Reported by Adam Martin of WrestleView.com
On Tuesday, August 5, 2008 at 11:55 PM EST

ECW on Sci-Fi
Atlanta, GA
August 5th 2008
Commentators: Matt Striker & Todd Grisham
Reported by: David Stephens of WrestleView.com

Stop “Questioning Your Heart” because it is time for ECW!

Video promo airs and we are in Atlanta, Georgia tonight. Matt Striker is filling in for Tazz tonight commentating alongside Todd Grisham.

Video recap is shown of Chavo getting disqualified in his match against Ricky Ortiz last week.

Chavo & Bam Neely v. Evan Bourne & Ricky Ortiz

This week I am going to be experimenting with several different ratings systems. Now personally I’m not a fan, but since it is the popular thing to do in Wrestleview recaps, I am going to give it a try. This week’s Reader Response question and polls are going to be directly related to whether or not you think I should have a rating system.

First up, Hunter Golden’s RAW “star system”

Ricky and Bam start things off and Ricky proceeds to shoulder block the big man which causes Bam to roll out of the ring. Back in the ring the two exchange a few arm holds complete with plenty of spinning. Evan gets the tag in and kicks down Bam’s arm. Unfortunately he ends up in Chavo’s corner and Vicky’s nephew gets the tag. Chavo goes for a backdrop but Evan lands on his feet! Evan misses a high kick attempt but connects with a hurricarana. Evan locks in a spinning arm bar and Chavo is stranded in the middle of the ring. Evan goes for a pin attempt but no bacon. Ricky gets the tag and connects with a flying shoulder block from the second rope. According to our teacher, Matt Striker, Ricky Ortiz is the only WWE wrestler who played in the XFL. Fast fact from me to follow that up, Mike Adamle did a bit of announcing for the XFL. I’m just fool of knowledge [yes, that was a pun].

Bam gets the tag in and drops Ricky down to the mat. Ortiz gets his head slammed into the turnbuckle which is followed up by getting whipped and splashed into the turnbuckle across the ring. Bam goes for a pin but no scrapple. Chavo gets the tag in and also tries for a pin. Once that fails he locks in a side headlock. Chavo is able to escape and both men head for their partners. Bam gets the tag in and proceeds to stop Ricky from tagging in Bourne – but no! Evan gets the tag and comes flying into the ring ready to do some major damage. Bam is met with a few high kicks and then Evan climbs to the top rope. Neely turns around and Evan comes flying down double knee first and connects around Bam’s head which drives him to the mat. Bourne goes for the pin, but Chavo makes the save.

Chavo picks up Evan for a scoop slam, but Ortiz runs in for the save which allows Evan to hit a huge dropkick on Chavo. Neely follows this up with a clothesline that sends both Chavo and himself to the outside. Bam is starting to make his way up and goes for a clothesline, but Bourne ducks and rolls Bam up with a school boy pin. That was a crazy fast counter pin.

Winners via School Boy: Evan Bourne & Ricky Ortiz
Rating: ** ¾ [Hunter’s Star System]

What exactly does that rating mean? After years of reading his recaps I have never figured it out, so good luck.

Matt Striker and Todd were absolutely brilliant commentary wise during that match.

****Commercial****

Video recap airs of Mike Knox taking out Finlay last week.

In the ring we see Mike Knox who says he is not out here to explain what he did last week. He is here to expose the fraud called Finlay. A video airs of Finlay & ‘swoggles segment in the Summerslam promo video. Knox says that Finlay use to be a real fighter in this business, but now all he does is dance around with a leprechaun.

Out comes Finlay & Hornswoggle and Finlay looks to have something to say to the heavily bearded superstar in the ring. Finlay calls Knox “Fred”, then says he doesn’t care what Knox’s name is because he says that if Knox has a problem with Finlay and his family that he should take a shot at him because Finlay may love to fight, but he also loves his family. Finlay says that he better knock him out because if not, Knox is going to find out if he’s really gone soft or not. Mike backs his way out of the ring and sheepishly makes his way up the ramp.

RAW Rebound airs highlighting the awesomeness of last night’s RAW, in particular the main event Tag Match.

****Commercial****

Armando Estrada v. Tommy Dreamer

This is Armando’s last chance to earn an ECW contract. The rating system in effect is going to be what I like to call the “arbitrary system”.

Tommy starts by throwing Estrada over his shoulder and then locks in an arm bar. Armando manages to hit a couple shoulders into Dreamer but only finds himself clotheslined over the top rope for all of his efforts. Armando gets back in the ring and is met with a reverse neckbreaker. Dreamer puts up Armando in the tree of woe, but before he can hit anything, Colin runs to ringside and grabs a chair. Dreamer goes out to confront him and Delaney leaps over the announce table to hide.

Estrada tries to hit a cheap shot on Dreamer when he reenters the ring, but fails. As soon as Dreamer’s back is turned, Colin, jumps up on the apron. Tommy grabs Colin’s head and slams it into the corner but this allows Estrada to sneak in a roll up! Armando gets the three and he finally receives his ECW contract.

Winner via Colin Delaney’s interference: Armando Estrada
Match Rating: 253 Stars

So, interestingly after all that Armando put Colin through in order to get his ECW contract, it was Delaney who in the end came through and helped Estrada regain his own contract. The plot thickens.

****Commercial****

In the back Estrada is seen talking with Colin Delaney. Armando asks why Colin would ever help him after everything he put him through. Coin says that at least he gave him a chance to get a contract. Teddy Long interrupts to say that next week Tommy Dreamer will give Colin the beating of his life in an Extreme Rules Match!

Video airs recapping the Edge/Foley segment from Smackdown last Friday.

In the back, Braden Walker is seen warming up.

****Commercial****

Braden Walker v. James Curtis

Rating System: Ranking between 1 - 12, 6 being the highest

The two lock it up in the ring and exchange a few arm holds. Braden hits a nice hip toss on James Curtis and then holds a long Vertical Suplex. Braden goes for the pin cover, but only gets a 1 count. Striker lets us know that James Curtis is a certified captain and sails. Then Matt makes a comment about seeing if he can sail through Braden Walker which leads Grisham to say that hopefully Curtis’ time in ECW is longer than a three hour tour. Just when I thought I would never get Adamle like comments again, thanks guys.

Braden is holding Curtis in a strong arm bar but James makes his way to the ropes and the ref breaks it up. Curtis starts wailing at the back of Walker’s head. Braden hits an atomic drop and is able to deck Curtis with a few clotheslines. Walker gets whipped into the ropes, but dodges a splash and hits a huge flying clothesline. Curtis blocks a suplex attempt and throws some hard right hands. Walker hits another clothesline and then a fisherman’s suplex which he bridges for the 3 count.

Winner via Fisherman’s Suplex: Braden Walker

Match Rating: 2.5. I almost gave this match a 10.5, but I really felt that a 2.5 more closely got across the matches’ intent.

****Commercial****

We come back and it is time for “The Dirt Sheet”! Miz & Morrison are sitting in their set in the middle of the ring and are met with heavy boos. Morrison introduces himself and says that People magazine offered him $15 million dollars for pictures of him when he was a baby, but he turned them down because John Morrison is not for sale. Miz welcomes us to The Dirt Sheet.

Mark Henry is introduced and his face shows up on the Titantron. They ask him if he will be ok doing this interview without his translator, Tony Atlas. We quickly realize it is just a picture of Henry’s face with his lips open as the picture begins to grunt. They next ask Atlas a question to which we are met with some rapping. This type of thing continues for a while, even including a picture of ECW’s only Diva, surfer girl.

Henry has had enough of this and makes his way down to the ring with Tony Atlas. Tony tells him that when they agreed to be on his show that they weren’t there to be disrespected. Miz and Morrison decide it’s a better move to try their previous tactics with Matt Hardy. Morrison starts to ask Jeff a question before Miz tells him that they have Matt not Jeff. Morrison says “really? How’d that happen”. Matt’s voice for the interview segment is hilarious.

Matt makes his entrance to a tremendous ovation. Matt makes fun of Miz & Morrison for stealing Conan O’Brien’s material and lacking originality. [I didn’t catch this because I’m much more of a Craig Ferguson fan] Matt does compliment the two, however, by telling them that he loved them in Brokeback Mountain.

Miz is furious and tries to take out Matt but Hardy hits him and takes out Miz. Morrison tries to get involved but hits Mark Henry by accident! Henry unleashes on Miz & Morrison and then Hardy hits a Twist of Fate on Miz! Hardy and Henry stare each other down to close the show.

ECW Thoughts:

Solid show all around this week. The opening match was impressive and fun as almost any Evan Bourne match tends to be. My only complaint is that the show seemed a bit too predictable tonight. I actually found myself typing up the finishes for some of the matches right before they happened. That is especially true of the Armando match. Concerning that, I am at least happy that they added the Colin angle, though I highly doubt Armando will be sticking his neck out for Delaney next week.

The Braden Walker match was interesting tonight, just not in the way I think it was meant to be. I mean no disrespect to Chris Harris, but it was really James Curtis who shined in their match tonight. I’d have to agree with Matt Striker and say that Curtis impressed me tonight.

Speaking of Matt Striker – can we keep him? Striker and Grisham were absolutely brilliant tonight. I know that I am generally biased about Todd Grisham, but I really feel like he has been doing a fantastic job.

ECW does not really have much to ride on going into Summerslam which may explain the slowness of the show. I’ll comment on the Hardy/Henry thing next week when we are closer to the PPV. All I can really say about it tonight is that it had solid build up for the match. I won’t be surprised, however, if Hardy v. Henry kicks off Summerslam, in fact I can almost guarantee it.

Todd Grisham
I personally think it was awesome that Grisham continued to do backstage interviews on RAW last night. Either they complete overlooked the fact that he is now commentating ECW or he simply will be appearing on our TV constantly. Stay tuned for more info as this develops.

Kelly Kelly Update
This past week, Mike from Smackdown, had the nerve to tell me that he can relate about losing Kelly from ECW because he no longer gets to see her on Smackdown which is the only HD WWE programming carried in his area. Instead he just has to settle for seeing Maria each week. For some reason I wasn’t feeling too sympathetic.

Reader Response Winner: Sion Cleaver

How do you feel about the addition of Todd Grisham to the announce table?

I think it's about bloody time, we've been stuck with Mike Adamle for several months while we had two perfectly good announcers doing backstage interviews for WWE TV and WWE.com, I had been a bit ticked off for a while on this subject, Mike Adamle, who let's face it, is not a very good announcer but will probably do better with backstage interviews has faced an incredible amount of criticism and often does stupid mistakes that shows that he has no knowledge what so ever about the sport of Professional Wrestling. I had been hoping for Joey Styles to come back to ECW for a while but I'm sure that Todd Grisham will do a perfectly good job of it has he has proved in the past in the past by announcing Heat and hosting several other Secondary WWE shows.

To end, thank you WWE, for finally giving us a good commentator!

This week’s question: What are your thoughts regarding “rating systems” in show recaps? Necessary? Frivolous? Nonsensical?

WrestleView Reader Poll Results July 29th

Match of the Night
71% Finlay & Hornswoggle v. Miz & Morrison
16% Colin Delaney v. Matt Hardy
11% Chavo v. Ricky Ortiz

Face of the Night
51% Matt Hardy
21% Todd Grisham
21% Evan Bourne
2% Ricky Ortiz
2% Finlay
1% Hornswoggle

Heel of the Night
30% Mark Henry
26% Mike Knox
19% Morrison
7% Tony Atlas
6% Colin Delaney
4% Chavo
3% Miz
1% Bam Neely

Most Impressive Wrestler
55% Morrison
15% Finlay
11% Ricky Ortiz
7% Miz
6% Hornswoggle
3% Chavo

Will Matt Hardy beat Mark Henry at Summerslam?
53% No
46% Yes

This week’s poll can be found at: click here

Send me e-mail! You think I’m perfectly right 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