The show starts with the New Breed introducing CM Punk as their newest member. He comes out and basically gives no reason at all for joining, but says that he’s joined. I smell screwjob, but on another night as RVD interrupts the little tea party. He tells Punk that he’s going to make him regret not joining the Originals (how can you JOIN a group of ORIGINALS? Don’t you kind of have to be an ORIGINAL? Whatever…).

Anyway, Elijah Burke pretty much tells RVD that he’s just pissed off because the New Breed broke Sabu (that can’t be done, by the way…). RVD more or less agrees, and calls out Elijah for a match tonight. This prompts Punk to “be a leader” and accept the challenge FOR Burke, which Elijah is all like fuck that and takes the original challenge (get it - ORIGINAL challenge) for himself. We are now guaranteed to have the same main event that we had a couple weeks ago. Yay. At least these guys are good…

First match! Whooohooo! Wait…never mind…

Snitsky vs. Nunzio - winner: fucking guess

23Log’s Ranking: I will say that this match wasn’t AS bad as the previous Snitsky crap, although it did end on the stupid boot.

Nunzio actually gave him somewhat of a fight, which made sense, I guess, NOT to completely crush the closest thing to an Italian guy on your roster in front of Italy. I wonder if they called him “Nunzio” because “Guido” isn’t exactly a term of endearment for Italians…?

Backstage with Punk and Burke - more hinty-hinty about Punk not “falling in line” with the New Breed…we’ll see…

But first, it’s more NEW BREED/ORIGINALS ACTION!!

Kevin Thorn/MONTY BROWN vs. Tommy Dreamer/Sandman - winners: Dreamer/Sandman

23Log’s Ranking: The match itself wasn’t very strong, but the crowd was great with their LOUD soccer chants (I really like it when they leave the U.S., even if they chant silly stuff) and the O.G.s got the win.

The match was typical, but the finish was interesting, as we saw Thorn try to cheat by holding the ropes, but Dreamer reversed it and instead grabbed the ropes himself to get the win. Weird part of this one was that they showed the replay and actually pointed out the fact that the referee was looking right at Dreamer holding the ropes AND Thorn’s shoulder being up, but still counted 3. Ok…I’m just going to go with it.

Great - here comes Lashley with some strange belt…oh, yeah it’s the ECW TITLE that everyone on the show forgets about. I guess they’re used to booking a show where the championship really isn’t a focus because it never leaves the holder (RAW, anyone?)

Before I keep bitching about Lashley, I’ll just sum up his presence. Basically, he’s here to pimp Backlash and to bring out the noob that won the IC title on Raw from the crowd, Santino Marella. He’s got his name engraved in the belt and everything. I guess they’re going to go with it. He cuts a promo in Italian and the crowd pops big for it. At least this is interesting…but why can’t the ECW champ do something in fucking ECW other than bring dudes from the show he’s hanging out on?

More CM Punk backstage talking down to the rest of the New Breed, before telling Burke he’s got his back tonight, even though Elijah didn’t ask him to.

This is usually the part where I’d write about what I did OTHER than watch the Extremely (not extreme) Dancing Bitches, but they WEREN’T HERE!!! Instead, Joey and Tazz go over the Backlash card as we prep for the main event.

RVD vs. Elijah Burke - winner: RVD

23Log’s Ranking: Not so much because it was a bad match, but I’ve seen these guys wrestle a much better one and I’m just always going to be unreasonably hard on repeat main events. They just didn’t have enough time to make this one out-do the other ones I’ve seen. Maybe next time…

Burke had the advantage throughout most of this match, until the inevitable ref bump caused CM Punk to run down to the ring. Burke calls for a chair, Punk so NOT accidentally throws it to RVD, who throws hit hard as shit at Burke’s face, leading to the ***** and the win for RVD, without Punk even attempting to make the save or pull the ref out or other heel stuff. And that’s where we end it - with CM Punk telling a beaten Elijah Burke how sorry he is that things went the way they did. I’m sure you’re sorry….

Best part of the show: The Italian crowd made even shitty things fun to watch. Definitely a welcome change.

What pissed me off this week: It’s actually not Snitsky this time, but rather the fact that the ECW title is firmly planted on the waist of Lashley who does NOTHING on his own brand with the belt. Instead we get multiple McMahons getting title shots instead of actual guys on the actual ECW roster. Fucking annoying.