WWE’s second PPV in two weeks took place last night in Jacksonville as One Night Stand, a PPV that for the past two years was built on the ECW brand, took place with all three brands involved. The PPV was built upon “extreme” matches, but for the most part, there was little blood, and the premise that this was somewhat close to the heyday of ECW is a complete joke. The main event was a Judgement Day rematch of two weeks ago, as John Cena put his WWE title up vs the Great Khali in a “falls count anywhere” match.
The match was really slow, as despite claims on his fansite that Khali can wrestle and is agile, I have yet to see it. Most of the match was brawling outside in the crowd, and the end came with Cena, who took 9/10’s of the beating on the night, finally got Khali up in the FU and did it “to the cement,” even though it was actually on a bunch of padding that you could plainly see as he went for the pin. It was a cool visual when he did it, but the fact that Kahli was already moving when Cena got the pin kind of took away from the move.
The program with Khali should now be over, as its time for Cena to move on to another challenger. The thought process earlier was that he would be going back into the WrestleMania program with Shawn Michaels, but now that is not going to happen with HBK out with a knee injury. The more likely thing is for Cena to start a program tonight and have that lead to a title match at Vengeance. The two names that come to mind are Snitsky, who is rumored to be coming to RAW, or Randy Orton, who would make a good challenger based on his recent streak.
The second main event was a cage match with Edge taking on Batista for the World Heavyweight Title. The match was okay what it was worth, and Edge took a shot early that busted his lip bad, and you could plainly see it busted open during and after the match. This was one of those nights for me where it was tough to watch Batista, I just don’t think he had it. The end was cool, as it ended up being a race with Edge going over the top of the cage, and Batista going out the door, with Edge winning with his feet touching first. This program will continue as long as Batista does not shift to RAW in the draft in two weeks.
The best match was a tag-team titles ladder match with the Hardys vs Benjamin and Haas. Both teams threw caution to the wind, and in the end, it looked to me like Shelton Benjamin took the biggest beating. The two teams threw a lot of caution to the wind, and as predicted all week here, this one stole the show. Despite the fact they could have done it, I am glad they did not throw us another Hardys vs Cade and Murdoch match. I fully expect the team of Haas and Benjamin to win the belts soon, the Hardys to split in the draft, then Cade and Murdoch to win the belts from Haas and Benjamin.
It was good to finally see Vinnie Mac give up the ECW title to Bobby Lashley. As expected, this really was another 3-on-1 match, but this time they finally did the right thing and allowed Lashley to pin Vince to win clean. This was a solid match with some sick bumps taken by Shane McMahon and Lashley.
The ECW tables match of CM Punk, Sandman and Tommy Dreamer vs Elijah Burke, Matt Striker and Marcus Cor Von was solid, and the end with the suplex onto the table was a nice end to the match. ECW is in such a flux right now, I still see Burke and Punk as the two guys that will carry the brand if it does indeed make it. The opener with Randy Orton vs RVD did its job, and if this was the last call for Rob, which most say it was, it was nice to see the company let him go out a winner, despite the fact that Orton quickly got his revenge and laid him out. Rob understands business, and he understands that he has to protect the top heel right now, and it was a good move to not weaken Orton.
On the down side, the two worst matches of the night by far was the lumberjack match with Kane and Mark Henry, as well as the non-title pudding match with Candice Michelle and Melina. I understand that every show these days needs filler matches, but these were poor choices, as the Henry-Kane was a snore fest with an awful ending with Kane basically passing out in a Henry bearhug. I realize they are trying to quickly establish Henry as a monster heel for one of the shows, but this was just bad from the get-go. As for the pudding match, it reminded me of the mud wrestling scene in the movie “Stripes,” but without John Candy involved. The ending was weak, with Candice making Melina submit by not being able to breathe in the pudding.
Overall the “extreme” concept never got over to me. It was kind of cool to have different types of matches, but I think overall this did not deliver. The company is suffering a little right now, and two very middle of the road PPV’s in two weeks don’t help. The draft in two weeks is expected to bring change and interest into the product. After these last two PPV’s, they sorely need it.
