By Chris Newth, PWTorch contributor

Extreme Championship Wrestling
October 14, 2008
Upcoming PPV: Cyber Sunday (second-to-last episode before PPV)

ECW STORYLINES AND FEUDS

Welcome to the fifty-seventh edition of ECW Storylines and Feuds.

For those wondering about the Intrigue Level system that I employ, you can refer to the numbers as follows:

10 (excellent), 9 (great), 8-6 (very good, good, pretty good), 5 (decent; has its good and bad qualities), 4-3 (needs work, poor), 2 (bad), 1 (terrible)


ECW Champion MATT HARDY vs. MARK HENRY (w/ Tony Atlas) (13 weeks)

Summary Quick Shots:

-Mark Henry and Tony Atlas complained about how they wanted an ECW Title match against Matt Hardy.

-ECW GM Teddy Long came out to announce that Henry would be one of three wrestlers the fans can vote for to determine Hardy's opponent at Cyber Sunday. The other two guys up for a vote would be the winners of qualifying matches.

-The first qualifying match took place between Evan Bourne and Chavo Guerrero. The match saw Bourne pick up the win after hitting his Air Bourne finisher.

-After the match, Mark Henry blindsided Bourne with a clubbing forearm to the back. Henry then hit the World's Strongest Slam to make a statement.

-In ECW's main event, Finlay defeated John Morrison in the final Cyber Sunday Qualifying Match when Cryme Tyme lent a big helping hand by taking heels out and then giving Finlay the shillelagh so that the Fighting Irishman could strike Morrison in the head for the victory.

-After the match, as Finlay made his way to the stage, Henry attacked him by slamming him onto the metal grating with the World's Strongest Slam.

Analysis:

Making the ECW Championship match at Cyber Sunday a Fans-Choose-the-Opponent Match was the best thing WWE could have done. As I said last week, this feud has fallen very far since its high point weeks ago. Mark Henry has lost a lot of his edge; Tony Atlas has become nothing more than a generic heel manager; and Matt Hardy wasn't being helped by a rivalry that has no steam. Having a Henry vs. Hardy matchup with some other stipulation wouldn't have worked well. In this case, now fans can vote in either Finlay or Evan Bourne, but that doesn't rule out Mark Henry.

I can already picture a likely scenario where Evan Bourne wins the vote pretty astoundingly, but his match with Matt Hardy is either interrupted or bombarded by Henry afterward. Even more likely is the idea that Mark Henry will take out Bourne and Finlay prior to their matchup, rendering the vote useless. I can see it now: the voting graphic shows Bourne as the winner, but the camera cuts backstage to find Bourne lying motionless on a concrete floor backstage. The same happens to Finlay, and now Mark Henry is the only guy left to face Matt Hardy. Whatever the case, Hardy would best be served if he got a new, fresh opponent after Cyber Sunday. WWE also needs to find a way to regain whatever it was that made Henry an interesting character prior to Unforgiven.

Intrigue Level (out of 10): 4 [up 0.5 since last week]

Previous Feuds
Mark Henry: Undertaker, Kane, Tommy Dreamer
Matt Hardy: Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch, MVP, Chavo Guerrero

JOHN MORRISON & THE MIZ vs. EVAN BOURNE & RICKY ORTIZ (6 weeks)

Summary Quick Shot:

As noted above, Morrison lost to Finlay with some help from Cryme Tyme.

Analysis:

Well, it was only a matter of time before Cryme Tyme showed up on ECW to confront Miz and Morrison. It was either that or Evan Bourne and Ricky Ortiz were going to show up on Raw. But since the Miz/Morrison-Cryme Tyme feud is more compelling, it wasn't surprising that these two teams clashed on ECW. After all, Miz and Morrison have been making appearances on both Raw and ECW over the past few weeks to feud with two separate teams. We'll probably see more of this on Raw next Monday when things really start heating up. After all, now Miz and Morrison have something to really complain about. Here's the new question: Will Evan Bourne and Ricky Ortiz continue to feud with Miz and Morrison from here?

Intrigue Level (out of 10): 7.5 [same since last week]

Previous Feuds
John Morrison & The Miz: Yang & Moore, Dreamer & Delaney, CM Punk, Finlay & Hornswoggle
Evan Bourne: Chavo Guerrero & Bam Neely
Ricky Ortiz: n/a

TOMMY DREAMER & FINLAY vs. JACK SWAGGER & MIKE KNOX (4 weeks)

Summary Quick Shots:

-Backstage, Tiffany was trying to get Teddy Long into the Halloween spirit. Jack Swagger then barged in to complain that he wasn't in any qualifying matches. Long reminded him that he's new to the scene, but he did take Tommy Dreamer's request for a title shot after Cyber Sunday into consideration. Jack irritably made a comment about how he is trying to form his ECW legacy while Dreamer is only bastardizing his own.

Analysis:

Here was a good example of WWE spending just a little time on a storyline that they couldn't really get to in the ring this week. Because important Cyber Sunday qualifying matches had to take up so much time in the show, WWE decided to keep Swagger out of the ring this week. However, in an attempt to keep viewers informed about Tommy Dreamer's ongoing rivalry with Jack Swagger, they aired this brief backstage encounter. With just one short scene, WWE was able to accomplish quite a bit. Viewers continue to realize that Dreamer and Swagger are feuding; plus, we got to see some nice character elements, such as Swagger's disgust with Long's possible favoritism. Swagger also exhibited nice heel traits in his interaction with Dreamer, revealing some element of truth in his verbal attack on the ECW veteran. Nicely done.

Intrigue Level (out of 10): 6 [up 1 since last week]

Previous Feuds
Tommy Dreamer: Elijah Burke, John Morrison & The Miz, Mike Knox, Mark Henry, Colin Delaney
Jack Swagger: n/a


CONCLUDED FEUDS

(1) John Morrison & The Miz vs. Evan Bourne & Ricky Ortiz?


POTENTIAL FEUDS

(1) Mark Henry (w/ Tony Atlas) vs. Evan Bourne
(2) Mark Henry (w/ Tony Atlas) vs. Finlay (w/ Hornswoggle)


Thanks for reading, everyone. If you have any questions, suggestions, or comments, feel free to email me at newthtorch@hotmail.com. I greatly appreciate all the feedback that I receive, and I will respond to every email. Please insert a word in the subject line that deals with a wrestling topic or write something such as "WWE," "feud," or "Boogeyman" so that I know it's not junk mail.

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