ECW on Sci Fi Results - 7/8/08 - Baton Rouge, LA ('Henry & Dreamer')

Reported by Adam Martin of WrestleView.com
On Wednesday, July 9, 2008 at 1:24 AM EST

ECW on Sci Fi
July 8th 2008
Baton Rouge, LA
Commentators: Mike Adamle & Tazz
Reported by: David Stephens of WrestleView.com


Let the Bodies Hit the Floor! Ok, I know that ECW no longer uses that theme, but I have had a long and bad day so I’m doing everything possible to get myself psyched up. GM Long, my TV preview says you have major changes, so don’t disappoint!

The best theme song in the WWE plays as “Don’t Question My Heart” kicks off the show. Opening Pyro and here we go!

Tonight: Mark Henry v. Tommy Dreamer

John Morrison’s music plays and Miz and Morrison make their “slo-mo” entrance and head to the ring. Tazz says that Miz and Morrison are frustrated because they feel as though they’ve had no competition for their titles. Morrison’s jacket is absurdly sparkly and furry tonight, that’s awesome. Miz makes a comment about hurricane’s thankfully going through the area. Morrison introduces himself as the “Tuesday Night Delight” who doesn’t do hurricane charity repair. Miz manages to call himself the “Grand Mizard of Lust”. At this point they call out anyone in the back who wants to challenge them.

The Irish jig plays and Finlay has a mic. He says that no one came tonight to listen to the two of them run their mouth and that the crowd would rather see someone shut their mouths. Morrison calls Hornswoggle a troll and a leprechaun that hangs out under the ring. The little devil sneaks up onto the ring and squirts them with a water gun. Miz and Morrison try to chase after him and Finlay takes them out with the shelele. That is a word I now know how to spell thanks to weekly ECW recaps.

****Commercial****

We come back after the break and Finlay and Miz are in the ring. Apparently, during the break GM Long set up this impromptu one on one matchup.

Finlay v. Miz

The two exchange a few holds and Miz finds himself in a side headlock with his back down on the mat. Miz gets up only to be hit with a shoulder block. Finlay throws Miz out of the ring and then follows him out. Miz finds his back bashed into the apron and takes his time to get back in the ring. Miz attempts a kick and Finlay counters by throwing Miz down splitting his legs and hitting a kick to Miz’s gut. Finlay locks on another side headlock. Miz powers out but gets hit with a ballbuster and then a hard driven elbow lock. Miz manages to hit Finlay’s head into the turnbuckle and throws him out of the ring. Miz goes for the baseball slide and Finlay catches him in between the apron and the ring. Morrison starts to run to where Finlay is which distracts Finlay and he finds Miz’s boot in his face. Miz jumps out to hit a couple jabs then throws Fit back into the ring and locks on a headlock then an armbar.

Finlay gets out with a couple knees to the gut and Miz goes for a quick pin attempt to no avail. Miz locks on another armbar. Adamle just called Finlay “Dave Finlay” I thought it was “Fit Finlay”. Am I wrong?

Miz keeps the pressure on Finlay and keeps up the kicking and armbars. Finlay is held up in the ropes and then once again held up in an armbar in the middle of the ring. Miz is really laying on the pressure and Finlay is hurting. Finlay breaks out with a jawbreaker but is met right back up with the same move. Finlay hits Miz into the corner and then hits Miz with a backdrop and some vicious clotheslines. Finlay goes to a cover but Miz kicks out. Miz goes for a quick pin but Finlay kicks out. Miz launches himself across the ring to hit a very nice splash. Miz is really impressing me tonight.

On the outside of the ring Morrison runs over to get the shelele away from Finlay who was very tempted to use it. Hornswoggle waddles over to stop Morrison. Hornswoggle runs into the ring and Miz finds himself smacked down hard to the mat thanks to the Celtic Cross. Pin by Finlay and it’s all over.

Winner via Celtic Cross: Finlay

We go to the back and see Teddy Long with Tiffany. For those wondering, Tiffany is the girl that I thought was Atlas Ortiz’s valet last week. Apparently not. Tiffany was about to tell Long her idea for next week but Estrada interrupts. He says he really wants his job back and says he’ll go against whoever Teddy wants. A new face walks into the office and Teddy says that Estrada can go against ECW’s newest superstar.
New Superstar: Knock Knock
Armando: Who’s there?
New Superstar: Braden Walker and I’m gonna knock your brains out.
Stare down ensues. Well, I’m sold

****Commercial****

Video recap is shown of the Fatal Four Way last night on RAW as well as Kane’s freak-out that occurred after the match. Please let Percy Pringle III return to reprise the greatest manager role ever. That’s all I’m asking.

Armando Estrada v. Braden Walker

This kid has sweet entrance music. Braden immediate flips Armando over his shoulder when they try to lock up. Armando gets flipped over again. Braden is really powerful and sells moves better than I’ve ever seen. He just made Estrada’s punches look like superkicks. Estrada manages to deck Braden and yells “that’s what I’m talking about” He goes for the cover but no good. Estrada locks on a headlock but Braden gets out. Walker does a quick sunset flip and the pin attempt. Nice. Estrada knocks him down to the mat again and is hitting some nice left and rights. Estrada is showboating a bit which may be his downfall.

Armando locks on a bearhug, because, why not? Estrada struts around throwing in a couple kicks as well as of course another headlock. Armando goes for a vertical suplex and the body slam he does hit looks like it hurts. Walker dodges a move and hits an explosive shoulder block. This is followed by a couple kicks and one of the most painful looking full nelson slams I’ve ever seen. Armando is using his speed to dodge a couple moves. Braden is whipped to the corner but he goes to the top rope and hits a floppy looking crossbody. Hard flop, not bad. In the words of Adamle: “uno, dos, adios!” What did we ever do without him?

Winner via Crossbody: Braden Walker

In the back WWE Hall of Famer Tony Walker is with Teddy Long. The GM lets him know that he can be the special ring announcer tonight. Mark Henry comes up and puts over Tony Atlas’s strength but tells him that he’ll never be the world’s strongest man. Tony tells him nice seeing him and offers him his hand for a shake. Mark Henry looks at it and chuckles and walks off without returning the hand.

****Commercial****

In the back surfer girl Lena is interviewing Atlas Ortiz. He says that his friends and family call him Ricky so apparently that’s what we’ll call him. He says he won his first match which makes him undefeated. 1-0.

Adamle and Tazz put over Matt Hardy’s addition to ECW. A video recap airs of Matt Hardy’s journey in the WWE from Tag Team days to his ventures as a singles superstar. That song they played for it was really cool. Someone look it up for me.

Tommy and Colin are backstage and Tony Atlas comes up to them. Tommy puts over how much Tony Atlas helped him when he was a rookie in the business.

****Commercial****

Nunzio v. Evan Bourne

Evan Bourne (Matt Sydal) is amazing. He says that he “defies the odds because he defies gravity”. Tazz puts him over and says you are in for a treaty. Bourne has a B.A. is marketing. Thanks for that info Tazz. The two exchange some nice punches and arm drags. Bourne hits a nice Hurricarana and an insane vertical kick to Nunzio’s face. Bourne manages to maneuver his way out of some of Nunzio’s moves and attempts a quick roll through. Nuzio throw him into the corner and Nunzio hits him with a spinning back breaker. Nunzio stretches Bourne over his knee and is trying to get Bourne to quit. Tazz makes fun of Adamle’s dictionary knowledge.

Evan Bourne starts to get out and is just hitting some impressive kicks and knees. Evan hits a crazy Hurricarana out of nowhere. Bourne goes for a pin but only gets a two. The crowd is starting to get behind Bourne with some chants but he gets knocked into the turnbuckle. Nuzio goes for a slam of some sort but Evan spins out of it into a slam of his own in a way I don’t think I can even start to describe. Evan climbs the ropes to the top turnbuckle and the crowd is on their feet and pumped. Shooting Star Press and it is all over. Tazz yells “oh my god, beautiful”. Adamle says that after his loss to Mike Knox, Evan has been “Bourne” again.

Winner via Shooting Star Press: Evan Bourne

They show multiple replays of the Shooting Star Press and you can just tell how impressed Tazz is with it based upon his reactions and praise. Great job, Evan.

Backstage we see Tony Atlas and Mark Henry walks up to him saying that he heard Tony is going to be the special guest announcer. Yeah, because you actually were standing right there when Teddy told Tony, did you forget? Anyway, Mark Henry laughs that Atlas is doing it for a payday. He says after the show Tony can carry his bags and he’ll pay him. Tony says he’ll think about it.

****Commercial****

I would like to take the time to thank the WWE for actually airing their show during the correct time slot. They managed to not even start the last match till after the one hour mark. I was at a rehearsal and came back to watch it Tivo’d so that I could recap it and found the last match omitted. Fantastic. Well, everything was awesome so no worries, I was really happy tonight. Hope this WWE.com report holds you over on the last match:

“Dreamer, who was seeking revenge on Henry for beating Colin Delaney, causing the Original to lose a chance at the ECW Title, was crushed by the World’s Strongest Champion, thanks to help from Atlas. After Delaney attempted to trip Henry, Atlas tossed the youngster into the announce table, distracting Dreamer. The ECW Champ took advantage of the situation, delivering a World’s Strongest Slam to Dreamer. WWE Hall of Famer Atlas celebrated in the ECW ring with the Extreme Champion. With a Hall of Famer in his corner, who will stop the World’s Strongest Champ?”

ECW Thoughts

What a show! This completely made up for the black cat that ran in front of my car on the way home. Yeah, I stopped and waited for another car to pass me before I continued on. You would have too if you had had my last 24 hours.

Miz v. Finlay was great, and I don’t at all mind that they are continuing that tag feud. I not so secretly am rooting for the Irish folk. I really want them to take the titles because Miz and Morrison’s reactions would be hysterical.

Braden Walker was more than acceptable and in fact even showed promise. He was much better than last week’s new talent and I am looking forward to where they take him. Maybe Braden Walker v. Atlas Ortiz in a who’s a better new talent feud? Could be interesting once they both get more built up.

Evan Bourne requires no unnecessary praise because he is just that damn good. I am blown away time after time. Go to WWE.com or Youtube and look this guy up if you haven’t had the chance. I can guarantee that if you enjoy cruiserweight action you will not be disappointed. His wrestling is simply beautiful.

Hats off to Nunzio for still having a contract and making himself useful. Speaking of random ECW Originals who still have contracts, are we ever going to see Super Crazy on this show? Considering he just got drafted, I would like to see him.

My feelings on Tommy and Colin have been pretty constant and I have yet to have a reason to change. The two of them do what they do and it is how it is. Enough said. I really like this Tony Atlas thing because it almost has a passing of the torch element to it. I’m looking forward to how they play it out.

ECW Power Rankings

This is a completely arbitrary system based upon my preferences of who I think were the most impactful individuals for any given week. Your chance to voice your opinion is in the polls and e-mail, this is my platform.

1 Finlay & Hornswoggle (l.w. 2)
2 Miz & Morrison (l.w. 1)
3 Evan Bourne (l.w. - )
4 Mark Henry (l.w. 3)
5 Tommy Dreamer (l.w. - )

The tag team feud still is topping the show in terms of impact and watchability. Evan Bourne managed to steal the show with his match which left Henry and Dreamer to pick up the pieces. My problem with the Henry v. Dreamer feud is my knowledge of what ECW used to be. I watched the ECW DVD that the WWE put out and in it, I believe Tazz was the one talking about how Dreamer never wanted to be ECW champ and that he was actually sad the day that they gave it to him. Should that matter a decade later? Probably not, but it remains on my mind.

WrestleView Reader’s Poll Results from ECW on July 1st

Almost triple the amount of people voted this week. Impressive, I guess you finally believed me when I say I want to know what you are thinking.

Match of the Night
90% Matt Hardy, Finlay & Hornswoggle v. Chavo, Miz & Morrison
5% Atlas Ortiz v. Armando Estrada
5% Colin Delaney v. Mark Henry

Face of the Night
33% Matt Hardy
31% Tommy Dreamer
11% Hornswoggle
10% Finlay
8% Colin Delaney
5% Atlas Ortiz

Heel of the Night
71% Mark Henry
11% John Morrison
8% Armando Estrada
5% Chavo
3% Miz

Most Impressive Wrestler
25% Matt Hardy
20% John Morrison
18% Finlay
10% Atlas Ortiz
8% Hornswoggle
8% Mark Henry
3% Chavo
3% Colin Delaney
1% Miz
1% Armando Estrada

This week’s poll can be found at: this link

Send me e-mail! You think I’m perfectly write or completely off base? Let me know. The worst thing that will happen is you’ll get to talk with a wrestling fan. As always I am delighted to talk ECW and hear your thoughts. My e-mail is jugglernextdoor@gmail.com and I do my best to respond to everyone. Hit me up! Your thoughts keep me going.

-David Stephens