A Review of WWE’s One Night Stand PPV

Raw, Smackdown, and ECW presented One Night Stand from Jacksonville, Florida. This PPV offering came on the heels of two hours of Raw, two hours of Smackdown, an hour and a half of an awful Saturday Night’s Main Event, and an hour of ECW on Sci Fi. Unfortunately, television did little to peak my interest in the PPV, but none the less, the PPV was probably better than I expected.

I criticized TNA for booking an all gimmick PPV, but the difference here is that TNA’s booking handicaps the wrestlers. How could James Storm and Chris Harris possibly have a good blindfold match? When WWE books Mark Henry vs. Kane in a lumberjack match, you know the match is going to stink regardless of the stipulation.

The PPV started with Randy Orton vs. Rob Van Dam. Maybe this should have been called the “dog house” match. One guy is leaving, and the other needs to get back into WWE’s good graces. I expected more of a “RVD, RVD” chant, but the fans were clearly behind Van Dam. Vince McMahon was apparently upset when fans found out about RVD leaving, but it appeared not as many people knew of RVD’s departure as WWE thought.

The six man table’s match was actually pretty good considering how much time the match was given. It was funny to see Tommy Dreamer mock the Dudley Boyz by telling CM Punk to “get the tables.” Hopefully this is the blow off to the New Breed group, as I think Elijah Burke and Marcus Cor Von must break away and be pushed in singles competition.

The Hardy Boyz and The World’s Greatest Tag Team gave us a great ladder much, even though they had far too many ladders out there. I thought this match should have come towards the end of the show, because honestly, how could anyone really follow this one up? I was quite surprised Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch didn’t make their presence known during this match.

The lumberjack matches featured twelve lumberjacks who couldn’t get on the show otherwise. Poor Chris Benoit, you put this guy out there as a lumberjack? How long ago was it when he and Eddy hugged at Wrestlemania? Terrible match. I simply don’t understand why they push Mark Henry. He stinks and doesn’t get any better. They fired Scotty 2 Hotty because he hasn’t getting any better? What about Henry??

The ECW title streetfight match was better than anticipated, largely because Mr. McMahon really didn’t wrestle. If fans don’t want to see an old man Ric Flair in the ring, why would we ant to see Vince McMahon in action? I’d like to know what happened to Armando Estrada? If this wasn’t the blow off of Vince vs. Lashley, we are in trouble. Lashley won the ECW title back, but really, who even cares?

If Kane-Henry wasn’t bad enough, WWE had to subject us to a pudding match. Poor Candice Michelle, she looked far good to be put into pudding. Melina, on the other hand, should have been placed in a mud wrestling match. I don’t know why, but I thought Christy Hemme would have been perfect for this match. About the only positive to this one is that thankfully they kept it short.

Edge faced Batista in a cage match. They do far too many cage matches without the proper heat being built up for it. On the other hand, this was a smart way of booking Batista to lose a man without getting pinned. Gee, they must have been watching TNA where almost no body gets pinned cleanly in a heavyweight championship match. I was hoping for some interference to take Batista out of the title picture.

I know this isn’t saying much, but the falls count anywhere match was the best match John Cena and The Great Khali put on. Well actually, there wasn’t much wrestling here, but the brawling action fit both grappler’s styles well. This wasn’t good by any stretch of the imagination, but not nearly as bad as it could have been.

One Night Stand featured enough good wrestling for me to give it a thumbs in the middle, but the final hour was tough to get through. I wouldn’t recommend the replay, but the DVD if you are a big WWE fan. Hopefully this was the final “One Night Stand.” I’ll give the show a solid thumbs in the middle, with the ladder match easily the best match of the night.

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