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2/19 WWE ECW on Sci-Fi Reax #1: "The worst moment of the night was the Playboy Maria bit." Feb 20, 2008 - 2:15:22 AM
Bryan Redd of Louisville, Ky. (6.5): Worst Match: Colin's face vs. the mat. (OUCH!) Best Match??... Gotta go with Ric Flair and C.M. Punk's "whooing" match. Was nice to see Flair get the win even without his career on the line. I'm getting bored with this Colin Shipwreck (and the Kofi Cor Von) deal. Pull the trigger or move on. Stevie should be in a program with Dreamer against Miz and Morrison at WrestleMania.
Terrie Neilson of Las Vegas, Nev. (8.0): Best: Punk/Flair vs. Burke/Benjamin Worst: Where was Chavo? Compared to heel-like reaction he received from No Way Out, Punk was much better received in San Diego. Having Flair with him definitely helped. Everything that involved Flair worked well. Everything else was okay enough. The Colin Delaney Show got in another episode. He's finally getting some offense; it's very flaky looking, but it looked believable for his character. Morrison getting ejected was kinda lame since he wasn't gone for long, but the work in progress is moving along smoothly. Richards-Curtis didn't work as well as last week's match when the clothesline was visibly whiffed, and Curtis is usually a good jobber. Kofi is also getting over easy enough, but his jobbers need to quit with the constant restholds, unless the point is that the restholds balance the high-flying antics of Kingston. Money In The Bank had qualifiers on Raw; is ECW not going to have anyone in it? There wasn't even a mention about MITB. And there wasn't even a mention of Chavo Guerrero retaining the ECW Title in any way. What the...?
Shane McKinley of Danville, Calif. (8.0): Best Match: Main Event Worst Match: Playboy Maria Overkill. ECW is proving to be a very reliable show. Smackdown used to be that show, but it is struggling with announcing, tired feuds, and often simple matches. We take for granted just how effective Tazz and Styles are announcing (plus I like it when announcers thank me for watching). Burke/Benjamin were good and effective in their roles. Mark Henry vs. Kofi? Kofi is getting over. Finlay really sold that Raw cage match, and suddenly the Hornswoggle angle is now one of the most emotional and serious things going. Miz vs. Collin had that spark to it. This feud has all the tangibles to be big. The worst moment of the night was the Playboy Maria bit. This hype can't end soon enough. Kelly's promo reminded me of her "I was so exicited I couldn't get my bra off" exibitionist promo (when she was going out with Mike Knox). Shudder. A thing that bothered me is that they didn't mention the WWE championship picture at all. You would think that the Cena vs. Orton vs. Triple H match at Mania would be more important than boobies or boxers, but I guess not. Now, Playboy Maria and Big Show-Mayweather are exiciting outside things, but Santino is the only thing driving the Playboy bit, and Big Show-Mayweather may be "by the numbers" affair. There's nothing wrong with these two angles, but in large part they are not very exiciting. I got to tell you, it impressed me that Flair went off the top rope, helping out Punk after the botched move. I'm just used to old wrestlers (Kevin Nash comes to mind) that seemingly don't care. Everybody look so involved in this match, and it helped out everybody. Great job.
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