Wednesday, July 26, 2006

We're Nationally Ranked!

The North Andover Wiffle Ball League's #1 team, the Whalers, are ranked #7 in the United States of America! You read that correctly. I, Matt Steele, am on a nationally ranked sports team (if you can call it a real sport).

National Rankings

See for yourself.

( Whalers Home Page )

ECW on Sci-Fi 7/25/06

Having been out of town on quite a few trips as of late, I hadn't had the chance to check out ECW in some time. This show has been almost unanimously crapped upon by hardcore "oldschool" ECW fans since the get-go, and I admit, some of that is very well deserved. However, there have been a great deal of solid matches on ECW as of late (Who would have thought that Ric Flair and the Big Show for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship would be one of the best TV matches of the year?), and last night's episode was pretty well-done and showed a lot of promise, in my opinion. Now for a quick recap of my thoughts:

The show opened with the boring and unimpressive Mike Knox and his girlfriend Kelly. Fortunately for us, Kelly is not even attempting to "strip" tonight. Mike says a whole lot of nothing, drawing out the Sandman for a match.

Sandman vs. Mike Knox
Sandman almost knocks out Kelly like he did last week, and tells her to get the hell out of the way before being blindsided by Test.
Winner: Sandman by DQ
Stupid match, but at least they may be setting up a tag team division by teaming Test and Knox. Not that two big, boring, no-wrestling oafs are really what fans want to see, but I digress.

Test and Knox are backstage bragging about taking out the Sandman, when Tommy Dreamer blindsides them with two very weak trash-can shots. ECW "officials" hold Dreamer back. At least they're trying to make Dreamer look somewhat tough.

Backstage, Paul Heyman tells Sabu he can't have a title shot... ever. He tells Sabu to take a hike, and then apparently hears Guido call him a name, and has his anonymous swat-team security guards toss him around backstage. "Oh by the way, your match is next."

CM Punk cuts another good promo, revealing that he was brought up on the mean streets of Chi-town and had to fight for everything he got. He will debut next week, and I'm looking forward to it. I've only had the chance to really check out some of his OVW and Ring of Honor work via YouTube, so it'll be good to see him get his chance on national TV.

Little Guido vs. Crazy Vampire Guy (no name for him yet)
Crazy Vampire Guy
is joined at ringside by the former Fortune Teller Chick, who I guess I'll now call Crazy Vampire Chick. (Apparently she's referred to as Ariel, but this is more fun). Guido basically acts as a rag-doll in this match, which served its purpose in showing how dangerous CVG is. He hit a nice stunner variation that involved Guido being laid across the top rope, and he brought back his Razor's Edge finisher from his old days as Mordecai.
Winner: Crazy Vampire Guy by pinfall
Good debut match (I think it was his debut) from the Vampire Guy.

Balls Mahoney vs. Justin Credible
I'm shocked. Two "old school" ECWers fighting in a non-squash match. And it didn't even suck that much. This match got a little over 6 minutes, and was pretty entertaining. Crowd was pretty into the "Balls-Balls-Balls-WhoaaaaaaaaBALLS!" punches, and I heard a few "Just-an-Asshole" chants for Credible. Ref bump led to Justin getting a chair, which then led to Balls' DQ by nailing him over the head with it.
Winner: Justin Credible by DQ
Crowd loved Balls for laying out Credible, and loved him even more for hitting the ref with a nice chair shot.

Backstage, Big Show asks Paul "What's the big deal with this Sabu guy?" and sounds a little like Jerry Seinfeld in the process. I mean, he really wants to know! Paul tells him that he doesn't know what he's dealing with, and to worry about tonight's match with Kane.

Kane vs. The Big Show (c) ECW World Heavyweight Championship

Basically a brawl involving a LOT of punching and slugging. Essentially this is every other Kane vs. Big Show match you've seen, except they're allowed to use chairs and trash cans. And they do. Big Show hits a chokeslam at one point for two, allowing him time to go set up some tables outside. By the time he comes back in, he sets up Kane for a suplex off the apron, which is reversed into Kane simply punching the Big Show hard enough for him to fall through the two tables. Cool spot seeing a 500-lb guy fall through two tables, but from a punch? Come on. Anyways, when he gets rolled into the ring, his face is covered in blood. A lot of blood. Heyman is here to check on his champ, and I predict he'll call off the match a la Rey vs. Sabu from One Night Stand 2, but Show gets up and continues. He almost hits a chokeslam on Kane, who somehow reverses it into a DDT that makes the Big Show flip over. Hadn't seen that in a while, and it showed some agility on Show's part. Kane goes for the pin, but Heyman pulls out Mickie Henson on the 2 count. "You don't count unless I tell you to count!" I love Heyman. Kane grabs Heyman, but walks into a chair shot from Show. Chokeslam to Kane on the chair, and it's lights out from there.
Winner: The Big Show (c) by pinfall
Show gets up to inflict more punishment with the chair, when Sabu draws his attention, and dropkicks his own chair into Show's chair, and in turn, into his face, for a big reaction. Lots of Sabu chants and pointing to the sky along with Sabu. We end with a pretty sick shot of Show's bloody face staring down Sabu as he walks down the aisle.

Pretty good end to a pretty good show this week. All of the matches aside from the Sandman/Knox debacle had a good amount of time for a one hour show, and I'm enjoying what seems to be some good potential booking for the future.

Saturday, July 08, 2006

The First Blog of Steel(e) Entry

Welcome everyone to the Blog of Steel(e), with your host, the one, the only, Matt Steele. The purpose of this blog is to essentially write about my opinions and main interests ranging from heavy metal, professional wrestling, wiffle ball (in particular, the North Andover Wiffle Ball League ), television (24, The Shield, South Park, Lucky Louie, Entourage, etc.), and whatever else I may feel like discussing. The early stages of this blog will most likely deal with all of these subjects as I see fit, or at least until I find an actual point to having this blog in the first place. Tomorrow I am joining my family on a vacation from Boston to Bermuda until next Sunday, so don't expect any new posts any time soon. Until then, thank you for reading the Blog of Steel(e).