ECW Better By Leaps And Bounds

I hate to say it, but ECW is better without Paul Heyman.

Maybe he didn't know as much as we all gave him credit for. ECW has drastically improved as of late. Yes, last night's installment relied somewhat on matches involving superstars from other brands, and they still have that stupid Extreme Expose, and Blackberg is still without a mouthpiece to make him entertaining, but for the first time since 2001, ECW is now watchable.

The show kicked off with Van Dam and Thorn in a match which saw a huge melee ensue several minutes in between the originals and the new breed. This is smart booking in my opinion. Keep the storyline going without having eight superstars take up the entire show. Van Dam showed off some stiff kicks and got the win over Thorn. I also agree with Van Dam not jobbing to Thorn, as I don't think the vampire has the "it" factor.

If he were facing Cor Von or Burke, I would want RVD to give them the rub, but in this case, it doesn't hurt to give the originals a win to add into the rivalry.

Next was a Money In The Bank qualifiying match between CM Punk and RAW's Johnny Nitro. At least one of my predictions has come true so far, as Punk would pin Nitro after a move that looked like some sort of strange gutcrusher/shining wizard.

Hopefully this will turn into a push for CM Punk. I don't think anybondy is giving him any chance at all of actually winning Money In The Bank, but we can always hope that this will manifest itself into some sort of push on ECW.

ECW then did perhaps one of the smartest things they've ever done. They brought tag team wrestling to ECW.

Sylvain Grenier and Rene Dupree, known collectively as La Resistance, made their return on ECW, squashing a pair of local jobbers. Grenier and Dupree as singles wrestlers suck, but as a tag team, they're not that bad to watch. Hopefully some of the lower-level tag teams from RAW and SmackDown, like The Highlanders and Cryme Tyme, may soon make their way to ECW. Maybe they'll even bring the Frat Pack (formerly Mikey and Nicky from the Spirit Squad) up from OVW. Something like an exciting tag division may bring some attention back to Tuesday nights.

Extreme Expose was next. Watching it was about as big a waste of time as writing about it was. If only I was in the mood for a sandwich at the time, I'd have been in luck. Oh well.

The night ended with a triple threat in which Lashley defended his title against Hardcore Holly and Mr. Kennedy. Lashley would retain his title following a running powerslam to Mr. Kennedy, who just seconds earlier inadvertantly blasted Hardcore Holly with a steel chair. The ending to this match was not much of a surprise, and was fairly O-less, but hey, it featured an over-the-hill guy who doesn't deserve a main event spot and two guys who are still learning the business. Hopefully Kennedy's gimmick of having beaten 7 different World champions will lead to
something and not end up some pointless side gimmick like Randy Orton's "Legend Killer" schtick.

Getting back to the main event, I will be the first guy to stand up and say that I see a ton of potential in Lashley. I hold tight to my belief that the only two things that make him different from Lesnar is that Lesnar was white and Lesnar had a mouthpiece who could cut good promos for him. Aside from that, they are both talented individuals who are very athletic (not to be mark-ish, but steroids or not, you don't get to be a national wrestling champion without having some athleticism).

Give Lashley someone who can cut promos, and I think he can be entertaining. If more and more fans start coming back to ECW, and Lashley is in an entertaining feud with a respectable manager to cut his promos, he may very well gain the credibility that WWE seeks to get for him out of ECW.

Like Lance Storm said recently-"If they're going to push a guy to the top no matter what, the manager makes it a more efficient ride."

The only thing I'm going to criticize here is the commentary. I know that Styles and Tazz love doing commentary, and that they have a lot to hang their hat on (Styles moreso than Tazz), but this show needs better commentators. Their commentary last night was marked to the extreme. I lost count of how many times the two said "Lashley's the man!" following the conclusion of the title match.

ECW is showing some promise, as they are creating an entertaining blend of the new and seasoned talent, as well as keeping title matches involved in storylines. If they can just keep the marks from finding out that their ultimate purpose for ECW is nothing more than to groom Lashley, they may soon begin to have a successful run.

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