this week’s ecw began with the long clip of mcmahon’s kayfabe death after raw last night. that’s right, I said KAYFABE death, it’s not real. I’m sure the mcmahon family and friends would not appreciate the showing of vince dying three times a day after it happened, especially when it’s a firey explosion out of a limousine causing a horrible painful death, is this was real. there was then a traditional ten rings of the bell as fans continually booed.

following this was our first match of the night, an extreme rules match with two originals, tommy dreamer and balls mahoney. though it was nice to see a small glimpse of the original ecw on the show, plus the fact that dreamer used a kitchen sink at one point, something I’ve always wanted to see out of a hardcore match, this match was still a little bland. an alright match.

main highlights:

-balls laid some nasty shots in with the trash can lid

-dreamer did his infamous tree of woe dropkick to balls using a trash can

-balls tried a leg drop to dreamer through a table, but dreamer was able to get out of the way in time

-dreamer gave balls a ddt onto a chair and got the three count

next up was the debut of the boogeyman in ecw, his first match being against  matt striker. this match wasn’t much special. honestly, I like the boogeyman for his entertainment value, but that’s all and ecw is supposed to be about the wrestling.

main highlights:

-Boogeyman had an interesting wristlock striking combo in the early stages of the match

-Striker gave boogeyman some good dropkicks

-boogeyman gave striker his chokebomb finisher for a three count

-after the match was over, boogeyman put worms in his mouth, then let them fall out into striker’s open mouth, as all I can think about is what if one of them slipped and went partially down his throat

after that, they showed a clip of the firemen who worked to put out the flames of vince’s exploded limo. this clip was really long and, considering that and how long the clip of the limo exploding was, it seems this was a really long time filler for the show.

finally we are brought to the main event of the evening, the newly drafted chris benoit would team up with cm punk to battle against elijah burke and marcus cor von. this match had everything it really needed to be a good one, but it seems that cor von kinda fucked up the ending, which really really sucks. regardless, I still almost reluctantly, give this my award for match of the night.

main highlights:

-punk had an interesting combo with an armlock into a fireman’s carry

-punk attempted a bulldog out of the corner to cor von, cor von countered by throwing punk into the ropes, punk responded with his flying heel kick

-cor von gave punk a catapult into the top turnbuckle

-cor von had punk in the corner and took too long to get done with him, as the ref counted to five, then called for the bell on dq, giving benoit and punk the win
-after the match, punk gave cor von a heel kick to the outside, and benoit gave burke his “hat trick” (triple german suplex) and sharpshooter

the show concluded with one last clip of mcmahon’s staged death one last time. they’re really pushing for people to believe this.

final thought:

obviously this week’s show got overshadowed by a vince plot in his “death,” which may or may not end up having anything to do with ecw at all. there was no other storylines tonight and there were only three matches, one of which shouldn’t happened and the other two didn’t live up to their possible full potential. hopefully benoit’s presence will end up livening the show a bit, and he can hopefully help advance punk in his skills. Im’ loking forward to punk vs. benoit for the now vacant ecw title. hopefully they realize that boogeyman comming was a mistake. hopefully they realize that they can do so much more with ecw than what they’re doing now.