One Night Stand

Sunday, June 11, 2006 in Manhatten, NY

When Tazz challenged Jerry Lawler to a match at ECW One Night Stand, he promised âہ“The King” that he would choke him out. With a little help from Joey Styles, The Human Suplex Machine kept his promise and defeated Lawler by submission in less than a minute.

As Lawler made his entrance, he stared down Joey Styles at the announce table. âہ“The King” then slapped his former broadcast partner cockily before heading down to the ring, but that ended up being his downfall.

As Lawler stepped into the ring, Styles jumped on his back. âہ“The King” shook him off and went for a piledriver, but made the fatal mistake of turning his back on Tazz. The Human Suplex Machine used the opportunity to grab Lawler and apply the Tazzmission. âہ“The King” had no counter, passing out in the hold to give Tazz the quick victory.

Following the match, Tazz joined Joey Styles on commentary, saying that since he had such a quick night he might as well hang out with Joey.

Back in April, Kurt Angle made Randy Orton tap out to the Ankle Lock on SmackDown, breaking his ankle in the process. The Olympic Gold Medalist made it two in a row over the Legend Killer at ECW One Night Stand, making Orton tap to win his first singles match as an ECW wrestler.

Sporting a mouthpiece that bore the ECW logo, an intense Angle went for the quick kill. Knowing that Orton’s broken ankle might not be fully healed, the Wrestling Machine tried to apply the Ankle Lock early and often. However, Orton was able to counter his early attempts much to the dismay of the capacity crowd; as Orton stood outside the ring after one escape, the crowd began a derogatory chant for him, showing Orton exactly how hostile an environment he was in.

Angle continued his mat-based attack, but the Legend Killer was able to turn the tide. With the crowd firmly behind him, however, Angle nailed a German suplex and went for the Angle Slam. Orton escaped once, but would fall victim to the move later in the match.

With the crowd chanting âہ“break his ankle,” Angle slapped on the Ankle Lock once again. Orton escaped and went for his signature RKO, but the Wrestling Machine blocked it by simply dropping the RAW Superstar to his back. The Olympic Gold Medalist then slapped on the Ankle Lock once more, dropping down into a heel hook for extra added measure. The Legend Killer had no choice but to tap out, giving Angle his first ECW victory.

After the match, Orton needed to be helped to the back, telling referee Mike Posey âہ“my ankle is messed up man!” As he was assisted to the locker room, the raucous crowd serenaded him with one more derogatory chant for the road.

In the locker room, an emotional Angle said that he relished his first chance to wrestle in front of an ECW crowd. “It was more than I expected; the ECW crowd is a ‘prove me wrong’ kind of crowd,” the Wrestling Machine said. “They expect a lot out of you, and they’re more appreciative of the business than any other fans that I’ve found. I’d rather perform in front of 2500 fans at the Hammerstein Ballroom than 25,000 at Madison Square Garden because these fans are so passionate. They made me feel like I owned them.”

Little Guido and Tony Mamaluke of the F.B.I. picked up an impressive tag team victory over the unlikely duo of Super Crazy & Tajiri, but the real story of the match came after the bell rang.

After Nunzio & Mamaluke caught Tajiri with a double Fisherman’s Buster off the top rope for the pin, Big Show’s new music hit, and one of the newest members of ECW strode to the ring. Big Guido of the F.B.I. awaited the largest athlete in the world, but Big Show manhandled the big man. Big Show proceeded to toss around all of the participants in the previous match around like yesterday’s garbage. He delivered a crushing cobra clutch backbreaker to Mamaluke and kicked Big Guido square in the head.

While Big Show had a new version of his entrance music, he certainly showed a new side in the ring as well. This was a more vicious, more focused Big Show than anyone has seen in years. Instead of the jovial, smiling Big Show, waving to his fans, the rabid fans at ECW One Night Stand met a stalking, vicious, calculating, fire-breathing giant that was eager to make an instant impact. And that’s exactly what he did. Might this only be the beginning of Big Show’s carnival of carnage in the new ECW?

What many considered a âہ“Dream Match” between Rey Mysterio and Sabu for the World Championship turned into a nightmare for both competitors. In the end, the match was declared a No Contest by Dr. Louis Rios, meaning that Mysterio retained the World Championship.

Mysterio and Sabu, both well-known for their high-flying ability, did not disappoint the capacity crowd in the Hammerstein Ballroom to that end. They also didn’t disappoint the fans looking for the hardcore side of the match, as early on they tried to take each others’ heads off with chairs.

Sabu nearly had the World Championship won on a couple of occasions, but Mysterio was able to escape the pinfalls after Sabu’s signature Arabian Facebuster and a Triple Jump Moonsault.

An ECW alumnus himself, the champion went back to his hardcore roots late in the match by nailing Sabu with a seated senton that put both men through a table. He then Dropped Da Dime, but this time it was the challenger’s turn to escape the pinfall.

The two men then brutalized each other some more, with the champion going for another seated senton but landing groin first on a chair. Sabu then threw a chair at Mysterio and set a table up at ringside. At that point, what would be the most brutally hardcore moment of the match also ended up becoming the last.

As Rey stood on the table, Sabu flew at his opponent and caught him in a headlock, nailing a DDT that drove both men down through the table. Champion and challenger both landed hard and awkwardly on the floor, and doctors and officials ran to ringside to check on them. After a consultation, Dr. Rios declared that both men were unfit to continue and the match was stopped. Sabu and Mysterio were immediately helped back to the locker room as the stunned crowd tried to soak in the carnage they had just seen.

What started as a Hardcore tag team war ended up becoming a six-person slugfest; in the end, the extra addition that made the challenge ended up being the loser of the match as Edge, Mick Foley & Lita defeated Terry Funk, Tommy Dreamer & Beulah McGillicutty.

Before the match began, the WWE trio once again ran down ECW and its fans, with the Rated-R Superstar calling them all pathetic. Lita then said that when she pinned Dreamer on Wednesday night, it was better for him than it was for her.

The ECW team came out accompanied by Beulah, and the extreme knockout had some words of her own for Lita: âہ“I know you like threesomes, so let’s just make this official. Three on three, time to put up or shut up!”

With that, the match was on, and it was as brutal and bloody as the fans in the Hammerstein Ballroom expected. Edge & Foley tried to keep it clean, but once Dreamer & Funk went under the ring for a barbed-wire board the hell was unleashed.

Beulah and Lita stayed out of the match for the most part as the four men threw just about anything they could find at one another. Funk became a bloody mess courtesy of some barbed wire; bleeding profusely, he had to be helped to the back towards the end after Foley raked the barbed wire right across his eyes.

With Funk out of the picture, it looked like Dreamer was easy prey. The WWE team nailed a Mandible Claw/spear combo, but before the pinfall, Funk returned with a bandaged head and a barbed wire board.

Eventually, the board was lit on fire and used on both Edge & Foley, with one shot sending a burning Hardcore Legend crashing through a barbed wire board on the floor. Funk soon joined him, and as Beulah and Lita finally got into the anticipated catfight, Dreamer grabbed Lita and nailed her with a Spicolli Driver.

When he turned to celebrate, however, Edge snuck up behind him, and after wrapping barbed wire around Dreamer’s head, the Rated-R Superstar dropped him straight down on his head. Dreamer was ripe for the picking, but what Edge did next truly showed what kind of âہ“hardcore man” he really is.

As Beulah checked on Dreamer, Edge prepared his attack. When she stood, Edge ran and nailed her with a vicious spear, driving her head into the mat. The Rated-R Superstar then grabbed the lifeless Beulah’s legs and rolled her up, pinning the extreme Diva for the winning fall.

Following the match, the bloodied and battered Funk had to be cut out of the barbed wire board; he would later need five stitches to close his wounds.

In a battle of former ECW Tag Team Champions, Balls Mahoney and Masato Tanaka did battle in a brutal singles match. Last year, Tanaka was involved in, arguably, the match of the night against Mike Awesome. He came up short in that match, and unfortunately for Tanaka, history repeated itself.

Balls had the crowd in the palm of his hand all night long, as they chanted with him on his every punch. He even went ringside asking for fans’ drinks. He took a sip of each drink and then smashed it against Tanaka’s face. But the foreign objects used in the ending of the match had a little-less give to them.

Both wrestlers stood across from each other with a chair in their hand. They went at each other as if it was a duel, and after a Tanaka miscue, Balls connected with a thunderous smash to the head, denting the chair beyond repair. After that the pin was academic, and Balls reigned supreme.

Just before ECW ring announcer Stephen DeAngelis was set to make the introductions for the WWE Championship Match, he was interrupted by an unlikely person – Eugene. The normally beloved RAW Superstar was met with a chorus of boos by the unforgiving ECW fans. The boos only got louder when Eugene told the rabid crowd that his Uncle Eric Bischoff used to tell him that he was as smart as the ECW fans.

But the crowd was absolutely deafening when Eugene started reading his poem. The literary masterpiece talked about such things as Eugene taking a bath with Tazz’s towel, hugging Balls Mahoney and having a picnic with Sabu among other hard-to-imagine events. Before Eugene could continue, legendary ECW wrestler Sandman’s music hit. Several beers later, Sandman made his entrance through the crowd and mercilessly whacked Eugene with his trademark cane. Sandman made Eugene beg for mercy, but even after the RAW Superstar got down on his knees, Sandman continued to cane his target until he retreated to the back.

John Cena has overcome the odds time and time again. He has endured Steel Cage Matches, I Quit Mathes and even the Elimination Chamber. But it was just too much Sunday night at ECW One Night Stand for The Champ to overcome. Cena was able to adapt to the most rabid and hostile crowd he has ever seen, but he could not overcome Edge spearing him through a table, the Five Star Frog Splash and an impromptu three-count by Paul Heyman in this Extreme Rules Match. And when the bell rang, Rob Van Dam made history and was declared the Champion. But what Championship did he win – was it the ECW or WWE Championship?

The capacity crowd at the Hammerstein Ballroom was one of the loudest and relentless crowds ever heard, but their reactions all night paled in comparison to when RVD was announced as the new champion. After RVD was handed the gold, the place erupted and it sounded as if it was Mardi Gras, Spring Break and New Year’s Eve all at the same time. The fans were high-fiving each other, RVD climbed up to the balcony and celebrated with his wife, and then joined his ECW brothers who had filled the ring. RVD hoisted on the shoulders of his hardcore compatriots was the final scene at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, but it was an insanely wide ride that led to that moment.

From the moment Cena entered the ring, he was bombarded with loud and insulting chants that are not even fit to print. When throwing his shirt and hat into the crowd, they were thrown back time and time again. Cena knew he would be traveling into hostile territory, but he was still visibly upset at the reaction. But as time wore on, Cena got used to the crowd, and at times even seemed to enjoy it. He taunted the extremely loyal fans with his Five Knuckle Shuffle, and was even brave enough to follow RVD into the crowd for an attack. It seemed like everyone in attendance was Cena’s enemy, but he didn’t count on Edge being one of them. With RVD on the outside, a mysterious man in a motorcycle helmet speared Cena through a table which was propped up in a corner. He slowly took off his helmet to reveal his identity and was mat in unison with a thunderous cheer of, âہ“Thank you, Edge,” by the ECW fans. Edge also knocked out referee Nick Patrick before exiting. With that RVD came in and saw the fallen Cena before promptly climbing the ropes for his patented Five Star Frog Splash. After hitting the maneuver he tried to revive Patrick, but to no avail. Paul Heyman then rushed to the ring, RVD made the cover, and the head of ECW made the three-count and history was made.

credit: Ed Williams III, ecw.com

What did you think of One Night Stand? Thumbs Up – 57% Thumbs In the middle – 13% Thumbs Down – 10% Didn’t See It – 19%	Gerweck Poll

Best match at One Night Stand? Mahoney-Tanaka – 2% FBI-Crazy/Tajiri – 3% Angle-Orton – 6% Tazz-King – 3% Dreamer/Funk-Foley/Edge – 35% Sabu-Mysterio – 22% Cena-RVD – 29%	Gerweck Poll