Stinger's ECW Thoughts: 8/14/07

Stinger's ECW Thoughts:
August 14, 2007

Armando Alejandro Estrada was named the General Manager of the ECW brand, which is a smart decision because Estrada is entertaining and ECW desperately needed the direction a GM can bring. This was a good decision by WWE, and it will be interesting to see how big a role Estrada plays as the GM.

The CM Punk/John Morrison Summer Slam contract signing was as good as a contract signing can be. Morrison is coming into his own during his promos, he seems to have gained a little confidence in himself, which has helped. Punk is always good on the stick, though I was really hoping he’d say “I’m straight-edge, and that means I’m better than you”. One day, he will get to utter some variation of that saying on WWE television… and I will mark out when he does.

Armando made two matches after the contract signing, CM Punk vs. Big Daddy V and John Morrison vs. The Boogeyman. Punk/V was up first, and was about what you would expect a match between the two to be like. They’re in the process of trying to push Big Daddy V, so CM Punk had to sell that by not getting in much offense. Big Daddy V wins via count-out, which makes sense in that neither man needs a clean loss at the moment.

Big Daddy V has some agility for his size, and in his current role I don’t have any problem with him. However, there’s no reason we should have to sit through TWO matches featuring Big Daddy V in one show. Big Daddy V squashed Tommy Dreamer in under a minute, for no reason at all.

It appears Balls Mahoney is in a cheesy, high school like storyline with Kelly Kelly, Miz and the rest of the Extreme Expose. So Balls has a “crush” on Kelly, who cares?

The Stevie Richards/Kevin Thorne feud continued, as it should because I like it. Unfortunately, WWE saw fit to have Thorne completely dominate the four minute match. Thorne picks up the pinfall victory, continues the assault, and the referee reverses his decision and declares Stevie Richards the winner; giving Stevie his third “victory” in a row over Throne. Kinda pointless if you’re just going to have Richards get squashed the whole match. WWE needs to treat these feuds like real feuds, and not just time-fillers. Just because ECW only gets one matches on these tri-branded PPV’s, doesn’t mean they have to just not care about things outside of the ECW Championship scene.

Elijah Burke thinks he could be Vince’s son? They really need to get Burke in the ring again, because he is easily one of the best talents on the ECW brand. Do something with him WWE, he doesn’t have to be feuding with Punk to get airtime… does he? This show needs a weekly dose of the Elijah Experience, and that’s just all there is to it.

The main event was as crappy as any Boogeyman match. Of course it had a predictable DQ victory for Boogeyman. You knew when Punk got counted out that Morrison would get disqualified. Boogeyman needs to stick to short, comedic skits backstage- and stay out of the ring because he sucks.

Overall, this was one of the weaker ECW shows in recent memory, as nothing outside of the announcement of Estrada as GM and the Punk/Morrison contract sighing was worth watching. Hopefully next weeks show will be better

- Stinger