On Tuesday, March 6, 2007 at 11:18 PM EST ECW on Sci-Fi
March 6, 2007
Tucson, AZ
Commentators: Joey Styles & Tazz
Reported By: Hunter Golden of WrestleView.com
A video aired putting over the Trump-McMahon feud and the developing Lashley-Umaga fun. The opening credits aired and here we go!
Mr. McMahon’s music hit and he came out to the ring.
McMahon grabbed a mic and talked about Austin being named the special guest referee for Wrestlemania 23. He said he also gave Trump a warning last night. He said the contract signing for their match at Mania would be next Monday. The fans started chanting ‘what’ and it rattled McMahon a little bit and he did some great improv.
McMahon said if Trump got out of line, he’d give him a billionaire bitch slap. He said there were plenty of people who know all about being bitch slapped, people like Bobby Lashley. McMahon played the video and then played it one more time for the fans. As a result of that, Lashley was standing outside his office door. McMahon said at first he thought he was going to get into it with him but after a while he could smell the fear on him. He said while his nostrils were flaring, tears also welled up in his eyes and he apologized.
He said Lashley said he ‘humbly’ apologized. McMahon said he wasn’t accepting Lashley’s apology unless it was going to be in front of all these fans. McMahon introduced Lashley. Lashley came out to the ring with a big smile on his face. McMahon handed him his mic. He said now that he was here, he could get down to business.
Lashley said he did want to apologize. He wanted to apologize to everyone worldwide including Vince, er, Mr. McMahon. He extended his hand and shook McMahon’s. He kept a hold of McMahon and told him he was sorry because last week he should have killed McMahon for slapping him last week. He said if McMahon ever touched him again, he would be a dead man.
The Commentators put over Steve Austin’s appearance on ECW later tonight!
****Commercial****
A video putting over Ashley’s Playboy cover debut aired.
Balls Mahoney v. Hardcore Holly
Holly came right at Mahoney decking him in the face a few times before lining Mahoney up on the ropes and hitting a few cross faces. Holly put the boots to Mahoney before sending him off the ropes and hitting a clothesline. Holly went for a cover before gathering Mahoney and bullying him into the corner and planting him in the gut with some more kicks to the gut.
Holly whipped Mahoney to the corner and charged but got caught with a boot in the face. Mahoney hit his balls punches and then the flying leg drop off the top rope for a near fall. Mahoney went for a lariat but Holly ducked under and hit the Alabama Slam for the win.
Winner: Hardcore Holly via pin fall
After the match, Snitsky ran in and clocked Holly with a big boot to the face.
CM Punk was in the back. He said he was headed to Smackdown on Friday to face Mr. Kennedy. Elijah Burke interrupted and told Punk he was a crossroads. He said Punk needed to make a choice and that was to pick a side in the New Breed-Originals feud. RVD then stepped in and said Burke couldn’t even spell ECW. He said he’d teach him all about being extreme. RVD walked off and Burke told him to ‘think about it’ before he took off.
****Commercial****
Rob Van Dam w/ Sandman & Sabu v. Elijah Burke w/ The New Breed
The two circled it up to a decent amount of heat from the crowd. Burke hit an arm drag right off the crowd and quickly got over-confident. He hit another one and began strutting around. Burke grabbed a head lock take down before RVD stole a head scissors.
Burke stepped over and RVD bridged out and ducked under a lariat before hitting two arm drags and then booting Burke right in the face. Burke hit a low blow and then got caught up in a cris-cross with RVD and went for a clothesline, but RVD ducked under and caught him the mug with a wheel kick that sent Burke to the floor.
****Commercial****
We came back to Burke having RVD tied up in a headlock. Burke went through a nice cycle of back suplexes before going for the cover. Burke slapped on a bow and arrow as the crowd tried to will Van Dam to his feet. Van Dam got up and tossed Burke aside and kicked him in the face. Burke reeled back into the corner and RVD missed a charge, crashing into the buckles. As he came off Burke hit a grizzly looking drop kick to RVD’s mush and went for a cover attempt but RVD kicked out.
Burke raked his forearm across the back of the head of Van Dam in the corner and then hit double knees to the back. Burke went for another cover and again RVD kicked out. Burke took RVD down to the mat and slapped on a nice abdominal stretch. RVD fought back but got met with a nasty clothesline in the corner.
RVD fired back with some punches to the face and flat backed Burke twice with a forearm and clothesline. RVD kept him down on the mat with a side kick. RVD flipped into the corner and monkey flipped Burke out before hitting a nice reverse kick to Burke’s mug. RVD hit the split legged moonsault before getting a near fall.
Burke raked the eye but had a kick blocked and ate a boot to the face. RVD hit the five star frog splash with the originals playing defense for him on the outside and made the cover for the win.
Winner: Rob Van Dam via pin fall
Dreamer got on the mic and said the Originals would keep on bringing the fight to the New Breed and it was great to give them a taste of their own medicine. Dreamer & the Originals challenged the New Breed to a match at Wrestlemania.
****Commercial****
The Chicago White Sox are at tonight’s tapings.
A video aired putting over the latest WWE Hall of Fame inductee, Nick Bockwinkel.
The Divas came out and did some bad dancing in the Extreme Expose.
A video aired of Mr. McMahon being embarrassed by Bobby Lashley earlier tonight.
Steve Austin is showing up next!
****Commercial****
Stone Cold Steve Austin’s music hit and he came out to the ring and saluted the ECW fans. Austin hopped on the mic and said it felt good to be back in Arizona. Austin said wherever the WWE ring was, was home to him and tonight his home was Tucson. He said it was really hot, really hot, that dry heat and it made him thirsty. He asked for a beer in the ring and drank it while he talked.
He said tonight he wanted to talk about Wrestlemania. He said most important to him was hair v. hair and he was an expert about hair. He said he was going to call the match right down the middle and that was the way it was going to be. He said he was walking through air ports and people were asking him who he favored and he wanted to find out what the crowd thought.
He talked to two creepy looking folks and then a White Sox guy. Austin said he didn’t care, he just wanted to see someone lose their hair. Austin said if someone got in his face he’d stunner them. Austin made his way around the ring looking for people to talk to. He just sort of bantered on and on.
Austin said he was going to be at Raw next week and said he didn’t know what was going to happen. He guaranteed that there would be a bald-headed billionaire because that was the bottom line because stone cold says so. Austin saluted the fans a little more before the show went off the air. ECW Weekly Round-UpQuick Results
Hardcore Holly def. Balls Mahoney
Rob Van Dam def. Elijah Burke
Who’s Hot, Who’s Not?
Biggest Pops
1. Steve Austin
2. Bobby Lashley
3. Rob Van Dam
Most Heat
1. Mr. McMahon
2. Elijah Burke
3. Snitsky
Match of the Night: Rob Van Dam v. Elijah Burke **1/2
Show Review— If you didn’t see this show, you can probably tell that there only being two matches on the show meant that this show was very different from past shows. I actually liked the lack of wrestling for once. The McMahon thing is all well and fine on this show as Lashley is on ECW, so it actually means something here. The Austin thing was utterly pointless from a creative standpoint, but it’s Austin on ECW and Austin will draw people to watch the brand.
I’m loving the Originals-New Breed feud. Throwing CM Punk in the middle makes a ton of sense. Am I the only one who thinks we may see him win the MITB match at Wrestlemania and then cost the Originals their match as well? It’d be a great way to really help get the brand over. I’m hoping we get both.
The rest of the show was what it was and we’re still getting the crash course we should have received months ago. Better late than never and ECW actually feels like a place where things are actually happening. Again, the show has a mountain to climb yet, but the overall feel of the show is nine thousand times better than it was a month ago.
On an individual level it’s almost wild to see the difference in RVD’s performances when he’s jobbing and when he’s not. It’s like night and day. I’m all about Elijah Burke and while I think he’s still extremely green, he’s got a lot of potential and an incredibly great look. I also wanted to toss in a bit of a mention for Balls Mahoney, who seems to be growing on the crowd. The past two or three weeks I’ve noticed fans beginning to get behind him a little bit. I think he’s got a lot of that Mick Foley-esque persona and while he may not ever be a guy who will move high up the card, WWE would be smart to use him as a ‘personality’ on the card.
Other than that, we had another baby step on the road to improvement for the brand as a whole.
Overall: C