By Neil Trama III

Just got back from the live Raw and ECW tapings in Wilkes Barre, PA.

First off, the ECW spoilers:

Teddy Long opened the show to declare that anything Raw or Smackdown can do, ECW can do better. Therefore, ECW will ALSO have a World Title Scramble at Unforgiven with tonight's matches acting as qualifying bouts.

1. Matt Hardy def. John Morrison
Probably the best match of the night, including Raw, saw Hardy win with a Twist of Fate after multiple reversals and the like. Hardy was way over.

Mark Henry joined Teddy in his office to express his displeasure with being booked to compete in a scramble match. Teddy informed him that "life's not fair" and things moved on.

2. The Miz def. Evan Bourne
This one was a somewhat disappointing match. Nothing was really wrong with it but I was hoping for something a little better out of Bourne the first time I saw him live. Miz won with a neckbreaker.

Chavo Guerrero and Bam Neely walked around backstage...with a purpose!

3. Chavo Guerrero def. Tommy Dreamer
Chavo won with the frog splash. The crowd showed Tommy loads of respect afterwards with a near standing ovation and many "Tommy" chants as he left the ring and walked to the back. He seemed genuinely touched.

Grisham and Striker ran down the Unforgiven card.

4. Finlay def. Mike Knox
The kids were into the Finlay family. Finlay brought in a schaleliegh, which Knox stole only to have it confiscated by the ref. Hornswaggle then slid another one in there, that Finlay used to knock out Knox and score the pin. Afterwards (probably once ECW stopped taping) Finley brought some little kids into the ring to run around and jig with Hornswaggle.

The end result: Mark Henry vs. Matt Hardy vs. Miz vs. Chavo vs. Finlay at Unforgiven.

Other live notes:

D-Lo Brown defeated Jake Hager in a dark match.

CM Punk and Batista were over huge. Adamle had more heat than he has any right to. Crowd also popped big time for the Bret Hart/Mr. Perfect 24/7 video, surprising considering the number of kids in the crowd.

In a goofy snafu, Mickie James' music played for about 30 seconds before Jamie Noble's titantron came on and he ran out to do the kiss cam. I guess "Mickie" might be next to "Noble" on the entrance music list or something. And yeah, a 3 1/2 hour wrestling show and the best thing they had for Noble was the kiss cam. Todd Grisham did the "sign of the night" contest and Jillian sang "Allentown" in other commercial break antics.

Oddly, the man and woman sitting directly to the left of Cryme Time in the luxery box during their promo appeared to have been plants. They got up and walked out directly behind Cryme Time and the cameramen once the promo ended. No idea why they bothered with that.

Finally, one observation about what parts of the show captivated people the most. I made multiple trips into the concourse for concessions, bathroom breaks, and so my buddy could spend a ridiculous $25 on an HBK cowboy hat. Anyway, every time I went down there the lines were huge, the bathrooms were full, people were coming and going. I walked down immediately after the Michaels/Jericho segment and the hall was empty. I'm amazed I didn't hear crickets in there, it was so quiet. Just an observation.

After the show, Batista gave Kane a Batista-bomb and both sold their injuries. Lots of kids were grumbling about no Cena.

That's all I can think of. Have a good one,

Neil Trama III