Friendly Competition 6.23.07
Posted by Sam Caplan on 06.23.2007
The ECW World Title match is set for Vengeance, while over in TNA, Jim Cornette announced the huge main event for Victory Road! Plus, people who impressed me, Vital Social Issues N' Stuff, and YOUR Dickhead Of The Week!
I'd just like to make something clear right now, and that's that my coverage of ECW for the next couple of months might seem a little light. The reason for this is because I refuse to cover the McMahon death angle any more than it already is. As far as I'm concerned, that's a Raw storyline, not ECW, and unless it directly involves members of the ECW roster, it's not going to get covered here. Okay? Okay.
ECW On Sci Fi Results 6/19/2007
With that in mind, this week's edition of ECW focused on the match at Vengeance which will fill the vacant ECW World Title. In a pair of qualifying matches, Chris Benoit made Elijah Burke tap out to the Sharpshooter to advance, while CM Punk handed Marcus Cor Von his first pinfall loss to advance as well. CM Punk will now face Chris Benoit for the ECW World Title at Vengeance.
Also, a pair of recent tradees made appearances, as the Boogeyman won a very short squash over a local jobber, while Johnny Nitro looked very impressive in a win over Nunzio. Also, Kevin Thorn defeated Tommy Dreamer.
TNA Impact Results 6/21/2007
Jim Cornette opened this week's show by announcing that the main event of Victory Road will be TNA World Champion Kurt Angle teaming with X-Division Champion Jay Lethal to face TNA Tag Team Champions Team 3D, and whichever champion gets pinned loses his title to the man he was pinned by. The caveat is that all the champions will defend their title before Victory Road, and if any of them lose, they will be replaced in the match by whoever beats him. This leads to tonight's main event for the X-Division Title as Jay Lethal defended against Chris Sabin and Samoa Joe, with Samoa Joe regaining the X-Division Title after pinning Sabin. He now takes Lethal's place in the main event, but his partner Kurt Angle was unhappy because there was no celebration for him following his World Title win, and proceeded to go on thanking himself for all he did to become TNA World Champion. His mood was made worse when Cornette announced that he would defend the TNA World Title next week against two former World Champions, Christian Cage & Rhino.
Speaking of Christian Cage, he laid out a challenge to Chris Harris for stopping him from winning the TNA World Title at Slammiversary, but was soon confronted by Abyss, who chased him all the way out to the ring. AJ Styles and Tomko run in and attack Abyss, but he fights them off as Christian bails to the back. Also, Chris Harris defeated Raven and Robert Roode & James Storm defeated Rhino & Eric Young.
We Are The Champions
ECW World Champion: No One (Vacant Since 6/10/2007)
TNA World Champion: Kurt Angle (Champion Since 6/17/2007)
TNA World Tag Team Champions: Team 3D (Champions Since 5/13/2007)
TNA X-Division Champion: Samoa Joe (Champion Since 6/21/2007)
People Who Impressed Me This Week
Chris Benoit: This guy is on fire after being traded to ECW, where he is now essentially carrying the show. He again looked like a millioin bucks during his match with Elijah Burke, and also looks way more motivated than he has in quite some time.
CM Punk: Punk took a really nasty knock on that botched powerslam by Cor Von, but still had the presence of mind to finish the match despite clearly being hurt by the move. By the way folks, when this guy says he's straight edge, he means it. He doesn't even take painkillers. Think about that.
Johnny Nitro: Johnny Nitro made his ECW debut this week, and being without Melina didn't seem to have any adverse effect on him. On the contrary, he looked really good in winning a competitive squash on Nunzio.
Dickhead Of The Week: Jay Lethal
While I'll admit that I'm not nearly as hard on Lethal as I used to be, he really looked like an asshole this week by dropping the X-Division Title he worked so hard to earn after only four days, and lost it without even being pinned himself. A case can be made that at this point, Samoa Joe is a division killer by dropping back to the X-Division, but now Lethal's back at square one and has nothing to show for it.
Vital Social Issues N' Stuff With Stuart
Am I the only one who saw Samoa Joe winning the X-Division Title and instantly thought of it as a step backward? Don't get me wrong, I appreciate that they want him in the main event of the PPV and this was their way of getting him in, but he is way beyond the X-Division Title at this point, and I think that unless Joe is going to bow out of the main event scene and be used to rebuild the X-Division for a few months, this is going to do more harm than good. One of the trademarks of Vince Russo booking is using the titles as a prop to advance storylines instead of recognizing them as prestigious prizes that everyone will do anything to win. That's also the problem with the main event of Victory Road, because somebody's going to wind up with two titles, and you just KNOW that one of the titles they hold is going to be forgotten for weeks on end before being passed on to someone else as an afterthought or as part of some other angle. Look at the history, this has happened EVERY SINGLE TIME somebody has won two titles and been allowed to keep them both, regardless of the promotion. In the meantime, it makes poor Jay Lethal look like a chump because, after being stuck with somebody else's gimmick, he spent months chasing the X-Division Title, finally won it, then lost it before he knew what was even going on. There are just so many problems with the booking of this kind of angle.
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I'm really looking forward to the CM Punk vs Chris Benoit match at Vengeance. For one, I obviously think it's going to be a great match because I think the world of both of these guys as workers. But more than that, this match shows that WWE is taking CM Punk seriously as a potential future main event level star. Despite WWE's penchant for pushing muscled up bodybuilder types (like a Marcus Cor Von), the decision was instead made to push Punk into the top slot, and I think that says a lot about WWE's opinion of him and how drastically differently they feel about him now as opposed to how they supposedly viewed him back in December/January. Make no mistake, this is the biggest match of CM Punk's career so far, but he's mentally tough enough that he's not going to be rattled by being in the ring with a guy of Benoit's reputation. Now, whether or not they put him OVER Benoit is another story entirely. I do think it's the wrong time to put him over Benoit, and would rather see something like the MVP series where Benoit wins the ECW World Title (which would make him a three-time World Champion and have him join Big Show as the only men to have held World Titles in WCW, WWE, and ECW) and keeps beating Punk, but Punk gets closer and closer each time before finally beating him for the title, maybe at Survivor Series or, if you really want to have a good build, Wrestlemania 24.
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Speaking of people who were recently traded to ECW, Johnny Nitro looked really good this week, and I think the move is going to be good for him. For one, he's not going to be in Melina's shadow anymore. As highly as the IWC thinks of him, the average fan just wants to see Melina's assets and Johnny Nitro is just the icing on the cake. Now Johnny's going to be able to get over on his own merits without having someone else along for the ride. Another factor is that I think it was a good move getting Nitro out on his own and away from the possibility of being dragged down because of the backstage problems Melina and Mercury had/have. This shows that WWE cares to continue cultivating Nitro and don't want him getting bogged down in other people's personal problems. He'll also get the opportunity to develop as a top-tier player without getting lost in the shuffle under Cena, Michaels, Orton, HHH, and everyone else in the main event scene on Raw right now. We'll have to take another look at how the Draft affected guys like Nitro, Benoit, Punk, and (god help me) the Boogeyman in a few months, but right now things are really looking up for ECW.
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...
-CM Punk is one tough motherfucker.
-The Vince McMahon death angle means my ECW coverage is going to be about five sentences long for the rest of the summer.
-Nunzio still has a job.
This week on TNA Impact, I learned that...
-Somebody out there thinks that people will honestly believe that Team 3D has a snowball's chance in hell against Angle and Joe.
-In addition to ripping off his gimmick, Jay Lethal has also stolen Randy Savage's penchant for short title reigns.
-Somebody out there remembered that Rhino was NWA World Champion for about thirty seconds.
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And that's it for me today. I'll be back tomorrow with the Ominous Thoughts News Report, so until then...live long and prosper.
