The curtain closed on ECW Tuesday night with Ezekiel Jackson becoming the answer to a trivia question. He defeated Christian in an Extreme Rules match to become the new – and final – ECW champion
Nothing special was done to commemorate ECW's last episode, although Christian did put over the ECW originals in his pre-match promo. I thought perhaps WWE would have Joey Styles, the voice of the old ECW and currently WWE's director of digital media content, call the last match, but it didn't happen.
Actually, it probably was fitting that Styles wasn't on the broadcast. The WWE TV version of ECW really had nothing to do with the original ECW anyway. The edgy, innovative Philadelphia-based company died in 2001, and the show that has been airing Tuesday nights on SyFy the past four years may as well have been called Heat or Velocity.
Other thoughts on Tuesday's show:
Jackson and Christian had a good brawl that included run-ins by Zack Ryder and William Regal as well as a spot in which ECW general manager Tiffany speared Rosa Mendes. Since Josh Matthews and Byron Saxton didn't do it, I yelled "Catfight! Catfight! Catfight!" at the TV screen. ...
I won't be surprised if Jackson ends up becoming a money player at some point on Raw or Smackdown. I hope Christian does, too. If he doesn't, it will be a real waste of talent. ...
The WWE unified tag team title match that saw The Miz and The Big Show successfully defend their championship against Goldust and Yoshi Tatsu was entertaining. Miz and Big Show got a nice win and Goldust and Tatsu looked good in defeat. ...
Vladimir Kozlov actually got a decent pop when he came out during The Abraham Washington Show. The fans also cheered when Kozlov and Shelton Benjamin shook hands after they cleared the ring of Vance Archer, Trent Barreta and Caylen Croft. ...
I'm sure that Washington will end up on Raw or Smackdown in some capacity, but if he no longer does the talk show gimmick, I hope WWE finds something for Tony Atlas to do. Am I the only one who was laughing out loud every time Atlas did "the laugh" on this show? ...
The talent that will appear on WWE NXT – the hybrid live event/reality show that takes over ECW's time slot beginning next week – was revealed. The premise is that eight WWE stars will each mentor a "rookie."
Here are the pairings:
• Chris Jericho – Wade Barrett
• Matt Hardy – Justin Gabriel
• MVP – Skip Sheffield
• Carlito – Michael Tarver
• The Miz – Daniel Bryan
• Christian – Heath Slater
• CM Punk – Darren Young
• R-Truth – David Otunga
A report on pwinsider.com Tuesday afternoon had a slightly different list of WWE developmental talent that supposedly was going to be on NXT, including Kaval (Low Ki), Brett DiBiase (Ted Sr.'s son) and Joe Hennig (Curt's son). I'm surprised none of them will be a part of it. ...
I'm betting that the heads of hardcore Ring of Honor fans exploded when it was announced that The Miz would be mentoring Bryan. While Miz was doing his pro wrestler-wannabe shtick on "The Real World," Bryan was forging a reputation as "The Best Wrestler in the World" on the independent scene and in Japan. ...
I like the group of veterans WWE selected for NXT. I didn't expect a guy at Jericho's level to be a part of it. ...
The thought of an impressionable talent taking their cues from Carlito – a frequent occupant in WWE's dog house – is kind of a scary thought. ...
I wonder if Punk will be a stickler for Young adhering to WWE's dress code.