The ECW eXperience 09.12.06

The ECW eXperience by J.D. Dunn September 12, 2006 Live from New York, N.Y.. Your hosts are Joey Styles and Taz. Paul Heyman comes out and puts over Madison Square Garden. He chastises the fans for thinking they had anything to do with this. He listened to them five years ago and went out of business. Now, he’s sold out to Vince McMahon, and he’s successful. Sabu interrupts, taking out the Enforcers on his way down. One of them winds up taking the Arabian Facebuster. They bail to the floor, so Sabu follows them out with a Springboard Plancha. Joey gets a funny inside dig: Sabu should beat Heyman like Heyman owes him money! Rob Van Dam vs. Hardcore Holly. Van Dam hits a rana early, but Holly knocks him to the floor and hits a plancha. LUCHA SPARKY! Van Dam tries for a moonsault off the crowd barrier but overshoots Holly. Back in, Holly hits his dropkick. Holly goes for something, but Van Dam gets his boot up. Actually, that block looked like it hurt Van Dam worse than Holly. Van Dam hits Rolling Thunder and a monkey flip. Holly crotches him on top and goes for a superplex, but Van Dam shoves him to the mat. Stevie Richards, Mike Knox and Test break up the Five-Star Frogsplash and lay in the beatdown for the DQ at 4:49. Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman make the save. Stevie takes the Five-Star to satisfy the fans. This was considerably better than their match a few weeks ago, even with the botched spots. *3/4 CM Punk vs. Shannon Moore. Judging by the crowd reactions, Punk is the greatest babyface who ever lived and Moore is the biggest heel. Moore returns the slap from last week and pummels Punk in the corner. Punk comes back with the Koji Clutch in the ropes and gets all Muay Thai on his ass. Uranage. Anaconda Vice. That’s the end at 1:49. Punk was incredibly over. 1/2* Rene Dupree and the body of a fifteen year-old boy prepare to debut next. In the back, Punk accepts congratulations from Tony Mamaluke and Little Guido. Kelly Kelly comes in and hits on Punk. She can’t go out with him to a club because she’s only 19, but she can stay in with him. Mike Knox comes in and gives Punk the stink-eye. Rene Dupree vs. Balls Mahoney. Kevin Thorne and Ariel take a seat at ringside. Dupree has his “La Res” music, making me wonder what the point of his semi-makeover was. Dupree jumps Balls and pummels him. Balls comes back but misses a charge. Dupree hits a springboard elbow off the bottom rope. DANGEROUUUUUUS! He keeps the French Tickler, prompting an Ariel joke from Joey. Balls hits a surprise spinebuster for two and knocks Dupree down with the Ball Jabs. The Cactus Legline takes Dupree to the floor, and Balls goes after Thorne. Thorne counters by knocking Balls off the apron onto the ring steps. Balls is out, so Dupree drags him back in and pins him at 3:25. Balls will be pretty useless once he puts Thorne over, so they should probably just do an angle where Thorne bites him and makes him his underling. 3/4* Matt Striker chastises us for drinking “giggle water” while we watch the Sandman. His promo style reminds me of early Kurt Angle. ECW World Title, Extreme Rules: The Big Show (w/Paul Heyman) vs. Sabu. Show swats away a chair shot and shoves Sabu down. He casually tosses Sabu to the floor where the Enforcers can work him over. Heyman is hilarious, screaming, “He’s a Giant!” Show sets up a chair and stomps it into refuse just to make a point. Sabu finally gets desperate and kicks him in the nuts. A few chair shots stagger Show, and Sabu applies the Camel Clutch. Show powers him into a sideslam. Joey must be reading net columns because he says he won’t stop using the “you have to see Show in person” line. Show brings in a table and tries a chokeslam, but Sabu counters to a DDT for two. Sabu fires back with chairshots and knocks Show through a table on the outside. Sabu follows him out and gets accosted by the Enforcers. He shoves Show into the ringpost, though. He tries the same Springboard Plancha that he did at the opening of the show, but Big Show catches him and chokeslams him through the table. The Enforcers toss him back in, and Show finishes with the Cobra Clutch Backbreaker and Hog Log at 8:36. **1/4 Final Thoughts: Solid show. They got everything accomplished that they wanted to. Sabu seems to have outlived his usefulness to the top of the card, though, so expect Van Dam to move in there in the coming weeks. It looked like Punk is being set up with Knox for a program. Uh, yeah. Good luck with that one. At least he’s got a feud, though, and it doesn’t involve emo. Give me some tag champs, and I’ll be happy.