By Dominick Mayer, Torch ECW specialist

ECW on Sci-Fi TV alt. perspective report
February 3, 2009
Report by Dominick Mayer, PWTorch contributor

Recap: Last week, Swagger lost his ECW championship. Hornswoggle had it, Swagger piefaced him, and Finlay laid Swagger out in response.

Title sequence. Tonight: Finlay vs. Swagger in a non-title match.

Paul Burchill and Katie Lea make their way out. Tommy Dreamer comes out as the opposition. If they want Dreamer to be taken seriously, he really needs to stop wearing the designated jobber shirt every week.

1 -- PAUL BURCHILL (w/Katie Lea) vs. TOMMY DREAMER

Dreamer quickly rolls Burchill up for a short one count before taking the boots to him in the corner. "Let's go, Dreamer" chant from the audience. Dreamer takes Burchill down and applies a light armbar. Burchill with forearms in the corner. Dreamer goes for a bulldog, but gets deflected and slams into the middle rope, for a one count. Burchill settles into a chinlock. Dreamer breaks free, but Burchill gets a clothesline in the corner before stomping away at Dreamer again. Burchill goes for a running knee, but Dreamer slinks away. Dreamer finally takes over, hitting a sitdown spinebuster for two. Dreamer puts Burchill into the tree of woe and gets the dropkick. Dreamer grabs Burchill for a DDT, but Burchill forces Dreamer into the corner and rolls him up for two. Dreamer goes for the Spicoli driver, but Burchill gets free long enough to get an elbow to the head, followed by a hard reverse neckbreaker for the pin and the win.

WINNER: Burchill in 3:00. The match was good, with a lot of back and forth. I like the ending, because it ratchets up the audience's desire to see Dreamer win a match while giving Burchill a much-needed win. It also puts over Burchill's neckbreaker finisher as a match-ender.

Backstage, Jamie Noble is telling Teddy Long that he's here to save the show. He's offering his services to ECW to boost ratings. The crowd actually popped a bit for Noble there.

Meanwhile, Miz and Morrison are on their way to the ring. Dreamer's still in there, holding himself. He looks sad.

[Commercial Break]

Morrison, right out of the break: "You're so slow, you can't even get out of the ring in time for the next segment to start." Miz: "You don't wanna make him cry again." Dreamer looks pissed. Miz and Morrison riff on Dreamer's emotional speech, before calling him out for wanting to be ECW Champion again. Champions in 2009 look like Miz and Morrison, not Dreamer. Dreamer's the anti-Flair, because people want him to lose so he's gone. Miz tells Dreamer to call it in. The only people who want to see Dreamer less than the audience is his wife and kids.

[Q2]

Dreamer tackles Morrison, but Miz and Morrison take over and proceed to beat on him. Dreamer escapes Morrison but gets a Reality Check from Miz. Miz and Morrison raise their arms over a fallen Dreamer. Okay. A win over Miz and Morrison in a feud played right would be enough to make people take Dreamer seriously. Also, this continues the angle of Dreamer not being able to win anything. I actually think this is all too necessary, because were Dreamer to become a contender right after five years of jobbing, people would call b.s. almost immediately. It has to be a progression, even if a part of me wants to see him win at WrestleMania.

[Commercial Break]

Noble is in the ring after the break waiting for his first ECW opponent. Inevitably, the Boogeyman's music hits. Crap. I'll give Boogeyman one thing, though: the man is ripped.

2 -- JAMIE NOBLE vs. THE BOOGEYMAN

There's some facing off, and then Noble goes after Boogeyman, but quickly ends up at a disadvantage. Noble comes back with some stomps, but gets a bodyslam in response. Boogey slams Noble's head into the top turnbuckle. Boogeyman tosses Noble and then hits a running shoulderblock. Boogeyman gorilla presses Noble back into the ring after he rolls outside. Noble comes back with some knees to Boogeyman's head. Noble goes up top and hits a sorta lame-looking axe-handle with one hand. Two count on Boogey. Noble applies a chinlock, which the crowd is indifferent to. Boogeyman lifts Noble onto his back and slams him. Noble counters the stinger splash attempt, but Boogey gets right back on him. Boogeyman gets the clotheslines. Boogey gets the inverted stinger splash on the second try, and then hits the pumphandle slam for the win.

WINNER: Boogeyman in 4:00. I was hoping Noble would get the win and they could have a nice undercard feud. For what it's worth, this is the best Boogeyman has looked in a while.

Backstage, Finlay and Hornswoggle are warming up.

[Q3]

The "WrestleMania through the years" package with WrestleMania 2 from Raw the previous night. The fact that Triple H is compared to Hulk Hogan in this package still annoys me. I'm not a Hunter-hater by any stretch, but Cena's the best current comparison right now, like him or not.

[Commercial Break]

Raw recap from last night: WWE explains some bad punches. I have an issue with calling them the worst ever, because I've been watching wrestling long enough to remember some pretty weak ones. They were bad for a major feud, but weren't an abomination. On another note, this recap is really long. Like, too long.

Grisham and Striker run down the No Way Out card so far.

Swagger is backstage. Tonight, Finlay is going to get embarassed and ruined, and he'll know that when he hit Swagger with the title last week, that's the closest he'll ever come to the belt.

[Commercial Break]

WrestleMania is only 61 days away. That was an entire third quarter-hour without any action.

Swagger is out first for the main event, which is odd, because he's the champion of the show. I'm a major stickler for observing the rule, which is that even if the champion is facing a more popular challenger, the champion comes out last.

[Q4]

3 -- ECW CHAMPION JACK SWAGGER vs. FINLAY (w/Hornswoggle)

Finlay and Swagger lock up early on. Nice mat exchange to start off, with Swagger taking over early. Finlay slaps Swagger lightly, and takes advantage of a bum rush to get a rollup on Swagger. Swagger takes Finlay down using a height advantage and works him into the corner. Finlay grabs Swagger's hands for a proper lockup and takes Swagger down for two. Swagger looks frustrated, while Finlay's grinning. Finlay hooks Swagger in an Indian deathlock. Swagger gets to the ropes and goes after Finlay with some hard strikes. Swagger and Finlay have a really awkward collision in the corner as the result of Finlay half-springing off the second rope. It looks like they headbutted each other. Finlay takes Swagger down again, and Swagger rolls outside to breathe. Break time.

[Commercial Break]

Finlay gets a quick cover on Swagger for two. Finlay applies a camel clutch across the face. Finlay rolls Swagger over for one. Swagger whips Finlay hard into the turnbuckle. Finlay rolls outside to catch his breath. Swagger goes after him and runs him into the apron. Back in the ring, Swagger gets a belly to back suplex for two. Swagger applies a bodyscissor across Finlay's midsection. Finlay kicks Swagger in the chest, but Swagger applies a bearhug, which Finlay responds to with a headbutt. Finlay with a small package for two. Swagger slams Finlay's head into the top turnbuckle. Swagger stops a corner rush with an elbow. Hornswoggle appears to distract Swagger long enough for Finlay to hit an atomic drop and throw Swagger out of the ring. Finlay gets run into the apron again before being thrown into the ringpost. Swagger throws away Finlay's shillelagh. Finlay tries to suplex Swagger into the ring, but Swagger drops him over the top rope. Hornswoggle hits Swagger in the ankle with the shillelagh, which allows Finlay to hit a clothesline and the Emerald Fusion for the pin and the win, Swagger's first loss.

WINNER: Finlay in 13:00. I really liked the first ten minutes of this match. It was hard-hitting, back-and-forth action between two very good wrestlers. Then, Hornswoggle got involved. Given how competitive the match was, this was a letdown, especially when it eventually ended the same way as every other Finlay match. If this was to be the one that ended Swagger's streak, I would much rather have seen a clean finish.

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