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6.27.2007

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!


7 comments: on "Tha TNE Throwaway: Let Tha Healing Begin"

Downtown said...

Thanks for taking the reigns this week DJB... I greatly appreciate it... great job... Time Warner Cable has been screwing me out of some great wrestling programs as of late... and missing a 2 out of 3 falls match between Burke and Punk is just about enough to make me kick that fucking cable box into the fucking street... once again great job... thanks

Anonymous said...

First, let me start by saying great article. Second, damn did ECW have a hell of a show or what?! That's what sports entertainment is all about. They didn't need out of control unrealistic storylines, they had talent. I know alot of the "Front Office" I'm sure, believes that fans don't have the attention span for real matches like these, but they proved it tonight. What a great event. I thought John Cena even looked great, and I despise him. Cena and Nitro was a pleasure to watch, both looked awesome. This farther cements in my mind that ECW is the new number 1 show. They got young guys who breath a life into this buisness, you don't see Elijah Burkes types on Raw. Or types like CM Punk. Maybe I'm being a mark but I love the new face of ECW. Without Lashley as champ, these dudes actually got something to fued over, I love it. Hopefully in the near future the ECW strap will be thought of on the level of the other two big ones instead of being a glorified US Title.

Anonymous said...

great article djb

A im currnetly filming aproject in my hometown going around to the diffrent school while i was at one the school the topic came up of who was the best super hero of all time and every kid in the class said John Cena wow kids wow not only that but john cena would fu superman and beat up spider man cuase john cnea was in the marines and hmmmmm

Tim Haught said...

Last night when Nitro flipped out of the FU and did that kick, both actual moves looked good, but they happened at this awkwardly slow pace. I thought the way he tapped at the finish also looked weird.

His promo backstage was really vanilla and he looked uncomfortable. I like Nitro, but I don't think he's ready to be a "World" champion yet. Especially now that we know that a certain other guy isn't going to be swooping in to take the title anytime soon, I think the ECW title has been devalued the most it has been since it's reintroduction, and that's really saying something.

WWE basically needs to have another draft, sending a few established vets to work with these ECW guys, and then a few guys with some star power to keep the ratings up.

I think Carlito, Jeff Hardy, and Super Crazy would all make great fits on this brand.

Downtown said...

Good call DJB, I just checked out the Burke v Punk match; and the back and forth pinning combos before the final pinfall was practically a mirror to Benoit and Malenko at the Hog Wild PPV.

Anonymous said...

Great article. Maybe last nites ECW is a look at things to come. Lets hope so.

Anonymous said...

Tim *cough cough*, I know that the promo was vanilla *cough cough*, but hell everybody knows that Nitro has a cold *cough cough*.

Seriously though, sure the promo sucked, but as far as having IT, Nitro's pretty close. Nitro could benefit greatly from Armando Estrada if he does come to ECW.

However, Nitro can improve, but Nitro is one of those rare guys-like Orton-who gets shit over with facial expressions.

The ECW World title was only devalued during the Bobby Lashley-Vince-Lashley strip fiasco. RVD's near month was great, if only for nostalgia. Big Show's 5 months were great HEEL months as champ.

The E tried to put Lashley over and have him be the new face and face of ECW. It didn't work and the E new that. The E put it on Vince so Lashley could be the FACE of all FACES-a la Stone Cold, but that didn't work. So they took the belt off of Lashley and and used it for what it is.

The ECW World Championship, while I would like for it to, will never be on the level as the WWE and World Championships. ECW is OVW TV with flashy entrances and a cool entrance way.

While certain guys would benefit from going to ECW, and certain guys in ECW would benefit from other guys coming in, but right now the E needs to keep the talent they have in ECW where it is. They could put one top name or great worker over there as attempted earlier, but they should carefully place that person.

It should be a person who could get others over and not look bad. It should also be a person who can go over and not make others look bad.

Honestly I think John Cena could be that guy, it would serve as a teaching method for Cena to put others over, and not make others look like pure t shit when he goes over.

Glad you all liked the article.