News to Start Your Weekend 1.05.07
Posted by Nick Marsico on 01.05.2007
The first one of 2007 talks of what happened in 2006 and lots of other wrestling goodness. Goodness I tells ya.
This was supposed to be posted last week, before the New Year. Lots of things came up that night and I ended up getting all kinds of busy among other things, so this got pushed back a week. I've got a lot to cover, so let's get into this, shall we?
I was at the final Ring of Honor show of 2006 over Christmas weekend, and after that experience, I can tell you that Shingo has quite the manly handshake (and god damn if his mullet isn't way over), but CIMA kind of dead fished me with his. I've been told that plenty of wrestlers are like that, however Samoa Joe had a strong handshake, and Roderick Strong took a nice healthy and manly pat on the back. Speaking of meeting people, I actually did meet a few people I've only ever spoken to on message boards that night, meeting (and actually having the seat next to) well-liked wrestling music video creator SansJason, who is a very nice fellow. I actually was completely unaware as to who he was until intermission when we got to talking. He found out that the guy I attended the show with, my friend Jose, is a guy who uses the name Token Minority on some message boards, including the ROH forums. They apparently have had some sort of internet love affair, as Token Minority loves Jason's music videos, and Jason loves that Minority loves his videos. Why don't you queers just kiss already?
And speaking of queers, I met two nice gentlemen who I first came into contact with via an Opie and Anthony message board, Wackbag.com. These two men are Bagel Lord and Flying Standby, who I spoke with during the evening and look forward to seeing again at the next ROH show on 2/16. Oh, and the queer part is that they enjoy the fact that I like to make fun of some dude for being gay (whether he is or isn't we may never know my guess is that he is), so mister Standby stood by as I utilized his cell phone capabilities to lend my voice and wit in order to leave a message to that fellow, who shall go hereby unnamed (it rhymes with "Lee", and on a human it is called a patella). Oh, and I lost my cell phone, but received a call the morning after from the Manhattan Center, so apparently I left it there. And this past Saturday a couple friends and I traveled into the city on a bus which took us over 2 hours to take a ride that should have been about 30 minutes. We left at rush hour, it seems. So we got my phone at the Manhattan Center, then wandered around NYC for a few hours, and even got to see the big tree at Rockefeller Center as well as the light and music show near it. Oh, and they did a practice run of the ball dropping for New Year's Eve, so I got to see that. That was cool.
As far as the show itself, it was fantastic, and I believe easily the best show I have ever seen live, and one of the best shows I have ever seen period. So that will start us off officially here.
Ring of Honor Final Battle 2006 Live Thoughts
The show began very fun with a quite enjoyable Four Way match, with El Generico (OLE!), one half of the tag champs Christopher Daniels, Davey Richards, Jimmy Rave and Allison Danger's ass. Very fun match and Rave's out of nowhere submission victory (some might even say smart strategy!) set the tone for the kind of night he would have. The kind of night where he would be treated like a bitch but come off looking possibly stronger than ever.
Adam Pearce versus Ricky Reyes was just there to set up some drama for the World Title main event, as Pearce and Hagadorn took Homicide's corner man and friend Julius Smokes out with a spike piledriver following Pearce's cheap victory with the brass knuckles. Nothing of a match, but short and a good little angle advancer. Plus, we got to see BRYCE~!, mister Bryce Remsburg come out to aid J-Train to the back.
Albright and Jacobs beating Cabana and Whitmer was a pretty good match that I thought started a tiny bit slow, and a group of asshole fans sitting in the section in front of GA seemed like they were trying to ruin everybody else's fun and put themselves over all night, and it really was fucking annoying. I won't dignify their shit by going on further. This match will be memorable for me because of two spots. The big show stopper was the powerbomb from Albright to Whitmer out of the ring through a table that Whitmer and Cabana teased putting Jacobs through earlier on in the match, but the Shiranui from Jacobs from which he rolled through and hit a spinning headscissors on Whitmer. You can see both spots, which happened in reverse order from the way I described them, in picture form at the following links:
I had heard a lot about how the Briscoes vs. Kings of Wrestling match was disappointing on 12/22 in Hartford, but then read that LARRY SWEENEY~! interfered, so I became excited. Then when Jay and Mark destroyed Santa and his elves and Mark told the Kings to MAN UP, it was on. This match was most certainly the match of the night at Final Battle, and the angle following it just made me sad. Claudio's best friend, Chris Hero, who he turned his back on Ring of Honor for, has turned his back on Claudio for the managerial services of Larry Sweeney. Then, to make it worse, Samoa Joe made his way to the ring and told Claudio to get the fuck out of dodge, and the Most Money Making Man sadly exited the ring and made his way out of the building through the crowd. I was deeply saddened by this turn of events, however mister Castagnoli will be sticking around until March or so, which means a feud against Chris Hero and Sweet n Sour International. Niceness.
Speaking of Joe, he wants somebody from NOAH. He's getting somebody from NOAH on 2/16. I'll be there on 2/16. I'm not from NOAH, though. I'll just be there to watch. Also, the Jimmy Rave saga continued, as the scheduled match here before Joe's injury was Samoa Joe versus Nigel McGuinness, but that was not to be, so out came Jimmy Rave in his second of three appearances of the night, and he got bitched around by both men, including a big bitch slap from Joe, and it appeared that Joe basically accepted Nigel's challenge to him for him for after intermission.
After intermission, and you already read my story about what I did then, we got Nigel vs. Rave, and it was quite good, and once again Rave gets Nigel to tap, and it's Rave's second victory by submission of the night, beating both El Generico and Nigel McGuinness with his Maple Leaf/Ankle Lock submission. He challenged the winner of the night's title match to a defense at the next Manhattan Center show on 2/16, so unless Cide loses the belt to Hero on 1/26 or to Joe on 1/27, Rave gets a shot at Homicide, whom he already beat a month ago in Long Island.
Shingo, CIMA and Sydal vs. Strong, Aries and Delirious was glorious. See it. Much fun. Lots of it. Love it. CIMA trying to figure out Delirious at the beginning of the match was hysterical.
And finally the main event. Just see it. Easily my most emotional moment watching wrestling outside of the Eddy tribute RAW and Mick Foley's first retirement. Good match, good angle (I hate Sinclair no matter what, though), and just a perfect finish to a great angle for a moment that has been five years in the making. I don't even feel like I should add more to it. The moment was awesome. I was screaming my lungs out and jumping all over the place all match, and when Homicide hit the lariat and the pinfall began, it was awesome, and then the final count, and I must have jumped 2 feet up. Unbelievable moment. I can't wait for this DVD, man.
Get this show, that's all I have to say. Aside from all of that other stuff I said, of course.
May as well keep up with the big Ring of Honor buzz I'm on before I get into the rest of some interesting news that happened to end 2006 and began this year, because interesting things have been happening in that world.
Ring of Honor News
Claudio Castagnoli is sticking around in Ring of Honor, and from all I can tell, and from what I've read that I've been told is true, he's been fired from WWE before he could even work a date for them. Visa issues and such he's here on an extended vacation, not for work, so basically he's been getting illegally paid, or so it seems to me, but apparently he has a green card according to Gabe, so I guess it's cool? We'll find out eventually, but what we do know is that Claudio is done with WWE before he got started and that he's sticking around on the indy circuit and that he and Hero probably dropped all three tag titles unnecessarily. D'oh. And now maybe Hero and Claudio will feud. Oooooooor it'll be a big ruse and they'll jump off the middle rope, high five in mid air and Sweet n Sour International will be made of three.
Joe's looking for some NOAH competition, and on 2/16 he gets his wish. Who will it be? Well we don't know yet, but we do know that we will get a bit of a preview of things to come when after that bit match on 2/16, KENTA's American protégé gets a shot at him in Philadelphia. Davey Richards versus Samoa Joe on the second night of the Fifth Year Festival. I'm there. Literally.
Jared David is out of the commentary booth. I didn't actually get a chance to get used to him since I haven't seen many recent DVDs, but I'll be honest, I didn't love him. Better than Lovey and that other dude whose name escapes me at the moment, but oh well. I heard it's health issues, so I hope he gets better. Somebody find Raven and get him to do some guest spots on commentary at least.
I'm going to be at a few of the upcoming Ring of Honor shows 1/27 in Edison, NJ, 2/16 in NYC and 2/17 in Philly. Hell, I'm even finishing that weekend on Sunday night at the ECW Arena for the last night of the inaugural King of Trios Tournament. Should be a hell of a weekend. Here's some of the upcoming ROH action:
ROH's return to action will be in the Boston area on January 26. Already signed for that night is Homicide's first title defense against Chris Hero; Aries & Strong against The Briscoes in a 2/3 Falls match; Colt Cabana, BJ Whitmer & Daizee Haze vs. Jimmy Jacobs, Brent Albright & Lacey; and Davey Richards vs. Rocky Romero in his return.
On January 27 in Edison, Homicide will have his second title defense, this time against Samoa Joe; Austin Aries & Roderick Strong will team up with the returning Jack Evans to take on Davey Richards, Delirious & Shingo; Jay & Mark Briscoe will also take on the Havana Pitbulls in their return to tag team action in Ring of Honor.
All sorts of stuff is also already signed for ROH's return to NYC on February 16 as well. Jimmy Rave will challenge Homicide for the World Title; Samoa Joe will get his shot at someone from or representing Pro Wrestling NOAH; and Christopher Daniels & Matt Sydal will be defending their tag gold against former champions Austin Aries & Roderick Strong.
Mainstream News
Kevin Federline, as of Monday, is done with WWE for the foreseeable future. It's kind of a shame, because he played a hell of a character. Out of all of the celebrities and actors that have showed up on WWE television, somehow he's the one who has come off the most comfortable and least annoying. That's right, I mark for Kevin Federline. Don't call him K-Fed!
Apparently, Vladimir Koslov's matches with Val Venis at house shows have been getting good reviews. That's kind of a surprise, to be honest. I've read that he uses something described as the Shock Treatment where he then slams his opponent off his shoulders to the mat in front of him to get the pin. Sounds cool.
For one reason or another, WWE has been cracking down on people using camera phones in the crowd. I don't get why, and I don't see how. If it's for video, that's quite silly because any decent digital camera can take much better video than a camera phone, and they're still allowing those.
Konnan is getting a bit better thanks to being on dialysis for his kidney problems, and hopefully will be able to get his hip replaced, but he also needs a kidney transplant now. I hope no nurse steals his cell phone and hides it in their abnormally large vagina. Anybody who gets that reference is my kinda person.
JR is only 55? Jesus, that's a bitch.
On top of selling out SummerSlam in Jersey this year, the house show back last Thursday in the same arena also sold out. I can't remember the last time I was even at a RAW at that arena that sold out. I don't even think the SuperShow I went to in the summer of '06 sold out.
TNA is trying to get some other PPVs out of Orlando. The next one they're trying to bring out of the city is LockDown in April, and they want to bring it to St. Louis, Pittsburgh or Chicago. I think they should do a show back at the old Asylum in Nashville.
Nattie Neidhart has been signed by WWE. I think she's dating TJ Wilson.
Reader Feedback via the EMAIL
Steve from Providence has something to say about the Tribute to the Troops show:
As always, a fine job by the WWE in Iraq this year. A few quick thoughts:
1) Whenever it showed a shot of Vince McMahon, there was something different about him that I couldn't quite place at first...and then it hit me: He looks genuinely HUMBLED! How often do we get to see such a small glimpse of real emotion show? It's heartwarming to see the human inside, even for just a second His annual Iraq trips are the equivalent of being visited by three ghosts on Christmas Eve.
2) There's no other time of the year when I appreciate the divas more. Thank you ladies, for going over there and just looking FINE for the boys. I can't imagine what a lift that must be for the troops who haven't seen a good type of bombshell for so long. Is it unrealistic to believe that Kristal, Maria and Torrie were the most beautiful things within a hundred mile radius of Baghdad? Five hundred miles?
3) I like that they show actual credits during the show so we can see the names of all the behind-the-scenes people who made the trip. When they showed the music credits, it was accompanied by a graphic showing the cover of the album that the song was from. This led to the most surreal moment of the evening for me: On the same screen they showed John Lennon's "Lennon Legend: The Very Best of John Lennon" (For "Happy XMas War is Over") and Scott Stapp's "The Great Divide" (For whatever cookie-cutter piece of crap of his they used). Seriously, can you think of a more stark musical contrast than John Lennon and Scott Stapp? That's literally both ends of the spectrum. I almost spit my eggnog across the room laughing.
I've seen other people mention the same thing about the music, sir. I also found a bit of humor in it, yes.
And now some feedback on the Paparazzi stuff, we begin with Jeremy Addison, who is enjoying it:
Not only do I find the PCS entertaining I find it hilarious! Nash has taken these guys under his wing and let them show off more personality in the last 2 months than they ever did in TNA's previous history. "Have you ever been to Fire Island?" That has to be the quote of the year. The PCS press conference with Shelley and Nash had me anxiously waiting for what they were going to say next. "I like to pull it out of my pants, it makes me feel cool!"-Alex Shelley. These guys are the most entertaining guys in TNA promo or ring wise. These skits have firmly established Shelley as a young Chris Jericho type heel. They've also established Senshi as a legit bad ass in the X-Division. "Stick your butt in his face Sonjay!" Hahahaha I can't get enough of these guys. Toss in the added bonus of the director's cuts on YouTube and you've got yourself comedy gold! VIVA LA NASH!!!
"That's my heart .after you broke it!" GENIUS!
Cliff Taylor weighs in quickly:
I Like it. Nash was even my favorite part of Grandmas Boy.
Dave Roberts also likes it:
TNA needs the Paparazzi stuff to keep it lighthearted. It's a comedic break
from intense Angle and killer Joe. I enjoy everything they do and think Nash
is enjoying his new role. He's still a star with something to bring to any
company and aid the younger stars in TNA. Nash = comedy god.
Kiel M. also enjoys it, and doesn't want me to make fun of his email address, the next Nature Boy. I won't, sir, but I think Scoot Andrews already took that job. Well, he's the Black one. But he was still next.
First, don't laugh at my email account. I've had it since I was 14 and at my peak of wrestling-dorkdom. I just haven't felt like changing it.
Now at the ripe old age of 19, I can remember the rise of Kevin Nash as Diesel. I was really young then, sitting next to my dad, while eating a popsicle, and thinking it was all real. But he was devastating and impressive. Pushed quickly alongside HBK, you could see legends born (both Nash and Michaels).
Now, after the great nWo run, the move to the Wolfpac, and the joke that was the short-lived nWo era in WWE, Nash looks like he is having fun again. His comic bits as part of Paparazzi are my second favorite segment of every TNA show (first being anything with Eric Young).
At first, when Nash arrived and was talking about the X-Division, I was scared to death he would ruin it. No matter what Joe, Jarrett, Sting or VKM do, the underlying entity that is TNA is the X-Division. It sets them apart.
My biggest gripe with the X-Division all along has been the lack of personality within the group. One member of the class who still doesn't have a whole lot of personality or skills on the mic is AJ Styles.
Now, though, we get to see them have a good time. Shelley and Starr are great together, acting weird. Lethal and Dutt are confused, but cool guys with some personality. And then there is the ever-stoic Senshi, sitting in the corner, shaking his head and laughing at the younger, less experienced newcomers.
When Nash showed up, I expected him to plow through the X-Division, do something devastating to the class by winning the belt and then vacating it as "beneath him" and than moving onto the heavyweight division. As long as he is not in the ring, I have no problem with his presence. He is having a good time, probably for the first time since the original nWo, and making the other guys look good.
I don't see how this is a detriment to anybody.
While on the topic. I cannot imagine Shelley not becoming a superstar. The kid has great charisma, a good look and his ringwork is unquestioned. Given time, he could blow up to cult-legend status. Starr is a great ring worker, but his small version of a whacked out Randy Savage look won't get too far, unless teamed with Shelley. If these two were to enter the tag division with AMW splitting up and VKM not doing anything, they could fill that void. It shouldn't be too much of a stretch to see them as that Edge & Christian type team in TNA, that are heels, but hilarious heels, who the crowd loves.
Lethal, Dutt and Senshi are unpredictable to me. Of the group, these three have the least personality at this point. Correction, Dutt and Lethal have plenty of personality, but they do not have that extra something that separates them. At this point, when I think Lethal, I think Dutt and vice versa. They are personification of the X-Division. Young, exciting, high-flyers who just love to compete. Both need some sort of quirk added to create that separation.
Senshi, while being a great worker, I struggle to see him as anything more than a complimentary part of the roster. This does not mean filler. Complimentary parts of every roster are vital.
See my thing with the Paparazzi and Nash stuff, I like it. I think the stuff is beyond hilarious and it has done some to show the personalities of the guys who have been a part of it. The big problem is that they guys aren't wrestling on TV or doing much else as far as storylines go, although it does seem obvious that eventually Nash is going to choose Starr over Shelley which is going to lead to a feud and some great matches between those two. Yes, it would be great to see the guys get pushed and be on TV every week wrestling, and I think that may be in the cards when they get 2 hours to work with. Before that, the X Title has its feud, and that may be all the time they have for that division right now. At least it's a pretty good feud and is producing good matches.
As far as the whole Will Mayberry stuff, I'm done with it. It gets frustrating to argue with somebody who seems irrational, especially when I am the way I am, set in my own opinions and feeling that I am right more times than not. In the end, it comes down in a few places to one's taste, and that differs between people. I will retort, again, however, on the thought that the talent is split, in Mr. Mayberry's words "razor thin" between the brands in WWE. That just simply is not true.
RAW has Cena, Edge, Orton, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Jeff Hardy, Carlito, Johnny Nitro, Shelton Benjamin, Charlie Haas, Kenny Dykstra, Umaga, Ric Flair, Super Crazy, and a number of tag teams that would be more than credible if pushed seriously in Cade & Murdoch and the Highlanders, as well as the already mentioned WGTT and even Cryme Tyme. Out of the males on that roster, I listed 14 that are good, and that leaves out the men I left for those three tag teams (other than Shelton & Charlie). That's a good core roster.
SmackDown has Benoit, Batista, Booker, Finlay, Matt Hardy, Gregory Helms, Chavo, Jimmy Yang, Kennedy, Kane, Undertaker, Noble and MVP. That's 13 guys, plus Tatanka and Sylvan are much better than one may expect, Vito ain't terrible, and they have London & Kendrick and Regal & Taylor that also don't only work as tag teams. That's also a damn strong roster, even stronger than what RAW has.
Hell, even ECW has a pretty strong cast of characters, with Van Dam, Punk, Balls, Holly, Test, Lashley, Daivari, Burke, Thorn, Sabu, Sandman, Knox, Dreamer, even Moore.
The point is that all three rosters have a lot of good wrestlers on board, and even more than what I listed as far as unused guys that are also very good. I don't see how that is "razor thin", because that's a lie, plain and simple. Hell, the current roster overall might be the strongest they've ever had.
A Look Back at 2006
And finally, the part of this column that I actually wanted to do a special column on earlier this week because I couldn't get last week's column up, the 2006 retrospective. I'm not going to do it in the regular format with a whole bunch of awards and the like, although I will tell you that Angle vs. Undertaker is my WWE match of the year, and is also better than anything TNA came with, and that neither of the Angle/Joe matches are up high on my list. They were all hype and big disappointments on that front. Good matches, but not matches of the year. I also liked the first one better and thought the ankle lock/choke segment at the end of the second one was infernal. I greatly dislike the trading trademark submissions spot I don't like the psychology of it. The damn thing hasn't worked the other 47 times you've tried it in the match. It doesn't make sense to try it again, and it doesn't make sense that it finally works. Put on a new damn hold for the sake of the children. Samoa Joe is supposed to be the Samoan Submission Machine, not the Samoan Single Choke and Nothing Else in His Repertoire Machine.
Anyway, on to how I'm doing this. I'm basically just going to choose a bunch of the top guys and talk about the year they had, and maybe I'll choose the best or my favourite at the end of that. I also don't think it's fair for me to do Ring of Honor, because as much of their stuff that I do happen to own, I only personally own a couple 2006 shows and I've only seen a handful of them. From what I've seen, though, I would put Danielson versus Nigel from Unified atop anything I've seen from any company this year. Hell of a match.
John Cena has had a hell of a year. Let's face it, he IS the face of WWE right now, and chances are he will be for at least a few years to come, and he's doing a damn good job of it. The internet, smark, and general over 15 year old male hate of him is silly, and I don't see a reason for it. Yeah, he can get pretty goofy and bothersome at times, and even King and JR have fallen into the pressure of the crowd on his apparent inability to work a match hell, it was basically the storyline for his WrestleMania title defense against Triple H. Whether the guy is a technical marvel or not (hell, a tape of him during a training video I don't think it was while he was training, either came out showing him doing a hammerlock when asked to perform an arm bar), he knows how to work a damn match, and he does it well. He understands how to work a crowd, and ask any worthwhile wrestler, and he will tell you that's what is important.
He had some damn good matches with Edge, a hell of a triple threat with Edge and Triple H at BackLash in April, a good match with RVD at One Night Stand, and plenty of other good stuff on television. He's also been the hardest working guy on the roster, and has had, according to PWInsider, 177 matches, 16 more than the closest guy on the list, Edge. That includes house shows, and he's also made a movie, done promotional tours like crazy, and been everywhere. The guy's a damn hard worker and doesn't deserve the shit he gets on a constant basis.
Edge, while losing a shitload of matches (123 out of his 161 he only won 38 matches), has had a breakout year. He won the WWE title for the first time and went on to win it once more during the year, and finally got up closer to being a real main eventer. I don't think he's quite gotten there yet, but he's damn close. He had a great match with Mick Foley at WrestleMania and took a FACE BUMP into a FLAMING TABLE. He was the better half, at least wrestling wise, of the series with John Cena, and had another hardcore masterpiece at One Night Stand teaming with Mick Foley and Lita against Terry Funk, Tommy Dreamer and Beulah. He has since gotten into a big main event feud with DX, and while it hasn't been terrible (and DX isn't taking over the show with their awful silly garbage any more thanks to it), he's kind of been treated like a scrub. If he and Orton go over at New Year's Revolution clean I'll lose some of my bitterness.
Jeff Hardy made his big return to WWE after a lot of time off TV in TNA, and he's actually changed my old opinion of him. I thought he was absolute garbage, but I guess he started caring again, because he has started working much better matches than he has since 2001. He's still not back to his 2000 and before awesomeness, but he's at least a competent worker and hasn't screwed much up. He took an awesome bump in the Armageddon ladder match onto the top rope and Nitro dropkicked the ladder out from underneath him, had a good match with Nitro at the Unforgiven PPV, did some good stuff on television, and is now back with Matt on-and-off and has had some very good matches since rejoining him, including a stellar match at the beginning of December to Dismember. He's got a cage match coming up on Sunday, so we'll see pretty quickly if he's carrying over this goodness into 2007.
Elsewhere on RAW, Ric Flair has proven that he still has it, including being fantastic in his TLC match against Edge in January, Carlito turned face and started showing off his larger array of acrobatic maneuvers, Kenny got a last name, and DX reunited and were overall bad. Had some good matches, but outside of that, they took over RAW for months and it just was not good.
King Booker became the World Champion in WWE for the very first time after winning the return of the King of the Ring and, of course, that led him to changing his name to King Booker, which he actually promised to do before he won. He started the year rough by getting stuck in a feud with the Boogeyman (although he and his wife made the best out of it), and he was just hysterical for the second half of the year at least. He made Bobby Lashley look good a number of times, and while he didn't have the best matches, he was the face of SmackDown and certainly one of the biggest highlights.
Finlay debuted as a wrestler for WWE just shy of a year ago, and he's been the cornerstone of SmackDown. He had a great feud with Bobby Lashley, had some really good matches with Benoit and Regal, even a couple good matches with Batista. Finlay was generally THE badass on the WWE roster, and has become basically a main event star in under a year. And he's almost 50 years old.
Mr. Kennedy became a favourite among many, has had some strong promos and got to have the yearly big feud with the Undertaker. He got to beat Batista a few times (however he did it, he was able to do it), and also got to win the United States Championship. He was injured for the first half of the year but ended strong, even in a loss to the Undertaker.
Elsewhere on SmackDown, Rey Mysterio got to win the World Heavyweight Title, being the first tiny little fella to do so and had a good series of matches with Chavo, including a very good Last Man Standing match that ended his 2006. He also won the Royal Rumble after entering second. He didn't do much during the match, though. Mark Henry showed he can cut a good promo and got to be Undertaker's yearly WrestleMania jobber, and also had some good matches with Rey Mysterio. Jimmy Wang Yang came back with a new character, JBL retired from wrestling and became one of the best commentators ever, and London & Kendrick have had a good run as a tag team.
Rob Van Dam won the Money in the Bank ladder match and cashed it in by winning the WWE Title from John Cena at One Night Stand, brought back the ECW World Title and ECW itself, but then got pulled over high and lost both titles in two days.
The Big Show was the man in ECW, holding the title from July to December, and he had some good matches and seemed like a new man, all with his nearly debilitating back problems that have caused him to basically retire, possibly for good if he's not going to come back for one more match at WrestleMania.
CM Punk debuted for WWE on ECW, and, well, he's CM Punk. Need I say more? It would just be ass kissing anyway.
By the way, because he's awesome, Ari Berenstein has a column you should be checking out every week. Last week, him and a bunch of other people wrote a year retrospective with the Column of Honor.
