coming out to the ring for his last chance in order to earn an ECW contract. Tommy Dreamer is his opponent. Dreamer basically dominates this match all throughout. Tommy has Estrada tied to the Tree of Woe when Colin Delaney comes out to distract him. Estrada wins it with a roll up and is now officially part of the ECW roster. Back from a small commercial Estrada asks why he helped him after all the hell he put him through. Colin has no chance to answer as Long comes and makes an Extreme Rules match for next week.
Braden Walker is shown walking to the ring after Striker and Grisham run down the Summerslam card. He looks like he lost a bit of weight. After the break Braden’s weird music hits and he is to face the jobber of all jobbers: James Curtis. Pretty sloppy match here with Walker in control throughout. He hits the perfect plex for the win. I still haven’t found time to watch a good match of his but I can see he’s got the stuff.
It’s time for The Dirt Sheet. We get the usual introduction that the show gets online. Apparently Morrison’s baby pictures are worth fifteen million dollars but he won’t sell himself. Words cannot describe this segment here. M&M went Conan O’Brian style and put a picture of Mark Henry’s face up and had the moving lips. They say that he might be The World’s Strongest Champion.. but his appetite is stronger. Henry has enough of all the wise cracks and comes down to the ring. He’s about to beat the tar out of them before they start mocking Matt Hardy. Didn’t do as good of a job as they did with Henry but it was still really funny. Hardy comes down to the ring and claims he will win the ECW belt at Summerslam. M&M brawl with Hardy until Morrison hits Henry on accident. Big splash in the turnbuckle for Morrison and a Twist of Fate for Miz.
Well an average show here. Better than last week’s but nothing to rave about. Bourne is still awesome and keeps coming out with new moves. I’m waiting for a Knox vs. Finlay match to occur. Estrada now part of the ECW roster. Nothing special there. Extreme Rules next week. Gotta watch a Chris Harris match to know what to expect from this guy. Dirt Sheet’s hilarious even on TV. ECW this week gets a 7/10
ECW Top 10
1. Mark Henry
2. Matt Hardy
3. Evan Bourne
4. John Morrison
5. The Miz (+1)
6. Chavo Guerrero (-1)
7. Finlay (+1)
8. Mike Knox (-1)
9. Ricky Ortiz (NEW)
10. Armando Estrada (NEW)
Tags: Bam, Bourne, Chavo, Colin, Dreamer, Estrada, Finlay, Hardy, Henry, Knox, Long, Miz, Morrison, Ortiz, Striker
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August 6th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
ECW was really good up until the Bourne/Ortiz vs Chavo/Bam match ended.
I liked Striker as color man. He provided lots of background tidbits. Although, he said Bourne wrestles lucha style, yet he’s never seen the move where Bourne used double knees off the ropes. It’s a move that been around a while in the Mexican luchas.
Finlay/Know feud is building up pretty well. Let’s hope they don’t mess it all up with too much Hornswaggle involvement.
Estrada won his contract back for a reason, maybe he will be Braden’s feud. Still waiting for Braden to feud with someone.
The Dirt Sheet while a bit amusing was not a way to end the show and really with ECW being a hour long, they don’t need to devote 15 minutes to the Dirt Sheet. That’s something that needs to stay on wwe.com.
The last two weeks ECW has disppointed.
August 6th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Great review. Bourne’s roll up is definately one of the most unique I have seen. You are right about the tag team belts on Raw, though I feel Batista will turn on Cena and cause them to lose the belts (hopefully). I also just wanted to suggest a Chris Harris match to watch: TNA Sacrifice 2007 vs. James Storm in a Texas Death Match; Slammiversary 2007 King of the Mountain Match (he is the last participant to enter the ring); any one of his tag team, America’s Most Wanted, matches against Triple X, LAX, or Christopher Daniels and AJ Styles. Continue the good work as we all continue reading.
August 6th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Bourne is completely stealing the show on ECW.
Mike Knox is still the best big guy going right now.
Ortiz still sucks in the ring. He’s way too sloppy.
Estrada surprisingly, is not.
I’ve always been a huge Matt Hardy fan(I’ve always thought he was the better Hardy), but recently something has happened to this guy, I don’t know what it is, but I can name the symptoms. He needs to lose a few pounds and needs to stop playing it so safe in the ring. I’m not saying he needs to be Jeff, I’m just saying that he IS a Hardy and I’m getting so tired of hearing about “the high risk” when Matt doesn’t even go up to the top turnbuckle anymore. That 2nd turnbuckle elbow thing–just not doing it for me.
Mark Henry….now this is a guy who is BLOSSOMING as champ. I’ve never been a fan, but I actually like him in this role. Though it almost shames me to say it, I want him to win at SummerSlam to see more of him as champ.
Morrison and the Miz are superstars waiting to happen. Morrison probably a bit more so than the Miz.
All in all I’d say ECW is simultaneously the best and the worst thing going in the WWE.
August 6th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
I could not agree more Tomas. Everything you said was what I was going to write. I couldn’t stand Mark Henry’s character when he was on Smackdown, but he is certainly a blossoming champion. I wasn’t sure about Atlas at first because I found it hard to understand what he was saying but the two have gone together like magnet and steele. I think that Henry should stay on ECW because he is excelling on there.
Evan Bourne is one of the reasons why I watch ECW. He is the guy WWE and myself have been craving for. The tag match wasn’t the best but it was certainly a joy to watch. I would like to see more of Chavo because he isn’t getting any younger and he needs some ECW exposure. As for Bam Neely, the less of him I see the better. If I met him in the street I’d shake his hand and say high, whereas if I met Ezekiel, I would go near the guy. I could watch Ezekiel do one move all night as long as I don’t have to watch Bam Neely do any moves.
Also it looked like he had been eating away at the pies last night.
Ortiz plays to the crowd WAY too much, also he needs to some more wrestling training because he’s not a small guy and he needs to find his style in the ring , one to fit his size and character.
Tommy Dreamer has gotten boring. He does the same thing day in and day out. Some things need to be saved for rainy days. He gives us too much, we should be begging for more and we’re just not becuase he doesn’t save things. I mean, he has an ECW Rules match next week and I garuntee that we see the exact same thing next week as we did this week in his repotoire.
Braden Walker is wrong. The character is wrong, the music is wrong, the matches are too long, the attire is wrong. The guy is good, I’ve seen some of his TNA stuff, but unfortunately it appears as if either WWE haven’t or just don’t want to.
The dirt sheet was good. Henry and Atlas came out at the right time and so did Hardy. I especially liked the part where Morrison punched Henry, that was good, and then when Henry got angry and folded up the title and gave it to Atlas and then went to work on Morrison.
WWE need to realise that Matt Hardy isn’t a rookie, he’s been in WWE for over a decade and is no stranger to championship gold, so why make him sound the complete opposite??
I think I could settle for Matt Striker as th commentator, Todd and Matt had chemistry and Striker brought alot to the table with outside information like Ortiz and the XFL, and how he put over Bourne and Chavo.
Anthony, you give ECW 7/10, I say you’re a very generous guy.
August 6th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Colin did explain his actions. he said that at least Estrada gave him a chance which is more than what dreamer did. excuse me?! (no, not the Vickie style) dreamer did everything he could for Colin, couldn’t they come up with a better excuse? like, say… Colin didn’t care who was facing Dreamer, he just wanted to make sure he lost.
August 7th, 2008 at 8:02 am
I’m still waiting for Stevie Richards and Super Crazy to actually show up on ECW rather than on Smackdown. Apart from Chavo and Bam on SD!, the talent exchange needs to end because they don’t need it anymore.
August 7th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Anthony, watch the chris harris matches against James Storm if u want to see what he’s all about… or when he was actually partnered up with him. but other then that, not much i can say about him lol.
August 7th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
I got a question about Ortiz.His first few tv appearances he seemed like a heel…cocky,flirting,and not wrestling.But the last few weeks he has wrestled as a face(agaimst Chavo,and this weeks match with Bourne vs Chavo and Bam).What is he face or heel?And what do you think of him coming to”save”Bourne from a beatdown by Chavo and Bam,only to screw him and side with Chavo and Bam?Most of the new talent on ECW have come in as faces,and would like to see a”new guy”as a heel(besides Colin and Armando who don’t get much reaction)
August 7th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
I apparently need to start watching ECW.
Everyone keeps praising it. (and dissing it) I should see for myself.
Rob Dib
http://www.break-your-face.com
August 7th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Yeah you’re right James. ECW four major heels. Chavo Miz Morrison Mark Henry. It’s about time we have another one who could possibly contend for the title with Matt.
August 7th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
So there goes Braden Walker…so much for Chris Harris’ chance in WWE!
August 7th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Thanks for the props Anthony.Wow…Braden Walker just won a match on Tuesday and two days later he’s gone.And he had a pretty good match on Tuesday considering his jobber cough cough *opponent*
August 7th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
wow Braden Walker already gone? Thats strange. Well i guess it was um..fun while it lasted?
August 8th, 2008 at 3:34 am
I place partial blame on the ECW writing staff. They stuck him with a name that, except for those of us on here and others like us who follow wrestling across the board, no one really recognized. If they had just left him with his own name or given him some trace of his gimmick in TNA, he probably could’ve gotten over more. Although, him showing up to WWE overweight probably wasn’t a good thing, either.
August 8th, 2008 at 3:36 am
I was honestly looking forward to Chris Harris in the WWE. TNA dropped the ball with him and I thought if given a chance in WWE, then he would make a name for himself.
Its funny how crowd reactions dictate a superstars future. Khali gets “You Can’t Wrestle” chants and he gets title shots and Chris Harris gets nothing and gets released???
August 8th, 2008 at 11:44 am
Sucks to be Chris Harris. You face two jobbers and then you’re gone. I guess he shouldnt have been hitting the Dunkin Donuts as much. Sucks too because I just watched a few of his matches and he is f’ing awesome. However with a name like Braden Walker you really cant go that far can ya?
August 8th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Didn’t they just have him tell Matt Hardy a week or two ago that he”had his back”against Mark Henry/Atlas and Delaney during a backstage skit?I am pretty sure it was Walker.
August 8th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Yeah it was.
August 9th, 2008 at 1:10 am
And the inexplicable releases continue. Okay, just one inexplicable release. You had 4 jobbers, a Khali-like in-ring talent, a ref, and Shannon Moore. This makes no sense when it was apparent that Moore and The Asian Redneck were next in line for the tag titles.
August 9th, 2008 at 2:24 am
i agree with Big D. Moore DOESNT DESERVE THIS! there goes yet ANOTHER tag team.
August 9th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Bad news guys. ONB will be up late next week. I’m headed to Virginia and will not be back until Friday. I will have The Talent Exchange up though on Sunday. See you all later
August 10th, 2008 at 10:33 am
I was actually sadden to hear about Shannon Moore getting released. He is such an underrated talent that it sucks when he isn’t utilized properly.