ECW Extreme Extracts 07.21.09

Hi everyone, and welcome to ECW Extreme Extracts! Extreme Extracts is not a full on recap column of ECW. Instead I highlight some of the angles and storylines and even speculate from time to time where they might be heading. Don’t forget, in addition to the comment section below you can email me as well with any questions/comments and you’ll see your letter reprinted on the Earth Wide Intertubes.
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Let’s chat about tonight’s episode of ECW…

Show results:
• Match One: Yoshi Tatsu def. William Regal
• Match Two: Ezekiel Jackson def. jobber
• Match Three: Shelton Benjamin def. Goldust
• Match Four: Tyler Reks def. Paul Burchill

The main theme of the show:
However unintentional, tonight’s show exposed the biggest flaw in ECW; that being the lack of established talent. Tonight we were treated to more of the New Superstar Initiative; with Yoshi Tatsu, Ezekiel Jackson, and Tyler Reks all seeing action. Unfortunately the crowd tonight gave a pretty tepid reaction to both Jackson and Reks although they seemed to be pretty excited for Yoshi. Nothing can hurt a young superstar’s momentum faster than apathy so tonight wasn’t a good night for Jackson and Reks even though they won and I have to put the blame on the booking of their matches. Jackson’s match was way too short, even for a squash, and the crowd did not care at all. They seemed to get marginally excited when Kozlov came out but otherwise they were completely nonplussed. Reks looked pretty good in his match but since it was against Paul Burchill, again the crowd did not care. Since creative has spent no time building up Burchill as a heel of significance the match with Reks didn’t mean anything at all. As exciting as it is for ECW to have so many new stars, the lack of established talent really makes it hard for the new talent to have matches the people will care about. Yoshi has been able to catch on with the crowd because he has faced established talent like Shelton and Regal and been allowed to look good but the same can’t be said about Reks and Jackson up to this point. Reks would have been better served taking a loss to Kozlov than he was in beating Burchill simply because Kozlov has been established as a bad ass. Then you could start a program between the two and once Reks finally went over he would be seen as someone the crowd would be excited about. Jackson has a bigger mountain to climb due to the fact that there really aren’t established faces on ECW for him to go over besides for Dreamer and Christian and they are of course involved in their own feud. While the big trade a few weeks back did make room for new guys to come up from developmental, it only left us with Dreamer, Christian, Shelton, and Regal and wrestlers and characters that the crowd knows and will react to. When you have Christian and Dreamer in a feud and Shelton wasting time with Goldust then it is pretty slim pickings if you are looking to get new guys over. Hopefully after Night of Champions Dreamer and Christian will be used to help bring the new talent along rather than face off against each other and we’ll start to see people getting excited about a new guy besides Yoshi.

The minor theme:

The main event segment of the show tonight was all about trying to build excitement for the ECW title match at Night of Champions and I think that goal was accomplished as much as it could have possibly been done. Let’s face it, no one is buying the PPV for Dreamer/Christian itself but having them face off on the Abraham Washington show provided a bit of excitement for the match. Washington did a great job and being the provocateur and raising the ire of both Dreamer and Christian which was then able to be directed at each other and led to a little bit of physicality to end the segment. I know Washington’s first appearance was a bit of a train wreck but the two segments since then have been home runs in this writer’s opinion. Washington’s jokes are old and corny but the way he delivers them and his goofy mannerisms make me just laugh and laugh and laugh. I am really glad that WWE decided to bring him up. Now the crowd tonight did know exactly how to react to Washington and booed him lustily which was able to create tension and made the altercation between Dreamer and Christian seem more natural despite the fact that they are “good friends.”

Other quick thoughts from the show:

* Regal is a pro’s pro. He only had one line to deliver before his match, “I hate foreigners,” but he did it perfectly.

* I loved it when Matt Striker called Yoshi “Piston Honda.” Old school Punch Out was so great…

* Speaking of Yoshi, how great is his music?

*I’m glad they let Burchill show a glimmer of personality in his interaction with Goldust. Too bad Goldust is pretty crappy. I also liked when Burchill said that Helms was in his “mild-mannered reporter” suit. He catches on quick…

*Since we got to see Paul Burchill tonight, we also got some Katie Lea…

Oh doctor!

* When Washington said that Dreamer was a man who would do anything…for a Klondike bar, I lost it.

* Kind of surprised we didn’t see Sheamus in action tonight. Maybe he will wrestle on Superstars.

* This week’s show started off great and ended pretty good but the middle was not so good. I hope they improve next week.

Reader email:
Got a nice long email this week from loyal reader Aaron talking all about Sheamus:

Over the last 3 weeks I’ve been checking out as much about some of the new ECW talent as I could find on the internet and I have to say that I have grown into quite a Sheamus Mark.

After 3 weeks though, I’m getting frustrated with WWE Creative (I know, “what else is new?”) I can see giving Reks his push, but they seem to be giving the better booking to Yoshi. I mean, Shelton Benjamin and then Paul Burchill as opposed to “Local Talent”. And then they have Sheamus spit out the same promo twice? That’s just lazy booking.

Another thing that concerns me about all of the new guys is their lack of a gimmick. Yoshi is Japanese, Reks is a surfer-dude without the valley accent and Sheamus is Irish.

In developmental, Sheamus was an Irish History Enthusiast who idolized the ancient barbarian warriors of his race. In his earliest days in IwW, He was a 4000 year-old barbarian… Now, he’s a guy from Dublin who happens to know Gaelic.

You know the last time this happened? Kevin Fertig. First, he was a Goth in OVW, then they decided to give a rather original gimmick: Kevin Thorn – A rich kid who liked to play Vampire with his super-sexy girlfriend. Of course, the fans – even most of the Smarks – didn’t get it and simply labeled him a vampire. Rather than spend any effort in fleshing out the character Creative stripped him of a gimmick, berried him, then cut him after a lonnnnng absence.

What’s Jack Swagger’s gimmick? I think the WWE is pulling too far into the realm of “realism” and are forgetting just how much fun, and how much booking can be inspired by giving a wrestler a good theme. Heck, a good gimmick can move merchandise.

I think Sheamus is as charismatic as Cena, and his style makes me think of a younger, more athletic HHH, and if all they are going to do is have him speak an almost-dead language to various “local talent” over 2 months, it will be a horrible waste of both a good talent and of TV time.

*Great email Aaron! I think you are going out on a limb saying that Sheamus has as much charisma as Cena since Cena is one of the most charismatic guys ever but that doesn’t mean that Sheamus is without talent. Clearly he’s got something; I just don’t know what it is. You made a great point about character development and a lot of guys could definitely benefit from for it; I mean look what it’s done for Jericho. Unfortunately, it seems that creative will only let you expand your character if you are already over. Kind of a catch-22. And thanks for bringing up Kevin Thorn, I was a big fan of that guy and it was a dark day for me when he was let go.

* That’s it for the Extract this week. Any comments can be made below. And if you have an opinion on the show that you’d like me to print in next week’s column, email me at andy(dot)critchell(at)gmail(dot)com. I’m also posting a blog here on 411 that you can check out here. Also, make sure to check me out on the UBS Evening Movie News Report over on the Movie Zone where I post the Interactive Babe Photo News Brief each and every week.

Have a great week!