Matt Michaels, with tremendous forethought, IMed me at about 11:45 pm to do a column on ECW. Of course, I hadn’t taped ECW in about six months. Luckily for him, last Sunday at the Judgment Day PPV, Widro convinced me it was the best show I wasn’t watching. He made the following argument:
“It’s nothing but scrubs doing ridiculous things. It’s great.”
Well, with that kind of endorsement, how could I refuse? I mean… watchable television is ending in the next couple of weeks. Might as well watch something, right?
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1) I never noticed this before, but with a hat on and his lips puckered up, the Miz looks like Jonathan Papelbon.
2) As I understand it, a lot of people don’t like The Miz because he was an annoying announcer on Smackdown. As I went about four years without watching Smackdown he’s as new to me as this Kofi Kingston chap. I dig the promo work.
3) Mike Adamle is not great… but I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for now. The problem is that they have him paired with the worst color guy in the WWE (not in wrestling… that would handily be Don West). Adamle is at least as good as Michael Cole with about four years less seasoning. They should have used Foley for ECW and moved Tazz back to Smackdown. Foley probably could have covered Adamle’s rough weeks better than Tazz.
4) An “ECW” match ended because Kane refused to release a hold in the ropes. I’m quickly reminded why I gave up on this show. I didn’t watch Heat when it was on MTV, why am I going to watch Heat with its own world title on Sci-Fi?
5) This came up during Judgment Day. You’re a band who no one has ever heard of. The WWE makes your single the theme song of a Pay Per View. And you’re going to give me “Song Coming Soon on iTunes”? What does it take… ten seconds to get a song on iTunes? If Zididada has a manager, they fire and sue them.
6) I legitimately thought Shelton Benjamin killed Kofi Kingston during their match. He did a move where he Snake Eyesed Kingston’s knee. You can imagine how Kingston came down to the mat from that. I thought it was all over.
7) I see that Kingston is not yet over enough that his gimmick moves automatically hit. He tried to whatever his version of the People’s Elbow (the Boom-Boom Legdrop?) and was caught and rolled up.
8) Colin Delany is this new ECW’s version of Mikey Whipreck, I presume?
9) Kelly Kelly not only has a name (K-squared) but a finisher (The K2… basically a Fame-asser)… that she executed well? Crazy.
10) And unfortunately, I didn’t realize that ECW doesn’t fit into the one-hour given by Sci-Fi so some indeterminate amount of time was cut off the ending. I guess ECW on Sci-Fi ends like Raw and not like Smackdown. My bad.
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Resounding “meh.” Much like when I was watching this show originally I really, really want to like it but by throwing the ECW shield on it I invariably compare it to something it isn’t. For me, the ECW brand still hurts this show more than it helps.
Daniels’s 10 Thoughts columns are cross-posted on The Wrestling Blog.
