Nick’s ECW Review 6-24-08: “The Abominable Adamle”



What’s up wrestling fans? We’re 24 hours removed from the 2008 WWE Draft Lottery and it’s time to take a look at ECW on Sci-Fi, a show which was virtually uneffected by the annual brand shuffle. Tonight’s show was excellent in my opinion, 2 great matches along with two solid matches made for a fast paced, smooth running hour of exciting wrestling. Well, maybe not that smooth. Mike Adamle gave one of his worst performances behind the booth tonight, and although I have tried to lay off him for the past few weeks and concentrate on the show itself, I could not turn a blind eye tonight-or should I say blind ear? He was an absolute mess tonight, and it didn’t help that Tazz wasn’t much better. Chewed words, wrong names, bad timing, overlapping of commentary, cliche and cheesy lines, and a plain lack of sense and logic made this one of the worst broadcasts I’ve ever heard an announcing duo ever give, and yes, I include Tenay and West in that statement. Maybe I’m still reeling somewhat over the loss of JR on Raw, but if you’re going to split up an announce team, how do explain it being Ross and Lawler and not Tazz and Adamle? I am beyond confused.

I don’t want to let the absurdity of the announce table, however, tarnish my memory of what was otherwise a really fun show. We started tonight with a tag match featuring ECW’s newest (and only) acquisition Matt Hardy and his partner CM Punk vs Miz and Morrison. This was a great opening bout. Miz and Morrison work better together every week, and are becoming the workhorses of the tag division in WWE. Punk and Hardy tagged well together too, and the match saw Hardy pick up the pin after hitting the Twist of Fate on Morrison. Out of a possible 9 stars, I give this opening match 7 stars.

This was followed by Kofi Kingston vs Shelton Benjamin in an Extreme Rules match. This might be the blow-off to their program, and while I hope it is not, it would be a fitting way to go out. These two had a hard hitting, intense extreme rules match that saw everything from technical wrestling to garbage spots. My only criticism here would be that they over-used the garbage cans. I am not a fan of garbage cans/lids in a hardcore environment. They don’t do that much damage, and if you go into the kitchen and hit yourself in the head with a cookie sheet, you’ll understand what I mean. They make a great sound, but don’t really hurt. That simple. If you’re going to get extreme, change it up a bit. Throw in a chair, a table, or a Kendo stick here or there. But the monotony of the garbage cans became a bit stale after awhile. Other than that, however, these two had a great contest. 7.5 Stars.

After a brief package running down Night of Champions this Sunday night, next up we have Mike Knox vs Evan Bourne. This was a short match, but both guys worked really well together. Knox hit some great power stuff with a winning sequence consisting of a brutal back breaker followed by the Knox Out. Bourne was great as usual, and although this match was too short for my liking, the two worked very hard. 5.5 Stars.

Back from break and Big Show makes his way to ringside and eventually to the announce table where he joins Tazz and Assamle. This brings us to our main event of the evening Kane vs Mark Henry. I have to hand it to Henry, he actually pulled off two decent matches in two consecutive outings. Not a huge deal for anyone else, but a huge deal for this huge mess of a wrestler. Kane looked good in this bout as well, hitting an Inziguri and a low drop kick that you don’t usually see him utilize. This was again a short match, but the pacing was such that it didn’t need to be very long to be effective. My problem was the finish. Having Henry go over Kane 5 days before a Championship match against Big Show doesn’t speak too highly of the ECW Champ. Although it was played off as Big Show assisting Henry by distracting Kane, it really didn’t come off that clear to me, and looked more like Kane simply got beat. I think the champion should have more steam going into an important PPV bout just days later. 5 Stars.

Overall, this was a solid show from start to finish. ECW always comes through for me because its formula is very simple. It allows the wrestlers to do their jobs without interference from unnecessary storylines or lengthy promos. I give tonight’s edition of ECW 6.5 out of 9 stars.

Nick’s Notes:



-Weren’t Punk and Kane just drafted to Raw? Why were they on ECW? Most likely because ECW doesn’t have much of a roster anymore. If that’s the case then why draft them away from the show to begin with and replace them with one guy?

-Adamle, if you’re going to use that ridiculous phrase “unos, dos, adios” at least say it right. Its “Uno, dos, adios.” You’d think with the amount of Spanish speaking talent in WWE someone would correct him. Eh, he’d still get it wrong.

-Mike Knox’s beard looks like it has grown a beard.

-During the extreme rules match Tazz said, “It looks like I-95 out here!” What does that mean? Does I-95 have people hitting each other with garbage can lids on a regular basis? Again, let’s try to make a little sense here.

-Wait, did Mark Henry win tonight? The world will end tomorrow. Mark my words.

-There IS a supplemental draft tomorrow at noon on WWE.com, so be sure to check that out. Hopefully ECW will fare better this time around, because it would be nice to see some more exclusive talent on the brand each week.

Thanks for reading and be sure to send all feedback to VOWNick@gmail.com

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