ECW HD Report for January 22, 2008.

Lived from Charlottesville, VA (University of Virginia)

Battle Royal: Kane, Mike Mizanin, John Morrison, Shelton Benjamin & Tommy Dreamer

All of these men are in Sunday’s Rumble. I like this idea as a way to whet the appetite for the pay-per-view. Dreamer was dumped in about one minute by Kane; in a nice touch, Joey Styles mentioned Kane eliminated Dreamer from last year’s Rumble. Benjamin hit the inverted bulldog on Kane after the heels triple teamed. The tag champions then turned on Benjamin. Kane came back and beat up all three heels, eliminating the tag champions easily. Meanwhile, Shelton was skinning the cat and used a headscissors from that position to eliminate Kane and win the battle royal. The match went far too quickly and amazingly was shorter than some of Shelton’s ineffective squashes.

Shelton Benjamin won a battle royal, 3:09 (that’s all folks).

It was now time for the best body contest hosted by Jonathan Coachman. I just cannot get excited about this when tomorrow I get to watch Sharapova, Jankovic, Hantuchova and Ivanovic in the Australian Open semifinals. For you non-tennis fans, that’s akin to watching the divas if they had not only great bodies and were great workers. Anyway, they did this to music which meant Layla again had a significant edge on the other two. Layla and the popular Kelly earned decent reactions from the crowd while Lena received absolutely nothing. At the end, the fans picked Kelly who was knocked down from behind by the other two.

Kofi Kingston v. David Owens

They announced the jobber as from Chapel Hill, NC, the home of the rival of the host university. Did they actually think anyone would boo the jobber? Kingston did a Stinger splash where he landed on the top rope, he then tried a monkey flip which Owens took poorly. Soon thereafter, Owens was out of position for a forearm or elbow spot. On second thought, they should boo the hell out of this guy. Kingston kept his composure though and hit a flapjack, double legdrop and a spinning round kick to win. This was an effective debut as Kingston showed off some unique offense which the announcers got over strong. Obviously, his opponent hurt the match but that will not be the case down the road, at least not to this extent, and the key thing is that Kingston looked good. The match also was the perfect length for a squash.

Kingston d. jobber, Pin, 2:35.

They aired a fun and interesting history piece highlighting various factoids about the history of the Royal Rumble. I love this kind of thing because it not only invokes nostalgia but it also promotes that this year’s edition will make history as well. Backstage, Edge, Armando Estrada, Chavo and Vickie Guerrero were conversing.

Tazz introduced a video package of Colin Delaney’s four squash losses. Every week he comes out even more bandages.

Great Khali v. Colin Delaney

Punch, tree slam and head vice and it was over in thirty-six seconds.

They showed highlights of last week’s match between Punk and Guerrero.

ECW Championship Match, No Holds Barred: CM Punk v. Chavo Guerrero

Edge is again on commentary for this one. The stipulation was announced just seconds before the match as we’re getting the stacking the deck against the babyface storyline once more. CM Punk used the exposed turnbuckle early on. Later, Punk hit a kick to send Chavo out to the floor and followed him out with a plancha. Chavo battled back and countered into a front suplex onto the steel steps. Chavo earned a near fall in the ring and then went into an abdominal stretch which at least makes sense as far as the psychology goes. CM Punk made his comeback out of nowhere with his array of knees and a bulldog, earning a two count. Punk went for a move off the top rope but Chavo caught him coming down sloppily in the ribs. Chavo hit the three amigos but Punk came back with a hot shot onto the exposed turnbuckle and the go to sleep. Edge ran in and made the save with a spear. Chavo then gradually crawled over and covered Punk for the victory as Vickie, the rated Rmy, Edge and Chavo celebrated. I cannot believe they rewarded Chavo for weeks of poor performances with a championship belt. Even if the plan is to transition CM Punk to Smackdown for a feud with Edge, they should have come along with another way to do so. It’s somewhat trivial at this point, but this was by far the best that either of these men has looked working together.

Guerrero d. Punk, Pin, 6:26, **½

Final Analysis: Doesn’t the notion of Chavo Guerrero as ECW champion really say it all about the future direction of this program? As a stand alone show, I actually enjoyed this show quite a bit as the battle royal accomplished its purpose, Kofi Kingston had an effective debut, Colin Delaney was terrific again and the main event a strong match for the time allotted to it. But ultimately the lasting image and the aspect of the show that has the most predictive value is the decision to reward Chavo Guerrero with the brand’s championship. Ideally, professional wrestling, like the rest of life, should be a meritocracy. So in light of a month of poor interviews, mediocre matches with top workers, disappointing crowd reactions and television ratings; I ask, what has Chavo done to merit this opportunity? As an aside, it’s worth mentioning that the absurdities of booking a match four weeks in a row and how tired this formula of the general managers scheming against babyfaces is.

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