Tha TNE Throwaway: Let Tha Healing Begin

I will start this off much like Vince McMahon did...by saying that this edition of "Tha TNE Throwaway" will begin the healing process.

I will also give tons of credit to Vince McMahon for immediately scrappinhis "death" angle. Also, the murder mystery of it all, and continuing by allowing, as he said, the WWE superstars to do what they do best...entertain us.

On an entertainment note, ECW opened their show last night with a match between two fine entertainers in their own right. Johnny Nitro VS. John Cena. This is a match we've seen before, as a matter of fact, Johnny "don't call me Monday" Nitro's first match after his move to "Raw" in '06 was against John Cena.

Nitro was also a key player in the K-Fed angle, which heavily included John Cena. Duh. I know that most of us O-sters are quick to lift the leg and piss on the workrate and entertainment ability of Cena. More on that in a second. But, what better way to get Johnny Nitro re-over (is that a word? It is now!) than to put him against WWE's #1 guy.

Nitro will get over with the marks by going toe to toe with John Cena. He'll get over with the smarks by outworking John Cena. While Dan-e-o, Donnie and myself are all well-known Cena bashers, I will take a step back and look at this objectively. John Cena is one of the hardest working men in sports entertainment.

John Cena has earned the spot he currently has. No, it wasn't due to his workrate. It was by him getting himself over. The man flew to Australia to film a movie and only missed a month of competition. He flew back just to make WWE "SmackDown!" TV tapings. He then flew back to work on his movie again. Other than that, his rapper gimmick was awesome, and if you don't believe me, then you can choke on...DEEZ NUTS.

In a span of three years, John Cena went from being a revered entertainer to a despised wrestler. That last part only really carries weight in the land of the smarks. Sure smarks hate that he cannot wrestle, and truly, honestly, he is far from good, but he is about average. He's better than Hulk Hogan, but not as good as The Rock.

He's better than Andre The Giant, but not as good as Steve Austin. He's that kind of guy. He's the kind of guy, who can have one half of the audience ready to fight the other half because those are how strong the opinions of him are.

Win, lose or draw, before Cena and Nitro walked out from behind that curtain last night, Johnny Nitro's status was elevated. Kudos to John Cena for not being stingy, and giving the rub to Nitro. Joey Styles said it best when he said that if Nitro were to win, it would be bigger than the win he got at Vengeance that brought him the ECW World Championship.

Didn't Mike Awesome almost bring the ECW Championship to Nitro? Anyway, Johnny Nitro is on the level of Shelton Benjamin as far as pure athleticism goes. Michaels had the same counter, but to his credit, Cena threw Michaels to his feet. Johnny Nitro tapped out to the dreaded STFU...what a bad way to start off an ECW Championship reign, huh? No, not really.

As I said, in the land of marks, Nitro tapping out to the STFU is basically doing something that Triple H once did. Shawn Michaels did it. Kurt Angle did it. Several top names in the WWE have done it. Even more have fallen at the feet of Cena via the FU. So, this does not hurt Johnny Nitro. In the eyes of many, it further elevates him.

Matt Striker and Roddy Piper. What an odd pairing. But also an intruiging one. Matt Striker is one of the most talented mic men in the E. On a side note, bravo to the WWE superstars for either jumping to ECW for tonight's show, and to the legend Roddy Piper for showing up as well. Another thank you to WWE for dropping storylines, and angles for the time being, and doing what Vince said, just entertaining us. "The Mark, Matt." A quote that will live in infamy.

I hope Roddy can be booked for birthday gigs, cause I definently want to get him in for my girlfriend's birthday on August 31st. Joey Styles, "Cakefight, cakefight." What a dream team by the way, The Boogeyman and The Hot Rod. While I'm sure Matt had a "birthday" celebration planned, and tequila may have been involved, I don't think that many worms were planned on. "Have his cake and eat worms too". Joey Styles, comedic gold, get the DVD in stores everywhere soon. Ohhhhh myyyyy Goooooooodddd!

WWE managed to pull a good main event out of ECW last night: CM Punk VS. Elijah Burke in a 2 out of 3 falls match. These matches are highly underrated. Especially considering that 2 out of 3 falls was the standard for wrestling matches of yesteryear. They are also especially good when they involve two guys who can flat out go. Punk and Burke are definitely those two guys.

By the way, Tazz wasn't actually that terrible on commentary tonight. Which is hard for me to admit. Tazz isn't that bad at putting guys over, he's just terrible with the english language.

The Burke-Punk #1 Contenders match was an interesting matchup. We've seen it before, but this time it meant a little more. It also serves as the springboard for another interesting matchup. CM Punk VS. Johnny Nitro in a rematch for the ECW Championship. With some build and TIME, it could be a good one.

Now, Elijah Burke VS. Johnny Nitro for the ECW Championship is also an intruiging match. Two very atheletic guys, who both have, "the look." On a side note, I love hearing Joey Styles say, "four knuckles upside your head."

One gripe I have with 2 out of 3 falls matches is though, is that the falls are rarely split 1-1-1. It's usually a 1-2 deal, and that takes away a little from the match in my eyes. It isn't bad every once in a while, but mostly every time it is loser gets the first pinfall, and the winner gets final two. The winner winning the first two falls in an incredible rarity, and when done serves the winner much greater than splitting the falls.

We all know the match I'm talking about. In these 2 out of 3's though, I do like the rollups and out of nowhere pins. Not as the decisive pin, but as A pin. It makes the next pinfall all the more meaningful. The move Burke used where he spun Punk around to sitting on the second rope facing the crowd, and the throw to the mat was a great move...as is the hanging elbow.

Is "now or never" an overused quote in wrestling? Shouldn't it usually be, now or next month or the one after? These two cats put on one helluva match, that did exactly what Vince promised. This was another one of those rare situations that the E puts us in when win, lose or draw in the ring, the fans win out. Unless of course Elijah Burke's wisdom beads blinds CM Punk...but that my friends is neither here nor there.

To me, it appeared that Punk and Burke called a little of this match in the ring, which if this is true, shows that WWE is gaining more and more faith in both of these guys. Last night's ECW main event had several falsies which added more and more to the story being told in the ring. Yet another thing these two young guns do well.

I do think that the exchange of pinfalls near the end of the match damn near mirrored the Chris Benoit-Dean Malenko match from HogWild '96 and may have actually been a nice way of quietly still recognizing Benoit's greatness. CM Punk is again the #1 contender although at Vengeance he was like the #1-1/2 contender since it was a vacant title, so is this his first time as a #1 contender?

This week's ECW was quite a refreshing one. Not only because it ever so briefly took away the thoughts of the Benoit tragedy, but because it did two things we often criticize WWE of not doing: Devoting enough time to wrestling, and getting over the guys that need to be gotten over. Twenty minutes for the first match and nearly thirty for the second. With a ten minute entertainment sequence in the middle. This is what a wrestling show should be like. It was a five star show in my eyes.

This has been "Tha TNE Throwaway" courtesy of The Notorious D.J.B, but don't worry, Jeff Brown will be back soon, and you won't have to read my opinions of the show that is ever so truly his TNE!

Share |