The intro video plays that includes Christian as champion and then we arrive at the Land of Extreme in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as Josh Matthews and Matt Striker announce the main event of Christian taking on Mark Henry in a non-title match. We take off to the first match of the night.

Evan Bourne vs. Tyson Kidd w/ Natalya

They recap Tyson getting the win over Finlay last week, putting over the teamwork Tyson and Natalya display. Natalya is wearing a female-version jacket of what the Hart Foundation used to wear. Hmmm…. Striker notes this is the first one-on-one encounter between Evan and Tyson. He also notes the lucha influence in the early going, adding that today is Cynco de Mayo. Tyson tries to ground Evan early, but Evan counters out and unloads on offense. He gets distracted by Natalya a little bit, but prevents Tyson from taking advantage and keeps himself from getting the tables turned. Springs off the ropes from a headscissors take over and Tyson quickly rolls out of the ring to avoid the pin before cutting to commercial.

Tyson has control upon return. Evan starts mounting a comeback, but when he charges in the corner Tyson sidesteps. Evan manages to hop onto the middle ropes, but Tyson quickly kick sweeps him off. From there, Tyson is roughly in grand control, working over Evan’s back with submissions. Evan would try to flip into quick pins, but Tyson stays on top. Evan starts making the hot comeback following a modified enziguri where he instead rams a knee into Tyson’s jaw. Evan goes all out for the next minute or so until Tyson lifts him onto the apron.

Tyson distracts the referee while Natalya pulls Evan off. Tyson slides Evan back into the ring, but then Finlay comes charging down. He chases Natalya into the ring, who ends up distracting the referee while Finlay knocks Tyson off the top rope with the shillelagh. This sets up for Evan to hit the Shooting Star Press for the win. Pretty good match that leaves room for a future program down the road. Guess they’re going to keep going with a Tyson and Finlay feud. Maybe that will be the way to introduce DH Smith on the scene.

Josh and Matt recap the ending to last week’s main event, where Jack Swagger interferes during the Christian vs. Tommy Dreamer match and lays both men out. There is a shot of Swagger in the back before cutting to commercial.

Josh is in the ring to give Jack Swagger an interview. Swagger states how he had brought prestige to the ECW Championship for the past three months before losing it to Chrisitian, who he claims cheated to win the belt. He then puts down Dreamer’s age and boasts how glad he was to interrupt last week’s match. The fans cheer as Tommy is making his way, as best as he can, down the ring. He trips Swagger and then proceeds to unload on him before the younger man makes his retreat. Swagger is doing a little better at cutting promos, but boy he’s still a ways away from the level of someone say… Christian.

Tiffany is in the back and welcomes Zack Ryder to ECW. Ryder appears to be a knock of Joey Lawrence from “Blossom.” And Tiffany looks none too impressed like the rest of us. So unimpressed she was that she books Ryder to face Finlay on Superstars. Whoops. Boy, whose idea was it for the character poor Zack has to play in a bad attempt to build him up.

A training vingette of Vladimir Kozlov plays before cutting to commercials. These vingettes are great and all, but he doesn’t have the talent to back it up.

Vladimir Kozlov vs. Jesse Guilmette

Squash time. Here he does a couple wrestling based moves. I guess the idea is to show that he’s learning how to wrestle in order to live up to the vignettes. We’ll see when the time comes if it is working. Any way, he takes out Jesse with what Striker calls the Iron Curtain Decending and gets the win. He cuts a quick Russian sentence before leaving.

They show the Raw Rebound of the main event last night. I have zero interest whatsoever. Off to the back where Gregory Helms interviews Mark Henry quickly, who states that being the World’s Strongest Man means he can take whatever he wants. And tonight, Christian is his victim. We cut to commercial on Helms staring off at Henry leaving. Helms should be wrestling.

Christian vs. Mark Henry w/ Tony Atlas

As Christian is making his way to the ring, they recap in pictures Christian beating Jack Swagger for the ECW Championship back at Backlash. Henry shows off his strength early, until Christian counters with the Pendulum Kick. He tricks Henry with a sunset flip attempt, making Henry drop himself as Christian easily slips away. Christian is working over Henry when Swagger suddenly appears, dressed in his wrestling gear, to attack Christian. Dreamer then runs in and fights him off. Tiffany comes out and says that since Swagger and Dreamer wanted to get involved so bad, they might as well turn the match into a tag team match. So it will be Christian and Tommy Dreamer vs. Jack Swagger and Mark Henry as we cut to commercial.

Let’s try this again, shall we?

Christian and Tommy Dreamer vs. Jack Swagger and Mark Henry w/ Tony Atlas

Upon return from break, Christian nails a European Uppercut from the middle rope on Swagger and tags in Dreamer. Dreamer gets some offense before getting put down by a belly-to-belly suplex. Swagger and Henry work over Dreamer until Dreamer manages to fight back. Quick tag to Christian, who is working over both opponents until Swagger finds an opening and takes him down. As Swagger and Henry work over the champion, I notice the show is going over the one hour limit. Guess there’s another five minutes of action.

Christian manages to nail reverse DDTs on Swagger before making the hot tag to Dreamer. Dreamer is cleaning house and sets Swagger up on the tree of woe. He sidesteps, causing Henry to splash Swagger. Christian knocks Henry out of the ring and then springs into a plancha. Henry catches him, but Dreamer does a cannonball roll on them to bring Henry down. Dreamer slides back in and charges at Swagger, who leg trips him onto the middle turnbuckle. And the protective padding falls after impact, with Josh and Matt quick to point that out and its relation to the events from Backlash. Swagger hits the Falling Gutwrench Powerbomb for the win while Atlas puts the padding back on so the referee wouldn’t get suspicious. Good match.

Overview: Middle of the road show. Nothing really too much getting over this week, other than continuing to further the Christian-Swagger program that may or may not see Dreamer get involved. The Evan Bourne vs. Tyson Kidd match showed the potential these two could have in the future. Not sold on Zack Ryder’s new gimmick and that must really suck that his first match is on Superstars against Finlay. If Kozlov can improve his in-ring abilities, he just might live up to his vingettes. Nothing much else.

Dan Short
dan@ifight365.com