ECW Discussion Thread - 26th June 2007

[Guest FreeSpirit]

Preview:

 

USA: Tuesday 26th June on Sci Fi at 10/9c-LIVE

UK: Friday 29th June on Sky Sports 3 at 12am

 

Who will be the new ECW Champion?

26th June 2007

 

When ECW resumes this week, a new era will be underway. It will either be the beginning of the reign of Chris Benoit or it will be the start of the Straightedge Movement in CM Punk. Who will leave Vengeance: Night of Champions the new ECW kingpin?

 

Last week, the New Breed's Elijah Burke and Marcus Cor Von showed that they yearn for the ECW gold. Will they show either Benoit or Punk how serious they are about winning the ECW World Title? And could this cause dissension among the New Breed teammates?

 

ECW has been full of debuts, with several new additions, courtesy of the WWE Draft. Johnny Nitro showed the ECW faithful that he was more than just an A-lister when he whacked Nunzio, and will likely look to continue to make an impact on his new home.

 

One new ECW Superstar who seems to be already making an impact – and causing a potential rift among some smitten members of Extreme Exposé – is The Miz. Will he make his debut in the Land of Extreme? And will the ladies of Extreme Exposé patch up their alleged differences?

 

Meanwhile, no one seems to be having sweet dreams about Boogeyman. The man from The Bottomless Pit has been causing ECW Superstars to toss and turn in their sleep. Who will he come to get next?

 

And finally, be sure to tune in to ECW for the latest in the investigation in the fiery presumed demise of Mr. McMahon. Catch all the action this week on ECW at Midnight on Sky Sports 3 (immediately after Thursday Night's encore showing of Raw)![/Quote]

[Guest dpddave]

Well at least we'll finally have a worthy champion this week,which ever one of them it is...

[Guest Adam Gill]

From the Wrestling Observer . . .

 

WWE will go on with regular programming tomorrow in San Antonio, with Raw & ECW tapings not based on either a tribute to Chris Benoit or continuing the Vince McMahon angle.

 

Obviously there's a bit of mistake there as it should be 'SmackDown' and not 'Raw'.

 

I'm guessing not having another Benoit tribute on ECW and SD has a lot to do with all the rumours concering the deaths and if Benoit was involved or not, as I seem to remember when Eddie passed on he had tributes on all the week's TV shows.

[Guest Slim Jim]

They had Raw and SmackDown as tributes because they were taped on the same day.

[Guest Adam Gill]

They had Raw and SmackDown as tributes because they were taped on the same day.

 

Oh yeah they were, I forgot about that.

 

Even still, I thought they would have had ECW and SmackDown as tribute shows aswell. With Raw being re-runs of Benoit's classic matches, I thought they would have had tribute matches on the other two shows - especially with ECW and SD being taped only a day after the news broke, and the first time since Benoit died that they had a proper show with fans in the arena, it would have been difficult just to do "business as usual" - in my opinion.

 

I have a just feeling that they were going to do tribute matches on ECW and SD, until all this came out about it Benoit possibly being involved in the killing of his family.

 

Who knows though? . . .

[Guest FreeSpirit]

I think WWE are right to return to regular programming tonight with ECW. Afterall the show must go on.

 

Benoit had a 3 hour tribute show last night, and while there is such horrible circumstances surrounding the three deaths, centred around Chris Benoit himself, I dont feel its right to have another tribute show for him at the moment.

[Guest Adam Gill]

I think WWE are right to return to regular programming tonight with ECW. Afterall the show must go on.

 

Benoit had a 3 hour tribute show last night, and while there is such horrible circumstances surrounding the three deaths, centred around Chris Benoit himself, I dont feel its right to have another tribute show for him at the moment.

 

Oh yeah, I agree with you, AR.

 

I was just wondering if they were going to have tributes to Benoit on ECW and Smackdown before the rumours broke about Benoit being involved?

 

Although, it doesn't matter really.

[Guest The Great Ahmar]

The lack of an understandable explanation to the circumstances of the death of Chris, Nancy and Daniel Benoit has left virtually the entire wrestling community reeling.

 

Within WWE, the obvious questions and lack of answers are no different from fans and most of his long-time friends.

 

Vince McMahon was the inspiring general both to the wrestlers as well as the office staff all day yesterday. He held it together and was a rock of strength for much of the talent, which because of their admiration and in many cases love for Benoit, were saddened, perplexed and having an incredibly difficult time dealing with it.

 

Vince made the decision to run Smackdown and ECW tapings tonight without any angles or backstage storylines. The show will consist of straight wrestling matches and like last night, the original shows were scrapped. The attempt to put together a show was difficult because the crew and creative staff were said to be both emotionally and physically wrecked after yesterday.

 

The belief is they will brief viewers on what happened early in the show, and then product two low key shows of nothing but matches.

 

From Meltz

[Guest Marc McCann]

sounds like the best thing to do

[Guest The Great Ahmar]

McMahon to Apologize for Benoit Tribute

By James Hibberd

 

WWE Chairman Vince McMahon will apologize for the three-hour USA Network tribute to pro wrestler Chris Benoit that aired Monday night, sources said.

 

The WWE and USA Network have received complaints about the tribute, which was hastily produced after Mr. Benoit, his wife and their son were found dead in their Georgia home Monday afternoon.

 

Authorities said Tuesday that Mr. Benoit strangled his wife and suffocated his son, then took his own life. But WWE and network officials were unaware of the circumstances of Mr. Benoit’s death when the tribute was assembled, sources said.

 

The WWE canceled its regularly scheduled “Monday Night RAW” event on USA Network Monday night and aired the tribute in its place.

 

Mr. McMahon will address wrestling fans tonight on Sci Fi Channel’s live Extreme Championship Wrestling event. He also plans to address speculation that Mr. Benoit’s actions were the result of steroid use.

 

The WWE plans to resume its regular wrestling telecasts, which air on USA Network, Sci Fi Channel and the CW.

 

So...

[Guest Drake]

Good. As long as we get to see our new ECW champ then everything will be fine.

[Guest PowerPlay]

Great speech from Vince to explain the next two episodes of wrestling.

 

Now we get Nitro vs Cena.

[Guest The Crippler]

What was said?

[Guest PowerPlay]

He said that the name of Chris Benoit won't be said anymore and that the long heeling process is starting tonight and that all the wrestlers of the WWE, the best in the world, will do tonight what they do best, and that's entertain us.

[Guest Jack]

EDIT: Yeah, what Powerplay said. Edited June 27, 2007 by Jack

[Guest The Crippler]

Vince seems to be handling this whole thing as well as possible. I reckon so anyway.

 

It's totally gutting to see Benoit's name as complete and utter mud now in wrestling. It seems like an awful nightmare but under the circumstances, the WWE need to distance themselves from him as much as possible.

 

I'm sorry to be a bore but the whole thing just breaks my heart.

Edited June 27, 2007 by The Crippler

[Guest PowerPlay]

Vince seems to be handling this whole thing as well as possible. I reckon so anyway.

 

It's totally gutting to see Benoit's name as complete and utter mud now in wrestling. It seems like an awful nightmare but under the circumstances, the WWE need to distance themselves from him as much as possible.

 

I'm sorry to be a bore but the whole thing just breaks my heart.

 

I just couldn't agree more.

[Guest PowerPlay]

Next match should be a Match of the year guys.

 

Ellijah Burke vs CM Punk 2 out of 3 falls.

[Dead Crow 370]

Won't even touch Cena/Umaga or Cena/Michaels, but good luck to it.

[Guest Craig]

Next match should be a Match of the year guys.

 

Ellijah Burke vs CM Punk 2 out of 3 falls.

 

Yeah.....

 

Anyway, ECW was great. Cena/Nitro was really good, the Piper segment was fun, and Punk/Burke was good, but definitely not match of the year. Nowhere near it, in fact.

[Guest PowerPlay]

Yeah loll, I should've said "could" instead of "should". Anyway in my estimation, ECW should always look this way, even thought I wouldn't put the segment that was there tonight, instead i'd put a Thorn match or a segment but a segment that could mean something.

 

Anyway great show.

 

Johnny Nitro vs John Cena

Great opener as PWTorch said, meant to escape reality and it did, with great mix of styles. Nitro had a great showing and even thought he lost he built some credibilty by having pushed Cena to the limit. Cena had another good match and sold well the attacks of Nitro. **3/4

 

Matt Stryker/Rowdy Roody Piper Segment

Funny segment but nothing related to anything there, just fun stuff.

 

CM Punk vs Ellijah Burke (2 Out of 3 Falls)

It started with great wrestling holds than went to good counters and a fast 1-1 tie and they cut to the break. The real good match was after the break, what great counters, moves, stiff shots and close nearfalls. It's not a match of the year contender but a legitimate Match of the month contender since there wasn't lots of great matches this month. CM Punk wins with the G2S (god the move looks uggly) in a great effort by both guys. ***1/2

 

Overall Show 8/10

[TPIB 62]

I believe Vince McMahon is continuing to do the right thing, as well as the WWE. It does indeed seem odd what the Benoit name now represents, as opposed to just the other night.

 

Anyways, WWE put on a good edition of ECW and took a strong step forward in letting this tragedy go. I personally thought both of the matches on this week's ECW were good, not to mention the appearance by Piper. I imagine WWE brought in Piper as an "emergency" talent in order to really try and get the fans' and the talent's mind off of this past weekend. A classic Piper segment. Piper calling Matt Striker, Mark and then calling him "The Mark" was good stuff. The main event was a good match, as well. Whether done intentionally or not, did anyone else notice that the counter pin exchange was reminiscent of the Benoit/Malenko match we saw on RAW? Anyways, a good match by Punk and Burke, even though most of the 2-out-of-3 Falls matches that occur have the same formula.

 

On a side-note to those who didn't notice, WWE did change the ECW Theme Song, instead of the usual song ("Bodies" by Drowning Pool), they used the theme from Vengeance. I don't expect this to be the new ECW theme, but I imagine they'll probably use it for a couple weeks, but I could be wrong.

 

By the way, did anyone else feel Cena was kind of out of place wrestling on ECW? I mean, he was the only RAW star on the show, so it seemed kind of odd.

 

I think the talent did a good job of swallowing their personal feelings and doing what they do best, entertaining the fans and trying to move on. If I'm not mistaken, I saw Punk "pay his respects" after his match with Burke. I have mixed feelings about that, but I won't get into that.

 

ECW Overall- 6/10

 

 

On a non-ECW subject, I was thinking earlier today and was wondering- whatever happened with the Sherri Martel investigation? It seemed to take a backseat after the Benoit tragedy.

Edited June 27, 2007 by TPIB

[Guest Drake]

Cena/Nitro was all kinds of awesomeness. They really made Nitro look like a contender. Wasn't surprised by the result. Johnny had feber and a bad cold damnit. That's why he lost.

 

PS: Elijah's theme song freaking rules.

[Guest dpddave]

Seeing as it was pretty obvious Benoit was gonna become ECW champ,and Nitro was just brought in to hold it for a couple of weeks seeing as they thought Benoit would be back,maybe C.M Punk will win the title now at the GAB....hes the only decent face on ECW now and will have plenty of guys to fued with.

[Guest The Great Ahmar]

ECW was really good this week. Cena/Nitro was really good as was Punk/Burke. I liked how both matches were given good time. Piper and Striker was great too. "Roderick" and "Lets sing happy birthday to the Mark!"