ECW Recap 09.01.09

ECW Recap from Cleveland, OH:

Matt Striker and Josh Matthews welcomed fans to the land of extreme, then reminded everyone they will show an encore of the Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels match from Wrestlemania 25. Shelton Benjamin made his way to the ring for the opening match.

Shelton Benjamin vs. Zack Ryder

Highlights were shown from last week's tag match, where Shelton couldn't get a tag from Ryder. He finally threw him into the ring, but then Ryder shoved Yoshi Tatsu into Shelton. Yoshi came back to hit a roundhouse kick on Ryder for the win. Afterwards, Shelton hit Paydirt on Ryder in the ring.

Early on, Ryder tore off his headband and threw it in Shelton's direction then began beating on him. Shelton bacme back and was able to send Ryder to the corner for a splash. He tried for the opposite corner with Ryder able to comeback and hit a neckbreaker. Ryder kept Shelton down with a chinlock then a headlock. Shelton fought to his feet and elbowed out, then hit a spinning move by jumping off the top rope at Ryder. Shelton continued to dominate as he smashed Ryder across his knee for a backbraker. Ryder tried to dump Shelton over the ropes, but Shelton remained on the apron. He jumped onto the top rope and as Ryder turned, Shelton jumped and did a springboard blockbuster move to bring Ryder down. Ryder got up near the ropes and Shelton hit Paydirt to win it.

Winner: Shelton Benjamin wins via pinfall over Zack Ryder.

Matthews and Striker discussed the whole Sheamus-Goldust rivalry. Last week the two wrestlers fought to a double countout as they battled outside the ring. Tonight in the main event the two will fight in a no count out no disqualification match.

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Tony Atlas was back on ECW again as he acted as the setup man for Abraham Washington, introducing him to the arena. Abraham came out all smiles shaking Tony's hand. Washington insulted Cleveland and Arsenio Hall who is originally from there. Washington called himself the most exciting thing to come to Cleveland since Lebron James, then reminded fans that Lebron got dunked on. Tony Atlas continually laughed at every joke Washington said. Washington introduced his guest Gregory Helms, the backstage interviewer.

Washington immediately came out to ask if Helms was The Hurricane. Helms said he's just Gregory Helms and that's it. Helms said he had a serious neck injury so he came to ECW to be part of the broadcast team. Washington kept introducing him as the Hurricane, then brought out Paul Burchill with Katie Lea. Tony Atlas told Katie Lea she looks hot. Burchill started calling Helms a joke, fraud and embarassment. Burchill said he'll keep beating him down as long as Helms keeps insulting his intelligence. Just then, Hurricane Helms appeared on the Titantron live from Gotham City. Hurricane issued a challenge to Burchill for next week on ECW. Burchill said he doesn't know why Helms keeps playing these games but he'll see him next week.

Striker introduced an Undertaker promo video which highlighted the Deadman's phenomenon, and included words from other wrestlers like MVP, CM Punk, Big Show, John Cena and Rey Mysterio.

William Regal was shown walking backstage behind the behemoths, Vladimir Kozlov and Ezekiel Jackson, on their way out to the ring.

Mike Tolar & Jim Parks vs. Vladimir Kozlov & Ezekiel Jackson

Regal lead his ruthless wrestlers to the ring to show off their skills against two amateurs. Last week, Regal was able to defeat Christian thanks to a ramming shot in the gut from Vladimir Kozlov when the ref was distracted. Right as the bell sounded, Kozlov booted down Tolar then threw him with a belly-to-belly. Jackson tagged in, and Kozlov threw Tolar into his knee. Jackson with a series of slam moves to smash Tolar onto his knee. Kozlov tagged back in to smash Tolar down, and made another tag to Jackson to keep decimating Tolar. Jackson with a long standing suplex to deliver Tolar to the mat.

Jackson furiously went over and grabbed Parks by the head, then ran him across the apron into the ringpost. Parks fell off the apron to the outside. Jackson did his one armed bodyslam then tagged Kozlov to do his on Tolar for the pinfall. Regal came in to raise both men's arms up in victory. Regal put Tolar in the Regal stretch to further punish him.

Just then, Christian's music hit and out came Christian in street clothes to the ramp. Regal told Christian to come on down if he wants a fight. Christian said he's coming down but not without help. Out came Tommy Dreamer, making his return after he was attacked by Regal and Kozlov weeks ago. Regal laughed it off saying Tommy Dreamer must be mental to come back, and that it's 2 on 3 still. Christian said he knew that, so they brought more help. Dreamer pulled two Kendo sticks out from the back of his shirt. Christian and Dreamer went down the ramp and began cracking the sticks across Jackson and Kozlov as they came at them. Christian went into the ring at Regal, who quickly retreated outside with his men.

Winners: Vladimir Kozlov and Ezekiel Jackson win via pinfall over Mike Tolar and Jim Parks.

A Shawn Michaels promo video was shown with comments given by Big Show, Rey Mysterio, Triple H and John Cena.

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Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker
Wrestlemania 25 Encore

ECW's General Manager Tiffany appeared on camera to introduce the encore matchup of Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker from Wrestlemania 25. The match was shown with a soundtrack song of Shinedown's "Sound of Madness" and Snow Patrol's "Somewhere a Clock is Ticking" playing. Undertaker dominated for a while, with HBK finally coming back. Two dangerous spots featured each wrestler trying to jump out of the ring onto their opponents outside, with each avoiding the other. HBK went for Sweet Chin Music but was caught by Undertaker instead for a Chokeslam.

Michaels kicked out of the pin, then tried for Sweet Chin Music again. He finally hit it on try 3, but Taker got out of the pin as well. Taker grabbed Michaels for a Last Ride, with Michaels barely kicking out of the pin. Taker then missed on an elbow drop from the corner and tried to throw Michaels out of the ring. Michaels held on and tried to grab Taker around the neck with his legs and Taker turned it into the Tombstone Piledriver. Again, Michaels kicked out of it. Michaels tried for a backflip onto Taker from the corner, but Taker caught him and hit the Tombstone Piledriver to go 17-0 at Wrestlemania.

Winner: The Undertaker wins via pinfall over Shawn Michaels.

Matt Striker reminded fans that Undertaker returns to Smackdown on Friday night.

Sheamus and Goldust were shown walking backstage on split screen, ready for the main event.

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Goldust vs. Sheamus
No Countout, No DQ Match

The two grappled early against the ropes and collided as they came off the ropes at each other. Sheamus took control with a series of clubbing strikes to the back of Goldust, then tried to attack in the corner with Goldust fighting out. Sheamus and Goldust traded slaps before Goldust knocked him down. Sheamus started up the ramp so Goldust chased after him and delivered a hard clothesline as ECW went to break.

ECW returned with Goldust in control as he clotheslined Sheamus out of the ring. Goldust bashed Sheamus against the barrier then tried to return to the ring. Sheamus was back up to ram Goldust in the gut and then toss him against the ringpost. Goldust fell hard to the outside so Sheamus went out to slam him on the ground. Sheamus tossed Goldust back in for an attempted pinfall.

Sheamus kept attacking Goldust to further punish him, as he stretched his back against the ringpost. After taking an in-ring beating, Goldust began to make a comeback, but was favoring his back. Sheamus knocked him down, then Goldust surprised him with a rollup. Sheamus kicked out so Goldust hit a powerslam for another pin attempt. Sheamus escaped to the outside, so Goldust ran off the apron to clothesline him. Both men threw each other into the ringpost at one point. Back in the ring, Goldust went for a bulldog with Sheamus shoving him off it.

Goldust was able to hit his drop down slap punch to Sheamus, but right after Sheamus delivered a running boot to level Goldust. Sheamus followed with his slam move to smash Goldust across his knee for the pinfall win.

Winner: Sheamus wins via pinfall over Goldust.

Sheamus celebrated on the ramp as ECW went off the air.

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Raw Revelations: American Dream Schemes

Quite a nice twist at the end of Raw last night. Special guest host Dusty Rhodes came out to start things and set up his son in a WWE Title match vs Orton for later in the show. He also added Cena as the special guest referee. All the way leading up to the big main event match, fans were probably thinking, there's no way in any way shape or form that Cody Rhodes would walk out with the WWE Title. And they were right, because the WWE Title match never happened. Instead, it turned out that the guest host Dusty Rhodes set up John Cena to be in the ring as special guest referee between Orton vs. Rhodes, only so he could get a Legacy beatdown.

D-Generation X eventually ran to the ring to try to help (seemed to take them a while), but to no avail as Dusty Rhodes used his boot to take out HHH before a Pedigree could happen on his son. In the aftermath of the attacks with DX and Cena laying on the mat, Orton delivered another shocker when he did the RKO on Dusty Rhodes right before Cody's eyes. Of course, it made Cody look rather weak when he simply pouted in the ring without taking a shot or attacking Orton, but I have a feeling that payback's coming at a later time. In fact, we'll probably see a Legacy turn at some point, when either Dibiase and Rhodes turn against Orton, or Dibiase and Rhodes enter into a feud.

The DX-Rhodes segments were pretty bad, just to try to sell some DVD's. Sometimes DX has some funny one-liners and acts backstage, but some of their recent stuff is some pretty bad improv and far from funny. After discussing WCW and then the 1998 back injury to HBK, Michaels was yelling maniacally and it's unclear how many fans really got what he was talking about or even found it funny. I'll also admit I'm familiar with a lot of WCW stuff, but hadn't seen The Shockmaster before, so I'm wondering how many fans got any of that bit. Well, at least it was a chance to put Santino on the show again. Arn Anderson shown on the mic nearby, then dropping it and running away was probably the funniest part of any of the DX-Rhodes skits backstage.

In case you missed the 3 DVD's they were plugging last night:

WWE: The Rise And Fall of WCW

WWE - The American Dream - The Dusty Rhodes Story

WWE - The New & Improved DX

The Hornswoggle and Chavo shenanigans reached another new low, this time with Chavo having to put on a cow costume while Hornswoggle laughed maniacally and ran around the ring. It seems like pure time killer, but at least it's looking like they'll let Chavo and Evan Bourne do battle. Once that happens, Hornswoggle may have run out of opponents. He's a popular attraction at WWE events, but his novelty just might wear off without a Chavo to fight.

It looked like Miz finally picked up on the best strategy to win the US title in last night's Fatal Fourway; toss the champion out of the ring, to guarantee a new title winner. However, Miz, Swagger and Carlito were all too much for each other and it ended up with Kofi stealing the win on a Trouble in paradise kick to Carlito. I still think Miz or Swagger will eventually capture the title, propelling them to the next level, whatever that may be with Raw.

I enjoyed the Big Show vs Mark Henry match even if those guys aren't considered the best technicians or skilled wrestlers in the ring. The battle of the two big men was entertaining with each able to knock the other around in the ring. Show has the advantage but the World's Strongest Man put up a great fight, until Show used foulplay with the turnbuckle. Would be great to see some more of this one-on-one match in the future.

Not trying to be overly critical but does it seem as if Mickie James has been a bit clumsy in her recent title defenses? She seemed to have some stumble around moments in her match against Gail Kim and then again last night versus Beth Phoenix. There's not much to say about the divas battle royal, but you have to feel sorry for Rosa Mendes with how she just gets tossed out of the ring by Beth. Rosa's almost been like a diva jobber in the way she's been beaten by other divas. For some reason, I think Rosa would be paired better with Chavo Guerrero, but they have her with Carlito for now, maybe because he's a title contender and Chavo's fighting leprechauns.

Next week, the guest host for Raw will be Bob Barker...Remember that he was in "Happy Gilmore" and had the famous "The Price is wrong, b---h" line? Don't expect him to use that on Raw, with the supposed PG rating they're trying to adhere to. But it will be interesting to see if any of the Price is Right games are used on the show format.