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We open the same way last week's show ended, with CM Punk
on the shoulders of Kevin Thorn & Marcus Cor Van. The
New Breed opens the show proper, and team captain Elijah
Burke introduces Punk. CM is keeping his reasons for joining
the Breed to himself. Elijah does what he does best, run
his mouth, which brings Rob Van Dam out. A rematch with
Burke is made for tonight's main event. Burke hesitated
on accepting RVD's challenge, but had he not spoken up,
Punk would've taken the spot.
Nunzio (aka Little Guido) vs. Snitsky.
Extreme Expose has the night off, and presumably the girls
didn't make the trip. Little Guido is back to using the
Nunzio monicker foisted on him when he came to WWE at the
end of 2002. Not that it helps him, because it doesn't.
His offense consists mostly of dropkicks, but that gets
old very quickly, and Snitsky puts him away with a boot
to the head. Winner: Snitsky.
Burke wants Punk to "fall in line". Uh-oh! It
was one thing that CM instinctively responded to the fans
chanting his name earlier, but he apparently has his own
agenda......
Marcus Cor Van & Kevin Thorn (w/Ariel) vs. Tommy
Dreamer & Sandman. Youth & power vs. guile
& experience is what this boils down to. Sandman is
face in peril. Cor Van gets off a nice butterfly suplex
for 2. Dreamer takes the hot tag and just goes off. A low
dropkick takes Cor Van off the apron and out of the match.
Dreamer goes for a sunset flip. Thorn tries to block by
grabbing the rope, but Dreamer gets him over and gets the
fall, reaching over to grab the bottom rope on the 3, but
as replays clearly showed, Dreamer's momentum also took
Thorn's right shoulder off the mat, undetected by ref Mike
Posey. It may be a case of the Originals taking a page from
the Breed's playbook, using the heel tactics against them,
but this looked botched, as much as Joey & Tazz tried
to cover it. Winners: Tommy Dreamer & Sandman.
CM Punk & Matt Striker are watching. Punk talks about
the Breed needing an independent thinker, someone with moral
fiber, which is to say, himself. Ah, the plot thickens.
ECW World Champ Bobby Lashley is out, and uses last night's
footage to introduce Intercontinental champion Santino Marella,
who cuts a promo in Italian. Joey tells us that Santino
(real name Anthony Carelli, previously Boris Alexiev in
OVW) is Italian by birth, but grew up in Canada. Nice to
know. There's an expiration date on this kid's IC title
run, though. Probably Monday in London.
Punk peps up Cor Van & Thorn, telling them that they
can rebound from the loss. Burke again tells him to fall
in line. Punk says he has Burke's back. Riiiiiiiiight.
Rob Van Dam vs. Elijah Burke. How many
times have these two met already? Anyway, this wasn't quite
as good as one would've hoped. Burke worked on Van Dam's
left shoulder, which was posted not once, but three times
during the match. After ref Scott Armstrong was bumped down,
Punk came out. Burke calls for a chair, but Punk "accidentally"
overshoots and it goes to Van Dam. One chair shot and a
5-Star later, and it's over.
Winner: Rob Van Dam. One gets the feeling that we're seeing
a power struggle for control of the New Breed brewing between
Burke & Punk. Remember, these two have not yet met.
Punk has already beaten Striker & Thorn, and knows Cor
Van from their days in TNA (when Cor Van was Monty Brown).
One palace coup, straight ahead.
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