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TV Reports
ECW ROUNDTABLE REVIEWS 10/20: Caldwell, Mayer, Parks rate and review Oct 21, 2009 - 11:00:02 PM
Excellent edition of ECW TV this week. How often do you get a potential PPV main event of Chris Jericho vs. Christian on the Tuesday night offering? I have tried and tried to think of the logic behind not announcing, advertising, or even putting any hint on WWE's website this match would be taking place. How do you not advertise Jericho vs. Christian? In any event, it was a treat for loyal ECW viewers and a chance to create regret for those who skipped the show or regularly skip ECW. Perhaps that was the logic to use the "remorse" tool from the toolbox.
Christian looked like a star next to Jericho, who surprisingly was booked to lose clean to Christian. It's no skin off Jericho's back to take a clean loss. He already had an "out" in a storyline sense that he wasn't prepared to face Christian, so he couldn't be expected to win the match. Plus, I thought for sure interference was coming from Regal & the Roundtable. Same with the Ryder vs. Yoshi match. Surprisingly, no involvement from Regal's Men in either match. There, I just bumped up my rating from 8.0 to 8.5.
Shelton Benjamin showed great fire in his home state attacking Sheamus when Sheamus was acting like an awesome heel by pulling up twice on pin attempts. Now, if Shelton can translate that fire and energy to the other 51 weeks of the year. Looking forward to this feud developing as well as next week's Christian vs. Yoshi title match.
Dominick Mayer, PWTorch.com Contributor (7.5)
So apparently a Chris Jericho-Christian match isn't worthy of promotion. Between that and the (SPOILER) total rebuilding of Smackdown's PPV team, I have to wonder exactly what this company is thinking right now. The match itself was great, though it seemed like it had sort of been thrown together last-minute. The bigger thing, which I couldn't be prouder of, is that Yoshi Tatsu is now the #1 contender to the title, purely because of crowd reaction and a string of strong matches. Watching this, I can't help but be sad to think what Evan Bourne could have done had he not been moved. Also, I want to acknowledge the Shelton-Sheamus segment, as Shelton showed great intensity. With both him and Goldust in mind, I think it's time to acknowledge that maybe Sheamus is bringing the best out of some of the veterans on this show.
Greg Parks, Torch Columnist (7.0)
I wish they hadn't given away Christian vs. Jericho with no hype; with their history, they really could've had a good video package made up to preview the show. Still, the match was very good and I thought Christian going over clean was a good decision. I'm not thrilled about Yoshi Tatsu getting a title shot already; he just doesn't excite me, but I'm in the minority, because he always gets great crowd reactions. And it's nice to see WWE pushing some fresh talent, even if it is only on the ECW brand.
I did like Jericho's interaction with some of the ECW stars. Sheamus getting attacked by Shelton furthered that feud nicely. In addition to Paul Burchill's improved in-ring work, he's really starting to find his groove as far as a look goes. I liked his segment as well, even though I didn't totally get Hurricane sending someone out to pretend to be him and get un-masked, only to come out himself anyway. Still didn't prove that Gregory Helms isn't Hurricane.
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