-- 6/30 ECW TV Reax

A.A. Norman of Tulsa, Okla. (9.0): Best: New faces! Worst: Losing previous talent. ECW: Freshness guaranteed! Granted, freshness may also include really, REALLY awful material. However, at least with ECW, you know you're getting to see the future of WWE still in its advent. I loved the opening segment with new guy Yoshi and old guy Shelton, who never seemed to find his niche in working the microphone, but finally seemed to get a crowd reaction with his mockery. Meanwhile, Yoshi won the crowd over too with his quick kick victory. The next guy, Abraham Washington, was the first victim of the fast forward button on my DVR after several stale jokes. Poor guy, he looked so nervous walking down the ramp. Next, as per South Park, it appears that Sheamus is a Ginger Kid, not a Daywalker. I guess this is why they had to get rid of Finlay to Smackdown and Hornswoggle to Raw? Only room for one Irish guy? Anyway, I thought the last one, T-Rex or whatever his name was, was Ricky Ortiz with a new look. I guess we'll have to tune in Thursday for his real debut? Overall, good show except for the Abraham Washington-Bella Twins segment that lasted far too long and fell really flat. I'm not sure if the blame is on the new guy or the writers for that.

Josh Rollins (8.0): Best match: Tag Team Main Event. Worst: Sheamus vs. Oliver John. Comments: great show! I love the new superstars. Yoshi took Shelton's head clean off in what I actually find to be a great booking decision. Hopefully the booking doesn't screw it all up in future weeks. Mr. Washington is awesome! He's like The Ladies Man, and I hope the cheese just keeps on coming. The main event was what it was supposed to be and made me glad Regal is on the show. It was the best part of the night, but barely. The new superstars are going to own ECW very soon and I'm ready for it.

Terrie Neilson of Las Vegas, Nev. (9.0): Best: Kozlov/Regal vs. Christian/Dreamer. Worst: Sheamus vs. Jobber. The score may look a little high considering that ECW got fairly gutted for the trade. But it's for the fact that ECW made the most of their situation in a way that didn't look defeated. Tiffany had one of her best mic days greeting the crowd and announcing about the trades and New Superstar Initiative kicking in some new roster talent. What the hell is Shelton Benjamin doing in ECW? And jobbing on his first night, no less. Abraham Washington talks pretty smooth, but the crowd crapped on his material. Don't exactly blame them. The segment was also too long with said crapped on material. I'm fair skinned, but even I'm not as pale and fair-skinned as Sheamus. Comparing him to some of the other recent newbies, he fares on the low end in terms of impressive starts. Yoshi is already on the road to being the next Funaki at this point. Yoshi got all of one move in for his first match, so both he and Sheamus are a "we'll see..." list. This Tyler fellow seems to be good on the mic, but we'll have to see come Thursday. If it wasn't for the fact that the Raw replay had major ECW ramifications I'd say replace it with the Zack-Tyler match and let's see for ourselves now. The main event had a lot going for it. The crowd was hot for it (after having sat on its hands for Sheamus's match). William Regal seemed to most motivated I've seen of him in a really long time. Striker touting his total title wins marks the first good push in a while, too. And there was this Kozlov-Regal dynamic that was fun to watch. The snooty Brit gets upstaged (a different form of embarrassment) by a seemingly oafish Russian. Kozlov pins Dreamer that is given the feel of title contention after the match. Regal's missing the top title among his accolades. And with one wrestler to come in, the trade gives Dreamer some new opponents for the title. Bourne's, Swagger's, and Henry's departures seem like a curse to ECW, but already ECW has found some silver lining to the clouds.

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