WWE "ECW on Sci-Fi"
Taped July 1 in Bakersfield, Calif.

[Q1] The new ECW montage aired with footage of new additions such as Shelton Benjamin, Vladimir Kozlov, William Regal, and Ezekiel Jackson... Josh Matthews and Matt "Beer Can" Striker introduced the show and hyped the main event...

1. Nikki Bella (w/Brie Bella) defeated Katie Lea Burchill in 2:35. The Bellas did a bit where they pretended to be the other and then revealed who they really are. "Actually, we're the Bella Twins," the simultaneously said. Gee, this will never get old. Viewers got a glimpse of the top of Nikki's ass crack throughout most of the match.

At 2:00, Katie sent Nikki over the top rope. Nikki tried to hold on to the top rope and failed. She tumbled to the floor. Later, the Bellas traded places. Brie entered the ring and quickly pinned Katie...

Powell's POV: You could tell it was Brie because her ass crack wasn't showing. Four hours? It's going to be a long night.

Highlights aired from last week of Shelton Benjamin mocking Yoshi Tatsu. The announcers said a lot of people felt like Shelton went too far with his comments... Tatsu made his entrance and the announcers hyped the rematch between him and Benjamin for after the break... [C]

2. Shelton Benjamin defeated Yoshi Tatsu in 10:25. No mocking this week. Shelton controlled the early action. Tatsu made a brief comeback and the show cut to commercial.

[Q2] [C] The crowd got behind Yoshi by chanting his name. He hit some impressive offense and scored a couple nice nearfalls. Shelton hit Paydirt out of nowhere and scored the pin... [C]

Powells' POV: Impressive performance by Yoshi with some fun offensive moves. I'd like to see more from these two. It was encouraging to hear the live crowd get behind Yoshi in his second match. I guess it could have been canned, but I'm not sure where they'd come up with canned noise of anyone yelling "Yoshi."

Highlights aired from Monday's Raw...

[Q3] 3. Ezekiel Jackson squashed Jack Medriol in 1:40. Jack rocked. Total old school jobber with a big, dramatic point to the camera. In a pre-taped segment, Zeke said there's only one man in the history of World Wrestling Entertainment that is important: Ezekiel." Um, okay. Zeke finished him off with his version of the Rock Bottom...

Powell's POV: Old school squash. I think we got to see Jack's name graphic for a fraction of a second.

A backstage shot aired of three production crew members talking amongst themselves. Suddenly, a woman fell off a ladder in the background. Hurricane caught her and then ran away when Tiffany showed up...

Powell's POV: You know, because they always cut to backstage shots of crew members talking. Nothing unnatural about that scene.

A graphic hyped The Abraham Washington Show with Tommy Dreamer coming up next...

After the break, Washington was in the ring with his talk show set. He said he needed a No. 1 guest and introduced ECW Champion Tommy Dreamer, who came out to a nice ovation and took a seat on the couch. Washington said Dreamer is the biggest superstar in ECW history. Washington noted that Dreamer was literally the biggest superstar in ECW.

Washington ripped on Dreamer's weight. He said he had twins on the show last week, but this week's guest looked like he was pregnant with twins. He asked Dreamer how the gastric bypass surgery was going. Dreamer said about as well as the talk show was going for Washington. Nice.

[Q4] Dreamer got all fired up when talking about the various stars who got their big break in ECW. He ran through a list of current and former WWE stars including Eddie Guerrero. The crowd cheered. Washington continued to mock Dreamer's weight by saying he was in a match where the goal was to get to the front of the buffet line.

Washington assumed Dreamer's toughest opponent was Jenny Craig. Dreamer returned fire by mocking Washington's hair. Abe pulled out a brush and spoke about how "tight" his hair is. He said there would be a match between Christian and "Vladimir Coleslaw." He corrected himself and said he doesn't speak Russian.

Abe asked Dreamer which wrestler he expected to face at Night of Champions. Dreamer said he believes it will be Christian. He tried to elaborate, but was interrupted by Kozlov's entrance music. Kozlov came out in his ring gear and stood face to face with Dreamer. Washington formally introduced the two of them. They continued their staredown as Abraham's music played and the show cut to break... [C]

Powell's POV: Abe had a couple of funny jokes, but there were some duds in there. The talk show skit was better than last week, but that's not saying anything. I'm still impressed by Washington's poise and charisma even if I'm not fond of the corny jokes he's telling.

3. Christian defeated Vladimir Kozlov in 5:35 to earn a shot at the ECW Title at Night of Champions. Dreamer sat in on commentary. He said it was hot and not because he's wearing as suit jacket. He said the match would be "off the hook." I guess Washington is rubbing off on him. Dreamer said he couldn't hear the announcers because the Peeps were so loud cheering for Christian during his entrance. Nice touch.

Christian took control and tossed Kozlov to ringside. Vladimir stood on the apron and headbutted Christian in the gut when he charged. Kozlov backdropped Christian from the ring apron to the floor. Big bump. Kozlov brought Christian back in the ring and worked him over.

Later, Christian hit a missile dropkick for a near fall. Christian ended up taking turnbuckle pad off one of the corners. Vlad ended up running into the exposed turnbuckle and Christian hit the Killswitch for the 1-2-3...

Powell's POV: Nice match. Christian worked really hard and Kozlov showed improvement. Christian can take pride in getting the best match anyone has gotten out of Kozlov so far. Dreamer was also good on commentary in that he put over both wrestlers nicely to set up his pay-per-view match. I'm tagging out to Chris Shore, who is on Superstars coverage, but I'll be back for TNA Imapct. Thanks for following along with me.

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