ECW Recap

Cue the usual "Hulkamania is runnin' wild" spiel to start the show. Swagger is sitting in the middle of the ring. "It's bad enough what happened at Backlash but what happened at Judgment Day is a travesty.

I'm not leaving this ring until I have justice." Swagger sits in his chair and waits patiently as two refs come down the ramp. "You can tell blondie if she wants me out of this ring she can come tell me herself. I'm not budging." After another 30-40 seconds Tiffany finally comes out and walks down to the ring. I don't think the crowd knows what to make of this. "Jack, get out of the ring. Jack, get out of the ring. Jack we can discuss this in my office, get out..."

Swagger: "Am I disrupting your show? TOO BAD. I'm not leaving this ring until you make this right. Christian is walking around with my title and he's never beaten me. He cheated at Backlash and at Judgment Day he cheated AGAIN. That's not fair! And since you like to think you're in charge, I blame you."

Tiffany: "You do not get to take this show hostage." Tiffany: "What are you going to do? I don't have to listen to you. I'll be here a lot longer than you will. Face it Britney Spears, I'm the one these people pay to see. You, you're just a temp. I'm the uncrowned champion!" Tiffany takes his mic. "This temp has the power to make SURE you remain the uncrowned champ, because I will make sure you never get an ECW title shot again. So Jack, you're going to leave this ring, and you're going to leave right now. GO."

Jack very slowly gets up and very slowly starts to walk away. Tiffany apologizes as he walks off and says let's make things right and get started with our first match! She introduces Christian Cage. Cage's music hits and the two exchange looks on the ramp. Swagger shoves him off the rampway to the concrete and Cage takes a bump on his knee, and gets up limping. We go to commercial.

We come back to a promo for Ric Flair on "Raw" next Monday. Apparently he's going to call him out for a "fight" next week.

* Christian 'Captain Charisma' Cage {C} v. 'Pirate' Paul Birchill (w/ Katie Lea) (Non-Title Match)

Christian is still selling his knee in the ring as the ref calls for the bell. Paul gives chases as his "sister" lears at Christian on the outside. Christian with an arm wringer and a double leg takedown from behind but Paul pops right back up. Striker calls Paul a scoundrel of skulduggery on commentary but he's not cheating successfullly, or at least not yet, as Christian takes him down again.

Paul manages to push him backwards into the ropes and the ref calls for a clean break. Christian hits him with an elbow and tries to climb the ropes but Paul sweeps the leg and sends him tumbling, then when they spull outside he throws Christian into the steel steps and he sells the kneecap and the left knee even harder.

Paul keeps working over the knee. Commentary seems awfully quiet as does the crowd. I guess once Vince McMahon told Striker to stop being whacky and making hip-hop and pop culture references, he ran out of things to say. It's kind of sad they would handicap the best announcer they had like that. Paul ties up the leg in some sort of modified figure four but Christian manages to roll and grab the ropes for a clean break.

Christian finally manages to counter into a tornado DDT off the ropes for a near fall, but is getting up slow and selling the knee. High back bodydrop. Christian hobbles over to continue the offense. He seems to be warming up for the Killswitch. Paul whips him into the ropes. Christian fends him off with kicks and then gets a sunset flip for 2.9. Paul clips the leg and goes to pick him up, Christian tries to counter into a Killswitch, Paul counters back into a hard overhead suplex for a near fall.

Paul spears him into the corner, backs up and charges, but Christian kicks him through the ropes and comes off with a flying uppercut. Paul gets up woozy, Christian hits the Killswitch and hooks the leg for three. WINNER: CHRISTIAN CAGE. At least the crowd got into the comeback and the finish. We get a replay of Swagger's attack before the match and highlights of the match itself before the eventual finish.

Christian is interviewed by Josh Mahews: "If Jack Swagger, didn't like what happened at Judgment Day, then he's gonna hate what I'm about to say right now. Three weeks ago in Madison Square Garden, Tommy Dreamer issued a challenge to me, but Swagger interfered and had that match thrown out.

Since then Swagger had his rematch and he lost, AGAIN. So right here right now I'm going to issue a challenge to Tommy Dreamer. I know your contract is up in three weeks, so I'm issuing challenge right here and right now for the ECW Championship." Christian limps around the ring and poses with the belt for the crowd as they hold up their Peep Zone signs. Teaser for David Hart Smith's mach with Finlay later as we go to break.

In Tiffany's office, Swagger is told to take the night off before his mouth gets him in more trouble. Swagger: "Whatever!"

* Zach Ryder v. Adam Green

Ryder has his own theme music now, and Green is already in the ring before the match begins. If those two things don't tell you who's jobbing in this match, nothing will. WOO WOO WOO! Striker tries to put over Green as a master of muay thai but he's a master of getting beaten up by Ryder as they discuss how many friends he has on Facebook.

Ryder grabs the left arm and hits it with kicks, yells out WOO WOO WOO to annoy the crowd then cranks on the neck. Ryder has wrestling trunks with one pant leg on the right. It's weird but at least the purple matches the headband. He hits a finisher that looks like a reverse Playmaker for the three count. WINNER: ZACH RYDER.

They debate about who is a tool before deciding that Adam Green is the tool in the ring and not Ryder before going to highlights of David Hart Smith and TJ Wilson doing the Hart Attack last week, before having their hands raised by Natalya. Backstage Natalya is with both members of the New Hart Foundation.

She tells DH Smith that his father would be so proud of him (Davey Boy Smith a.k.a. the British Bulldog) and he says "Of course he would! After all I'm better than he ever was." She smiles and agrees. I like they are trying to get over a heel faction on ECW, but that felt unnatural and forced. Commercial break.

Replay of Chad Collyer getting beat up by the Moscow Mauler last week when we return from break.

* Vladimir Kozlov

Did they only hire one jobber for the night? He comes out to the top of the ramp dressed in a Russian military uniform straight out of Street Fighter II and cuts a promo in Russian. Couldn't they have Adam Green get squashed again? He finally says in broken english that the Russian army is the best fighting force in the world and he is the best fighting force in ECW, then says something else in Russian, then poses with a sneer on his face as the music plays. In the words of Jack Swagger, "Whatever."

Gregory Helms is outside Tiffany's office. He says Dreamer v. Christian will take place this Thursday on WWE Superstars. Dreamer: "I want to thank Christian for giving me this opportunity. He didn't have to do it, but it shows what kind of man and champion he is. I don't have much time left so I'm not going to waste it, I'm going to use this opportunity to become ECW Champion." From there we throw to Finlay walking to the ring backstage, looking fit and ready (sorry couldn't resist the pun) as we go to commercial.

* David Hart Smith (w/ Natalya & Tyson Kidd) v. Fit Finlay

DH Smith comes out to a remix of Bret Hart's music. I like it. I like it a hell of a lot more than Zach Ryder's pretty boy pop. Finlay comes out to his usual Irish jig. The match gets underway at 10:45 EST, which means this will probably take about 20 minutes of TV time including the overrun. Why they feel the need to have an overrun on ECW is totally beyond me. Finlay is in control early and puts DH in a headlock, then pummels him with punches and uppercuts, then finishes with a hard clothesline, an elbow to the forehead, a hand stomp and a near fall. Finlay even htis a knee lunge to the face. Takedown for a near fall.

DH finally rolls out to get a breather, tries to grab Finlay's leg, but he kicks him off hard and goes out to throw him back in. DH catches him as he comes back in and goes on offense to the applause of Natalya. Finlay gets the advantage back and gets a light crowd chant as Tyson Kidd looks on, knee drop to the left arm, two count. Finlay cranks on him for a submission and the ref asks DH if he wants to quit - he says no of course. DH gets a foot on the rope and Finlay is forced to break. He gets it a second time so Finlay drags him to the center of the ring.

Smith wriggles his way back to a rope break so Finlay drops another knee in his face and works over the left shoulder. The way Natalya slaps the apron sounds like the ref counting a pinfall - she should work on that. Finlay with a nasty backbreaker for two and DH rolls out again. Finlay kicks him in the head and goes out to the floor for more punches, but DH hits a running power slam on the floor that looks a lot like the running power slam his dad used to do. We go to break with Finlay selling on the outside.

We come back at 10:55 and DH is laying into Finlay with impugnity, focusing the brunt of his attack on Finlay's back. He applies a chinlock and asks the ref for a verbal submission, which Finlay of course refuses to give. Tyson Kidd smiles on the outside watching his familia work Finlay over. Running clothesline for two. Striker sells the idea that a taller man's clothesline always hurts more. Finlay is getting his butt kicked every which way from loose.

It seems like the story of the match is going to be 9:30 of one man on offense, 9:30 of the other doing the same, and a minute to take it home in the overrun. On a segue I was talking to a friend of mine at Best Buy today and he said the one WWE show he still likes every week is ECW because they put over the young guys and the new guys. I told him "You'll really like tonight's show then because the main event is DH Smith v. Finlay" and he IMMEDIATELY scoffed. I was surprised, but he told me he's tired of seeing Finlay, even if it is with DH Smith.

I suppose its different strokes for different folks but as I pointed out at the time, who BETTER to put Smith over than a long-time veteran (not to mention technically sound) worker like Finlay? Anyway back to the match - DH goes from a camel clutch to a headlock to a takedown for another near fall. Mathews expresses surprise that anybody would ever manhandle Finlay in the ring, and then the commentary gets quiet for about 90 seconds.

Finlay gets a schoolboy rollup for a near fall and goes on offense, which means it's just about time to go home. Finlay goes for the celtic cross but can't pick DH up clean due to the attacks on his back. He clotheslines DH to the outside instead, goes to throw him back in, then has to fend off the attacks of both Natalya and Tyson Kidd.

Kidd tries to get into the ring, the ref stops him, and that gives Natalya the time to throw DH a foreign object to blast Finlay in the head with. Was that a shoe? High impact back suplex afterwards by DH for the three count. WINNER: David Hart Smith.

The New Hart Foundation all get in the ring to celebrate with him. Apparently Natalya threw in one of her high heeled boots. Finlay is down and out in the ring, and he has just a trickle of blood on his forehead - I'm guessing DH didn't pull up on the boot shot. The NHF back up the ramp, all smiles, as ECW goes off the air.

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