ECW 10/17
ECW got back to being a decent wrestling show on Tuesday night on Sci-Fi, and one week after non-stop sluts that stopped any momentum that show may have had, this week there was no sign of any females nor skin that distracted from some pretty good in-ring performances. The main event was well booked as Big Show took on Rob Van Dam with the stip that if RVD lost he would never get another title shot. It was obvious booking that set up a win for RVD and an upcoming title shot at the ECW PPV in December that should mean Van Dam getting the belt back, but it was pretty good nonetheless. The end of the match with Test and Hardcore Holly getting involved was predictable, but again, I could buy it and the shot that Show took to eventually lead to the loss was pretty hardcore.
The other main event between Sandman and Matt Striker in a Singapore Cane Match was somewhat weak, but Striker did take some pretty sick cane shots, as expected, before he eventually called it quits and took the countout loss. Despite being long in the tooth and well past his prime, they seem to do a good job keeping Sandman fresh with different opponents, and I personally like what they have done with Striker in making him seem much bigger than what he is. There are a few guys that have really benefited from ECW, and Striker is for sure one of them.
CM Punk continued his rise with a submission win over Rene Dupree. Looks like Punk will continue to get a major push, and now his program with Mike Knox can really get into high gear. Not sure how good Knox is when the spotlight is on him, but with Punk in the mix, these matches should be at least decent to good. As for Dupree, he cannot seem to escape the doghouse that he was in back in the SmackDown days when he was losing to John Cena.
The two other matches on the show saw Test beat Balls Mahoney, which was a decent match, and Sabu beat on Shannon Moore and eventually got a pinfall win. Sabu continues to deliver week in and week out, and Moore continues to pretty much come across as a major jobber. Test looks like he is headed for the program with Bob Holly, as he stated that Holly is due to be back on TV next week, despite the fact he was on the show during the main event.
All in all, it was nice to see them get back to wrestling, and not just exposing sluts the whole night. I did forget that they did debut Rebecca DiPetro as a new backstage interviewer, which totally came across as lame as she was about the worst person they could have ever brought in to ever do an interview. Rumors had her for awhile hooked up with Batista while the Diva search was going on, and you have to wonder if they are still linked up if he had anything to do with her getting back on TV. Despite that, it was good to see them get back to what made the show good the past few weeks until last week - and that is solid wrestling top to bottom.
