Home ▸ ECW ▸ The Matt Hardy era begins! ECW 9/9/08

What will the new ECW Champion, Matt Hardy have to say now that he’s finally achieved his firs World Championship?  Speaking of which, what kind of mood does former champion Mark Henry have to be in after losing the title without being pinned this past Sunday at Unforgiven?  The answer to these questions and more, on ECW!

Results and analysis after the jump!

We kick off ECW the way I thought we’d kick off RAW last night – with an Unforgiven video package, this one focusing on the ECW Championship Scramble won by Matt Hardy.  Tod Grisham and Matt Striker welcome us to ECW in Milwaukee, WI.  Tony Chimmel then welcomes the NEW ECW Champion, Matt Hardy!

For Matt, it’s a dream come true.  When he got drafted to ECW in June, his only goal was to be the ECW Champion.  He had to do it in a crazy, unpredictable Scramble match, but he’s the new ECW Champion, and as such, he’s unlocked his destiny.  He’s got a lot of people to thank.  First off, thanks to all the Matt Hardy fans (editor note:  You’re welcome, Matt.  Congrats again!).  He also wants to thank his skeptics, because they made him work extra hard to make them eat their words.  He’s not going to be happy just being champion.  He wants to be the greatest ECW Champion ever!  He knows it’s not going to be ea…

SOMEBODY GONNA GET THEY ASS KICKED!

Mark Henry makes his way to the ring with Tony Atlas.  He says he’s the world’s strongest Champion, and Matt Hardy has his title, and he wants a rematch.  Atlas says that if Matt ever puts his hands on him again, there’s gonna be a problem between them.  Henry decks Hardy, sending him to the canvas, but Hardy ducks out of the way of a Henry clothesline, sending him sailing over the top rope, then hits a charging Atlas with the Twist of Fate.  He holds his belt up high and makes his leave as Mark Henry and Tony Atlas struggle to get back to their feet.

Later tonight, it’s Finlay & Matt Hardy taking on Mark Henry and Mike Knox.  Tod Grisham says that all four were in the Scramble match the other night.  I don’t know what match he was watching, because I didn’t see Mike Knox at all during Unforgiven.

<COMMERCIAL BREAK>

We come back to the theme music of the impressive high flying Evan Bourne.  I gotta wonder how many people are tuning into ECW for the first time tonight after seeing Bourne’s impressive showing on RAW last night, which we get a recap of as I’m typing this.  His opponent tonight is one half of his opposing team from last night, The Shaman of Sexy, John Morrison.  As a side note, Morrison’s faux fur coat looks comfortable.

John Morrison def. Evan Bourne

After the tag team match last night on RAW, I really don’t want to take my eyes off of the action to type the gist of the action.  It goes back and forth early, until Morrison used Bourne’s offense against him to take him down.  Bourne doesn’t stay on defense long though, he knocks Morrison out of the ring and goes flying out after him, taking him down and sending us to a commercial.  Back from break, we’re back in the ring with the two competitors trading blows.  Miz trips up Bourne after he jumps up on the second rope.  Morrison grabs a two count, and then puts Bourne in a chinlock.  Bourne battles out of hit, and goes for a springboard cross body, but Morrison ducked, sending Bourne crashing and burning to the canvas.  Bourne rolls out of the ring, Morrison follows him out and drops him across the guardrail.  He punts him in the throat, then locks him back into a chinlock in the ring.  Bourne again battles out, and goes for a headscizzors takeover, but Morrison counters into a powerbomb, and goes right back into the chinlock.  Morrison stays on the offense for a while, sending Bourne back outside, kicking him in the chest, and rolling him back into the ring.  Once again, Morrison utilizes a chinlock.  Bourne finally starts to mount a comeback, he hits a back elbow and a jumping mule kick to get a two count on Morrison.  A headscizzor takeover gives him another two count.  Bourne goes for a standing moonsault, but Morrison gets his feet up and boots Bourne in the midsection in his decent.  Morrison hits a knee to the face for two, but misses Starship Pain.  Bourne goes up top to go for the Shooting Star Press, but goes after The Miz instead.  Bourne is on the apron, and Morrison hits a springboard kick to knock Bourne the hell out.  He gets the three count for the victory.

Bourne is being helped up by officials, and we get a recap of the rivaly between Mike Knox and Finlay.

Still to come, Finlay and Matt Hardy take on Mike Knox and Mark Henry.

<COMMERCIAL BREAK>

We come back, and the generic TitanTron video tells us that this guy on his way to the ring is the “All-American American” Jack Swagger.  His opponent doesn’t even get the generic TitanTron, his name is Josh Daniels.

The All-American American Jack Swagger def. Josh Daniels

Swagger takes down Daniels with some high powered offense, as the “who are you guys” chants were apparently edited out.  Swagger hits a sidewalk slam for a two count, then starts ramming Daniels into the turnbuckle.  He hits a Blue Thunder Bomb and picks up the win.  The guy we’ve never seen before has beaten the other guy we’ve never seen before.

Backstage, Ricky Ortiz gives Hornswoggle a Ricky O. Rally towel for good luck.  Hornswoggle bites it and starts swinging it around.

<COMMERCIAL BREAK>

Back from break, the former ECW Champion is on his way to the ring, sans Tony Atlas.  Apparently Atlas is still reeling from the Twist of Fate.  Interestingly enough, Hornswoggle doesn’t have his Ricky O. Rally towel as he comes to the ring with Finlay.  Take that, Ricky Ortiz!

Matt Hardy & Finlay def. Mark Henry and Mike Knox

The Champion and the former Champion start things off.  Matt looks strong as he battles the World’s Strongest Man, but Henry is too strong and takes over.  Henry dominates for a while, even taking Hardy down just before the commercial break.  When we come back, Mike Knox has Matt in a chinlock (lots of those tonight – and there’s only three matches!), but Matt battles out (surprise, surprise), and gets the tag to Finlay, who starts to build momentum on Mike Knox.  He hits the Finlay roll, then clotheslines him out of the ring.  Finlay tosses Knox around outside the ring, but when he tossed him back in, Knox was waiting to attack.  He gets Finlay over to his corner and tags in Mark Henry.  Henry starts dominating again, then tags Knox back in, and he continues to dominate.  Finlay tries to fight his way out of the opposing corner, but Knox cuts him off before he can get to Matt Hardy.  Finlay finally causes some separation and gets the tag to Hardy, who unloads on Knox.  He gets a two count off of a top rope bulldog, then hits a Side Effect and a Moonsault for two before Henry breaks up the pin.  Hornswoggle gets in the ring, distracting the referee and Mark Henry long enough for Finlay to get away with clobbering Henry with his shillelagh.  Hardy drops Knox with the Twist of Fate, and gets the pinfall victory for his team.

My Thoughts:

Alright, so you put Evan Bourne on RAW Monday night and he stole the show.  The fans loved him, including those who hadn’t yet seen him on ECW.  So what do you do with all those potential new viewers?  You have Bourne screwed out of a victory by The Miz, then you give us a match between two guys we’ve never seen before.  This is why people don’t watch ECW.

Speaking of the new guys, “The All-American American” Jack Swagger?  Seriously?  First of all, if this guy is going to have a gimmick where he’s called an All-American American, shouldn’t he have some kind of patriotic outfit or something?  Instead, we get some weird looking guy in plain black trunks.  That will never get over.  Ever.  If this guy is still wearing the same thing and has the same name and he does get over, I’ll reprint this statement and admit to being wrong.  You can’t give me a match between two new guys just for the hell of it.  Maybe if you had Teddy Long come out and say that the winner gets an ECW contract people would actually care about the match, but they didn’t.  It’s just one generic guy against another one.

Other than that, the show was pretty good.  The overall show was a bit of a letdown, but it was nowhere near post-WWE Draft levels.  WWE really needs to capitalize on Evan Bourne’s popularity.  He’s really the breakout star of this show.

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