On paper, this match really should have reached even greater heights. Christian is as seasoned a ladder match performer as it gets, and Shelton Benjamin's career was pretty much built around stealing the show in those bouts. As such, expectations were high for their ECW Championship match in 2009. As it transpired, the contest suffered from WWE's newly introduced attitude to blood. Christian suffered a cut early on in the match, and instead of running with it and letting it add drama to the match the whole thing was stopped so that the champion could get some medical attention. The attitude makes sense from a safety point of view, but it really caused the match to stutter. Still, Christian vs. Benjamin in a ladder match can only ever be excellent, and it certainly was. Benjamin still pulled out all of his crazy spots, and Christian didn't miss a beat despite being opened hard way. Christian retained after frog splashing Benjamin through a ladder. Something of a spot fest, but a lot of fun.
Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.
