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ECW TV report by Phil DiLiegro

ECW TV Report for August 19, 2008
From Moline (Quad Cities), IL

   They opened the program with a recap of the Hardy-Henry match from the pay-per-view which may have been the worst thing on that show not involving Great Khali.

Evan Bourne, Super Crazy & Tommy Dreamer v. Chavo Guerrero, The Miz & John Morrison
   Super Crazy not only managed to survive the recent round of cuts, but he gets television time in a non-squash match. Striker loses much of the credibility he has gained over the past few weeks by saying “the legendary Chavo Guerrero.” He atoned in part by later comparing Morrison and Miz to the Graham Bros. (Vince’s favorite team) and Anderson & Blanchard. Crazy and Morrison began with a nice exchange where Crazy hit an arm drag leading into a standing moonsault. Bourne tagged in and was caught in the corner. He fought out, even hitting a huracanrana on Miz who was on the second rope. That was impressive. Neely then tripped Bourne and the heels took the edge. Chavo landed a slam for a near fall, Morrison followed with a backbreaker. Miz tagged in and went to a rest hold. Bourne caught an arm drag and made the hot tag to Dreamer. He came in and hit both Miz and Morrison with clotheslines. He hit a bulldog and a powerslam on Miz, Morrison saved. Then, Dreamer sent Morrison over the top rope and onto Miz with a back drop. Super Crazy hit a plancha onto the heels outside while Bourne followed with a moonsault from the top rope onto the bunch outside. The crowd erupted into an ECW chant at that point. Dreamer fired Miz back in but was held up by Morrison coming back in. That led to Miz hitting a knee lift and a neckbreaker for the sudden win. Though the match was short, what was there was excellent and exciting.
Heels d. faces, Pin, 5:13, ***.

Gavin Spears v. Ricky Ortiz
   Gavin Spears is Shawn Spears, who is reputed to be the best of a bad batch in developmental. Bringing him in completely cold like this and having him wrestle an oaf like Ortiz in his debut is awful booking. Spears cut a heel promo in the corner and said he doesn’t need marketing gimmicks like Ortiz because, unlike Ortiz, he has talent. Touché. Striker mentioned that Spears looked up to guys like Rick Martel and Rick Rude. Well, he certainly doesn’t have anywhere near that kind of body. Ortiz got a body drop out of a lock up. Spears snuck in a cheap shot and hit a swinging neckbreaker for a near fall. Ortiz then powered out of a rear choke. He hit a flying elbow and a sidewalk slam for a near fall. He followed with a flying shoulder block and a splash for the win. Using a simple splash, or the big O as it was called, as a finisher in 2008 is absurd. Heck, it was absurd for a guy of his size in 1978. On the plus side, Spears got the best match out of Ortiz yet (not saying much).
Ortiz d. Spears, Pin, 3:37, *½.

Finlay came out and called out Mike Knox. Knox walked out to the top of the ramp and cut a brief, generic, dull promo. He teased walking to the ring but turned away. Finlay charged after him, took him down, and hit some punches for the mount. They rolled on the ramp until some officials (including Mike Rotundo and Dean Malenko) came out and they had a pull apart. This was just a filler segment. Later, Teddy Long made the singles match between the two for next week.
After the break, they replayed the same video package of the Shawn Michaels-Chris Jericho feud as aired last night on Raw. In storyline, Todd Grisham reiterated that Mrs. Michaels has a broken jaw.

ECW Championship: Mark Henry v. Matt Hardy
   They returned to old-school idea of doing the ring introductions after both men did their entrances and after the music stopped. Hardy tried for the twist of fate right off the bat again but Henry pushed off. Hardy got Henry down and went to work on the legs of the champion. Henry fought his way up and hit a body slam. Hardy got him down again with an enzuigiri. Henry put him down with another strike to a large “Hardy” chant. Henry used a headbutt and stomps to keep the edge. He then missed a charge but pushed off another twist of fate attempt. Henry clotheslined the challenger out to the floor as the match went to break. Henry had the advantage as the commercial ended. He held a ret hold for a while before Matt teased a comeback which was quickly cut off. Henry went to a bear hug next. And then a chin lock. You know it’s a dull part of the match when a clothesline is an exciting spot. A gorilla press slam followed but Henry missed a big splash leading to the Hardy comeback. He hit an elbow off the second rope. A bulldog off of the second rope led to a long two count which many in the crowd bought as a possible finish. A high crossbody led to another near fall. Hardy then slipped out of a slam attempt and hit the twist of fate. Atlas saved from the outside, but either the ref didn’t see it or it’s not a DQ this week, so the match continued. Hardy went for a moonsault but Henry got his knees up. He followed with the world’s strongest slam for the win. The match was reasonably effective for what it was, but the middle could have used some trimming. Mark Henry should never wrestle thirteen minutes, even against a good performer like Matt Hardy.
Henry d. Hardy, Pin, 13:05. *½.

Final Analysis: The opening match is worth seeing and would have been even better had they allowed the match more time. It’s not as if more time was not available to them as they replayed the Hardy-Henry angle, which was lousy, twice. As I said above, the Hardy-Henry match itself could have been even better had it been just two minutes shorter. Frankly, they also could have cut into the Knox-Finlay segment. On that note, with a pay-per-view only three weeks away, why not save Knox and /Finlay for that pay-per-view? It may be one of only two matches on the show with more than a three week build (the other being Jericho-Michaels). Is there some quota or a rule that dictates that ECW must have only one match on a pay-per-view? Not that I or anyone is terribly excited to see the match, but there’s a storyline there which is more than can be said for most low-card WWE PPV matches. As far as the ECW match likely to be on the pay-per-view, they did a decent enough job of whetting the appetite for it this evening. Of course, you are not going to get much of a well-worked match from Mark Henry, but that’s not the point. In fact, having such a match may even oppose the logical direction the feud is going in. The idea behind the storyline is that the fans want to see Matt Hardy overcome the enormous size differential plus the fact that the heel manager has twice cost him the title. So, matches where Henry uses his size to overpower Hardy for most of it, leading to the babyface comeback, suit the storyline best. Those kind of matches, like tonight’s, are not often the most exciting from a workrate perspective.

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