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WWE Superstars/ECW TV taping report
July 1, 2009
Bakersfield, Calif.
Report by Kevin K., PWTorch.com reader

I was in attendance for last night's tapings. Great show. Rey Mysterio is WAY over in Bakersfield, but that's not a surprise given that probably three-fourths of the audience was Hispanic. Kids loved him as always.

Dark Match: Drew McIntyre beat Jimmy Wang Yang in about four minutes. McIntyre has dropped the Scottish gimmick and is now doing a male runway model gimmick. He mentioned that because he's "already made it on the runway," he's a "guaranteed thing" here in the WWE.

ECW TV taping for July 9 episode

(1) One of the Bella twins beat Katie Lea Burchill in about 3-4 minutes. The Bellas tried to cut a promo before the match and it was terrible. I hope it gets edited out. Katie Lea Burchill is so hot in person it's not even funny. Contrary to other reports, the second twin that switched in wasn't under the ring hiding, but was outside and jumped in when the ref's back was turn and the other twin got thrown to the floor. Katie may have been wearing some sort of face paint for this match. Hard to tell after ECW's opening pyro.

(2) Shelton Benjamin over Yoshi Tatsu in about 11:00. Yoshi was pretty impressive in my opinion. These two wrestled a very stiff "strong style" match. Shelton actually got some love here with a few scattered "Let's Go Shelton" chants. Overall the crowd was behind Yoshi, who looks to have a bright future if he keeps on putting on matches like this one.

(3) Ezekiel Jackson over jobber. Total squash, although Ezekiel looks like a freaking monster in person. Dude is straight up huge.

- Abraham Washington show was next. Abraham got boo'd mercilessly at first, but he settled into his groove once he brought out Tommy Dreamer. Washington spent about two minutes just ribbing on Tommy for being fat and out of shape. Best exchange of the night:

Washington: "How's being the oldest superstar on ECW going for you?
Dreamer: "About as well as this talk show is going for you"

(4) Christian beat Kozlov in a #1 contenders match in about 7:00. Somewhat ho-hum, Christian deserves better than this. I just can't wait until the day they move him to Smackdown. Christian got a big pop and had plenty of peeps in the crowd.

Superstars taping for July 9 episode

(1) Zack "Woo Woo" Ryder beat Tyler Reks in about 12:00. Very good match. Ryder has star potential written all over him. Reks looked like Chuck Polumbo with dreadlocks and a surfer gimmick. On the whole, really liked what I saw from Ryder during this match.

(2) R-Truth beat Ricky Ortiz in 6:00. R-Truth got a great live crowd reaction; people were really into the "WHATS UP" back and forth. Ortiz actually got boo'd pretty good. Decent match, nothing to write home about. Definitely not as good as the Ryder-Reks match.

Smackdown TV taping for July 10 episode

- They showed the end of the Hardy/Punk match at the Bash, and then Jeff came out to a huge pop with lots of little girls and kids going bonkers. He was sporting an eye patch when he came out. He cut a short promo about his eye injury being about as realistic as Punk's eye injury.

(1) Kane beat Jeff Hardy in 7:00. Hardy began to comeback from the Kane beating when Punk's music hit and the Champ came out onto the stage. Hardy was distracted and was caught with a chokeslam.

(2) Dolph Ziggler beat John Morrison in 8:00 in the surprise of the night (for me at least). Prior to the match, Morrison is shown backstage talking to Teddy Long about going kareoking with him in the future. Morrison reminded Long that he has challenged the winner of the Hardy-Punk match at Night of Champions for a title shot, which Long confirmed. Ziggler wins with a roll-up (pulling the tights) after a fantastic counter-sequence with Morrison. I think that Ziggler has some real, serious potential as a heel. People were all over him during his entrance and during the match. Morrison was pretty well liked by the crowd.

(3) Melina & Eve Torres beat Women's champion Michelle McCool & Layla when Melina pinned Layla in about 5:00. Standard Divas tag match with a great pull-apart brawl between Melina and McCool at the end of the match, good heat for McCool in this segment. Lots of "Where's the Undertaker?" comments directed to McCool from my section.

- Jeff Hardy comes out to commentate on the Punk-Khali match. Punk came out and gave the promo that many people have been waiting for from him. Here's my best recollection of it, said as Punk is in the ring looking at Hardy, who is sitting next to JR:

"Are you happy Jeff? You come out earlier wearing an eye patch mocking me? I could have been seriously injured because of you! You see this right here? This is Dyhydroxy Sulfate -- I have to put it in my eye three times a day. It's the only foreign substance I'll allow in my body. Now Jeff, I know you know a lot about prescription medication but, see, to get this legally you have to get it from a doctor. If you want to be like me, with your little eyepatch, instead of doing that, why don't you try living a clean lifestyle, a straight edge lifestyle? Jeff, you have two strikes, do you know how many I have? ZERO. Do you know how many times I've been suspended Jeff? ZERO. Do you know how many times I've been to a rehab facility in my life? ZERO. Do you know what your chances are for beating me at Night of Champions Jeff? ZERO"

(4) World Hvt. champion C.M. Punk beat Khali by DQ when Kane interrupted with a chair and trades shots with Khali.

(5) Hart Dynasty (Tyson Kidd & D.H. Smith) beat Cryme Time (Shad Gaspar & JTG) in 6:00 with a Hart-Attack/Total Elimination hybrid-type move (Kidd with the sweep, Smith with the clothesline). Hart Dynasty had good heel heat, can't wait to watch their development on Smackdown.

(6) IC champion Rey Mysterio beat Chris Jericho in 15:00. Rey Mysterio got an insane pop, louder than the one's I've heard for Cena and Austin during previous visits to Bakersfield. Mysterio was clearly the star of the show and the one that the majority of the crowd was there to see. Great things in this match like you would suspect with these two. Chris Jericho is the best at what he does. Edge and Ziggler attacked Mysterio after the match to massive, massive heat.

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