New ECW Title Contender Zack Ryder

Last night's ECW on SyFy 09.15.09 showed once again that the Tuesday night program offers some fresh and exciting matches even if they don't carry the big name superstars like Triple H, Undertaker, Cena or Batista. On the program, things got off to a great start as they always do when Tiffany arrived to the ring. The beautiful ECW General Manager began to discuss how proud she was of the ECW Title match that went down at Breaking Point, but Sir William Regal decided he needed to confront her. Regal arrived to the ring along with Vlad Kozlov and Zeke Jackson to weigh in. Tiffany stood up to the bullying act Regal put on, and let him know he wouldn't be getting the next ECW Title shot. Instead, Tiffany announced a 10-Man Battle Royal for later in the show, which Kozlov and Jackson would be part of. Regal would have to face Hurricane in the opening bout.

Regal fought in his street clothes, making it a great fight as initially Hurricane was taking it to him. Despite the akward outfit and lack of mobility, Regal managed to pull off a win when Hurricane was climbing back into the ring through the ropes. Regal with a quick running knee to KO Hurricane. An extra nice touch came when Regal was informed by the ref that Hurricane's leg was beneath the rope. Whether it was planned or not, great move by the ref, and Regal pulled the leg in to secure the pinfall. A good opening match, however Hurricane was also excluded from the Battle Royal later on. Most likely due to being attacked in the ring by Paul Burchill. You've got to wonder why Tiffany wouldn't remove Burchill from the match for his actions, but can't have it all.

We also saw Yoshi Tatsu with a surprise uspet victory against rising star Zack Ryder, which made a nice set up for later in the night. In their match, Ryder seemed to dominate but the fan favorite Yoshi Tatsu delivered a surprise roundhouse kick to Ryder's head, knocking him down for the 3 count pinfall. Both men would later be involved in the 10 Man Battle Royal to determine the #1 Contender for ECW Title.

The Battle Royal was probably one of the better ones seen in some time, because it didn't have John Cena, Randy Orton, Edge or Triple H. Even the fact that Regal ws excluded made it more interesting, because it was hard to call who would win. Going into the match, I was under the impression one of the big men would take it, such as Ezekiel or Vladimir, maybe even Sheamus. But surprisingly it came down Tommy Dreamer, Vladimir Kozlov and Zack Ryder. In true heel fashion, Ryder did an Edge style move to win. Dreamer had just managed to knock Kozlov out of the ring, so Ryder snuck up behind Tommy, grabbed his legs and tossed him out. Definitely a nice surprise win to set up a Ryder-Christian bout, but I don't know that Ryder will be on the Hell in a Cell PPV. Probably will get a shot at Christian on a future ECW show.

All in all, the ECW show may be seen as the minor league or transition for FCW stars to WWE, but if offers some fresh and unique matches with newer superstars. The crowd was really behind Goldust in Canada, making his momentum building effort in the Battle Royal more fun to watch. The fans were hot over Shelton Benjamin's performance as well as he was holding on to the ropes and managed to pull Ezekiel Jackson to the outside. Great action, great crowd responses, now that's what Raw needs to work towards, or they just need to bring more Canadian fans to the US shows.