Royal Rumble 2010: ECW Championship Match

Biblically Extreme

I mean, really, who had Big Zeke winning the ECW Homecoming (unless you read the results from the house shows), which I have to credit WWE for, with a massive gap between PPVs and apparently no number 1 contender (thanks Shelton, you won't be needed anymore, don't worry here's Vance Archer) this concept did a good job and gave some interesting brand overlap, well kinda, the ratings say something else.

Personally, this is the match that I am least looking towards (Methos might disagree), I haven't seen anything really wrestling solid from Jackson, i.e. not just squash matches, personally I think that he wouldn't be anywhere without Master Regal. Regal showed again two Tuesdays ago on ECW what a great wrestler he is with a fantastic 15+ Minutes Match with ECW Champ Christian.

But with the Road to Wrestlemania starting at the Royal Rumble, I wouldn't be surprised if Big Zeke actually wins the title and that Christian gets involved in some sort of controversy. Last Year was the same with Jack Swagger beating Matt Hardy in January and Matt Losing the Rematch at last year's Rumble and as they say the rest is history.

I'm sorry that this preview is short but I don't think the Guyanese Goliath should win, really because I'm not his biggest fan, I'm almost sorry for Christian that he has to wrestle him at all let along at a Big Four Pay-Per-View. (It really does day something that I wrote nearly 3 times more for the Women's Championship Match)

Royal Rumble is Sunday, 31st January 2010 Live on Pay-Per-View at 8pm ET/5pm PT/1am GMT.

Blink and it's over....But He's Back

William Regal's plan unfolded??? According to Matt Striker. So instead of blindsiding the champ before the match and winning the title. His plan was to lose the match and then beat Christian up. Now I do not claim to be an expert but ECW is not until Tuesday and I would like to think the next ECW title match will be 'Breaking Point' which is three weeks away. So is there going to be some residual effects? I don't think so. Well to make up for this absolutely stupid idea hopefully Regal will destroy Christian at 'Breaking Point' with the Regal Strech and give some class to the ECW Title.

To be honest, I can live with DX winning cause it was an amazing match with a great entrance, Legacy were on the top of their game and will only get better working with DX. I am pleased Show and Y2J won and even pleased MVP beat Swagger although I would have liked a longer match. Kane vs Khali was surprisingly good especially the ending with the veteran outsmarting the rookie, using his emotions. But I will not be able for a long time to be able to understand the decision to make the ECW title match go down like that. Restart after restart, wow, i never knew Orton vs Cena could be this bad and yet... the match was restarted not once, not twice, not three times but four times. The fan, a plant? A nutjob? Since when could another official correct a mistake of another in the past the in ring official would have gone with his original decision. Likewise how did Lilian Garcia get news from Vince without a headset? When Freddie Prinze Jr was interviewed he implied that he was going to interfere on Cena's behalf to help him win but that was not to be. To be honest all I know is that after that awful match I don't want Cena Vs Orton at 'Breaking Point' I would rather Orton vs HBK or Orton vs MVP or perhaps even dare I say it Orton vs Santino Marella at 'Breaking Point'! TLC led to RIP. Jeff Hardy lost,can't say I am not happy cause I am ecstatic. I think this could also signal the end of Jeff Hardy's run in WWE despite Matt Hardy saying he was staying. Taker is the new World Heavyweight Championship number 1 contender and Punk is the champ. Hardy was almost stretchered out before the end of the match (kayfabe I assume) but a (kayfabe) injury could be just what WWE need to get him off screen and out of his contract. But it could just be away to get him and Matt working together again? Only time will tell. The match itself was good and the ending was amazing, the high impact climax balanced with the realistic fight for the belt, however this is become more and more over used in ladder matches and WWE need to be careful that they balance out the endings in ladder matches to keep things fresh. The big return was meant to be DX but on a personal level for me I am much more excited about the return of The Demon of Death Valley. This combined with the fact that two of my favorite wrestlers could enter into a feud! Taker Vs Punk. Hopefully Hell's Gate vs Anaconda Vice at 'Breaking Point'

A sign of things to come?

With England winning the ashes in cricket today, is this a good omen for William Regal in his ECW title defence? Only time will tell, but well done England and come on Regal!!!

Taken to the Extreme

Firstly, I'm glad that the WWE Championship Steel Cage Match wasn't the main event, because on paper I still think Batista is a douche and the WHC Ladder Match was always going to steal the show. And Now we know why it was only 7 minutes long, because Batista got injuried even before he set foot in the ring. Taking that into account I still think they could have put on a better match, I was rubbish for a WWE Championship match and not even taking into account it was a Steel Cage Match. I think that the Steel Cage match Cody Rhodes and Batista made last Monday was better than the one yesterday. There was one shade of hope for me in this match, when Randy Orton tried to crawl out of the cage door and got both hands on the floor, it looked like Randy was reaching for something underneath the ring that he could use as a weapon, but he didn't so that was another disappointment. At other points in the match I thought they did alright and that included using the steel, I just thought that this match and especially the ending was very weak for a championship match. The moment when Randy could have easily escaped but he didn't and tried for the punt, was stupid because he could have escaped, retained, got a couple of weapons and along with Legacy destroy him, then punt him, so he could go and have surgery on Tuesday with no questions asked, so it will be interesting to see how they write the injury into the storyline. Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself, lets go back to the start of the PPV, and the Fatal-Four Way Match for the United States Championship. This match on paper could have been good and was an alright start to the PPV, but there were too many botches in this one for me and it didn't actually get extreme at anytime. Except when Regal slammed Kofi down to the mat from the top turnbuckle, at first I thought that Kofi had seriously injured his neck, but from another angle it looked like nothing happened. This match was solid with the normal spots and situations that triple threat or fatal four way matches always posses. The end was rather out of nowhere, but thats Kofi Kingston for you, and I think that he's the worthy winner. MVP is rumored to be ready for a main event push sometime in the not to distant future, and he can't do that with US Title. I don't know what's on the horizon of Matt Hardy and William Regal, I don't think that Regal is going to get too far above his station on Raw and Matt has a great future, but unluckily for him, that should be now, he's come out worse of the Hardy vs Hardy feud, including a broken hand. Next up was the "No Holds Barred Match" for the Intercontinental Championship, this was a great match, not all that Extreme, I was shouting at Chris Jericho to get a chair earlier, but I forgive them for that, after putting on a fantastic match, worthy to be a bit higher up the card then the Hog Pen Match. When Jericho's music hit and he didn't come out I thought that Rey had already got to him, but when he was at the stall with the WWE merchandise it was déjà vu to his feud with Cena and yet again he gave a spotless promo, yeah it might have included all the same stuff, but it when to a different level this time, and please don't tell me that people really hate this guy, telling the crowd to stop touching him including one woman that looked like she would have punched him 10 times in the face and kicked him once in the balls. Highlighting that he is one of the best heels of his generation, anyway back to the match. This match was a great match with all the back and forth you wanted and all the theatre that wrestling doesn't get anymore. And by the time Jericho hit the Codebreaker and Rey in mid-air I was calling for more, which I don't normally do. The one thing that I thought wasn't good (and it wasn't the wrestlers thought) was whilst Jericho tried to rip Rey's mask off first time, and the camera looked right in on it and gave you a clear shot of Rey's face, not good production. The ending was one of the best of the night, Rey Mysterio's dropkick onto the chair that Jericho was holding was great, it just looked massive. The counter into the Walls of Jericho, I thought was every clever and his struggle to get the chair and fold it up was strangely good theatre. I loved the very end when Jericho somehow whilst in mid-619 he removed Rey's mask (how did he do that clean and off in one) and then rolled him up whilst Rey tried to cover up his shame and face. I was surprised that Chris Jericho became the new Intercontinental Champion but after a match and a finish like that, I can see why. Still can't believe that Rey got unmasked! Up next was the Samoan Strap Match after Punk and Umaga's epic battle on Friday, I thought that this was going to be a good match, even if it did have a strange gimmick, and in it didn't totally disappoint, yes it might have been a slow match but it worked and the ending was good and the best you could expect with the strap on (I still wanted to see CM Punk lock in the Anaconda Vice with the strap rapped round Umaga's neck). I can't really put that much past this match, I think this feud is over now after this match and their match on Friday Night Smackdown. Next was the Hardcore Triple Threat Match for the ECW Championship. Before the match Gregory Helms had an interview with "Captain Charisma" which was interrupted by Tommy Dreamer, and when Jack Swagger came in they just walked away, which I thought was good. This match was much better than the Fatal-Four Way for earlier in the night, illustrating that you can have a good gimmick match with more than two people. This match was a good hardcore match and when it ended, even though I was over the moon for the result, it didn't feel like the end of the match. And please no more trash cans, use a chair or table. I'm pretty sure i heard "WE WANT TABLES" chants coming from the crowd, give them tables, its a night of extreme and a hardcore match for the most "extreme" championship in the WWE. I just think that WWE think that kendo sticks and trash cans are the only extreme thing under the ring, and don't get me wrong they are, but bring some other stuff in, obviously they wouldn't have used ladders and I've got nothing against that. I enjoyed when Christian impersonated Tommy Dreamer doing the E-C-W Chant, rather heel-ish. Yeah, I'm glad that Tommy won, but if your going to hit Jack Swagger, actually hit him first time and not have to make up for it by breaking the whole bloody thing. Anyway, this should mean that Tommy Dreamer stays on at WWE, good, I wonder when they decided that Tommy should win the title and not leave the WWE. Next was the "Miss WrestleMania" Hog Pen Match, I'm not even going to bother with this, Santina won, Chavo and Vickie fell out, End of. (And also Edge and Vickie are apparently getting divorced.) Okay, I've gone over the WWE Championship Steel Cage Match. So up next is Raw's Main Event, Big Show vs John Cena in a Submission Match. At this point in the UK it was later than 3 Monday morning, so this was the only match that I drifted in and out of. But even after that I could see that this match was much better than the WWE Championship Match. In short terms it was a squash match with John Cena using the ropes to win (you don't get many opportunities to say that). The one thing I did pick up on is that when John Cena put Big Show's leg in the ropes so he could do the STF(U), I swear his foot slipped out before the camera moved away from that view and they didn't show his foot at all, or was that just me? I had predicted that they would have Cena overcoming the odds and I'm not sure if I mind that or not, It was a good match anyway, so it doesn't bother me that much. What I did enjoy was that every time Cena did a big move he couldn't just go for the cover that he had to find some way to get this giant to tap, it added good theatre and even surprised the audience into remembering that he can just hit the Attitude Adjustor and then call it a day. The Main Event (and rightfully so) was the Ladder Match for the World Heavyweight Championship, between two of the best ladder match competitors in history. This match stole the show. It was one of the best one-on-one ladder matches of all time, the last one was at No Mercy between Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho, also two greats to the ladder match, and I think that at Extreme Rules Edge and Hardy one up'd that match. All the spots where perfect and lived up to the hype, keeping you on the edge of your sheets at all times and got everyone in the arena on their feet. Their use of the Ladders as weapons was expert, even if some of the ladders weren't up to it. I really enjoyed the Sharpshooter around the ladder, something you wouldn't expect from any else but Edge. Jeff dropkicking Edge and the ladder down the the mat from the top rope was strangely one of the smaller spots. Ohh, and the faceplant-suplex onto the upside down ladder must of hurt. When Hardy was hanging onto the title reminded me of one of the TLC or Triangle Ladder Matches that they had at a Wrestlemania when Edge speared him from over 15 feet in the air! Whisper in the wind using the ladder, that's cool. What you don't see lots of in ladder matches is big spots on the outside using the ladders and jeff and edge didn't disappoint, by both crashing and burning into the ladder that was set up across from the ring to the security wall. By this time, I didn't want the match to end, because it was so extreme and highflying, nicely illustrated by Jim Ross saying "Jeff Hardy's a human thrill ride". After that I couldn't believe that Edge (or Jeff for that matter) would ever be able to get back up. The ending was fantastic and got the whole arena on their feet, I couldn't believe how far Jeff pulled Edge through the ladder, how did he ever get out of the ladder. And just as Jim Ross is going to interview the new World Heavyweight Champion, a certain Money in the Bank Briefcase holder had to come to the ring and hit the GTS twice and ruin Jeff Hardy's celebration and leave Jeff Hardy's first World Heavyweight Championship Reign at a couple of minutes. CM Punk cashing in the briefcase was a surprise once you had really come to grips with what had just happened. And didn't half dampen the mood in the Arena and around the world. This is shocking considering Jeff is apparently is on the way out and this is a massive U-Turn for Creative. So along with the WWE Championship situation, does anyone know what WWE is going to do next with their top championship, well shouldn't it be that way in the first place. In conclusion, an alright-to-good-to-great PPV, it definitely wasn't what anyone was expecting, good.

And please watch this video of Tommy Dreamer reacting to winning the ECW Championship, here.

Updated Card for Sunday's WWE Extreme Rules

Extreme Rules 2009: One Last Chance ECW Championship Hardcore Triple Threat Match

At Extreme Rules it will be the last opportunity for Tommy Dreamer to capture the ECW Championship, otherwise he walks from WWE from that night. Tommy Dreamer's contract expiries the night before Extreme Rules, and Jack Swagger pointed this out when ECW GM Tiffany made the match, but they even have a way round that, by signing a "one day extension" to his WWE contract so he can compete at the PPV. Lets not forget the title matches Jack Swagger and Christian have had at the two last PPVs ending with Christian picking up the win with the help of some underhanded tactics, which Jack Swagger hasn't forgotten and used this fact to almost force himself into this title match. And personally I think that having him in the match will mix it up a bit more, considering we've seen Christian-Dreamer for the title two times and we know that if it was that again, there would be more interference (yet at Extreme Rules that wouldn't have finished in a No-Contest). “The All-American American” has had his eyes firmly set on the ECW Championship after he lost it by being outsmarted by Christian at Backlash. Again at Judgment Day, Captain Charisma outwitted Swagger. Since these losses, the cocky, young Superstar has been calling Christian a cheater and he’s been interrupting Dreamer’s chances at the ECW Title. So Now, Christian will once again defend his ECW Title, but at Extreme Rules, Captain Charisma will have two opponents, and both former ECW Champions. He’ll take on Jack Swagger and Tommy Dreamer in a Hardcore Rules Triple Threat Match.

Judgement Day 2009: ECW Championship

ECW Champion Christian didn’t get to enjoy his new status among the Land of the Extreme for long without having the vulture-like hungry Superstars for ECW’s most coveted prize knocking at his door. On the Tuesday following their ECW Title Match at Backlash, former title holder Jack Swagger insisted on a rematch, which would take place at Judgment Day. Moments later, Tiffany confirmed the contest. Ensuring he would also get retribution against Christian in addition to the title back, Swagger interfered in Tommy Dreamer’s match against the champion later that evening on ECW on Sci Fi, forcing the trophy to remain in Captain Charisma’s possession. Christian heads into Judgment Day with the advantage, having defeated Swagger for the gold at Backlash. But who knows what tricks “The All-American American” has up his sleeve to make sure he can regain his role as the face of Extreme? Find out, only on pay-per-view.

Final Backlash Card

Last Man Standing Match for the World Heavyweight Championship John Cena (c) vs. Edge

WWE Championship Match Stipulation: If anyone on Triple H’s team loses, Triple H loses the Championship Triple H (c) & Batista & Shane McMahon vs. Randy Orton, Ted DiBiase & Cody Rhodes ECW Championship Match Jack Swagger(c) vs. Christian I Quit Match Jeff Hardy vs. Matt Hardy Kane vs. CM Punk "One Last Match"

Chris Jericho vs. Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat “Santina” Marella will be a special guest on Khali’s Kiss Cam.

Backlash Updated Card

Below is the updated lineup for Sunday's WWE Backlash pay-per-view. Backlash will take place live on pay-per-view from the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island. Be sure and join us for live coverage featuring my Richard Reacts analysis. World Heavyweight Championship Last Man Standing Match John Cena(c) vs. Edge ECW Championship Match Jack Swagger (c) vs. Christian WWE Championship Match Triple H(c), Batista, & Shane McMahon vs. Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes, & Ted DiBiase "I Quit" Match Jeff Hardy vs. Matt Hardy Chris Jericho vs. Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat CM Punk vs. Kane Santina Marella on Khali Kiss Cam

Running Dry?

With nine days to go until this year's Backlash PPV, I and (I guess) WWE Officials are worried about how many matches will be on the PPV. After tonight's episode of Smackdown there will be 4 matches on the card, and to be honest, I don't see that many opportunities for matches. Unless you slap on a diva tag team match or maybe, after completely splitting them, have Miz vs Morrison, or something :S.

You see what the problem is. Thanks, in part, to the draft, were was 3 hours of TV time that used 10 minutes at the end to build some momentum for a feud. But even after WrestleMania (without the draft), the outlook wasn't good. Firstly, Undertaker and Shawn Michaels can't do more from their match at WM25. Big Show has been dumped on the heap after his interlude with the World Heavyweight Championship.

But, the Hardys have gone one bit further, you'll just have to watch Smackdown tonight to hear more. Chris Jericho can't follow up from his Legends match. Rey Mysterio obviously can't go further with JBL, and now he's back on Smackdown, it's too late to make a real match for the PPV (oh, sounds like the way they put his match together at WM25), the same is true with MVP, unless they have a useless #1 Contenders Battle Royal or something.

The Divas are... well... there really is no point of trying to make a half decent match for divas on TV, without the title, let alone on a PPV and after the Miss WrestleMania Load of Shit Battle Royal and the draft, we will not see anything of the divas. And thanks to Miz and Morrison splitting, the Unified Tag Team Champions will not have any trouble come next Sunday.

The matches on the card now (maybe except the ECW Championship Match) are all the storylines that WWE have at the moment and with the long Summer run coming, I'm sure Vince is dreading having the draft before any PPV matches were clear. At least last year, it was the Monday before Night of Championship, which you knew what Matches would be on the card.

WWE Running Dry? I think so, they better act fast.

WWE Superstars Debut Tonight

On the debut of “WWE Superstars” on WGN America, Undertaker takes on Matt Hardy. Both are coming off huge wins at the 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania. Something’s got to give. Who will make history on this exciting television premiere?

Shane McMahon and Cody Rhodes, both scions of wrestling greats, will square off on the premiere episode of WWE Superstars, little more than a week before they face one another in the WWE Championship Tag Team Match at Backlash.

With his son Hornswoggle at his side, Finlay will take on Captain Charisma himself, Christian in the finals of the Elimination Chase, with the winner challenging Jack Swagger at Backlash for his coveted ECW Championship.

To watch Superstars Live in HD tonight for Free, go to Wrestling Bay.