411’s ECW on SyFy Report 02.16.10

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to 411mania’s ECW on SyFy Report for February 16, 2010. I am Ryan Byers, and your regular recapper Michael Bauer is on the shelf with a double ear infection. Of course, we wish him the speediest recovery possible.

The show opens with a video package informing us that ECW is over after “twenty years” with the company going to the extreme one last time tonight thanks to Christian taking on Big Zeke in an Extreme Rules match for the ECW Title.

Josh Matthews and Byron Saxton hype up the show for the evening, with the big hook being the revealing of the cast of the WWE NXT show that begins next week, permanently replacing ECW.

Match Numero Uno: The Big Show & Mike the Miz (c) vs. Yoshi Tatsu & Goldust for the WWE Unified Tag Team Championship

As they enter, footage of Show & Miz’s Tag Team Title victory over D-Generation X is shown. Fortunately, footage of their loss last night to Mark Henry and Montel Porter is not shown.

The Miz and Goldust lock up to start, with the younger wrestler getting the better of things and bulling his man back to the corner before Goldust shoves him off. They do a quick exchange off of the ropes, which Goldie ends with a right hook and an inverted atomic drop. Goldust then slingshots Miz into a forearm by Tatsu, which is a setup for a slingshot senton by the Japanese competitor while Miz lays stretched out over Goldust’s knees. Tatsu gets a cradle for two and snags a blind tag to Goldust to set up the Bizarre One’s butt-butt. Miz bails out of the ring and gets a blind tag of his own, preventing Dustin from seeing the Big Show entering the ring behind him. Show headbutts Goldust and Rhodes goes down, setting up our first commercial break of the evening. When we return from the ad break, Miz has Goldust in a sleeper hold, though ‘Dust breaks it quickly with a jawbreaker. He misses an enzuguiri but does still manage to boot his opponent in the jaw, setting up a hot tag. Show is in as well, and he immediately levels the much smaller Tatsu with an open-handed chop. The Giant steps on the New Japan import’s gut and strikes him a few more times before trading off to Mizanin. The reality show star goes to a chinlock and charges Tatsu into the corner when it looks like he might be escaping.

That sets up another tag to the Big Show, who uses Miz as a battering ram to nail Yoshi before going to the mat with a headlock. Yes, mat wrestling from the Big Show. Another headbutt leads to another tag to Miz, who hits his trademark axe bomber variant for a two count. Tatsu starts to mount a comeback with fisticuffs and then decks Miz with a forearm as he’s coming off of the ropes, and heeere’s Goldust. He repeatedly takes Miz down with clotheslines before going back to the inverted atomic drop and hitting the bulldog. Goldie’s scoop slam gets two, but he gives up on the pinning combination as soon as he sees Show potentially coming in to the ring. Yoshi Tatsu runs across the ring to prevent Show from interfering, but the big guy effortlessly tosses Tatsu over the top rope. That distracts the referee, allowing Show to get in a cheap shot on Goldust, setting up Miz’s version of the Stroke to earn the champions the victory.

Winners: The Big Show & Mike the Miz via pinfall (Miz Strokes Goldust)

Josh and Byron introduce us to the first cast members of WWE NXT. They note that the show will be based around “WWE Pros” mentoring “WWE Rookies,” with each Pro being assigned to a specific Rookie as that man’s mentor. The commentators reveal that Chris Jericho will be mentoring Wade Barrett, a “former bareknuckle figher from England” who is obsessed with money. Matt Hardy will be mentoring Justin Gabriel from South Africa, who is compared to “American Idol’s Adam Lambert,” whoever that is. The remaining cast members will be revealed later on tonight.

The announcers throw to ECW General Manager Tiffany’s final address for the brand. She overacts and puts over the NXT concept before being interrupted by Zach Ryder and Rosa Mendes. Ryder says it makes no sense for him to not be in the final ECW Title match, and Mendes backs him up in Spanish. Ultimately, Zach reminds the GM that, because of the “Extreme Rules” stipulation, he can interfere in the match without her being able to do anything about it.

When we come back from commercial, we learn that Montel Vontavious Porter will be mentoring Skip Sheffield on NXT.

Then we go to the final Abraham Washington Show in ECW history. My heart, it breaks. Abe launches into his monologue and mentions that all of the ECW wrestlers are becoming free agents after tonight’s show. Also, did you know that NXT is debuting next week? Washington decides to remind us of that. Our host then says that he demanded that Vince McMahon provide him the biggest guest possible for his final episode, and then he welcomes out . . . Abraham Washington. Yes, he is interviewing himself tonight. Shelton Benjamin interrupts, however. The Gold Standard calls the show unwatchable at the best of times and reminds Abe that everybody is a free agent. However, before he can say much more, Vance Archer makes his presence felt. Archer threatens to kill Benjamin if they wind up on the same show together . . . and then they’re interrupted by Trent Baretta and Caylen Croft. Baretta tries to mention how great they are, but Vladimir Kozlov cuts in. He speaks in his native tongue for a while and gets up in Archer’s face, causing Vance to shove him. Bad Vlad destroys Croft, Baretta, and Vance with a brief assist from Shelton, after which the two shake hands.

Carlito Colon is announced as your next WWE Pro. He will be mentoring rookie Michael Tarver.

After the break, it is revealed that the “Pro” Miz will be mentoring “Rookie” Daniel Bryan. Cue meltdown of the Ring of Honor message boards in 5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . .

Saxton and Matthews run down the card for this weekend’s Elimination Chamber pay per view and then announce another NXT pairing. It’s WWE Pro Christian Cage mentoring rookie Heath Slater, called the “one man rock band” by Saxton.

Christian hits the ring with a shopping cart full of plundah and grabs a microphone. Two guys in the crowd try to start an “ECW” chant. They fail. Cage talks about the fact that a lot of people saw wrestling on ECW as being a demotion for him. However, he says he doesn’t see it that way and claims that being on ECW was great for his career because, among other things, it allowed him to work with Tommy Dreamer and mentor young guys like Yoshi Tatsu. He puts over the fact that he has the longest reign of any current WWE champion and says he’s fighting for every ECW original and every young guy in the back. Okay, there’s the brief “ECW” chant. Cage concludes by saying that he will always be proud to say that he was the last ECW Champion in history.

After a commercial, it is announced that CM Punk will be mentoring Darren Young, who looks freakishly like John Cena in the face.

Match Numero Dos: Christian Cage (c) vs. Ezekiel Jackson for the ECW Championship

Zeke and Jackson lock up. We go to the floor early with Jackson pummeling the champion in front of the announcers and throwing several weapons into the ring before reentering. That gives Cage an opportunity to hit him with a few knees and then a kendo stick, knocking Ezekiel down to the floor. Then Zach Ryder runs in on the match, though Christian catches him and gives him a one-legged flapjack onto a garbage can before throwing him out of the ring over the top rope. Rosa Mendes gets in Christian’s face . . . and TIFFANY of all people runs in for the save, hitting a wicked spear on Mendes and chasing her out of the ring before telling the Zach/Rosa pairing that they need to leave the ringside area.

Commercial break. Dog show update: Sadie the Scottish terrier has won Best in Show.

When we return, Zeke and Christian are in the ring with the big man forearming the champion. Cage goes up to the top rope off of an Irish whip, but Jackson shoves him off and down to the pretty black mats on the floor. The Canadian is slammed into the dasher boards by the big man, who then grabs the ring steps and plants Cage’s head into them. Christian avoids a trash can shot, though, then jumping off of the stairs and dropkicking the weapon into the challenger’s chest. Zeke immediately fires back and sends Cage into the steps before throwing even more gimmicks into the ring. Zeke attempts to run Christian’s own shopping cart into him, but Cage moves at the last second. Jackson rebounds, however, grabbing Christian and throwing him into the side of the cart. We go back to the ring, where Regal’s protege misses a shot with a trash can lid and gets it kicked back into his face. That gives Cage an opportunity to hit a high cross from the top, but it only gets two. Cage picks up a garbage can at this point, though he doesn’t account for Zeke’s amazing recuperative powers and gets the thing clotheslined into his face. Now Jackson and Regal pull a table out from under the ring, only to have Cage dropkick it into their faces as they place it on the ring apron.

The table still winds up being placed in the squared circle, with Zeke placing the champion in a seated position on the top rope and then setting up the furniture at center ring. Jackson looks for a superplex, but Cage fights him off. He looks for a tornado DDT through the table, but Zeke blocks it. Christian lands a few shots on Zeke with a kendo stick and then chases William Regal out of the arena with the weapon. He returns to the ring, where he hits Zeke with the stick a few more times. Regal runs interference, so Christian gives him the Killswitch. The distraction is enough to allow Ezekiel Jackson to put Christian through the table with a uranage. Ezekiel Jackson is YOUR final ECW Champion.

Winner: Ezekiel Jackson via pinfall (Regal-reference into a uranage)

After the match, Josh and Byron have one final announcement about NXT. David Otunga, the legitimate boyfriend of actress Jennifer Hudson, will be mentored by R-Truth.

And that does, not just for this week, but for ECW on SyFy as a whole! I would say that Michael Bauer will be back next week with the debut of WWE NXT, but, quite frankly, I don’t know whether he plans to continue recapping that series or not. Somebody will be here to guide you through the new show, though.

411 on 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