WWE - ECW on SyFy TV Report
February 16, 2010 - Year 4, Week 37 (Week 193 overall)
Taped in Kansas City, Mo.
By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

After 193 weeks and three-and-a-half years, ECW TV comes to close a tonight with ECW champion Christian vs. Ezekiel Jackson and Unified tag champions The Miz & Big Show vs. Goldust & Yoshi Tatsu. Next week, it's WWE NXT in the timeslot.

The WWE show started with a video package recapping the history of ECW, including some old-school clips from the Original ECW days. And now, "ECW is over," said the voice-over man. They rolled clips on the current ECW with hype for the Christian vs. Jackson match.

Announcers: Josh Mathews and Byron Saxton introduced the final episode of ECW TV. Mathews talked about Variety covering the new NXT show. Tonight, they reveal the cast of NXT. I sure hope Dr. Mike Knox is on the list of "Pros." He's not doing anything anyways. The Pros mentor the Rookies starting next week on the premiere. So, Josh is backstage Raw announcer, but what about Saxton's job? Hm.

In-ring: The Unified tag champs Miz and Big Show came out to start the show with Miz leading the team to the ring. No XXL t-shirt for Show tonight. The announcers voice-overed a video package on how ShoMiz won the tag titles two weeks ago on Raw when DX dropped the titles. Imagine that. No Shawn Michaels on Raw last night, but he's shown on ECW tonight. After the video, Yoshi Tatsu and Goldust came out to challenge for the tag titles.

1 -- Unified tag champions U.S. champion THE MIZ & BIG SHOW vs. YOSHI TATSU & GOLDUST -- Unified tag title match

Goldust and Miz started things off with Goldust running over Miz early and often here. Yoshi and Goldust then combined on a rolling splash to Miz's stomach as Goldust held him over his knees. Nice tag work early on from the challengers, especially Yoshi with the fast-paced offensive attack. Miz had enough and rolled to the outside for a breather. Miz then ran around to his corner and tagged in Big Show, who snuck up behind Goldust for a headbutt. Show then stared down at his foe as they cut to break.

[Commercial Break]

Back from break, Yoshi was in there as Big Show tagged in and Yoshi tried to land kick strikes before Show slapped him across the chest to cut off Yoshi. Miz and Show then exchanged tags working over Yoshi before Goldust hot-tagged into the action to take it to Miz. Show and Yoshi then mixed it up and Show chucked Yoshi over the top rope to the floor. Show then gave Goldust the KO Punch to the gut and Miz followed with the Skullcrushing Finale for the pin and the win.

WINNERS: Miz & Show in 10:00 to retain the Unified tag titles. The right finish with the right man taking the pin. I'm still holding out for a Miz vs. Yoshi U.S. Title feud on Raw post-ECW brand. Fine tag match. (*1/2)

[Q2]

Announcers: Mathews and Saxton talked up NXT as Show and Miz excitedely walked up the ramp with the tag titles in hand. They proceeded to introduce two Pros and two Rookies for the NXT show. Chris Jericho is one Pro. He'll be mentoring Wade Barrett. One Pro is Matt Hardy. He'll be mentoring Justin Gabriel, who is currently the FCW Hvt. champion Justin Angel.

Backstage: ECW GM Tiffany was backstage to address the camera. She said one era comes to a close and another one comes to an end. Tiffany talked up the NXT concept before Zack Ryder interrupted and asked why he's not in the final ECW Title match tonight. Rosa Mendes then interrupted and cut a promo on Tiffany. Tiffany said the answer in any language is no. Ryder said it's Extreme Rules tonight, so he'll make his presence felt no matter what. Woo woo woo. Rosa and Ryder walked, leaving Tiffany with nothing to say in response.

[Commercial Break]

NXT plug: They plugged the NXT season beginning next week on Syfy.

Announcers: Mathews announced MVP as a third Pro. He'll be mentoring Skip Sheffield. The brief bio for the rookies has been awful thus far. Like a really bad two sentence intro on a dating website.

In-ring: Abraham Washington and Tony Atlas on the final ECW TV episode. They were upgraded to the ring this week. Abraham welcomed everyone to the Abraham Washington Show with a purposefully wrong namedrop for St. Louis, which drew boos in KC. Washington said the silver-lining to tonight's show is that he gets to become a free agent and he gets paid. He said Raw and Smackdown are officially going to have to open the bank for him. Washington transitioned to saying he went to Vince McMahon personally to get the biggest star on the WWE roster for the final show. He then stood on the couch to announce the biggest name in sports entertainment...Abraham Washington. Boy, couldn't see that one coming. Abraham started to interview himself, then Shelton Benjamin's music interrupted.

Washington told Shelton that he must not have gotten the memo that he is his final guest on the show tonight. Shelton told Abe to check his tone first. Second, he heard Washington, but let's face it, this show is basically unwatchable when he has a show, so what makes him think anyone wants to watch it when the guest is him. Atlas chuckled in the background. He even chuckled as Shelton said everyone is a free agent. Shelton said he's taking the knowledge from ECW...suddenly Vance Archer's music interrupted to bring out Mr. Intense with a full beard.

Archer stormed the ring and Abraham tried to stand in between them. Abe said he has one week left back on the furniture, so don't do anything stupid. Archer said Shelton better not be on the same show as him in the future or else he won't have a future. Suddenly, some rad music interrupted to bring out Croft and Barreta. Trent said no one cares what show either of them end up on because everyone cares about the 2010 Slammy Award winning team to come. Suddenly, Kozlov's music interrupted and Atlas chuckled. Atlas really could have been useful last night on Raw during Springer.

[Q3]

Kozlov stared into the hard camera and cut a foreign language promo. I thought he was babyface. I give up. Kozlov looked them all down, including Archer, who said no one can understand him. Archer slapped Kozlov and Kozlov responded with a kick into the furniture. Kozlov then ate Trent for dinner with Shelton being the last man standing in the ring with Kozlov. Shelton and Kozlov then shook hands and Kozlov grinned as Abe lamented the damage to his Rent-a-Center goods. Kozlov and Shelton then hugged and celebrated in the ring to conclude the segment.

NXT plug: Pro #4 will be Carlito. That should make for good TV. He'll be mentoring Michael Tarver, who is apparently a KO specialist. Still to come: Christian vs. Jackson for the ECW Title.

[Commercial Break]

NXT plug: Pro #5 will be The Miz. He's mentoring Bryan Danielson a/k/a Daniel Bryan. That's the match-up of The Season to watch.

Elimination Chamber plug: They rolled the classic Elimination Chamber video to hype Sunday's PPV. Mathews and Saxton then broke down the Chamber PPV line-up focusing on the Raw and Smackdown brand Chamber matches. Apparently these will each last longer than the Rumble.

Announcers: Mathews and Saxton were shown on-camera to talk about the NXT concept again. Christian is the next Pro and he will be mentoring Heath Slater, who they called a walking rockband minus the instruments. Nice pairing. Slater has good upside.

In-ring: Christian's music hit to bring out the ECW champion with a shopping cart full of weapons. Christian pointed to the ECW Title belt around his waist as he pointed to the crowd. He then walked into the ring and saluted the crowd one last time on ECW. Christian smiled as the announcers went silent for his music to play once again. The crowd chanted "ECW" one more time as Christian took the mic. Christian said it was a year ago this week when he debuted on ECW and most people said that when he came back, maybe he should have made a bigger impact and somehow being on ECW was like a demotion. He said he never looked at it like that because to him, being in the business for a long time, ECW felt like home. Christian said he took the ball and ran with it. He said he was able to compete against the cornerstone and glue, Tommy Dreamer. Nice pop for the name-drop. Christian said he was able to mentor Yoshi Tatsu and he was able to do most of this as the ECW champ.

Christian said he stands right now the current longest-reigning champion in WWE. He said he fights for every ECW Original who wanted these letters to stand for something. He said he stands for every young wrestler in the back trying to find their way. Chant of "E-C-dub." Christian said ECW goes away tonight and he hopes to be the very last ECW champion in history. Christian then held up the title belt as they cut to break. Excellent promo given a brief spotlight to try to capture the ECW brand and its meaning to so many workers and fans over the years.

[Q4]

[Commercial Break]

NXT plug: Back from break, Mathews plugged Pro #7 being C.M. Punk. He'll be mentoring Darren Young. Mathews said Young possesses immeasurable strength. Interesting no Low-Ki, Brett DiBiase, or Joe Hennig thus far. One of them (or none of them) gets the final slot.

In-ring: Christian stood center-ring with possession of the ECW Title belt leading to Ezekiel Jackson and William Regal coming to the ring. Jackson looks larger every week. He stood in the ring as Savannah picked up the formal ring intros for the final ECW TV match. I hope they find a slot for her. Good voice and confident.

3 -- ECW champion CHRISTIAN vs. EZEKIEL JACKSON (w/William Regal) -- ECW Title match -- Extreme Rules

Ring the bell 51 minutes into the show with Jackson shoving Christian across the ring and yelling that it's his time. Christian brushed himself up and went to his feet where Jackson pounded on him with forearm blows. Christian came back with an open-hand slap and he tossed a charging Jackson through the ropes to the floor. Jackson picked up a trashcan while he was out there and a Kendo stick. Christian then blasted Jackson with the stick before Zack Ryder stormed the ring from behind and tried to attack Christian, who shook it off and dumped Ryder to the floor. Rosa Mendes then entered the ring and slapped Christian. ECW GM Tiffany then stormed the ring and speared Rosa center-ring. Where's the Joey Styles voice-over for this? Tiffany knocked Rosa to the outside and Rosa recovered with Ryder as Tiffany yelled at her not to mess with her. "ECW, ECW" chant as they cut to break.

[Commercial Break]

Back from break, Jackson ran over Christian with a clothesline followed by forearm smashes. Christian came back with a back elbow before going up top, but Jackson shoved him off the top rope to the floor. On the floor, Jackson rammed Christian into the guardrail before realigning the ring steps to send Christian into the steps. Christian then avoided a trashcan shot and proceeded to dropkick the can into Zeke's face. Jackson quickly recovered and tried to use the shopping cart as a battering ram, but Christian moved. Suddenly, Jackson side-stepped a charging Christian and sent him head-first through the gimmicked front-end of the shopping cart like a mailbox. Funny. In the ring, Christian avoided a corner attack and pendulum kicked a can lid into Zeke's face.

[Q5 -- over-run]

At the top of the hour, Jackson clotheslined a trashcan into Christian for a close two count. Jackson then went under the ring looking for...and finding...a table. Jackson and Regal tried to insert into the ring, but Christian dropkicked the table into Regal and Jackson's faces. Christian then put the table in the ring followed by Jackson for a two count on a cover. Jackson suddenly yanked Christian onto the hard end of the table for a two count. Jackson then set up the table and wanted a top rope move ala TLC with Cena vs. Sheamus, but Christian blocked and teased the Tornado DDT. Jackson avoided, then Christian gave him a Kendo Stick shot.

On the floor, Christian chased away Regal, then Christian re-entered the ring and chopped Jackson with the Kendo stick. He then hit a flying European uppercut from the second rope. Regal suddenly re-entered the ring and tried to give Christian the Knee Trembler, but Christian ducked and hit the Unprettier. Christian then turned around and Jackson gave him the uranage through the table in the ring. One, two, three and Jackson is the new ECW champion to retire the show, the title, and the brand. Post-match: Regal was so awesome dropping down to both knees and clutching Jackson's massive leg in victory while still selling the Unprettier. Jackson celebrated with the title belt and Christian sold back pain while still on the table.

WINNER: Jackson in 10:00 to capture the ECW Title. A really strong final match that used the gimmicks, long-standing Christian vs. Regal feud, short-term Ryder & Rosa vs. Tiffany feud, Jackson as a menacing heel, and Christian as a strong babyface to deliver a compelling final ECW TV match. They did enough to give Christian an "out" in losing the title, but it would have been nice if Christian finished ECW as the final ECW champ. We'll see if WWE uses the title change to help build up Jackson on either Raw or Smackdown going forward. (**1/2)

NXT plug: R-Truth is the final mentor and he will be mentoring David Otunga, who is Jennifer Hudson's fiancee. Otunga isn't going by the gimmick name he had in FCW apparently. Mathews gave one final plug for NXT starting next week as they showed Jackson and Regal celebrating on the stage as the final ECW TV shot. The show-closing NXT video package ran through the eight Pros and Rookies with the winner of "The Season" earning a WWE contract.

Final Note: WWE managed to get the entire ECW roster on tonight's show except for "The Hurricane" Gregory Helms and Tyler Reks, who has been in FCW lately.

We welcome your 0-10 score and comments on this show for an "ECW TV Reax" feature in the Torch Feedback section of PWTorch.com. To contribute your thoughts on ECW TV, email to pwtorch@gmail.com using our Feedback form.

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