By Phil DiLiegro

From Fayetteville, NC

24-Man Tag Team Match

What an advertisement for this match last week’s Raw main event was. The battle royal has also been moved off of the main card and onto the pre-show at 6:30 ET. For the record, the twenty-four men competing here and in the battle royal are: Big Daddy V, Cade & Murdoch, Deuce & Domino, Tommy Dreamer, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Mark Henry, Bob Holly, Kane, Brian Kendrick, Great Khali, Kofi Kingston, Jamie Noble, Jesse & Festus, the Miz, Shannon Moore, Chuck Palumbo, Cody Rhodes, Snitsky, Matt Striker, Val Venis and Jimmy Wang Yang. I guess no WrestleMania payday for Colin Delaney.

This absurdity does not lend itself well to a regular recap, but in summary the guys just moved in and out of the ring and traded spots for the duration of the bout. The highlight of the bout was a bevy of high spots from the ring and or apron to the floor about halfway through the match. Most notably, Trevor Murdoch hit a flying crossbody onto a half-dozen or so. Noble, Kendrick and a couple of the other smaller wrestlers looked good here at spots. Toward the end, Kane cleared the ring as a way to show him off before Snitsky laid him out with a high kick. Snitsky (?) then pinned Dreamer with the high kick.

An advertisement for the Hall of Fame TV special aired, promoting only Ric Flair and the Rock. On the plus side, that hopefully means none of the speeches will be edited as they have been in the past. On the other hand, it’s fairly disrespectful and uncouth to the other inductees, particularly a legend like Jack Brisco, to be treated second fiddle like that. Hopefully, those inductions at least get featured over the internet as they were last year.

Backstage, Chavo Guerrero was knocking Tommy Dreamer for being the jobber of jobbers. Get this: after conceding that he lost tonight, that he has a very slim chance on Sunday, Dreamer challenged Chavo to a nontitle match tonight. Chavo accepted after Dreamer said he had less heart and desire than Colin, who was standing idly by in the background.

Shelton Benjamin v. Carlito

From the people who brought you four faces against one heel last night, 17 vs. 2 last week, and 12 vs. 12 tonight, why should heel v. heel come across as a surprise? WWE’s booking patterns of late draw a disturbing amount of parallels to those of TNA. Carlito tried a monkey flip but Shelton landed on his feet. He did catch Shelton with a dropkick and tried to send Shelton out to the ring. Shelton skinned the cat but Carlito issued a jawbreaker sending Shelton out to the floor. Carlito then caught Shelton with a DDT on the apron which got a two count back inside. Carlito then worked in a chinlock (it wouldn’t be a Shelton match without one!) for a minute before his handspring elbow led to a near fall. A snap suplex led to another two count. At the six minute mark, Shelton finally got his first offense with an electric chair.The edge did not last long as Carlito landed a springboard dropkick and a neckbreaker for another near fall. Shelton caught Carlito with an enzuigiri leading to a bit of offense from Shelton. An exploder suplex led to Shelton’s first near fall. Shelton went for his inverted bulldog but Carlito countered into a backbreaker which the match’s best spot. Carlito went up top but was caught with an awkward looking Russian leg sweep leading to an abrupt win for Shelton. The crowd showed even more apathy for this match than they did for the lowcarders in the opener which does not bode well for either man (though the heel-heel dynamic did not help). For a completely meaningless heel v. heel match, it went too long though the action was decent enough.

Shelton d. Carlito, Pin, 11:02, **¼.

Returning from a commercial break, the announcers detailed the entire WrestleMania card. They proceeded to announce Gordon Solie as the final Hall of Fame inductee. Of course, they ran a terrific piece highlighting Solie’s distinguished career. Curiously, Jim Ross, widely expected to do the honor of inducting the late Mr. Solie was not formally announced as doing so. One sad reflection arising from this induction is that neither a young Solie nor a young Ross would even merit consideration for an announcing position today with WWE.

Stevie Richards & Kelly Kelly v. Mike Knox & Layla

The girls started and Kelly caught a near fall off of a clothesline. Knox tripped Kelly from the outside, as Styles mentioned that Knox and Kelly were once an item in storyline. Award Joey a gold star for somehow remembering that. Kelly got the hot tag after hitting a sloppy enzuigiri. Stevie connected with several kicks to send Knox in the corner. Knox came back to win with a corkscrew neckbreaker. So, Richards jobs to Knox (after one move of offense, no less) and cannot even get in the battle royal. Poor guy.

Knox & Layla d. Richards & Kelly, Pin, 2:30, ½*.

Another Floyd Mayweather piece aired. They did a good job of showing some highlights of his boxing credentials. Remember that boxing is very much a fringe sport with a very different target audience than wrestling, so most of the audience had little idea who Mayweather was until a few weeks ago. His interview skills are still very ordinary by pro wrestling standards, though.

Tommy Dreamer v. Chavo Guerrero

All of the other wrestlers in the battle royal serve as lumberjacks for this one. Tommy sent Chavo out early only to have the lumberjacks send him back in. Chavo took the advantage and worked a chin lock as the crowd chanted “Chavo sucks.” Dreamer came back with a couple of clotheslines and caught Chavo in the tree of woe. Chavo held the top rope to counter the DDT but Tommy came back with a neckbreaker. Dreamer then was caught on the top rope, leading to a frog splash for the win. For a short match, this actually was pretty good. After the match, everyone stormed into the ring and a big brawl broke out as the show faded to black.

Chavo d. Dreamer, Pin, 3:01, *¼.

Final Analysis: Given how important of a week that this is for WWE, it may have been a good idea to deviate from the usual ECW program and devote the hour to trying to further build up the big matches for WrestleMania. Had this show been built up a bit during Raw, perhaps by announcing a main event and an appearance or two, WWE could have worked another hour of build into their rotation. Considering some of the feuds still lack a sufficient build up, most notably the Raw main event, the need to do so certainly is there. Instead, they ran the usual ECW show focusing solely on building up a match that will have no effect whatsoever on the buyrate. While WWE probably overexposes its big stars and buries the ECW wrestlers a bit too much already, the week before WrestleMania strikes me as a good exception to that rule.

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