WWE ECW 109

July 8, 2008 – Baton Rouge, Louisiana

They announce right off the bat that Tommy Dreamer gets to face Mark Henry in a non-title match tonight, presumably to earn a title match, which is what he wanted last week. So what was the point of beating Colin Delaney if Dreamer was going to get what he wanted immediately anyway? 

The Miz & John Morrison start the show with a promo. They brag and brag until Finlay comes out. He wants another tag title shot. Hornswoggle comes out from under the ring and nails them with a squirt gun. That leads into a match after a commercial break. 

Finlay def. The Miz
This went on forever and nothing particularly interesting happened in it. It’s a weird state of affairs when Hornswoggle is the more interesting wrestler in a pair, and Miz is definitely not as worthwhile in the ring as Morrison. Finlay won in 8:31 (shown) with the Celtic Cross. I hope going forward we only get tag matches out of this rivalry. *½ 

Braden Walker def. Armando Estrada
Walker is the newest New Superstar Initiative wrestler and his match is just as much of a snooze as Estrada’s match was last week. I remember Walker being in WWE was seen as a moderately interesting deal, which makes me realize how long TNA has been a thing, which makes me feel insanely old. This was about as boring as last week, and another snoozer on this episode. Walker won with a crossbody that almost injured both guys at 4:45. What a disaster. ½*

Tony Atlas is here, and that means that Atlas Ortiz is now Ricky Ortiz. That’s hilarious. Teddy Long asks him to be the guest ring announcer for the main event. Mark Henry walks up and disrespects Atlas just the smallest amount. Later in the show, he disrespects him more by saying he’ll pay him to carry his bags. Dreamer and Delaney then meet Atlas and Dreamer gushes over the legend. 

Evan Bourne def. Nunzio
I wish they’d given half the time of each of the preceding matches to this one. I also wish they hadn’t shown the picture-in-picture Bourne promo, because that kid couldn’t talk. Nunzio looked a little bit blown up, but at least they didn’t bore the crap out of the building like everyone else had so far on this show. Bourne won in 3:52 with the Shooting Star Press. **¼ 

Mark Henry dco. Tommy Dreamer
Is it weird that I liked Atlas as ring announcer? He sounded different than your average announcer, and brought a rustic charm to the thing. There were only four minutes left in the broadcast by the time the opening bell rang. In the middle of this squash, Delaney distracted Henry. Atlas seemed to be defending Delaney, but then attacked him, which led to Henry hitting the World’s Strongest Slam on Dreamer on the floor. That leads to a double count out at 2:39, though it didn’t seem like Dreamer had been outside for that long. The turn was kind of defanged by Mike Adamle’s garbage commentating. How hard would it have been to just sell it as shocking that Henry’s disrespect to Atlas earlier in the show had been a ruse? Gah. *