WWE ECW Review - February 10, 2009

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Christian Interrupted ECW Champion Jack Swagger

The belief over the years has been that Christian was supposed to return at 2009's Royal Rumble pay-per-view and get involved in the WWE Championship match between Edge and Jeff Hardy, but those plans were reportedly scrapped when word leaked out that Christian was coming back. Thus, he was placed on ECW instead. It wasn't exactly Raw or SmackDown, but he made the most of his time on ECW and was immediately positioned as the top babyface on the brand. I enjoyed the exchange these two had on the mic and it was a small taste of what their feud would be like in the months that followed, also setting up their main event match for later on in the night.

World Tag Team Champion The Miz def. Tommy Dreamer

Dreamer had announced shortly before this that if he didn't win the ECW Championship before his contract expired that June (which I believe was legitimate), he would leave the company. Well, he wasn't exactly off to the strongest start in 2009 with a loss to Miz here, but the loss was what it should have been considering Miz and John Morrison were on the rise. As a match, this was fine, but it didn't have the greatest flow at certain points.

Tyson Kidd def. Bao Nguyen

This marked Kidd's official WWE debut, and he arrived with a bang. He was allowed to showcase his skills against the local athlete he was up against and his offense looked awesome. Giving him Natalya as his manager, who he has been linked to in real life forever, was smart, especially since she was doing nothing on SmackDown at the time. Jamie Noble emerged afterward, seemingly planting the seeds for a future encounter between the two.

Christian def. ECW Champion Jack Swagger (Non-title)

It's a shame this wasn't a straightforward singles match and was instead hindered by the interference from Finlay and Hornswoggle, but that might have been for the better. Christian and Swagger would have more matches down the line anyway, and the real focus was on Swagger vs. Finaly for the title that Sunday at No Way Out. They made the most of the time they had here, though.

Overall Show

Between Christian's shocking return and Kidd's debut, this was one of the more memorable and newsworthy editions of ECW from this period. I don't know if I'd call it a "must-see" show given none of the matches stood out in a major way, but it was eventful enough to make it a solid episode on the whole. Plus, there was some decent build for ECW's featured match at the No Way Out pay-per-view.