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ECW on Sci-Fi TV alt. perspective report
November 25, 2008
Report by Dominick Mayer, PWTorch contributor

The show begins with the entrance of Tommy Dreamer. Shots of the weapons all over the place. I've never heard Dreamer's music all the way through, it's actually really cool. Swagger is out next, and Grisham points out that while Dreamer has been in hundreds of Extreme Rules matches (not always with the lame title), this is Swagger's first.

1 -- TOMMY DREAMER vs. JACK SWAGGER -- Extreme Rules Match

Swagger and Dreamer go face to face right away. Swagger piefaces Dreamer, but gets hit in response, and the match is underway. Swagger uses some mat wrestling to pin Dreamer down early on, but Dreamer gets close enough to ringside to grab a kendo stick. Swagger takes a couple shots, and then Dreamer hits him with a White Russian leg sweep. I'm not sure if there's another name for it when it's not being used by Sandman, but I digress.

Dreamer hits a nice move where he puts a steel chair on Swagger's back, and then powerslams him onto the chair. Haven't seen that before. Swagger heads outside for a breather, but Dreamer pulls him back. Dreamer goes for an Irish whip into the ringpost, but Swagger reverses and Dreamer hits with an audible thud. Swagger grabs a trashcan and mouths off to the crowd, allowing Dreamer to hit a rolling sentaun splash off the apron into Swagger and the trash can.

Back in the ring, Swagger gets cracked with a chair, which Dreamer then sets up in the corner. Dreamer goes for a whip, but Swagger counters into a northern lights suplex for two. Dreamer goes for the running bulldog, but Swagger counters and runs Dreamer headfirst into the chair in the corner. A lot of debris is starting to build up in the ring.

[Commercial Break]

Out of break, Swagger is beating Dreamer's head into the mat. More breaks should end like that, I think. Swagger smashes Dreamer's knee on an opened chair. Swagger screams at Dreamer some and then smashes his knee with the kendo stick, hard. Swagger applies a modified Indian deathlock involving a steel chair, but Dreamer reaches the ropes. Swagger drags him back to mid-ring and continues to use the chair for submission purposes, this time in half crab position. Dreamer heads for the bottom rope, but instead grabs another kendo stick and hits Swagger about a dozen times lighter in the back, followed by two stiffer shots to the head to escape. He covers Swagger for two.

Dreamer nails Swagger unprotected with a trashcan lid, which draws an audible gasp from the crowd. I haven't mentioned this yet, but the crowd seems to be really into the match thus far. Dreamer goes for a pumphandle suplex using the kendo stick, but Swagger breaks free and hits a nasty looking running knee. Swagger puts Dreamer on top of the trashcan and goes for a reverse splash off the second rope, but Dreamer moves just in time for Swagger to eat the can. Striker makes his presence known with a Duke Droese reference. Swagger gets put up in the tree of woe, and Dreamer hits the baseball slide into the trashcan into Swagger's head.

With Swagger down in the ring, Dreamer heads outside for a table. Dreamer gives Swagger two hard shots to the midsection with the kendo stick, but Swagger intercepts the third and gives Dreamer a hard belly to belly suplex. Swagger gets a two count, and then attempts to pick Dreamer up for a powerslam, but Dreamer counters into a DDT for a long two count. Swagger takes another unprotected shot, this time with the actual trashcan. Dreamer goes for a second, but Swagger counters into a drop toe hold that sends Dreamer face-first into an opened steel chair in the corner. Before Dreamer can get up, Swagger grabs him and hits the pumphandle powerbomb through the table for the win.

WINNER: Swagger in 14:00. Well, this was exactly the sort of star-making match Swagger needed. Dreamer got enough harsh offense in to make Swagger's win look even more credible. Both men took a ton of punishment here, and I'm not a fan of the multiple unprotected hits Swagger took (even if they at least weren't chair-related), but as a whole, this was probably one of the best matches on this show this year.

Later: Finlay vs. Mark Henry. Why?

[Commercial Break]

Apparently, Survivor Series is still a night for the ages. Did we all watch the same show?

Backstage: Miz and Morrison spout off a series of hilarious nicknames for themselves. My favorite: "The Chuck Norris of nookie, John Morrison." Why aren't these guys a lot bigger, again? I keep asking that every week, and I'm still at a loss. They get the unenviable job of trying to sell Survivor Series replays. Eh. Jeff Hardy's extracurricular activities kept him sidelined? I don't think anybody knows what the storyline is, honestly. The greatest moment, apparently, was Miz and Morrison debuting their new matching outfits. And then, oh dear. The Boogeyman shows up on the scene, at which point JoMizzy leave with a quick "Be jealous." For what it's worth, Boogeyman's catchphrase does sound a little more menacing. However, I'm calling it here first: Within six months, there'll be a Boogeyman/Kizarny feud. Just wait and see.

Elsewhere backstage: Matt Hardy begins to address Jeff Hardy's "condition," but then Jack Swagger shows up, stating that now that he's done with Dreamer, he's coming for the ECW championship. At last, somebody that can foreseeably have a decent match with Hardy.

Yet elsewhere backstage: Mark Henry steals candy from Hornswoggle. Mark Henry is apparently not good for Finlay. Hornswoggle is clearly upset about this. Okay...

[Commercial Break]

Out of break, D.J. Gabriel and Alicia Fox are dancing. Week two, let's see if this can work. Having these lengthy dance segments before/after every match is going to get old really quickly. Not even having a diva there makes this palatable; we all lived through Extreme Expose.

2 -- D.J. GABRIEL (w/Alicia Fox) vs. JARED GANUM?

Gabriel starts with mat offense. Striker says something to the effect of the buzz around Gabriel being so great that his page on WWE.com had to be reset twice due to all the comments and traffic. Something tells me this wasn't a good thing. I'm trying to not make the same mistake I made last week, and I gather that the designated jobber's name sounds like Jared Ganum, as listed above. Gabriel hits a hard knee. He strikes a pose, runs the ropes and hits a hip toss. Gabriel with some nice elevation on a standing dropkick. Gabriel grabs Ganum for the giant swing, which Striker laughs at, and which I'm laughing at harder. It's not that it's a bad move, it's just silly at this point in time. Ganum goes out of the ring. Gabriel applies a European headlock back in the ring. With things picking up, Gabriel hits a vertical suplex followed closely by a chopblock. Then, Gabriel picks Ganum up in the powerslam position, but drops into a gutbuster. Interesting, that almost looked like a finisher, but Gabriel goes to the second rope and hits the spinning elbow for the win.

WINNER: Gabriel in 3:00. Just a bit longer than the normal showcase match. Gabriel is definitely technically sound, and he works his dancing gimmick into matches well. The question is how well that will translate when he starts wrestling non-squashes. However, the post-match raised some other questions.

Post-match: Grisham brings up Fox's angle with Edge over the summer. She says she went overseas and found Gabriel. Gabriel, who evidently has an English accent, says that they share a passion for dancing and winning. Really rough promo. Gabriel was all right in a limited role, but if Fox is going to be a big part of the package, they really need to work with her on timing.

Raw Rebound: Cena does his best Rock impression and destroys the guy we're supposed to pay to watch him fight on PPV in three weeks. I like Cena, and I thought that was ridiculous.

The DX merch promo from Raw airs yet again. That still sucks too. I'm done now, though, I just really was not a fan of Raw.

Ricky Ortiz won a match last week. Oh, and he's on that "Cha$e" show on Sci-Fi, which airs after ECW.

Mark Henry comes down to ringside to return us to actual ring action.

3 -- MARK HENRY (w/Tony Atlas) vs. FINLAY (w/Hornswoggle)

Finlay goes on the attack with shots to the back of Henry's head, but gets hung up on the top rope. Henry takes over with headbutts and clotheslines. Grisham: "Does the winner of this match become the #1 contender?" I really, really hope not. We've been through those matches. They're not interesting. Henry goes to the corner and picks up the ever-present shillelagh. Still don't know how that hasn't been called out by now. Henry throws it away. This is really interesting, because normally, in this match, the face throws away the heel's weapon. It's really a measure of Finlay's character at the moment that things are the other way around. Henry goes after Finlay in the corner, and Finlay comes back. Henry hits a vicious powerslam on a running Finlay. Henry goes for a splash, but fails to connect. Finlay jumps at Henry, but gets slammed into the edge of the ring.

[Commercial Break]

Henry is in control out of the break. Finlay gets put in a chinlock to bring us into the slow(er) part of the match. Finlay attempts to kick Henry's legs out from under him, but gets stomped. Another chinlock. Finlay hits a dropkick to speed things up again at 8:00. That gets two... At this point, WWE's feed of the show abruptly stopped working online. It then referred me back to the previous episode of the show. From James' recap of the show, apparently it cut out right before the action broke down and the match ended in a stalemate.

Now, while this is a departure from the other endings, the match was just another Finlay/Henry match; stiff opening, slow-as-molasses middle, chaotic ending. I really don't understand why this match didn't open the show, with Swagger/Dreamer closing. Not only was the latter a vastly better match, but it would have given Swagger's push a marquee feel that would have better served the show than what was essentially a throwaway to get Finlay and Henry on television.

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