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ECW: Elimination Chase reaches finish line
By
MATT BISHOP - SLAM! Wrestling
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This week on ECW on Sci-Fi, we have the exciting conclusion to the
Elimination Chase to No Mercy featuring the ECW Original Tommy Dreamer
battling the man who sure doesn't lack confidence, Elijah Burke. The
winner
goes on to face ECW Champion CM Punk this Sunday at No Mercy.
Previously on ECW: Big Daddy V destroyed CM Punk while Balls Mahoney
got
hit in the head with a microphone by The Miz while he waited for an
answer
from Kelly Kelly.
A cold open to the show and we're LIVE! from the Nutter Center in
Dayton,
Ohio and the Chairman of the Board, Vince McMahon strolls to the ring
to
make a "major announcement."
He gives us the "bad news" that WWE Champion John Cena suffered a
completely torn right pectoral muscle that required immediate
surgery.
Vince informs us that Cena will be out for six months to a year
(crowd
cheers) and thus he must strip John Cena of the WWE Championship,
ending a
reign that started on Sept. 17, 2006 at Unforgiven. The championship is
now
vacant and that this Sunday at No Mercy, there will be a new WWE
Champion.
At No Mercy, history will be made.
The promo ends abruptly with no match participants announced,
probably
because they don't even know yet.
Joey Styles and Tazz send their condolences out to Cena, calling it
"heartbreaking."
A familiar music greets us and THE CHAMP IS HERE! That's right, ECW
Champion CM Punk is out and he's got a mic.
Punk says that he should ahve his head more in the game and be
focused on
tonight's Elimination Chase Finals, but no, for the past week he's been
thinking about one thing: Big Daddy V, who demolished Punk a week
ago.
Punk says that he respects V, but with that comes his attention. He
is
then interrupted by our teacher, Matt Striker. Striker says that Big
Daddy V
wants the ECW Championship. Striker and Big Daddy V wish Punk the very
best
of luck in his next contest, which is coming up now!
Match #1 - CM Punk (Chicago, Ill.) vs. Mike Knox (Phoenix,
Ariz.)
Punk tries to break Knox down with a hammerlock to start, but Knox
reverses the hold until Punk sweeps him into a shoulderlock. Knox runs
him
into a corner and stares him down and backs off.
Knox then starts to "make a statement" according to Styles, even
hitting
a nice dropkick on Punk. Punk hits a drop-toe hold and gets Knox in a
front
headlock, but Knox once again reverses into a hammerlock, adding knees
to
the back of his downed opponent.
Knox continues to work the left arm, locking up a kimura before
landing a
body slam and an elbow for a two count. Punk then gains control and
starts
hitting some nice Thai kicks. With Knox on the ropes, Punk hits a
dropkick
to send Knox to the outside and then slingshots himself over the ropes
onto
Knox.
(ads)
Back from break and Punk is in trouble as Knox is throwing him
around
like a rag doll. Knox mounts and pounds Punk in the centre of the ring
and
is totally dominating the ECW Champion. Knox sends Punk's head into the
fifth row with a clothesline. Styles: He might not even know what
city
he's in right now! Trust me, Joey, I've been to Dayton, I didn't
want to
know I was there, either.
Finally, Punk throws some elbows to the gut to get out of a headlock
and
starts firing up with a muay thai offense. Punk hits a running knee in
the
corner. Knoxs runs and misses the Bicycle Kick, Punk hoists him up and
hit
GTS for the win!
Winner via pinfall: CM Punk
I'll give credit where credit is due: Knox impressed me in this
match.
Maybe I'm just easily impressed. Who knows, but this was a solid effort
by
both men and was one of the better ECW matches I've seen in a
while.
Backstage, Ball Mahoney is making his way to the ring.
Before we head to break, we get a Tommy Dreamer video package
pumping him
up for the main event tonight.
(ads)
In the ring: Balls Mahoney
We're in the Nutter Center, which should rightfully be the House of
Balls.
Balls says some people are saying that he's acting like a love-sick
puppy. He asks for Kelly Kelly to come out and give him an answer.
Kelly
comes out and Balls once again asks for an answer.
As the crowd cheers, Kelly takes the mic and with a smile on her
face,
gives Balls a YES! Balls then picks her up and hugs her but is
interrupted
by The Miz (HOO-RAH!), who chastises Kelly for going out "with that fat
slob."
Miz makes some cracks about Balls taking her to McDonalds and
something
about Balls having one tooth and tells her it's time to go. Miz goes to
pull
Kelly away and Balls decks him. On the outside, Miz once again demands
that
Kelly goes. He then tells us that he took over the management contract
of
Extreme Exposé, and that what he says goes. But if she goes out with
Balls,
she'll be out of Extreme Exposé and out of ECW.
That makes her choice easy and a distraught Kelly leaves the Balls
Bear
behind and heads back with her (not-so) favourite group of
airheads.
Now, in the interest of fairness, we get a Elijah Burke video
package.
TONIGHT! Elimination Chase to No Mercy Finals: Tommy Dreamer vs.
Elijah
Burke.
(ads)
We run down the No Mercy card, which once again features just one
ECW
match. But this is actually an intriguing card (to me anyway). Triple
H-Umaga should be a fun brawl while Rey Mysterio-Finlay is a fresh
match-up.
And then a fresh WWE Championship match-up should make things
intriguing.
Match #2 - Elimination Chase to No Mercy Finals - Elijah Burke
(Jacksonville, Fla.) vs. Tommy Dreamer w/ camo bandana and No Mercy
shirt
(Yonkers, NY)
This one is for all the marbles, folks. The winner moves on to No
Mercy
to face ECW Champion CM Punk for the title.
Back-and-forth action to start the bout, as Tazz spends some time
putting
over how Dreamer is ECW. Dreamer gains the edge when he puts Burke in a
Tree
of Woe and hits a running dropkick and then expels Burke to the outside
where he follows and starts pounding on Burke.
(ads)
We're back and the match has taken a 180 as Burke is firmly in
control
and Dreamer's bandana is nowhere to be found. Replay shows that Burke
hip-tossed Dreamer into the steel steps outside. Burke keeps
controlling,
but runs at Dreamer who hits the overzealous Burke with a neckbreaker
and
starts throwing punches.
A chant of "Tommy!" fails to get the momentum on the side of
Dreamer.
Burke kicks Dreamer in the corner and runs and hits the Outer Limits
Elbow.
But Tommy gets up and hits a DDT out of nowhere for the cover!
Winner of the Elimination Chase to No Mercy via pinfall: Tommy
Dreamer
But before Dreamer can celebrate for too long, we're interrupted by
ECW
General Manager Armando Estrada. He tells us the Elimination Chase is
not
over and there's one man left to enter: Big Daddy V. Talk about a bait
and
switch! This is not good for Dreamer.
Match #3 - REAL Elimination Chase to No Mercy Finals - Big Daddy
V
(Harlem, NY) vs. Tommy Dreamer w/No Mercy shirt (Yonkers, NY)
Dreamer tries to get an early edge by going for a dropkick, but it
barely
phases Big Daddy. The bell rings and the beatdown commences. This may
have
taken a minute or two, but it was purely academic from the start, as
Dreamer
got about six punches in after 90 seconds of being squashed before
being put
down with a boot to the face, a running avalanche, a 500-pound Samoan
Drop
and an elbow.
REAL Winner of the Elimination Chase to No Mercy via pinfall: Big
Daddy V
That's right, folks, the 1995 King of the Ring is heading to No
Mercy to
challenge CM Punk for the ECW Championship!
Well, gang, certainly another non-offensive effort for ECW. I'd even
go
so far to say that I enjoyed ECW more than I did RAW.
With that being said, I'll see you next week and GO RED WINGS!
Come on, people! Doesn't anyone care about ECW? Send Matt e-mail
about
ECW/wrestling/hockey at bishop20@msu.edu. And if you're
interested in mixed martial arts, check out Matt's weekly podcast on Lights Out
Radio.
