[Fire-Babe]

From your source of wrestling hype: www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/preview/

Preview:
Brothers dominate Backlash

The Brothers of Destruction kept the gold in their family at Backlash on Sunday, as Kane retained the ECW Championship by defeating Chavo Guerrero and Undertaker held on to the World Heavyweight Championship with a victory over Edge.

While Guerrero was assisted by his bodyguard, Bam Neely, in his attempt to win back the ECW Championship, their efforts weren’t strong enough for the Big Red Machine. Kane carried his dominance from the Land of the Extreme to Baltimore’s 1st Mariner Arena and proved he won’t be stopped when it comes to ECW gold.

Now, just days later on ECW on Sci Fi, the fiery champion will face both these foes again - in a Handicap Match. Can Kane overcome the combined force of the "Mexican Warrior" and his girthy bodyguard, Bam? Or might these odds be too great for even the Big Red ECW Champion to endure?

Also at Backlash, ECW beauties and rivals, Kelly Kelly and Layla, faced off during the 12-Diva Tag Team Match. A tough and tenacious Layla found herself in the victorious corner, alongside Beth Phoenix, Natalya, Victoria, Jillian and Melina. Kelly Kelly’s athletic and acrobatic contributions to her team were impressive, but not enough to help earn her squad a victory, as Michelle McCool, Cherry, Ashley, Maria and Women’s Champion Mickie James were defeated when Phoenix pinned Ashley. The rivalry between Layla and Kelly Kelly only seems to be escalating, but what is next for these two Extreme Divas? Will either of the former friends come out on top?

On ECW, Shelton Benjamin fell short of delivering Kofi Kingston his first loss since joining the Land of the Extreme. Can anyone slow down the Jamaican Superstar? Has Benjamin lost his credibility as the self-proclaimed “Gold Standard” of ECW?

Half of the WWE Tag Team Champions, John Morrison, was another Superstar who was taken by surprise with a loss. Jimmy Wang Yang delivered a crushing blow to the Shaman of Sexy, adding to the WWE Tag Team Champions’ stretch of inconsistency. Will Morrison & The Miz find a way to rebound?

Find out the answers to all of these questions and more on ECW on Sci Fi, Tuesday at 10/9 CT.

Or just join in your friendly neighborhood punshouse chat and read the awesome recap.....

[Fire-Babe]

Rumor from PWI has it there is drama at the announce table. We shall see.

Live-ish from Atlantic City.

Match 1: Shelton Benjamin v. Kofi Kingston

We start with chatting instead of wrestling. Kofi's luck is about to run out, according to Shelton. Shelton dominates early getting several two-counts. He gets Kofi on the turnbuckle, but then Kofi pushes him off. Kofi flies high and lands on Shelton for two but Kofi kicks out. Adamle is not doing so bad on commentary, although there are many points of silence...which is actually kind of nice. Kofi hits his big roundhouse kick, and goes for the pin. And his luck continues. Winner Kofi Kingston.

Match 2: Tommy Dreamer w/the Lovely Miss Colin v. Mike Knox, all alone

Kind of a repeat from last week. But then Knox is bored with dreamer. so goes outside to throw Colin into the steps. Dreamer is not pleased and defends Colin with a baseball kick. Knox recovers to throw tommy into the ring pole, and tosses him back in. Knox gets the roll up cover. Winner: Mike Knox

Matt Striker is back to his teacher gimmick, and he... quotes Rush??? First, he screws it up. Geddy Lee may have sung it, but Neil Peart wrote it. Second, he should never EVAR do that AGAYN.
He introduces Mick Foley, in his new position as Smackdown commentator. Striker gives him pointers on his appearance, which is amusing for someone whose wrestling attire leaves very little to the imagination, on a regular basis. After some more scintillating conversation, Mr. Socko makes an appearance, and does what Mr. Socko does best. Foley: "Class Dismissed! Have a nice day!"

Again, Adamle not being terrible...

Match 3: CM Punk v. Chuck Palumbo

Palumbo has been demoted both to ECW and denied the full ride the bike around the ring gimmick. They start more or less just pushing each other around. Adamle comments on the size of the referree....okay. Punk lands some VERY nice kicks on Palumbo. Palumbo catches one from the corner and uses it to pull Punk into a clothesline. Palumbo is then in charge, and gets Punk into a chinlock. Punk gets out and then tossed into the corner. Palumbo lands a HUGE right, followed by two that may not have been real. The ref pulls him off, which allows Punk to come out and push Palumbo in the corner and try to also land some punches, but again the ref interferes. We go to another corner for some more fairly real looking punches. The ref tries to break it up, but no dice, so he calls for the bell. Winner via DQ: CM Punk

After the bell, CM Punk gets in Palumbo's face and decide the match should continue. So it does. Palumbo finally lays Punk out, his music is cued, even though he lost by DQ.

Match 4: Chavo Guerrero/Bam Neely v. Kane

In the middle of the entrances, Mike Adamle gets up and leaves. Mid-sentence even....? WTF? Tazz recovers, or attempts to. Then, after Kane comes out... Tazz leaves? Also almost mid-sentence. Okay, I smell 'shenanigans,' not drama.

Kane with early offense, totally manhandling Chavo. He picks Chavo up and tosses him around like a rag doll. Chavo kind of recovers, but then Bam grabs his foot and pulls him down, under the ropes and out of the ring. Bam starts to take off his shirt, it looks like, but we fade to commercial, sans announcers.

Back from commercial, Kane and Chavo are back in the ring, but with no one to tell us what just happened, we don't know how. Chavo tags in Neely, who takes it to Kane. Punchies back and forth. Neely tags Chavo back in. He charges at Kane, and gets tossed over the rope. Kane tosses him back in the ring. Chavo can get nothing going. Neely pulls Kane of the side of the apron and he appears to injure his LEFT leg (in case it becomes relevant which leg it is later). Chavo takes the opportunity to then slide out of the ring and work the LEFT leg. Tag in of Neely, and we go to the split screen replay, with no one to actually talk about it! Ha!

Neely dominates Kane into the corner, where Chavo can attempt to choke him with the tag rope. Doesn't work, so he tags Chavo back in. Chavo wraps the LEFT leg around the ropes. Kane recovers enough to lift Chavo up and tries for a double-handed choke slam, but his LEFT knee is too weak and he collapses. Kane is down, and Chavo is down. Chavo recovers first and goes towards Kane, who Zombie Sit-ups right into Chavo's face, almost. Chavo is SHOCKED! Kane's knee has recovered enough he can run into Chavo into the corner. Sidewalk slam, but the count is broken up by Neely. Kane has Neely in the corner and does all his big man moves on him. Neely is down, and Kane goes to the top turnbuckle. FLYING LARIAT! Chavo comes in and Kane sets him up for the choke slam, but Neely kicks out Kane's LEFT knee. Neely tags in Chavo who goes up top for Uncle Eddie's Frog Splash. He gets the pin. Winners Bam Neely and Chavo Guerrero

They run the replay as they normally would. No announcers. And that would be that.

[Tommy]

Placeholder for "Kofi Kingston is Jumpy" comment.

--

Kofi Kingston is awfully jumpy.

[Fire-Babe]

okay, look, not everyone got on board with the placeholder thing last time and replaced their placeholders with actual content. let's see if we can get 100% participation in it this time!

[jetskid48]

Placeholder for 'ECW should just die' post-show comment...

Except it doesn't have to be edited because it'll always remain true.

[Lucky]

Oh crap, they're continuing the Kane/Chavo feud? Of course they are. What was I thinking? Its fucking ECW. And I can look forward to more Kelly/Layla feud! That's it, I'm gonna find something to do tonight so I don't watch ECW.

I'll see you all in chat when my mission fails.

[Attitude Adjuster]

This will be the "Was there anything worth watching on ECW this week? And if not, why do I keep Tivoing it?" placeholder.

(Yep, this looks like it was worth watching, if only for the announcers.)

[Fire-Babe]

Just be sure to not read the recap

[derfsucks]

Bloody hell, this HD thing still messes with me. This entire show thus far (through the Dreamer/Knox match) looks like it's being run through that lame-ass stop-action effect they use for Morrison's ring entrance.

EDIT: Chuck Palumbo.

CHUCK F@%KING PALUMBO?!?!?!?!?!

I think my ECW watching days just got shorter.

EDIT #2: OK. I actually thought the Regal thing in the main event last night on RAW was funny as hell. This main event announce shit is just lame tonight on ECDub, though. My Tuesday night viewership devotion wanes badly right now, even with my loudly professed manlove for CM Punk.

[jetskid48]

Two horribly stupid main event situations in a row.

[Byrntrigan]

Maybe on Smackdown they'll have a fire in the rafters and have the announce team call the "action" about the fire and profess to be real newsmen while the fans exit the arena

[Lucky]

PSHH. That would be totally bush league.

[Byrntrigan]

Dude. That's an EXALT right there! ;D

[Concrete TG]

Apr 29, 2008 11:18:21 GMT -5 Fire-Babe said:

Rumor from PWI has it there is drama at the announce table. We shall see.

And people gave me "Duh"s when I was surprised that this might not be a work?

WWE is trying to support Adamle to the point of confiscating the "Fire Adamle" signs in the arena. Up until the main event, Adamle was joking around with Tazz and in good spirits.

The timing was awkward, Tazz was confused, and him following Adamle a minute later about it was just weird. When WWE tries to be "shoot-y" it's not this awkward.

Yes, Foley was there - heck, technically Michael Cole was there too, and they could have recorded some match audio to go with it. But, even "Live to tape" as this show is, announcers need prep time (yes, even as natural a speaker as Foley) and anyone else going out there would have taken attention from the match (if Tazz and Adamle leaving wasn't enough to do that).

It was decided, apparently, that if Adamle was having a drama attack they'd just have to "go with it". It's not 100% live, but putting together announcer dialogue with this confusion going on would have been an afterthought.

[Fire-Babe]

Apr 30, 2008 8:19:17 GMT -5 Concrete TG said:

Apr 29, 2008 11:18:21 GMT -5 Fire-Babe said:

Rumor from PWI has it there is drama at the announce table. We shall see.

And people gave me "Duh"s when I was surprised that this might not be a work?

That's you I was quoting And you'll note the every-skeptical 'we shall see' at the end of what is essentially the first line in the recap of a show that hadn't started.

WWE is trying to support Adamle to the point of confiscating the "Fire Adamle" signs in the arena. Up until the main event, Adamle was joking around with Tazz and in good spirits.

Yes. In fact, I thought he was doing a pretty good job this week.

The timing was awkward, Tazz was confused, and him following Adamle a minute later about it was just weird. When WWE tries to be "shoot-y" it's not this awkward.

If it had just been Adamle, I would have still been uncertain. But what purpose does it have for Tazz to leave as well. Emotional support?

Yes, Foley was there - heck, technically Michael Cole was there too, and they could have recorded some match audio to go with it. But, even "Live to tape" as this show is, announcers need prep time (yes, even as natural a speaker as Foley) and anyone else going out there would have taken attention from the match (if Tazz and Adamle leaving wasn't enough to do that).

Well, we'll have to agree to disagree on that. If Adamle had walked out alone, they could have had Foley or Cole down there in the commercial time, make some lame comment like "well, I don't know what's going on there," and continue on, and then leave it in the fine hands of creative to deal with it next week. Yeah, the attention was already gone from the match, so it wouldn't have mattered that much, I don't think.

[bdbdbd]

Apr 30, 2008 8:57:10 GMT -5 Fire-Babe said:

Yes. In fact, I thought he was doing a pretty good job this week.

He was damn near silent this week. Silent isn't better, silent is giving up. He didn't even attempt to call a good half of the Kofi/Shelton match.


They put a story on the website, complete with barbs about fans being disappointed with him. And who "runs" the website? Logically it looks like it leads to Jo-Jo coming back down the line. If that is the plan it would explain why they didn't have the people who are generally already watching on the backstage monitors and talking into the commentators ears fill-in.

[Demko]

I still call bullshit on this. I think they're purposely creating announcer drama on ECW to try and garner interest on what's going to happen next week in the 'Saga of Mike Adamle'. Sad, really, that the WWE has decided to resort to announcer worked-shoot storylines to try and generate ratings, though.

[DevSop]

Can someone use the word impact in their discussion of ECW? No reason I'd want that at all, but I think it makes sense here...or possibly mayhem?

[bdbdbd]

Apr 30, 2008 9:54:43 GMT -5 DevSop said:

Can someone use the word impact in their discussion of ECW?

I would rather watch Impact than ECW?

[Sparty]

GimmickMan's ECW Report

/shameless plug

[Concrete TG]

Apr 30, 2008 8:57:10 GMT -5 Fire-Babe said:

That's you I was quoting And you'll note the every-skeptical 'we shall see' at the end of what is essentially the first line in the recap of a show that hadn't started.

Still researching - PWHeadlines and WrestleZone don't have anything yet either. Sorry to blow up on my own quote :-/

[bdbdbd]

According to PWInsider they actually didn't go backstage, they did just leave. That's almost interesting.

[Tommy]

The iMPACT that this Mayhem is having is staggering.

[Attitude Adjuster]

Mike Ademle is enough of a professional that he would not leave in the middle of a show. This is a work.

[jetskid48]

Apr 30, 2008 13:10:35 GMT -5 Attitude Adjuster said:

Mike Ademle is enough of a professional that he would not leave in the middle of a show. This is a work.

I'm surprised anyone thought it wasn't. At least after we actually saw it on tv. When Crete said it in the chat before the show started, that was the only point any of us really thought that it had the slightest chance of being true, or at least that's how I thought the chat was feeling.

Either way, I changed it to the SAP and listened to the spanish announcers for the whole main event. They may have blown away all of the announcers in wrestling today....if I had actually understood a word they said.