After the usual Todd Grisham welcoming us to the show deal finished, Tiffany was on the ramp to welcome out ECW General Manager Theodore Long. T-Long said that ECW was to have a scramble match at Unforgiven, just like Raw and Smackdown will. Throughout the night, there will be 4 matches to determine who will be in the scramble match.

Our first qualifier for the ECW title scramble match was Matt Hardy vs. John Morrison.

Hardy controls the start of the match with a side headlock. Morrison goes onto the apron and attempts a springboard type move; however, he is caught with a punch to the face by Matt Hardy. Back in the ring, Morrison begs off Hardy but suckers him in enough to grab the tights and pull him face first into the corner. Morrison controls Hardy with a variation of the cobra clutch, Morrison cuts off Hardy’s attempt at a comeback with a neckbreaker. Morrison goes up for his corkscrew moonsault but Hardy gets out of the way. Morrison blocks a twist of fate attempt and hangs Hardy up on the top rope, with a full steam of momentum; Morrison sends Hardy flying off the apron as we head to the break.

During the break, Matt Hardy was rammed back first into the steel steps, this allowed Morrison to control the match. Hardy escapes the moonlight drive twice, but on the second reversal, Morrison levelled Hardy was a clothesline, this let Morrison go straight back to controlling Hardy.

Hardy finally fought back and hit his corner bulldog on Morrison, and as in usually Matt Hardy fashion, the second rope elbow was next. Morrison again reverses the twist of fate and slides up Hardy for a 2 count; Hardy quickly rolls up Morrison for another 2 count. Morrison tried a crucifix but Hardy dropped him down and went for the pin, Morrison kicked out of that and turned it into a pin which again, only got a 2 count.

John Morrison went to go for his springboard kick, but Hardy saw it coming and caught Morrison and attempted a razor’s edge, Morrison wriggled out of that and hit his springboard kick for a near-fall. Both men hit a clothesline on each other, knocking both men down. Hardy reversed the moonlight drive again, but this time he followed it up with a twist of fate which finally got Matt Hardy the win. This was a really good match, if the main event hadn’t been built up for a few weeks, this should have main evented the show. Shame Morrison lost though.

Teddy Long was in his office with Tiffany when Mark Henry and Tony Atlas walked in. Henry accused Long of having something against him, (they should have done what King Booker did and accuse Teddy Long of being racist towards Booker) Long said this was lies, he thought that it was a good thing for ECW to have a scramble match. Mark Henry and Tony Atlas walked off in disgust.

The second ECW title scramble match qualifier was between the Miz and Evan Bourne. Early on, Evan Bourne was rolling up Miz and arm dragging him at every given opportunity. Bourne tried something in the corner but Miz just flung him out to the floor and took control of the match. Bourne fired back with kicks and a hurricanrana. However, the night wasn’t to be Evan Bourne’s when the finish saw Miz throw Bourne up into the air while on the top rope, Bourne landed balls first on the turnbuckle, Miz quickly hit the reality check and advanced to the Scramble match.

The third scramble qualifier was Chavo Guerrero vs. Tommy Dreamer. Now instead of me telling you what happened and who won, just take one guess on who won, go on. If you answered Tommy Dreamer, what is wrong with you?! Chavo won after a boring 3 minute match with a frog splash.

Main Event time! Mike Knox, with his Bruiser Brody style facial hair is set to take on Finlay, with his Michael Jackson style attitude towards dancing with kids at aged nearly 50. This is the final ECW title match scramble qualifier.

Both men gave each other stiff tie-ups. Finlay runs the ropes but was nearly killed with a hard shoulder block by Mike Knox. Finlay threw Knox to the outside where they brawled for a bit, Knox went to clothesline Finlay – who was resting up against the ring post – but Finlay moved and Knox ended up smashing his arm into the post.

We came back from the break with Finlay applying a hammerlock to Mike Knox; Knox eventually escaped Finlay and rolled to the outside. Finlay was quick to go after him but walked right into a powerslam on the outside. Back in the ring, Mike Knox had Finlay in a chin-lock; Finlay briefly got out of it but was killed with a stiff-as-hell

lariat.

After a pin attempted, Mike Knox went to grab Hornswoggle, but the mutant smartly took off his coat and waddled up the ramp. Finlay saw Knox trying to attack his son and went wild; Knox stopped this flurry of offense with a big-ass boot to the face. Knox went to un-tie the top turnbuckle but the ref stopped him, meanwhile Hornswoggle threw the stick into the ring, Knox however knew it was coming and kicked Finlay in the gut. Knox now had the stick, but the ref saw this and took it away. Hornswoggle threw another stick in and Finlay this time nailed Knox with it for the win. Post-match, Finlay and Hornswoggle danced and ran around the ring with some kids.

It was a very wrestling heavy show this week, nothing was awful, and there was one really good match, that being the Matt Hardy vs. John Morrison match. Personally, I’d replace Chavo Guerrero with John Morrison in the scramble match, but whatever.

Steve McLaren
steve@wwepreview.com