The Final ECW Digest – 16th February 2010
16/02/2010
Hello and welcome the very last ECW Digest.
With the brand new show ‘nXt’ taking over next week this will be the final ECW show.
I’d like to say it’s been a good run, but truth be told it hasn’t really, has it?
Hopefully tonight’s swan song will hark back to the ‘good old days’ with the main event being ‘Extreme Rules’, but I won’t hold my breath, what with the PG-13 rating looming over the Superstar’s heads.
Anyway…
On with the show!
Quick Links
Opening Match: ShowMiz Vs. Goldust & Tatsu
Segment 2: Tiffany’s Final Address
Segment 3: The Abraham Washington Show
Main Event: Christian (c) Vs. Ezekiel Jackson
The ECW Digest
Match 1
Unified Tag Team Championships Match
ShowMiz (c)
Vs.
Yoshi Tatsu & Goldust
Before this match Josh and Byron gave us a little bit more info about nXt.
Apparently it’s a ‘Wrestling-reality TV hybrid’ in which a number of veterans train a number of fresh faces.
Now my first issue would be that it sounds an awful lot like Tough Enough.
IF however it isn’t like Tough Enough, then I’d expect it’d have to be scripted, which means that it’s technically not ‘reality tv’.
They said there would be more about it later in the show, so I guess some of the questions will be answered then.
As I predicted last week this was a run of the mill title defence for ShowMiz, who used underhanded tactics to pick up the win after almost losing.
For a match that had such an obvious conclusion, it was certainly given a lot of the show to play with.
Luckily, the action was entertaining enough as to not make it a total waste of airtime.
ShowMiz retain the Unified Tag Team Championships by Pinfall.
Segment 1
News on nXt
So, eight ‘rookies’ will be mentored by eight ‘pros’, all of which (I think) will be revealed tonight.
No doubt they’ll trot them out at various points in the show, but I’ll list them here.
- Chris Jericho will mentor Wade Barrett
- Matt Hardy will mentor Justin Gabriel
- M.V.P will mentor Skip Sheffield
- Carlito will mentor Michael Tarver
- The Miz will mentor Daniel Bryan
- Christian will mentor Heath Slater
- C.M Punk will mentor Darren Young
- R-Truth will mentor David Otunga
They also gave a little info on each rookie:
- Wade is an Englishman obsessed with getting money at any cost.
- Justin is a ‘dynamo of energy’ (and not to be confused with DJ Gabriel.)
- Skip is a good old fashioned Texan who loves to entertain with his outgoing presence.
- Tarver is the son of Mike Tyson’s sparring partner and apparently a hard hitter himself.
- Bryan (better known as Bryan Danielson) is more experienced than all the other competitors.
- Slater is a ‘walking rock band without instruments’. He’s ginger, if that helps you identify him.
- Young possessed immeasurable strength, looks like a black version of John Cena (to a scary extent, their faces are almost identical) and has huge hair.
- Otunga’s fiance is Jennifer Hudson and he’s a Harvard Law School Graduate.
Segment 2
Tiffany’s Final Address
Backstage Tiffany begins to plug nXt before Zack Ryder and Rosa Mendes enter.
Ryder complains about Christian and Jackson getting the main event, saying it would have made more sense to have him in the match.
She says it wouldn’t as he lost to Christian last week on Superstars.
Mendes shouts abuse at her in some language or another, but Tiffany stands firm on her opinion.
Ryder finishes by saying that as it’s Extreme Rules he can make his presence felt if he wishes and there’s nothing she can do about it.
Segment 3
The Abraham Washington Show
Abe’s back in the ring tonight for his final show (on ECW at least.)
After insulting the crowd he says there is a silver lining to ECW dying; he will become a free agent which will make him rich.
He says Smackdown and Raw will have to break the bank in order to acquire his services, then dives right into plugging nXt.
They may as well have called this show the nXt hype show, because it’s all I’ve heard all night.
After that Abe says he went to Vince McMahon and asked for all the stops to be pulled out for his final guest, and as a result he’s got the ‘biggest name in Sports Entertainment’…. Abraham Washington.
Just as Abe welcomes himself to the show Shelton Benjamin’s music hits and he heads to the ring dressed for competition.
Shelton says the show is practically un-watchable when he has a decent guest, so no one is going to want to watch when he’s his own guest.
Shelton begins to talk about how he is also a free agent, but Vance Archer’s music cuts him off and he also makes his way to the ring ready to wrestle.
Archer tells Benjamin if they end up on the same show then he won’t have a future.
Next Croft and Barretta join the party, claiming that no one cares what show everyone in the ring is on, because they are too busy wondering where the 2010 team of the year are going to end up.
Kozlov is next to enter. He speaks in Russian until Archer tells him that no one can understand him.
Kozlov attacks Archer, then takes out Barretta and Croft with the help of Benjamin.
After a tense stand-off the pair shake hands and pose for the crowd. No doubt another shameless attempt at getting Kozlov over with the fans.
Main Event Match
Extreme Rules ECW Championship Match
Christian (c)
Vs.
Ezekiel Jackson (w/ William Regal)
So, who will be the last ever ECW Champion? More importantly, does anyone actually care?
I just hope this is a ‘proper’ Extreme Rules match, although the selection of tinfoil trash cans around ringside makes me sceptical.
An old school ‘E..C..W’ chant broke out as Christian made it to the ring.
Once there he said that it was a year to this week that he made his debut on ECW and many people thought that he should have made a bigger impact, as appearing on ECW was somewhat of a demotion.
Christian says he didn’t see it like that. He looks at ECW as ‘home’ and the place that gave him the chance to wrestle old friend Tommy Dreamer, as well as mentor up and comers like Yoshi Tatsu.
He says that tonight he fights for every ECW original and every member of the ‘New Talent Initiative’ looking to make their way.
He wraps up by saying that he’ll be incredibly proud to be the last ever ECW Champion.
Jackson is a beast. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the man is a future world champion (a real one too, not just the ECW one) and provided he has someone speaking for him I expect he’ll be at the top within the next two years.
Once the match kicks off, the announce table is the first ‘weapon’ to come into play, shortly followed by a Kendo Stick.
As Christian dropped Jackson to the outside Ryder did indeed ‘make his presence felt’.
Christian quickly turned the tables on him though and ended up sending him to the outside as well.
Mendes entered the ring and got in the Champions face, but before it could escalate further Tiffany sprinted to the ring and caught her with a Spear, evicting both her and Ryder from ringside seconds later.
The match featured tables, steel steps, tinfoil bins, Kendo Sticks and even a shopping cart but still failed miserably in capturing the essence of the original ECW.
That said, it was one of the more entertaining matches I’ve seen on the show in recent weeks.
Jackson looked to finish the match with a Superplex through a table, but Christian was able to avoid the impact and fight back with a Kendo Stick.
After running Regal up the ramp he looked to be closing in on a win but the wiley Englishman re-appeared moments later to strike.
Christian was able to avoid this attack and hit him with a KillSwitch, but this gave Jackson the time to regroup and slam his opponent through a table to pick up the three.
So Jackson ruins Christian’s party and becomes the last ever ECW Champion, but at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter too much.
Goodnight everyone, and goodnight ECW.
It looks like nXt is basically a re-jigged Tough Enough so I’m not sure how well that will lend itself to a place in the Weekly Rundown, but we’ll see what happens next week.
Ezekiel Jackson wins by Pinfall and becomes the NEW ECW Champion.
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