The ECW Palace Perspective: 8.19.08

Happy Wednesday and welcome to another edition of the ECW Palace Perspective, the only ECW recap on the internet brought to you from the depths of John Morrison’s Palace of Wisdom.

SmackDown Spoilers lie in the next paragraph.

So now both Raw and SmackDown have Championship Scramble matches at Unforgiven so I think it’s likely that ECW will get one too, even if it’s fifteen minutes instead of 20. We are the C show after all. Two guys that would be a lock for it are Mark Henry and Matt Hardy, but picking the other three is trickier. You could chose any three from Evan Bourne, Miz and Morrison, Chavo Guerrero, Finlay, Ricky Ortiz, Mike Knox, Tommy Dreamer or even Super Crazy. Hopefully Knox and Finlay will get their own match at the pay-per-view, which rules them out. I can see Morrison getting in, winning a qualifying match against Miz (they have faced each other a few times already this year). Evan Bourne’s a safe bet because he really is the highlight of ECW right now. Let’s say he beats Guerrero to qualify. Of the choices remaining, Dreamer is the smart bet as the underdog.

Mark Henry vs. Matt Hardy vs. John Morrison vs. Evan Bourne vs. Tommy Dreamer

Yes, let’s go with that.

Reason Why John Morrison is Better Than You Mark Henry of the Week: If John Morrison were to face Matt Hardy, it would only end in thirty seconds because Morrison is infinitely more talented. Fact.

On with the show!

Matt Striker and Todd Grisham are your announcers for this evening.

Match 1: The Miz and John Morrison and Chavo Guerrero vs. Tommy Dreamer, Evan Bourne and Super Crazy

This match could and should be all kinds of fun. The heels need to go over though. For some reason Super Crazy doesn’t get an individual entrance. Crazy and Morrison exchange basic holds until Crazy lands on his feet off of a monkey flip attempt. Bourne comes in and gets a leg sweep but he gets slowed down with kicks. Miz in and goes to the second rope, but Bourne breaks free of Morrison and hits Miz with a rana! Sick! He knocks Chavo off the apron too but Bam Neely interjects himself to allow Miz to take over. Shit, Neely served a purpose! Chavo in now with his usual array of offence, uppercuts and the like. Miz and Morrison get some action behind the referee’s back. Guerrero hits a nice back suplex for 2 and then tags out. Morrison hits his nice backbreaker/Russian leg sweep combination. Shamania is running wild! Miz in now with kicks and elbows and stuff like that, but he gets caught with a nice snap powerslam. Doesn’t it suck when your hot tag is to Tommy Dreamer? Tommy cleans house on Miz and Morrison with clotheslines and takes care of Chavo too. Tommy drills Miz with a bulldog and then a powerslam, but Morrison breaks the pin attempt. Dreamer dumps all three heels over the top rope, so Crazy follows up with a SOMERSAULT PLANCHA! Yes, bitches! Bourne heads up top and takes out everyone with a MOONSAULT TO THE FLOOR! Double yes, bitches! Dreamer goes up top now and hits a 630 Splash! OK maybe not, but that would be dope. Dreamer tosses Miz in but Morrison grabs his leg, allowing Miz to drill Tommy with the Reality Check for the win.

Winners: The Miz and John Morrison and Chavo Guerrero

Match Analysis: This is what I’m talking about. While I’d have loved for it to get more time, the action that we did get was very good and the kind of match I would love to see more of on all three shows. There was plenty of talent in this match and they all played their roles well, and in the end I think the right team went over. Great way to kick off the show. ***

Match 2: “Latin Assassin” Ricky Ortiz vs. Gavin Spears

There are actually rally towels in the crowd, glorious. Spears calls himself the crown jewel of the ECW talent initiative, which is like being the Highlander that didn’t show up on TNA Impact. Ortiz gets a shoulder knock down early but Spears take’s over by working the arm as a “let’s go, Ricky!” chant breaks out. I have to think they just want the match to be over with. Ortiz counters with a big back body drop, but Spears uses questionable tactics to gain the advantage and hit a neckbreaker. As Spears stomps away at the face of Ortiz, Striker points out the referee Aaron Davis is also a part of the new superstar initiative. Nice. Ricky arm drags out of a chinlock and fires off with forearms. He connects with a flying body block and a dropkick, and then gets 2 off of a powerslam. Ortiz connects with a middle rope shoulder tackle and finishes with The Big O, a big splash!

Winner: Ricky Ortiz

Match Analysis: What am I seeing here? Ricky Ortiz just entertained me. The fans are getting behind him and he has some nice offence. People will complain about him using the splash as a finisher but it looked good and is a nice little throw back. Spears looked OK in places but he seems really generic. He is Shawn Spears from OVW if you weren’t aware. Still, I see potential for Ortiz, and Spears’ promo at the beginning was half decent too so you never know how he’ll turn out. **

Somewhere in the back, Mark Henry lifts weights.

Finlay comes out to recap what Mike Knox has been saying the last few weeks. He didn’t bring his shillelagh so Knox has no reason not to come out here. Mike Knox comes out to say that calling Knox out just proves that Finlay is scared of him. Uh huh. Finlay again tells him to come down and prove himself. Knox makes heads to the ring, but then decides he’ll do this when he feels like it, not when Finlay is begging for him to put him out of his misery. Finlay says “fuck that” and spears Knox on the entranceway. IRS and Dean Malenko sighting. Malenko is a God. Anyway, referees and agents pull them apart and that’s that.

Segment Analysis: Finlay cut a fine little promo and was getting a ton of heat, Knox came out and did his thing, and the pull apart brawl was great. The fans were into it and it nicely sets up the match next week, which hopefully ends in controversial fashion leading to a Belfast Brawl at the pay-per-view. 3/5

In the back, Matt Hardy bounces around.

We get highlights of Chris Jericho punching Rebecca Michaels at Summerslam. That was one of the best segments of the year. Apparently, she has a fractured jaw.

We get more Summerslam highlights, this time of the ECW Championship match. Might as well have just shown the whole match. On the Brightside, it got three times the amount of time the ECW Championship match got at Mania.

Next week – Finlay vs. Mike Knox

Apparently Tony Atlas managed Takeshi Morishima in a dark match at the SmackDown tapings. Considering that’s two dark matches in the row, I have high hopes of him getting a deal.

Match 3: ECW Championship – Mark Henry w/ Tony Atlas vs. Matt Hardy

They slug it out early, Matt showing he has some of the best right hands in the business. Henry has to avoid the Twist of Fate early. Hardy drop toeholds Henry into the turnbuckle and goes to work on the knees. Matt Striker loses points for not mentioning Henry’s patella injury from 2006. Henry comes back with a scoop slam but misses an elbow drop. Hardy catches Mark with a nice enzuigiri for 2. Hardy hits a big boot but runs into a vertical splash. Henry takes over with his “methodical” offence until Hardy avoids a splash and goes for the Twist of Fate, but it’s blocked again and Henry clubs Hardy to the floor. We come back from the break and Henry is dominating with a neck vice. Hardy kicks out of it but eats a big boot. Henry goes back to that methodical crap and Atlas gets in a cheap shot behind the referee’s back. Henry locks in a bearhug to kill some time then drives Hardy into the buckles. Henry kicks the crap out of Matt for a while, but then fails to lock in a full nelson and gets two boots to the jaw. Henry just about kills Matt with a clothesline though. Henry hits a press slam but misses a big splash, allowing Hardy to mount some offence. Hardy hits the elbow from the middle rope, and then a bulldog from the same position for 2. He gets two more off of a diving crossbody. Twist of Fate blocked, World’s Strongest Slam countered, TWIST OF FATE! Atlas pulls him off of the cover again though, but the referee didn’t see it. Hardy goes up and moonsaults into the knees of Henry, and the World’s Strongest Slam finishes it.

Winner: Mark Henry

Match Analysis: Well it was probably one of Mark Henry’s best matches, but that’s not saying too much. It was slow at points when Henry kept going back to the same rest hold but the beginning few minutes and the climax of the match were red hot and made for a damn fine little match. I do have to question Henry being on the verge of losing the title again and only holding onto it thanks to Tony Atlas, but whatever. As we’ve come to expect, this was a damn fine ECW main event. **3/4

Henry celebrates as we go off the air.

Show Analysis: Three good matches, two of which were really strong, and a nice segment that advances another really good angle. This was a much better show than last week and one of the strongest in a while. ECW is on a role right now and they gave us another great show here. Henry’s title reign has been a success and some of the younger talent are doing a great job of keeping the rest of the show interesting. I have no complaints.

That’s the end of another ECW Palace Perspective (frowny face).

Check out the latest edition of Thoughts From The Top Rope where I talk about gimmick matches, and then for music-lovers, check out the latest Great Rock News Report.

Until next week, I’ve been Dan Wilcox and this has been the ECW Palace Perspective.