Friendly Competition 6.09.07
Posted by Sam Caplan on 06.09.2007
ECW was in "tread water" mode this week, but that's okay because I have plenty of thoughts on how it may be affected by the Draft. Plus, positive thoughts on Stevie Richards, Vital Social Issues N' Stuff, and for the first time ever an entire promotion is YOUR Dickhead Of the Week!
ECW On Sci Fi Results 6/5/2007
This week's show seemed like little more than just ECW killing time until after the draft, no storylines were advanced this week unless you counted Vince McMahon sitting in his rocking chair watching Lashley take on the ECW Originals in a No DQ streetfight. Of course Lashley won as expected, as did Kevin Thorn, who defeated Stevie Richards. Elijah Burke and Marcus Cor Von continued the New Breed's weekly abuse of the Major Brothers, scoring a win in a tag team match. In the main event, CM Punk defeated Matt Striker with the Go 2 Sleep.
TNA Impact Results 6/7/2007
Impact was headlined by the best match I've seen on that show in months, a great main event brawl (which I gather was no DQ) between Chris Harris and James Storm in a King Of the Mountain Qualifying match. They beat the crap out of one another for 20 minutes, but ended up getting counted out in a frustratingly unsatisfying finish. The other KOTM participants got in on the fun as well, as Kurt Angle confronted AJ Styles and told him the same thing he told Samoa Joe: he's planning to cripple him before Slammiversary, which led to a show closing three way brawl between the three of them. Also, Christian Cage calmed down an angry Tomko, who felt that Christian had screwed him out of his shot at getting into King Of The Mountain. Christian reminded him of everything he's done for Tomko, including getting him into the business in the first place and then into TNA and helping him feed his family. Tomko backed off for the moment and allowed Christian to go find Jim Cornette and inquire yet again as to who his opponent next week would be, but Cornette continued to be vague, assuring Christian that it'll be an easy match against someone Christian himself has said is below him.
The Sting-Christopher Daniels saga continued, as Daniels rambled on about all the things Sting taught him, all of which Sting denied ever saying. Daniels and Sting decided to go talk it over off camera and left. Meanwhile, after Robert Roode defeated Jerry Lynn via lowblow, he began attacking Lynn after the match, drawing Eric young out to make the save. Eric got ahold of Miss Brooks and threw her back in the ring, but before they could beat her up, Jim Cornette came out and said that there would be no beating up of women on his watch and instead made a match between Brooks and Gail Kim so Brooks could get beaten up by another woman instead. Though Brooks attacked Gail backstage, the match went off and was won by Gail, though she ended up getting dropped by Roode after the match.
Meanwhile, the build to the Steiners-Team 3D match which won't happen continued, and Sonjay Dutt came out in spiritual Indian clothes, and informed Kevin Nash and Black Machismo that next week...they meditate.
We Are The Champions
ECW World Champion: Vince McMahon (Champion Since 4/29/2007)
TNA World Champion: Title Vacant (Champion Since 5/13/2007)
TNA World Tag Team Champions: Team 3D (Champions Since 5/13/2007)
TNA X-Division Champion: Chris Sabin (Champion Since 1/14/2007)
People Who Impressed Me This Week
Elijah Burke: He looked like a million bucks, catching the Major Brothers off guard at every turn.
CM Punk: He got to main event this week, and made the most of it with an easy victory over Matt Striker.
Stevie Richards: Lost to Kevin Thorn, but looked good in the process.
Chris Harris and James Storm: If you saw the match they had this week, you need no further explanation.
Christian Cage: He is so good at being a manipulative jerk, and got to show how good at it he can be this week.
Dickhead Of The Week: TNA
I'm sorry, but continuing to advertise the Steiners-Team 3D match for Slammiversary when they've known it's not happening for days now is not cool. They had plenty of time to change or even completely remove that promo, but didn't. If I were the type of person to buy PPVs, I would have bought this one just for that one match and, if I'm Joe Average the Non Internet Fan, I don't know that Scott Steiner's out injured and may still buy the show if they don't make some kind of mention of it next week. Bait and switches are never cool, and TNA's been pretty good about being up front with changes to PPV cards. Let's hope they don't forget to fill everyone in this time.
Vital Social Issues N' Stuff With Stuart
I like that the referees are starting to get more involved in the matches rather than just being a third wheel who's there to make the count and DQ people when the storyline calls for it. In particular, I thought that the ref during the Thorn-Richards and Burke/Cor Von-Majors matches (whose name I didn't catch) did a great job. He was really good ablout visibly minding what was going on in the matches, really getting in their faces with the count and even physically dragging one of the Majors out of the ring when he came in illegally. In much the same way there's been complaints that WWE hasn't really let the wrestlers work to their full potential, the same can be said of the referees. They're part of the act too and are, theoretically, the best in the business, so I'm glad to see that they're getting the opportunity to work to their full potential.
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Speaking of working to potential, have CM Punk and Elijah Burke looked like a million bucks these past few weeks, or what? Elijah has shown himself to be a really fluid worker and quick thinker, like this week when he hit the flapjack out of the leapfrog and caught the other Major brother woth that dropkick during the pin at the end. That springboard elbow he hits in the corner is really nice, too. Punk, meanwhile, seems to finally be positioned as one of the top faces on the brand, and I definitely noticed how he got the main event even though Lashley was on the show. Even if ECW dies this December and everything else it involved fails miserably, one very important thing they accomplished with ECW was launching the national careers of two very promising youngsters and giving them a place to develop. I do think they still have some work to do though, so I hope neither gets drafted off of ECW on Monday.
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And that brings us to our next topic, which is Monday's Draft Lottery. I've given a little thought to how certain moves would affect ECW, so I figured I'd share some of what I came up with. First off, I think that Tommy Dreamer, Sandman, Balls Mahoney, Nunzio, and anyone else involved in the original ECW can be taken away, none of them are going to be used for anything worthwhile in that company ever again. Just one exception: Stevie Richards. Say what you will about how he's been handled for years now, but for several weeks now he's been getting TV time and has been making the most of it by having some great matches. I can see them giving him a push based off getting a surprise win over somebody someday. I think the New Breed can be broken up since they've gone as far as they cam as a group, though if one has to go it shouldn't be Burke. Obviously I think Punk should stay, as well as Lashley because he's a guy who needs to be in his own little bubble right now.
Who would I like to see drafted over to ECW? I liked an idea Dave Scherer had recently about making ECW the young up-and-comers brand, so I'll go with that. The first name that jumps to mind is Jamie Noble. Anyone who's seen him in Ring Of Honor knows that he has HUGE potential, but they're doing nothing with him on Smackdown. Draft him to ECW, feud him with Punk, and I guarantee that everybody will be happy. Even though ECW has Lashley and Vince (cough cough), they could use a little more star power, so I'd move one of the Hardys there since they'd fit in with the "young guy" idea a little better than most top names. The third and final name I'm going to throw out is Ric Flair, for two reasons. First, he's not going to be in any kind of important position on Raw, and moving him to ECW can give him a chance to showcase whatever he does have left. More importantly, however, is that he's one of the best guys they could have on hand to work with the youngsters and help them develop. I would actually start putting him over the young guys, and while that might seem counterproductive, I think it would help, say, CM Punk to have a great, close match and lose more than it would help Kenny Dykstra to treat him like a jobber for a month straight. I don't know if they have anything like these suggestions in mind, but I think it'd make a great start.
Links To Stuff You Can Read
Andy Clark returns with part two of his Shawn Michaels report card in The Shimmy.
Our resident expert on idiocy, Rob Halden, returns with another scintillating edition of you're An Idiot And Here's Why.
What Did We Learn This Week?
In all things, there is at least one lesson to be learned. Here I will impart upon you what I took away from the weekly television of ECW and TNA. You too can learn important life lessons from Kevin Thorn and Maverick Matt, and are encouraged to send in your own revalations.
This week on ECW On Sci-Fi, I learned that...
-Having nothing but matches on TV once in a while is nice, but you probably couldn't get away with it all the time.
-Stevie Richards has better matches than any jobber ever.
-Referees are not people to be trifled with.
This week on TNA Impact, I learned that...
-A really easy way to get out of a no DQ stipulation is to just have them get counted out.
-YOU CAN'T BEAT UP WOMEN...unless you're a heel.
-Tomko used to be a prison guard.
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And with that, I'm off to Philadelphia for tonight's ROH show. If you're going and want to say hi, feel free. I'll be the guy there who looks just like everyone else. See you tomorrow for the Ominous Thoughts News Report!
