Friday, June 2, 2023

ECW 12-19-06 Review

Tuesday, December 19th, 2006
Hampton Coliseum
Hampton, Virginia

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Bobby Lashley is here to kick off the show and gives a cheesy babyface promo. He announces that you can go on WWE.com to vote who his next opponent will be in 2 weeks. The options are Sabu, Test and Rob Van Dam. He talks about how he was part of Tribute To The Troops and Rene Dupree interrupts him and insults America. So now we have a match.

Bobby Lashley vs. Rene Dupree

So apparently Dupree still works here. Lashley tosses Dupree all over the ring. Dupree is able to snap the back of Lashley's neck on the top rope to slow down his momentum. It doesn't last long and Lashley hits a couple of clotheslines before hitting the delayed vertical suplex. Lashley hits the Dominator and that's all. That was all it needed to be. Too bad they had him do the interview spot because he wasn't ready for that yet.

Match Rating: 1/2*

Joey Styles and Tazz introduce Brad Armstrong, who will be helping announce this next match.

Matt Striker vs. Balls Mahoney

Balls charges right to the ring and starts the attack. He runs into a boot and now Striker is on offense, hitting a running kick to a seated Balls. Striker wants to choke Balls with his sweater, but the referee takes it away, so Striker uses the tape around his wrist instead. Striker works on Balls' arm while shoving his butt in his face. We get the Balls punch chant thing and then he hits a spinebuster. Balls goes up top, but misses with a leg drop and Striker hits the Golden Rule for the victory. He needs that a lot quicker in order for that to be a finisher. This was the usual from these two.

Match Rating: 3/4*

Test reluctantly explains why he should get our vote to be the #1 contender. Rob Van Dam then goes over his reasoning.

Hardcore Holly is out here to talk about tapping out to CM Punk. He says that he didn't and he challenges Punk to come out and try to make him tap. Punk comes out and Holly informs him that he only has 3 minutes to get him to tap out.

Hardcore Holly vs. CM Punk

With about 1:45 left, Punk tries to go for the Anaconda Vice, but Holly is still too fresh. Holly puts Punk in a headlock and we are down to 30 seconds. Punk hits a suplex, but then Holly blocks the submission attempt. The crowd starts counting down and gets the Anaconda Vice on as time runs out for the extremely flat finish. Holly then attacks Punk from behind and hits the Alabama Slam. I'm not sure what the finish was supposed to be, but whatever it was, it didn't work out. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

Shannon Moore was on the phone with someone and then he gets confronted by Daivari and Great Khali. Daivari tells him that he's going to teach him a lesson in the ring. 

Shannon Moore vs. Great Khali

So we don't get Daivari, we get Khali. While Khali is destroying Moore, Dreamer runs out and attacks Daivari. I guess Khali wins the match by pinfall, but we don't see it because they swapped over to Dreamer. Khali then comes out and attacks Dreamer, slamming him on the steel steps. That seemed like an unnecessary bump for a feud that no one cares about on a show that no one cares about. 

Match Rating: 1/4*

They show the Mike Knox/Kelly saga and then go to Mike Knox, who tells us that he was the victim here. 

Triple Threat Match
Sabu vs. Test vs. Rob Van Dam

After an early commercial break, RVD gets Test in the ring after all three men were on the mat outside the ring. Test goes for the pump handle slam, but RVD escapes. He attempts to fly off the top rope and Test shoves him outside the ring. Sabu hits Test with a springboard reverse elbow. Sabu goes up top, but Test hits the ropes and crotches him. Test goes for a superplex, but RVD comes in and powerbombs Test with the him still holding onto Sabu for the superplex. RVD and Sabu hit some double team moves on Test. RVD follows up with Rolling Thunder and then they double clothesline Test to the floor. RVD and Sabu go at it now and RVD is able to set up Sabu on the top rope and hits him with a single legged kick. RVD hits the 5 Star Frog Splash, but Test throws him out of the ring and steals the victory. The match was decent enough for ECW. 

Match Rating: **1/2

After the match, Tazz gets in the ring to announce who won the WWE.com poll. RVD shockingly wins the poll with 45% of the vote. After the announcement, Test nails RVD with a boot and heads to the back. 

This wasn't the most intriguing episode of ECW, but it's less than a week to Christmas, so they usually don't care at this time. There have been worse episodes, but this was extremely mediocre.

Overall Rating: 40%

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