ECW Recap 11.24.09

ECW Recap from Bridgeport, CT:

Byron Saxton and Josh Matthews welcomed fans to the show, with tonight's huge main event featuring Yoshi Tatsu versus William Regal. Also, Abraham Washington welcomes special guest Matt Hardy from Smackdown to speak his mind.

Shelton Benjamin vs. Zack Ryder

Ryder was escorted to the ring by Rosa Mendes. They showed highlights from the WWE Superstars match between these two, where Rosa's cell phone distraction in the ring ended up costing Shelton the match. If Shelton wins tonight, Tiffany will make him the #1 Contender for the ECW title.

Late in the match, Shelton had a pinfall but Ryder got his legs on the rope to break it. Shelton went for a suplex of Ryder near the ropes, with Ryder able to yank Shelton against the top rope. Ryder got to the top of the corner, but Shelton ran up and kicked him down. Rosa quickly rushed over to check on her man as ECW went to break.

During the break, Rosa got in Shelton's way of Ryder outside the ring. Shelton capitalized with a lairat to take Shelton down. In the ring now, Ryder had Shelton down in a hold. Ryder continued the onslaught as he kicked away at Shelton near the ropes, then slammed him back. Ryder hit the cross body off the corner but couldn't get the pinfall. With Shelton down, he went up to the top of the corner and hit a huge splash for a pinfall. Shelton just barely kicked out of it to Rosa & Ryder's dismay. Shelton got fired up in the corner as he kept asking Ryder to punch him again and again, until the Gold Standard fired back and took him down.

Shelton connected with a series of moves into a bridge pin for a near fall. He hit a Powerbomb on Ryder near the corner, then as soon as Ryder stood up, Shelton hit Paydirt for the win. Shelton Benjamin will now be named #1 Contender for Christian's ECW title.

Winner: Shelton Benjamin wins via pinfall over Zack Ryder to become #1 Contender for the ECW title.

As Shelton was celebrating his win, all of a sudden Christian's music hit and the champ came out from backstage. Shelton was surprised by it, as Christian headed down to the ring. ECW went to a commercial break, then came back while Christian was into his speech on the mic in the ring. Christian said he was there to talk about three weeks from now, the new TLC Pay-Per-View. It will have one table match, one ladder match, one chair match and one TLC match. Christian said the past few PPV's the ECW title was overlooked. Christian said it's time for them to step up, then said it will be him versus Shelton in a ladder match. Christian said they need to steal the show at TLC. Shelton agreed to it and shook Christian's hand, then promised there will be a new ECW champ after the TLC PPV.

William Regal was backstage with Vladimir Kozlov and Ezekiel Jackson in the locker room, watching what just went down with Christian and Shelton. Regal said his quest to be ECW champion is still not over, and when he defeats Yoshi Tatsu tonight he'll be a step closer. He told Jackson & Kozlov to bring their A-game tonight. Regal was still speaking as ECW went to commercial.

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ECW was back with the WWE rewind to show highlights of ECW's newest talent, Vance Archer, as he dismantled various amateur wrestlers in the ring.

Alex Reynolds vs. Vance Archer

Reynolds was announced as a local talent from Bridgeport, CT. He got a side headlock early on Archer, before getting tossed down and then kicked. Archer continued to punish him with a boot choking him in the corner. Archer used a solid short arm clothesline to level the guy then kicked him hard in the gut. He picked up Reynolds and did a twirl type slam to slam him face first to the mat. Finally, he picked up Reynolds and put him into the inverted DDT style finisher.

Josh Matthews questioned what the stare Archer had on his face meant. Saxton said it's confidence and victory.

Winner: Vance Archer wins via pinfall over Alex Reynolds.

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ECW returned to show highlights from Raw where Jesse "The Governor" Ventura hosted. He introduced a series of matches to qualify for a Breakthrough Battle Royal. Ventura said only guys who had never been champions before (WWE/Heavyweight) would be part of this. Randy Orton was livid he wouldn't get a shot, but got into it anyway by attacking Primo on his way to the ring to take his spot and defeat Evan Bourne. Later on, it was Sheamus who won the battle royal after eliminating Kofi Kingston. Sheamus and John Cena had their contract signing, which ended with the Celtic Warrior delivering a big boot to John Cena, smashing him through the table, then holding the WWE title up. Jesse Ventura announced that the Title match at TLC will be a Tables match.

Saxton and Matthews discussed TLC PPV which arrives in three weeks. There's three matches so far: Cena vs Sheamus (WWE Title table match), Shelton vs Christian for the ECW title (Ladder match), and DX vs. JeriShow (TLC match).

Next up, it was the Abraham Washington Show featuring Matt Hardy as special guest. Tony Atlas was there as the sidekick as usual to introduce Abe to the crowd. Washington insulted the crowd calling them dog faces, saying he thought he had Twilight Fever (seeing Werewolves everywhere). Abe introduced Matt Hardy and he came out to the crowd's cheers. Washington said when he found out he was going to have a Hardy on the show he was disappointed it was Matt instead of Jeff. Matt said that's ok because he was wishing Abe was really Conan O'Brien. Washington discussed how Hardy will be on SyFy next week.

Hardy said he'll be on the show Scare Tactics next week before ECW. They rolled a clip of Matt coming out as a mental patient to scare a kid working. Washington said that wasn't scary, and he wasn't scared. Tony Atlas snuck up behind him and scared Abe, which caused Matt and Atlas to break out laughing. Washington asked Hardy what he was scared of. Matt said he's been having nightmares about being on the Abe Washington show. He said just kidding, then said when you're a Hardy "Fear" is just a four letter word. Washington said he's afraid they're all out of time. Washington walked off backstage pissed off at Hardy and Atlas. They both did a Matt Hardy v1 sign to the crowd.

Yoshi Tatsu was walking backstage en route to the main event match against Regal.

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Yoshi Tatsu vs. William Regal

Regal came down to the ring accompanied by his henchmen again, Jackson & Kozlov. Early on there was some minor "Let's go Regal" and "Regal sucks" chants exchanged right before a barrage of forearms from Tatsu. Regal came back to knock him down near the corner then used forearm uppercuts of his own. Regal kept attacking with knees to Tatsu and forearm uppercuts, followed by a chinlock hold to keep Tatsu down on one knee.

Regal began to hammer away at the back of Yoshi's head with him face down on the middle rope. Jackson and Kozlov were standing right there outside the ring to watch. As the ref pulled Regal away, his back was turned. Kozlov shoved Tatsu by his face. Yoshi stumbled around and came to, saw Regal there and quickly connected with his roundhouse kick to KO Regal for the pinfall.

Jackson and Kozlov rushed into the ring, so Yoshi quickly rolled to the outside. Jackson and Kozlov stood over the fallen Regal looking upset at the loss. Regal staggered to get up. Kozlov and Jackson eyed him. Regal asked Jackson what happened, then turned to Kozlov to ask him. Regal started finger pointing at Kozlov, then at Jackson. Regal told them that was his shot at the ECW championship. Kozlov pointed a finger at Jackson saying "he did it". Jackson took exception and lowered Kozlov's finger down, then did his one armed slam move to put Kozlov down. Regal told Jackson to calm down, that there was no need to get excited. Jackson thought for a moment then walked up to face Regal. He did the one arm slam to put Regal down, leaving Regal & Kozlov layed out. Jackson headed backstage as they recovered in the ring, shocked at what happened.

Winner: Yoshi Tatsu wins via pinfall over William Regal.

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