By Dominick Mayer, Torch specialist

ECW on Sci-Fi TV report
June 30, 2009
Report by Dominick Mayer, PWTorch specialist

Title sequence. Tonight: Kozlov vs. Christian in a #1 Contender's match for Night of Champions.

The Bella Twins are on their way out to the ring. According to the announcer, Nikki will be the one wrestling tonight, though they're dressed identically. She has a microphone. Wait, Brie does. Never mind; they're trying to do something cute by continually switching names. Katie Lea Burchill is out as the opposition. I can admit when I'm wrong, and I was duly called out on this site for excluding her from my re-Draft coverage. Lea is definitely one of my favorite Divas currently wrestling, though tonight she has some weird-looking eye makeup on.

1 -- NIKKI BELLA (w/Brie Bella) vs. KATIE LEA BURCHILL

Katie throws Nikki out of the ring almost immediately. Back in the ring, she gets a short pin. Striker sells the Bellas's background in gymnastics. Grisham mentions the interview segment last week. Let's not talk about that. Katie gets a really nice hold in the corner where she pushes her shin down on Nikki's head, forcing her throat into the top rope. There's a woman in the crowd yelling for Nikki louder than Brie is. Nikki gets a cartwheeling arm drag off the turnbuckle and a dropkick. Katie throws Nikki over the top rope, and Nikki tries to skin the cat but fails and hits the floor. Katie with a neckbreaker off the ropes for two. Nikki drops to the floor and switches spots with Brie, who comes in feigning injury and then hits Katie with an X-Factor for the win.

WINNER: Nikki Bella in 3:00. Okay match. I hope this leads to a feud, because there's really not too many other options on this show presently. The ending was interesting, though it seems more like a heel maneuver to do the bait and switch between the twins.

Ringside: Grisham throws to the terrible Shelton Benjamin promo from last week. Yoshi Tatsu then comes out for action. Man, his music is great. His match is next.

[Commercial Break: One of my favorite parts of this show being on SyFy is that I get to see commercials for the terrible original movies. Like "Sand Serpents," which looks like "Tremors" but with the military.]

Shelton Benjamin comes out as the opposition. Pretty good heat on his entrance.

2 -- YOSHI TATSU vs. SHELTON BENJAMIN

Benjamin looks intense as soon as the bell rings. Tatsu assumes a fighting stance, and Benjamin throws him down hard. Benjamin with a fireman's carry, and then they square off again. Benjamin takes him into the corner and grounds him. A "Yoshi" chant breaks out. Tatsu gets a dropkick on Benjamin and goes for a splash off the ropes, but Benjamin gets his knees up. Benjamin with a clothesline followed by a snapmare and a delayed running elbow. Hard kicks to Tatsu's midsection. Man, Benjamin's getting a lot of offense for Tatsu being so new. Tatsu catches Benjamin off guard with a backslide pin, and Shelton rolls to the outside to regroup. Break time.

[Q2]

[Commercial Break]

Out of the break, Tatsu is on the mat. Benjamin misses with a clothesline and Tatsu hits a cross body block for two. Tatsu goes for a dropkick, but Benjamin crabs the ropes. Benjamin lifts Tatsu into powerbomb position before turning around into an electric chair and dropping Tatsu on the top turnbuckle for two. Benjamin settles into a chinlock. Another "Yoshi" chant. Of note: Striker, for the second week in the row, sounds a little bit off, though not nearly as lethargic as last week. Benjamin locks in a camel clutch, which eventually gets another chant going in Tatsu's favor.

Tatsu gets a kick to the ribs, but Benjamin catches his leg on the second attempt, and after a round of counters Tatsu gets a victory roll for two. Benjamin comes back with a German suplex. Tatsu gets a kick to the chin after a weird somersault roll out of the corner with Benjamin hooked for another nearfall. Benjamin misses a stinger splash, which allows Tatsu to get a springboard spinning heel kick off the top rope for another nearfall. Benjamin gets a release belly to belly suplex, but is slow to get up. They both rise at the same time and Benjamin hits the Pay Dirt out of nowhere for the pin and the win. Crowd actually pops for Benjamin's win quite a bit.

WINNER: Benjamin in 10:00. Started off slow, but a really strong second half out of the break. I can see why Benjamin went over in this one, as he could be a big-time player on ECW. However, he got in a pretty large amount of offense in this one, and while Tatsu looked good, it wasn't quite the showcase I was somewhat expecting. The crowd was huge behind Tatsu for this only being his second WWE appearance, so I'm curious to see where they take him from here.

A Vladimir Kozlov promo video airs. He's shown exercising a lot. Tonight, it's him and Christian.

[Commercial Break]

Raw Rebound: Ted DiBiase Sr. hosts Raw. HHH-Cena gets the dramatic music treatment.

[Q3]

Ezekiel Jackson is on his way out. The designated jobber only gets his name flashed for a split-second. Jackson gets a quick insert promo about his name being the most important thing in WWE.

3 -- EZEKIEL JACKSON vs. JACK MERIDOL

Meridol kicks Jackson in the chin, but Jackson presses him and rams him into the corner. Jackson gets a bearhug and then rams Meridol into another corner. There's a bit of Meridol getting tossed around like a rag doll. This guy is selling Jackson's punches like he's being shot. Huge clothesline. Jackson ends things with a uranage. A couple guys used versions of that finisher last week.

WINNER: Ezekiel Jackson in 2:00. Good showcase for Jackson. I don't know if he's just been gone a while, but I don't remember him being that massive. Mostly the typical monster squash stuff.

Backstage, a girl is about to fall off a ladder, but The Hurricane rescues her. Tiffany looks around confused. There is a such thing as tape replay, guys. Just saying. That being said, I'm psyched for Hurricane to be back.

Up next: the Abraham Washington show with Tommy Dreamer guesting. I maintain that despite the fiasco last week, Washington has some potential. This should be a better gauge of whether he's got it or not.

[Commercial Break]

Video: They recap Hurricane's rescue.

In-ring: Abraham Washington is out with his interview show setup. The crowd is not being kind. He says after last week, everybody is talking about him. Well, yeah, in a way. He makes a Snoop Dogg joke. Ehh. Right after that, he kicks over to introducing Tommy Dreamer. A faint "ECW" chant breaks out. Washington compliments Dreamer on being the biggest superstar in ECW history. That becomes a fat joke in no short order. More weight jokes. Dreamer fake laughs and then cringes at the hard camera. That was kind of funny. Washington: "How's that gastric bypass working out for you?" Dreamer: "About as well as this show is going for you." Point: Dreamer.

Washington asks what it's like to be a senior citizen in ECW. Dreamer gives the serious ECW love promo, naming Mysterio, Punk, Jericho, Bourne, Kingston, Swagger and last Eddie Guerrero, who gets a big pop, as having come through ECW. Washington asks who Dreamer's toughest opponent was, guessing Jenny Craig. Dreamer: "That's funny coming from a guy who looks like he spray-painted his hair on tonight." Dreamer riffs on Washington's hair for a little while, getting better one-liners in than Washington's stuff. Washington asks who he's predicting as the winner tonight, and Dreamer picks Christian.

[Q4]

Cue Kozlov's music. Kozlov stares down Dreamer with a vague smile on his face. Washington tries to intervene by sucking up to Washington. Kozlov smiles to the crowd. Alright, now the experiment is on the wane. Washington wasn't really much better this week, even with a very game Dreamer to play off. Dreamer was funnier than Washington, which is kind of a death knell for this character. He's just so hokey in this role that even if that's part of the deal, the crowd is going to hate him in the "get out of the ring" kind of way. The ending worked fine, and I like Kozlov's whole jovial warrior schtick; it gives him dimension beyond another WWE monster heel.

[Commercial Break]

Very little time left in the hour. Christian comes out with Kozlov already in the ring, and Dreamer is super-hyped on ringside commentary. A little bit cheesy, but he's putting over Christian really nicely.

4 -- CHRISTIAN vs. VLADIMIR KOZLOV - #1 Contender's Match

Kozlov gets the advantage to start. Kozlov with a hard arm drag. Christian sidesteps Kozlov, but goes down on a fireman's carry. Dreamer doing a huge job putting over Kozlov on commentary. Kozlov misses a corner tackle and gets a hard uppercut. Kozlov comes back with a big boot. Kozlov with a modified torture rack. Christian low-bridges Kozlov over the top rope and then dropkicks him off the apron to the floor. Christian goes to charge Kozlov on the apron again, but Kozlov hits him in the gut and back body drops him all the way to the floor. Back in the ring, Kozlov gets a two count. Back to the torture rack, but Christian squirms out, only to take a fallaway slam for two. Kozlov gets a bearhug around the abdomen.

Kozlov with a different version of the torture rack, but Christian goes to set up for the Kill Switch, only to be forced to the corner. Christian attempts a tornado DDT, but Kozlov throws him off. Christian misses a couple clotheslines before Kozlov throws him back to the outside. Christian gets slammed onto the apron, but runs Kozlov into the ring post. Christian goes up top and dropkicks Kozlov in the ring. Two count. Christian goes to the second rope, but gets stopped. Kozlov puts him back in torture rack position, though Christian takes a turnbuckle pad with him, and drops to his knees for a backbreaker. Two count. Christian runs Kozlov into the exposed turnbuckle and hits the Kill Switch for the pin and the win.

WINNER: Christian in 5:00. Good while it lasted, though the match felt really rushed. The pacing of this last twenty minutes of the show was really weird, because they did everything to set up a Dreamer-Kozlov match at the PPV and then had Christian win the title shot. Either they're building to a Summerslam program or they just don't know where they're going right now. Both seem possible.

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