ECW On Sci Fi – June 20, 2006: The Right Direction
IMG Credit: WWE
ECW On Sci Fi
Date: June 20, 2006
Location: Pepsi Arena, Albany, New York
Commentators: Joey Styles, Tazz
Well after last week’s mess, they don’t have the highest bar to clear. It would be nice to have something that actually feels like ECW, which is why we have Edge and Randy Orton here tonight. It’s the go home show for Vengeance so expect a lot of talk about the matches there. We might even get some ECW stuff in here if we have time. Let’s get to it.
Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.
We open with an unnamed witch (Medium? Fortune teller?) turning Tarot cards as we hear about ECW invading Raw, causing Raw to come back here tonight.
Opening sequence.
Sabu vs. Tony Mamaluke
Trinity (now named) is here with Mamaluke as Tazz starts trying to get “Vixens” over for the ECW women. Sabu takes him down by the leg to start but Mamaluke is back with a knee to the head. A kick to the head gets two and Mamaluke starts in on the arm. That earns him a kick to the face and a slingshot legdrop to give Sabu two. With Mamaluke on the floor, Sabu uses a chair for a springboard dive to take him down again. Sabu whips out the table but gets chaired down. Mamaluke’s dive off the top is knocked out of the air by a chair being thrown into his face, setting up the camel clutch to give Sabu the win.
Rating: D+. This wasn’t much but it already felt more like ECW than anything we saw last week. It was a polished, cleaned up WWE version of ECW, but it did feel more like ECW. Sabu gets a win to help warm him up for John Cena on Sunday, but other than that it was a bunch of dives and weapons shots until the finish.
Kelly promises to strip more than she did last week.
Rob Van Dam is ready to team with Kurt Angle against Edge and Randy Orton in a preview for Sunday. He needs to get rolling, but does come back for one more finger point.
Here’s an annoyed looking Big Show for a chat but Tommy Dreamer cuts him off. Dreamer says if Show wants to make a name for himself around here, he’ll have to go through Dreamer to do so. Dreamer slaps him in the face and the destruction is on in a hurry. The cobra clutch backbreaker into the regular cobra clutch leaves Dreamer laying as Show walks away. Dreamer smiles a lot because he’s kind of loopy. It’s good to see that nothing has changed.
The vampire is outside again.
And now, Macho Libre. Before his match, Libre gives us a luchador style Randy Savage ECW and says he’s looking for a fight. SNAP INTO IT! I think you know where this is going.
Sandman vs. Macho Libre
Macho offers to tell him something (something, something, something, something OH YEAH) and gets caned down for about twenty seconds for the pin. This was funnier than the Zombie, but not by much.
John Cena arrives in the back and is surrounded by ECW. As Paul Heyman holds Sabu back, Cena says he knows all of the extreme things they have planned for him on Sunday. He knows they don’t like him, but Heyman can bring everyone he has on Sunday. Let’s make it an Extreme Lumberjack match because all he wants on Sunday is a chance to go down swinging. Cena glares at Rob Van Dam, turns around, and leaves.
Kelly comes out for her Expose. After a lot of dancing, she manages to get her bra off this time but here’s a guy with a towel to cover her up and take her away. A lot of booing ensues.
Test is coming. A lot of booing should ensue, as he’s one of the least ECW guys you could bring back.
Edge/Randy Orton vs. Kurt Angle/Rob Van Dam
Lita is here with the Raw guys. Before the match, Edge makes it very clear: he thinks ECW and it’s fans SUCK. Angle goes straight for Edge’s leg to start and then throws him down with ease. It’s quickly off to Orton vs. Van Dam with Rob kicking his way out of trouble. Orton gets crotched on the top and a top rope kick knocks him to the floor. There’s the moonsault to take him down again but it’s quickly off to Edge, meaning Lita can low bridge Van Dam to the floor as we take a break.
Back with Angle breaking up Orton’s cover so Edge sends Van Dam outside in a heap. A whip sends Van Dam hard into the steps and Orton hits the good looking dropkick for two. Van Dam rolls over and makes the hot tag to Angle though and it’s time to roll the German suplexes. Edge is sent outside so Angle locks Orton’s ankle but Edge makes the save. Orton uses the distraction to chop block Angle down and it’s time to start working the knee.
Angle pulls Edge down into the choke so Lita rakes the eyes to break it up. A raised boot in the corner lets Angle snap off another German suplex and it’s Van Dam coming in to clean house. Everything breaks down and there’s an Angle Slam to Lita for daring to try a running belt shot. The RKO takes Angle down but Van Dam kicks Orton in the face again. Van Dam cuts off the spear with a belt shot to the face though and the Five Star is good for the pin.
Rating: C+. Pretty good main event tag match here and that’s what the show needed. What mattered here was making ECW look like they could hang with the best of Raw and it didn’t go too far off the deep end to do so. Van Dam and Angle are full fledged WWE main eventers so giving them this win isn’t a big jump up for them, but it makes ECW look better.
Overall Rating: D+. While I would still hesitate to call this show good, this was miles ahead of the disaster that we got last week. The main event was good, the Sandman thing could be turned into a funny weekly deal, and Sabu got some momentum heading into his big match against Cena. The big problems are still really obvious though: this is a WWE show in an ECW costume and there is almost nothing to the ECW roster outside of Van Dam and two WWE guys on loan. It’s not good, but it made last week feel like some opening night jitters and that’s a big sigh of relief.
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