ECW Extreme Extracts 07.09.09

Posted by Andy Critchell on 07.09.2009

Bob the builder could not have laid down a better foundation!

Hi everyone, and welcome to ECW Extreme Extracts! Extreme Extracts is not a full on recap column of ECW. Instead I highlight some of the angles and storylines and even speculate from time to time where they might be heading. Don't forget, in addition to the comment section below you can email me as well with any questions/comments and you'll see your letter reprinted on the Earth Wide Intertubes.
TWITTER

http://www.twitter.com/411mania
http://www.twitter.com/411wrestling
http://www.twitter.com/411moviestv
http://www.twitter.com/411music
http://www.twitter.com/411games
http://www.twitter.com/411mma

Do any of you Twitter? If you do, let me know and I'll post your link for you.
Let's chat about tonight's episode of ECW…



Show results:
• Match One: Nikki Bella def. Katie Lea
• Match Two: Shelton Benjamin def. Yoshi Tatsu
• Match Three: Ezekiel Jackson def. jobber
• Match Four: Christian def. Kozlov



The main theme of the show:

Building a foundation takes time. This week's show featured talent relatively new to ECW in every match and I loved it as each of the new talent was able to showcase a little of what they are capable of. The standout tonight though was clearly Yoshi Tatsu. Yoshi and Shelton had a heck of a match and I think it was made abundantly clear that Yoshi has a real bright future ahead of him. He has a style that is probably very different from what the typical WWE fan is used to seeing and his unique style will go a long way to getting him over with the crowd. Plus it really seems like he has the goods. For all his shortcomings, Shelton is still a heck of a worker and one of, if not the best athletes in WWE and Yoshi was able to hang with him move for move. And Yoshi's springboard spinning heel kick looked fantastic. Big Zeke was also pretty impressive in the way he squashed the jobber. The jobber wasn't a small guy either but Zeke threw him around with ease. Talking might end up being a weakness for Zeke but the crowd seemed to be into his impressive displays of strength and if he can be developed into at least a decent talker he will be just fine. I'd like to see WWE take the Goldberg approach with Zeke and have him come out and destroy people week after week. I think that approach would really get him over big time. Sometimes fans just like to see big guys beating people up. We also saw the second appearance of another new face, Abraham Washington and he was much better this week than last week. In fact, there were a few laugh out loud moments for me, especially when he called Kozlov Vladimir Coleslaw. I don't know why that got to me but it really did. Washington has a reputation from FCW as a good talker and after the improvement shown tonight, I am more than willing to give him more chances to show what he can do. Speaking of improvement, how about Kozlov? I thought he looked great tonight in his match with Christian due in no small part to Christian's selling. Even though Vlad lost, he got in a lot of offense and everything he did looked effective and believable. Christian made Vlad look good and Vlad came out tonight looking better in a loss than he ever did in a win over all those jobbers he wrestled when he first came to ECW. So tonight we had Yoshi, Vlad, Zeke, and Abraham building their foundations tonight and all looking pretty good doing it. If seeing young talent get their break and succeeding doesn't make you excited to see ECW every week then you might need to check and see if you still have a pulse.


The minor theme:

Stand back, there is a Hurricane coming through! It seems like every week we are going to get more and more of the Hurricane doing his super-hero type stuff. Now is it just me or does it seem like this time around he is a little more serious than the previous Hurricane incarnation? Whatever the case, Hurricane Helms is a very solid worker and another guy like Christian and Regal that can go a long way in shaping and influencing the next generation of WWE stars on ECW so having him around will only help the product. As we have seen with The Dark Knight and The Watchmen, costumed heroes are often times more complex than just the outfits they wear. Helms is a well known comic buff and it could be that he is injecting a more stoic quality into his character this time around to fit the Dark Knight mold. I, for one, would really enjoy seeing that kind of character and I hope that is the direction we are heading. Stay tuned true believers!


Other quick thoughts from the show:

* I'm glad that Striker touched on Shelton's antics last week against Yoshi and even went so far as to calling them offensive. I still think they were racist but it did get across that Shelton is the bad guy who got his comeuppance last week and this week may have even learned to respect Yoshi.

* I really liked that little booty shake one of the Bellas did before the match with Katie Lea. More of that please!

* Katie Lea finally made her way back to ECW with a new look and she was as foxy as ever. Her match with Nikki Bella was pretty decent too. I'm sure we haven't seen the last of this budding rivalry and I can only hope that we'll get to hear Katie talk about it with that sexy British accent of hers.

*Dreamer was pretty decent on the mic tonight even though he did seem to get a little bit lost during the commentary of the Christian/Kozlov match. I was pretty tired of Dreamer's "ECW is my life" shtick so it was good he was able to break out of that a bit during his segment with Washington.

* Overall, a great episode of ECW this week, I really thought it was solid from top to bottom.

Reader email:
No email this week. What are you kids waiting for? Let me know what you think!

* That's it for the Extract this week. Any comments can be made below. And if you have an opinion on the show that you'd like me to print in next week's column, email me at andy(dot)critchell(at)gmail(dot)com. I'm also posting a blog here on 411 that you can check out here. Also, make sure to check me out on the UBS Evening Movie News Report over on the Movie Zone where I post the Interactive Babe Photo News Brief each and every week. You can check out this week's installment here

Have a great week!