Friday, July 7, 2006

WWE vs. ECW Head to Head - 6/7/06

Dark Matches:
1) Shelton Benjamin vs. Carlito – 6
2) Matt Hardy vs. Jon Bolen – 4
3) Jimmy Yang vs. Tatanka – 2

Shelton and Carlito had a fantastic match that went about 15 minutes. I would give anything to see these guys have a match like this on Raw every week instead of a two-minute encounter with no story behind it. Hardy and Bolen was a total squash. I guess Hardy needed momentum and there’s no better way to get it than to squash a jobber on the dark portion of TV. Yang and Tatanka was beyond terrible. Yang came out wearing chaps and a confederate jacket. Yeah, I don’t get it either. The match blew harder than Stephanie and I got some Dippin Dots ice cream (yum!). Dusty Rhodes made a special appearance between the second and third matches to shill his new DVD. I was totally in awe when he came out, as was everyone else and they greeted him with the one of the loudest ovations I’ve ever heard.

TV Matches:
1) Rob Van Dam vs. Rey Mysterio - 6
2) Mickie James vs. Jazz - 3
3) 20-Man ECW vs. WWE Battle Royal - 5
4) Tommy Dreamer vs. Edge – Hardcore Rules - 4
5) John Cena vs. Sabu – Hardcore Rules – 3

RVD and Mysterio had an incredible match. Yes, RVD blew a spot on the rail at the beginning but he rebounded quickly. Mysterio did a sick plancha into the crowd and it totally blew me away. I’m glad that RVD is back to his old cocky self like he was in the old ECW. It was everything I expected out of it and more. Mickie and Jazz had a throw-away match that had some potential to be a decent match. Jazz got no pop, lost, and was quickly buried. The battle royal was interesting to say the least. The one thing I don’t understand is why each WWE guy got his own introduction and the ECW guys got no introduction at all. Anyway, Big Show turned and joined ECW thus winning the battle royal for ECW and celebrated in the ring with Kurt Angle. Ah yes, the two men who are the total embodiment of ECW, Angle and Big Show. Huh? I could swear that this is turning into Invasion 2.0. Dreamer and Edge had a quick brawl that was marred by a total fuck-up on Edge’s part. It looked like Dreamer was trying to backdrop Edge off the turnbuckle but Edge missed the table and landed on the top of his head. Unfortunately for me, Cena didn’t get destroyed by Sabu like I had hoped he would. Cena hit his trademarks and Sabu hit his and Big Show hit the ring and the ref called for the bell. A little side note on the crowd, they were very pro-WWE the whole night but also appreciated the efforts of the big name ECW guys like Sabu and Dreamer. This was an awesome show and was an absolute thrill to attend live.

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