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LOOKING AT A "THEY FINALLY DEBUT AT THE GARDEN" EDITION OF ECW ON SCI FI

It was a historic night, kind of, for Extreme Championship Wrestling when they debuted at the Garden on Monday night.  Back when the company started in 1993, it was the anti-WWF, the anti-Garden.  A debut at the Mecca of Professional Wrestling seemed like something that had no chance of ever happening.

A lot has changed since then.  ECW has gone bankrupt and been resurrected as WWE's third brand.  It's not the company that it was, but it was still pretty surreal to see some of the stars of the original company performing at MSG.  Really surreal in fact. 

The show itself was a step down from the recent efforts.  It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either.  It was your basic, "Here's an hour wrestling program".  Let's move on to my thoughts of the show.

As I said above, it was so wild watching Paul Heyman come out to ringside at MSG for an ECW show.  10 years ago seeing something like that would have been a pipe dream.  When Heyman put over how important Madison Square Garden was to a kid from New York, he was certainly shooting as he started taking pictures there when he was 14 and got to know a lot of the players in the old WWWF.  The segment went the way I thought it would, with Sabu coming out and attacking Heyman to set up the main event.

Shouldn't Basham Security have known that Sabu was going to come bounding off of the chair, onto them, while they were down on the floor?

Why is it that Heyman didn't want Sabu to wrestle Big Show for weeks and and now suddenly, he doesn't care?  I know that Vince McMahon changes his mind at the drop of a hat and just ignores the past on many occasions, but really, it's not that hard to at least make an effort at having some continuity is it?

RVD vs. Bob Holly was fine for what it was, though it did seem like they had some problems working together in spots.  It could have just been rust or that they are just not comfortable with the other man's style. ... Boy, was that moonsault off of the apron ugly or what? ... I did like that at the end of the match, RVD, Tommy Dreamer and Sandman were standing tall in New York City.  I know this is WWECW now, but as someone who was around the company before it went under, it was very cool to see those guys getting their due in the Mecca given how much they put into ECW back in the day.

Boy, CM Punk just neutered Shannon Moore didn't he?  Now, I am not complaining because Moore looks like such a goof that I can't even begin to take him seriously. After that spanking, Punk became even more of a face to me for making Moore submit.  Oh yeah, and thanks for coming Shannon.  Mop up and then turn off the lights when you leave.

Did you notice that Rene Dupree looked right into the camera in the back?  Of course, that begs the question, Why is it that sometimes people see the camera and other times they don't?  Oh yeah, don't ask Dave.  Gotcha Vince.

Kelly is just stupidly hot and she showed last night that while she can't dance, she can show some personality.  I have heard that Mike Knox has looked a lot better down in Deep South than he has on ECW TV.  If he works with CM Punk, I hope we get to see that version of Knox in their matches.

Did you notice that Balls Mahoney threw water up in the air when he came through the curtain?  And, do you think that someone will tell him that he may want to stop doing that before he hears from a certain DX member?

Rene Dupree and Balls Mahoney had a solid match.  I think Dupree has the kind of gimmick that could work in WWECW since he will definitely get under the skin of the old time fans that are still watching.  Yeah, it would be tempting to say "all five of them" but I won't.  Well, I guess I just did.

OK, I get that Matt Striker is my teacher and hates Sandman and the fans drinking beer.  We have seen it for weeks now.  This is a perfect example of how WWE creative can be so repetitive.  How about something different that will further their storyline instead of showing me the same thing I have seen for weeks now?  Is that too much to ask? 

Big Show vs. Sabu was pretty boring early on since Sabu took a beating for much of the match but it got better as it went on.  The table spots and other assorted plunder at the end were cool, but something just kind of seemed off between the two men throughout the match.  There were times it liked like both were in slow motion and really tentative.  This wasn't the best work between the two but given how well both have worked since the company started, they deserve a pass for one off night.

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