In a night that featured preview matches for the upcoming five man Singapore Cane match at One Night Stand there were mixed reviews for the featured bouts. Some did a great job putting wrestlers whose styles compliment each in the ring, while others were fairly dull and did not add any flair to the upcoming pay per view. They kind of made tonight a tribute to all the current former ECW champs as they showed clips from the matches in which they won the belt. To prep us for One Night Stand we saw Tommy Dreamer and the Big Show, CM Punk versus Chavo and Kane in a Handicap match with Miz and Morrison.
The first match was very dull and the wrestling looked labored as we saw Dreamer and the Big Show go at it. There were no real highlights as these two just did not mesh. they tried to make it into a brawling type match but it really did not look very good. Thankfully they were able to end it with a choke slam by the Show for the pin. Luckily for both of these men there will be 3 other competitors Sunday so they can help hide the deficiencies of these two working together.
The next preview match was an oldie but goody as Chavo and Punk would face off again. This match was actually a good mixture of technical and athletic moves. I liked when they had their feud for the ECW title and tonight they put on another good match. It’s to bad we have seen this already, as I feel these two would still have an excellent program together. We know Punk will leave for bigger things, but hopefully the WWE does not forget Chavo as I feel he would still be a good ECW champ or at least a contender for the US belt.
The final preview style match saw the Miz and Morrison take on Kane. This was supposed to be revenge for their previous run ins with the current champ. I was sitting there asking myself why during this match. Yes I know there is some type of connection based on the match from Judgment Day, but is there that much heat between the factions. This was another dull match that saw a DQ, then had all the members of the Cane match run into the ring. By the looks of things they are setting up a Kane and Big Show title match as they were the only two left in the ring. Plus they are still trying to establish the Big Show as a heel. It sort of failed after the Mayweather bout as the fans took to the Big Show. I would have to see them go this angle as the fans seem to like Kane and most likely would back him in a feud between the two.
In other happenings tonight we did not get our usual Kelly Kelly sighting, but we still were treated to Mike Knox. In another boring mismatch he took on Kofi Kingston and lost. The highlight of the match was an amazing move by Kingston as he ducked under the ropes in the corner and came back over the top onto Knox. Other tid bits from this match were Kingston’s forearm busting Knox over the eye and Kingston getting attacked by Benjamin after the match followed up by Knox putting his finishing move to KO Kingston. I like what I’m seeing out of Kingston and really feel his upcoming program with Shelton Benjamin is a chance for him to shine.
