Hello there you cheesy comestibles!
I decided to review this one as I wanted to re-watch the John Morrison Vs CM Punk match again as I had a lot of fondness for it back in the day. I haven’t got a clue as to what else is on this show though, so that could end up being a potentially nice or negative surprise.
Maffew has also reviewed this show during his EPIC journey through the history of WWE’s ECW brand and you can read what he thought by clicking HERE
The event is emanating from Cincinnati, Ohio
Calling the action are Joey Styles and The Tazz
We open up with clips of CM Punk defeating The Miz in order to earn one more shot at the ECW Title.
We get the intro. Don’t question my heart; don’t question the fire that burns inside!
Opening Match
Matt Striker Vs The Boogeyman
“The Bottomless Pit” remains one of the more entertaining fake hometowns, and it gives me an excuse to post this as well…
Ah yes, that’s the stuff!
Anyway, Striker was feuding with Boogeyman because Boogey put some worms on him after Roddy Piper had embarrassed him. Striker reveals that he’s got Big Baddy V (Viscera/Mabel/Nelson Frazier) with him though, and that pair would last for a while I think. Boogeyman is absolutely awful as a wrestler, but he does have a lot of charisma and the crowd is into him, so the match has that going for it at least. It doesn’t last very long, as Striker sells for a bit and then leads Boogey into an attack from Big Daddy V for the DQ.
WINNER BY DQ: THE BOOGEYMAN
RATING: N/A
Too short to rate really. The match was mostly a backdrop for Big Daddy V to stand around outside looking mean
Heel beat-down follows during that. Big Daddy V and his fat flaps did not take the ECW brand to the stratosphere sadly.
ECW General Manager Armando Estrada tells Punk that this will be his last chance at the belt tonight because he’s already had a lot of chances already. Estrada mockingly wishes him good luck, but Punk tells him luck is for losers.
Match Two
The Miz w/ Kelly Kelly, Brooke Tessmacher and Layla Vs Balls Mahoney
Balls and Kelly were doing a bit of an opposites attract love story here, with everyone else in Miz’s entourage being pretty disgusted about it. This is a basic match, with Balls mostly throwing punches and Miz doing standard Heel fare like rest holds and whatnot. The big story is that Layla and Brooke are cheering Miz on whilst Kelly is hopeful that Balls might win. It’s a simple story and Kelly’s exaggerated “I’m not happy Miz is winning” look is anything but subtle, but it works as a storyline for TV and it’s a story pretty much anyone can follow. Miz ends up catching Balls with a neck breaker and that’s enough for three.
WINNER: THE MIZ
RATING: *1/2
Just a match
Miz mocks Balls Mahoney on the mic, which leads to Kelly coming into the ring to check that Balls is okay. The rest of Team Miz aren’t happy with that though and drag her away, so this storyline must continue. Balls’ sad face as Kelly leaves is pretty great I must say.
ECW Champ John Morrison cuts a promo on CM Punk, where he insults his opponent for later. This was a good cocky Heel promo.
Meanwhile, over on Raw, Vince McMahaon is confronted by his family over his recent wacky behaviour and the fact he has an illegitimate son. We were about 9 years into The McMahon Family soap-opera by this stage so I was mostly checked out of it all. Mr. Kennedy comes down to reveal himself as Vince’s son, but Kennedy was in the doghouse at the time due to some sort of drug issue (The whole Benoit thing was only a couple of months previous to all this so WWE was extra skittish about that stuff) and would actually get suspended as a result, so this gets shot down by a representative for the mother and Kennedy then gets suspended for “impersonating a McMahon”. Man, Kennedy had ZERO luck on his side in 2007.
Match Three
The New Breed (Elijah Burke and Kevin Thorn) Vs The ECW Originals (Stevie Richards and Tommy Dreamer)
Burke had been Vince McMahon’s handpicked star to lead the new ECW, which of course had put him in opposition to the original ECW crew. Joey actually makes a point that Stevie and Dreamer used to feud together a lot back in the original ECW and wonders whether that will affect their chemistry in this match.
This is your standard tag team effort, as they work the formula and the Heels get some heat on Dreamer. Dreamer sells that well of course and they actually succeed in kind of getting the crowd into it too. Richards gets the hot tag and does a nice segment on Burke. Thorn cheap shots Stevie though and Burke gets a pair of running knees to the back for the three count.
WINNERS: THE NEW BREED
RATING: **
Decent TV Tag Team match. Burke kind of needed to win too as he’ll be getting an ECW Title shot at the Unforgiven pay per view
We get a video package covering the Morrison/Punk feud. Morrison defeated Punk on three pay per views in the summer of 2007. It seemed like the feud was over after that, but then Morrison got done for the same thing that Kennedy did (I think they were found to be on the list of a noted drug dealer or something. It’s been a long time and a LOT of stuff was going on in that time period) so they need to get the belt off him and Punk is a Straight Edge dude who they don’t have to worry about that stuff with, hence he’s getting another shot here.
Main Event
ECW Title
Champ: John Morrison Vs CM Punk
Some of their matches had been pretty rough in the build-up to this, but they manage to properly click here and the match is really good as a result. The match has good heat too, as the crowd doesn’t like Morrison and really wants Punk to win, which helps things immensely. As Maffew said in his review, sometimes the pay per view crowds would see the ECW matches as a chance to take a break, but here they have a crowd who actually see this as a big match for a TV taping and are into it as a result.
Punk gets to shine on Morrison in the early going, and the action is good, with the crowd enjoying it too. Punk actually gets a big springboard cross body out to the floor at one stage, which leads to a commercial break. When we come back, Morrison is fighting out of a chin lock and then manages to fling Punk off the top rope when he tries a springboard move for the cut off. Morrison works some heat, mostly throwing kicks and the like, with Punk selling it well and the crowd sticking with him in the hope that he will make a comeback.
Punk manages to get back into things with a desperation Superplex, which leads to a double down and a full comeback from Punk once both men get back up. Punk looks good in the comeback and Morrison bumps, sells and feeds for him well during it. They go into some near falls and they’re done really well also, with the crowd biting on all them. This has been a good match on its own and the crowd has made it all the better. A hot crowd can really enhance my enjoyment of a match sometimes. Morrison tries everything to win, even cheating, but Punk will not be denied tonight and the Go To Sleep is finally enough for Punk to pick up the belt.
WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: CM PUNK
RATING: ****
This one was an absolute cracker, with the hot crowd enhancing an already good match and raising it to an excellent one
Punk does the big celebration and his happiness to win really puts the belt over.
In Conclusion
This is a one match show, but that one match is brilliant and takes up nearly half of the run-time, so the show kind of becomes a thumbs up by default. CM Punk was very much “my guy” at the time, so I taped this match and used to watch it quite a lot. It’s nice to see it held up after all these years.
Recommended show!