ECW: 24th February 2008

This week's episode starts with a Mark Henry squash, which is fine because Henry (having done quite a few of these, periodically the past five years, when the writers having nothing interesting for him over ) puts together a entertaining squash. The Tyson Kidd match had a reasonable kick in the face, better than last week's kick in the face, but not as good as the first week's kick in the face. The Tommy Dreamer vs. Paul Burchill match did its job in continuing both Tommy Dreamer's storyline and Burchill's feud with the Boogeyman, without being much of a match.

Really, though, there's only one match I'm particularly interested in, and that's the main event ECW title match between Christian and Jack Swagger. This match was considerably better than the first effort. In fact, it's my favourite WWE match of the year so far. The thing for me here was that this is the first good Swagger singles match that didn't feel at all like a carry job. He uses his obvious power advantage a lot more here, and he looks impressive doing it. The final powerbomb had a kind of wild upswing, and actually looked like the high impact finisher it's being sold as. He's engaging the crowd a lot more each week, and seems to find it increasingly comfortable. He's versatile as well, allowing his moveset to fit the beatdown in the middle. He's done leg work, upper body work and arm work, and each time he remains focused on the body part and finds new stuff to use - the Oklahama Stampede shoulder breaker, and the northern lights spring to mind this time.

While in no way is this a carry job, Christian is really good here. It's a match that suits him - he can take a beating, and bump for a bigger guy - the flat back bump of the apron was pretty awesome. The selling of the beating, and particularly the arm work was really top notch, and the focus on that, rather than back and forth move exchanges and counters (as in their first match) completely elevates this. The final stretch is really exciting, especially as I watched this without knowing the result, and the last exchange, playing off the arm work, jostling back and forth, was superb. I'll be surprised if a better free TV match takes place all year. If it does, 2009 will be a good year for the WWE.