The ECW Digest - 1st December 2009
01/12/2009
Hello and welcome the all new ECW Digest.
We’d love to know what you think to the new layout, or any other aspects of the Digest, so please feel free to get in touch via the Contact Us page, or any of the usual email addresses.
On with the show!
Quick Links
Opening Segment: The Abraham Washington Show with Ryder & Mendes
Match 1: William Regal Vs. Goldust
Match 2: Croft & Barretta Vs. Shields & Hilton
Segment 4: Vance Archer Interviewed
Main Event: Christian & Benjamin Vs. Jackson & Kozlov
The ECW Digest
Opening Segment
The Abraham Washington Show with Ryder & Mendes
Atlas kicks off ECW this week. He outlines tonight’s show and brings Abe to the stage.
After some shameless self promotion Abe asks Tony how his thanksgiving went, then tells him to shut up when he begins to talk incessantly.
Atlas returns the favour and asks Washington about his thanksgiving.
Abe says he was having a good time until he had to come to Virginia tonight, then cracked a few gags about the residents liking to eat roadkill, amongst other things.
Washington says he has conclusive proof that the people of Virginia aren’t too smart, then asks Atlas where he is from.
Despite chuckling through the whole segment, he confirms that he is in fact from Virginia himself.
Washington finally brings out tonight’s guests and asks Ryder what is going on between the two of them.
Ryder reads a poem to explain his feelings, interoperating his name, his theme song and his catchphrase.
Mendes says that she has also written a poem to explain how she feels.
It turns out to be less of a poem and more of a story about how she bought some new shoes.
However, it clearly hit a chord with Ryder, who began jumping up and down on the sofa a la’ Tom Cruise.
Washington tried to stop him, breaking out the best poem of the night to wrap up the segment :
‘Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
If you don’t stop jumpin’ on my couch fool,
I’m about to call the police on you!’
Segment 2
Jackson & Regal
Backstage William Regal approaches his estranged stable-mate Ezekiel Jackson.
Regal says that after reviewing a tape of last week he realises that he owes Jackson an apology.
Jackson says that he was a little hot headed and owes Regal an apology also, but under no circumstances will he apologise to Vladimir Kozlov.
Kozlov enters and coincidentally asks if Jackson is going to apologise to him, prompting the two to jump down each others throats.
Regal calms them down and explains that this is exactly what the locker room wants, so they should put their differences behind them and destroy Christian and Shelton tonight, just like he is about to do to Goldust.
Match 1
Singles Match
William Regal (w/Jackson & Kozlov)
Vs.
Goldust
Didn’t the ECW roster used to be a lot bigger than it is now?
It seems to be the same 7 or 8 guys week in, week out at the minute.
That doesn’t really work well for a show that is arguably meant to be more about wrestling and furthering young talent than anything else.
Regal and Goldust put on a good match, as I expected they would, but it wasn’t anything groundbreaking.
Predictably Jackson and Kozlov attempted to get involved before their tentative alliance exploded.
Just as Regal looked to be setting up for the Knee Trembler, he became distracted and had to deal with them, allowing Goldust to get a quick roll-up and steal a victory.
Despite costing him his second match in as many weeks, Regal tried to keep his two associates on the same page and looked reasonably pleased as they stood side by side after the match.
Goldust wins by Pinfall.
Segment 3
Look Who’s Back
Despite being supposedly banished from ECW a couple of weeks ago after losing a Mask Vs. Career match, Paul Burchill and his sister Katie-Lea are back in the land of Extreme.
As you’d expect, The Burchill’s were begging Tiffany for their jobs back.
She explained that her hands were tied on the matter as it was written into a contract.
Just as I mentioned that there weren’t enough fresh faces on ECW, a new tag team enter and pass The Burchills who are on their way out.
One of the new guys asks Tiffany if that guy used to be a pirate.
The other then explains that it doesn’t matter who is leaving, or who is here now, because she has just signed the best new tag team in the WWE, or something like that.
It turns out these guys are actually Caylen Croft (aka Chris Pavone) and Trent Barretta (aka Greg Marasciulo.)
They tell Tiffany they are about to make her look like a genius, then leave her office for their début match.
Match 2
Tag Team Match
Caylen Croft & Trent Barretta
Vs.
Bobby Shields & Tyler Hilton
4 new guys here, although I expect only two of them will make it so I’ll start there.
I’ve not heard much about Barretta, but what I have heard is good.
Croft on the other hand, I’ve seen in action a couple of times and I was reasonably impressed both times.
I’m always a sucker for tag teams who start out as tag teams (rather than making a name for themselves, then being shoved together for want of something to do) so I’m predicting that I’ll probably quite like these guys.
Now onto the ‘local talent’ in this match.
Bobby Shields made my job really easy on this one, as he has his own website here, where you can watch videos, find out more about him, where he’s appearing, who he’s worked for, what title’s he’s held, what music he’s entered to and a whole host of other things!
I found considerably less about Tyler Hilton, as a musician by the same name seems to have snapped up all the web real estate, but there are a few videos on youtube that are pretty easy to track down.
Croft and Barretta dominated the match and picked up the pinfall over Shields with a nice double team finisher.
I’m not convinced by their entrance music though, I’m hoping it’ll be replaced pretty soon. It sounds kind of… Olympic. Which doesn’t really fit their characters.
I’m sure we’ll see a lot more from the victors of this match, not a bad first showing.
Croft & Berretta win by Pinfall.
Segment 4
Vance Archer Interviewed
Backstage Archer is asked about what his plan is here on ECW.
His answer is cut together with footage of him destroying ‘Local Talent’ over the past few weeks.
He says that while most people will demand a title shot as soon as they appear, he wants to savour every moment on his rise to the top, then puts the locker room on notice, telling them they should be worried about him.
Segment 5
Partners in Crime
Elsewhere Shelton Benjamin is playing a little Smackdown Vs. Raw 2010 before tonight’s main event.
Christian enters just as his on screen version takes a PayDirt, then asks if he can trust him tonight.
Shelton says he’s got Christian’s back tonight because he needs him fit and healthy for when they steal the show at TLC.
Shelton tells Christian he is going to demonstrate how the match will go, then makes his on screen character climb the ladder and begin to reach for the gold.
Christian turns the console off and says they will have to wait until TLC to find out how that match will really end.
Main Event Match
Tag Team Match
Christian & Shelton Benjamin
Vs.
Ezekiel Jackson & Vladimir Kozlov (w/ William Regal)
Jackson and Kozlov don’t seem to be on the same page at all as they enter for this match, but Regal somehow manages to keep them cool and the match begins.
The theme of this match seemed to be which team would disintegrate first, and although I think most people expected it to be Kozlov/Jackson, they actually looked pretty solid in the opening stages.
Jackson really has some raw talent, the real challenge for the creative team will be making him interesting enough for the fans to love/hate, as his character seems pretty one dimensional at the minute.
This match was a little dull until the final moments.
Jackson dominated Christian until Kozlov tagged himself into the match and began to take a beating.
This prompted Jackson to jump from the apron and slowly walk to the back as Kozlov looked for the return tag, leaving him to fall victim to the PayDirt and lose the bout.
If I were Regal I’d cut my losses and side with one or the other, as it doesn’t seem like they are going to be able to co-exist.
Christian & Shelton Benjamin win by Pinfall.
