Note: This is not a play by play recap of the show. You can go elsewhere for that. This is a running diary where I give you my live thoughts (as well as match analysis and star ratings) for the show.
Note #2: I am suffering through major Trish withdrawal. If you are then I hope the banner above helps.
WWE One Night Stand
Jacksonville, Florida
June 3, 2007
I'm mildly excited for this show. I think some of the matches on this card could be really good (like Hardys vs. WGTT and Edge vs. Batista) if they're given enough time to tell a story. Then there are other matches like Kane vs. Mark Henry that make me not want to watch the show, so it's really a mixed bag. I'm also perplexed as to why MVP vs. Benoit was yanked in favor of that match, but then again it is Vince McMahon and we all know about his big man fixation. One thing I can say is that I'm not excited about this year's One Night Stand compared to the last two years, which were both awesome shows. I'm ordering mostly because it's a quiet Sunday night thanks to a nasty thunderstorm that looks to be brewing outside.
The announcers we meet in order are the Raw guys, then the ECW guys and then the Smackdown guys. They all remind us that it's Extreme Rules all night. I guess we'll see if the concept wears thin by the end of the three hours.
Stretcher Match: Randy Orton vs. Rob Van Dam
Randy comes out and then they cut to the video of what he did to RVD on Monday. That bump that RVD took on the RKO was sick. Since I was at Smackdown/ECW this past Tuesday I've seen that video about 6 times in the last week because there are so many damn breaks at a live show.
RVD comes out to his usual big pop. This is likely his last time in a WWE ring although I guess we'll find out later. If you don't know his contract is up and he wants to go, so this is probably his swan song in a WWE ring.
For those wondering, the Raw guys are calling this one. The ref is ECW, however.
The early story being told is RVD going after Orton's head with some hard kicks to the face.
As soon as Orton hits him once in the head, RVD goes to the glossy eyed look as the camera conveniently closes in on it. He knocks Orton down and then goes up top RVD style only to fall over the top rope to the floor. That's a good way to hurt yourself.
I know he does it every match, but Orton's got a dropkick that's as pretty as anybody in the business right now.
Randy busted out that backdrop type of maneuver that he does once in a while on smaller opponents. He lifts them above his head and drops them down. Love that move.
There's a nice comeback from RVD with a hard whip into the ring post. Have to credit Rob for mastering the concussion look.
With Orton prone on the stretcher (you have to push it past a line in the aisle way), RVD did his spinning legdrop thing off the apron.
Oh man, RVD went for Rolling Thunder and Orton got up, caught him and hit a beautiful spinning powerslam. That was sweet.
RVD got the momentum back, put Orton on the stretcher and did a running somersault plancha to the floor! Randy moved off the stretcher and RVD caught his right leg on the edge of the stretcher. That looked nasty. What a crazy bump!
Orton put him on a second stretcher, then went to roll him past the line only for RVD to wake up. He nailed Orton with a kick to the head, then put him on and RVD pushed him over the line to win the match. Match was about 14 minutes.
Winner: Rob Van Dam
Post match, Orton attacks in the aisle. With RVD's head against the ring apron, Orton runs across the apron and kicks him square in the face. Then with RVD's body hanging off the railing, Orton DDT's him on the mat outside of the ring. Now security comes. JR tries to justify their slowness by saying it's a night of extreme rules, so I guess security wants them to fight.
Rob goes out on the stretcher with the neck brace. Maybe it's the last time we see him in WWE, but I'm not sure of that or anything.
Analysis: ** The match was okay although there was a lot of resting in the match due to the concussion storyline. It's funny because WWE obviously wants to push Orton as this sick bastard, yet they won't even give him a win because he's done everything he could to get management pissed at him with his backstage behavior. I'm not sure if that's the last
Backstage, Vince tells Shane that he's got a feeling that something bad might happen to him. Shane tells him not to worry because he and Umaga will be there.
Tables Match: Sandman, Tommy Dreamer & CM Punk vs. Elijah Burke, Matt Striker and Marcus Cor Von
The good guys come out individually to decent pops. I'm hoping Punk gets to go to Raw or SD after the draft because he's too good to be stuck on the crappy ECW show. Thankfully he got a good pop here as well as at Smackdown/ECW last week when I was there, so maybe people are seeing him and realizing his potential for greatness. I think Burke's theme music is one of my faves in WWE right now. It's pretty cool.
Styles and Tazz wish the best for RVD. No "have fun in TNA" greeting.
Here's a question. If there are no rules in a tables match then why are the wrestlers on the outside of the ring waiting for a tag? Why don't they just get in the ring and double team or triple team all night since you can't get disqualified? I've never understood that. If there are no rules in a tag match then why do the tags in the first place? Doing tags are a rule, after all. I'd love an explanation to this.
They're really rushing through this match. Lots of quick tags all over the place and then suddenly after about five minutes all the guys are brawling on the floor. I guess my question is now a moot topic, eh?
I love Burke's springboard elbow move. That's extremely athletic. I like his potential for the future a lot.
The three heels got Punk alone in the ring with a table in the corner until Dreamer saves him.
Wow, Sandman took a bump off the top rope to the floor and he took it feet first. That's gotta hurt.
Love the Alpha Bomb by Cor Von. If you don't know he takes a guy from the body slam position and raises them up in the air to deliver a powerbomb. He set Punk up on the table, but Sandman caned him to death.
Nice piledriver by Dreamer on Burke. Then he places him on the table and Punk superplexes Striker through Burke and through the table. Team Punk, Dreamer and Sandman win after about 8 minutes.
Winners: Punk, Dreamer and Sandman
Analysis: *1/2 They did a traditional tag style match for about three minutes before it broke down. Why couldn't it break down immediately? I have no idea. The action was good because it was non-stop with guys falling over the place and the fans ate it up.
Backstage, Orton talks to Edge in his locker room. He tells Edge he's next on his injured list if they're on the same roster after the draft. Edge says he'll beat him like he will beat Batista tonight. I'm going to guess that Edge and Orton are on opposite brands.
World Tag Team Title Ladder Match: The Hardy Boys vs. Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas
This is the match of the night most likely. I'm a big fan of all four guys, but especially of Benjamin. I like how they always talk up the Hardy's ladder experience, yet what's their record in ladder matches? They lose a lot of 'em. Oh well. Match quality is always good, so that's what matters. Of course WGTT had a great ladder match against Eddie & Tajiri back in 2003.
Ha, cool spot early on as all four guys have a ladder so the Hardy's drop theirs and then dropkick the Charlie & Shelton ladders in their face.
Jeff goes for the climb three minutes in until Haas yanks him down and poor Jeff takes a stomach bump off of that. Now Matt brings him down with the electric chair drop.
With both Hardy's climbing, Shelton chucks a ladder into them both to send them flying.
The Hardy's sent the ladder up as a slingshot and then did a double hiptoss of Benjamin onto the ladder. Then they throw Haas from the top rope onto the ladder. Then both Hardy's double clothesline Benjamin out. Then they get MORE ladders, this time the "king sized" version as JR calls them.
I love how the announcers gets shocked when they pull out the big ladders even though they do it in every ladder match. They drape the ladder from the ring to the rail similar to the Hardy/Edge spot at Mania.
Oh my God! Benjamin charged in at Hardy and he got backdropped over the top rope back first on that ladder. That was very, very painful looking.
Jeff goes up and Charlie hits him with a German Suplex off the top and Jeff takes it on the back of his head. Geez!
Matt goes to climb, but he gets shoved off and takes a neck first bump across the top rope as we've now passed the ten minute mark. Benjamin hits the T-Bone on Jeff mid ring.
Holy crap, Benjamin climbs to the top of a ladder, Haas holds Matt prone on a ladder on the floor and Shelton kills him with a splash to the back. It was the signature move of Haas & Benjamin except the used the ladders instead of the ropes. What a crazy bump again.
Haas goes to climb a ladder in ring and Jeff hits a very pretty superplex off the top of the ladder. I miss D-Von doing the body shaking after a bump like that.
Wow, Benjamin's a freak. With Jeff climbing, Shelton did a springboard from the floor and didn't keep his balance so he flipped over and used his feet to dropkick the ladder that sent Jeff down. Now Matt crotches Shelton the top rope when he climbs.
This is an awesome ladder match with some incredible and innovative spots. I love it.
With both ladders set up all four guys climb at the same time. The Hardy's both fall, but they stay on their feet. So they shove Haas & Benjamin off and Shelton goes off the top through the ladder that was set up from his bump earlier in the match! God, that had to hurt like a bitch. Jeff hit a Swanton on Haas and then the Hardy Boys climb up after 18 minutes to grab the titles for the win.
Winners: The Hardy Boys
Analysis: **** This was about as good as any tag team match featuring two teams in the history of WWE. I'll say some of the TLC ones were better and the Armageddon one was better, but that was with six or more guys. This was just four and they did a hell of a job. I think you have to give it to Jeff and Shelton for taking the crazier bumps in the match, although you can't deny that Matt and Charlie did their share of the work too. That move by Benjamin when he stumbled on the ropes and then flipped over was impressive as hell, whether it was planned or not. I'm going to guess it was not. Tremendous match that's worth watching this PPV. Wow. That was fun. I sure hope nobody's hurt from it, but I wouldn't be shocked if they are. JR said he feels sorry for the guys in the back that have to follow this. He's right.
Backstage, The Great Khali talks. His translator tells us he's taking the title back to India. Then in English Khali ended it with: "John Cena - I break you!" That's one less word than Ivan Drago's "I must break you!" in Rocky IV.
Lumberjack Match: Kane vs. Mark Henry
Here are the Lumberjacks in this match: Chris Benoit, Val Venis, Santino Marella, Balls Mahoney, Stevie Richards, The Miz, Kevin Thorn, Chris Masters, Johnny Nitro, Chavo Guerrero, Kenny Dykstra and Carlito. I saw Kane vs. Mark Henry on Tuesday at the Smackdown tapings and let's just say I'm not that excited for this one.
My favorite thing about Mark Henry is his theme music. His receding hair line is also interesting.
Why is Benoit being wasted like this? Can't he just go in the ring, kick the shit out of both guys and give me something interesting to watch here. Please. I'm tired of tests of strengths and bearhugs. Wow, a clothesline. That's new.
Kane flipped Kane out of the ring over to where the heel guys, so Kane climbs to the top and splashes onto Henry, Nitro, Thorn and the hair challenged one known as Chris Masters.
Hey look, Kane just hit the top rope clothesline on Henry. Never seen that. Then he gets a chokeslam. Then for whatever reason Kenny Dykstra and Chavo run in and get beat up. That allows Mark Henry to give Kane another bearhug. And he wins with the bearhug because Kane was out. Wow, that finish came as a surprise to the crowd as Henry wins by submission after 10 minutes.
Winner: Mark Henry:
Analysis: 1/2* Yawn. It didn't make sense that two heels would just run in while the babyfaces did nothing because that ended up costing Kane. JBL tried to put over the bearhug as the move that Bruno Sammartino won titles with in the past, but I don't think it'll work in today's wrestling. I guess it's a good way to put Henry over as he's probably moved to Raw to be the next monster for John Cena to slay.
Backstage, Haas & Benjamin get treated in the same area as the Hardy Boys. They argue and brawl as a bunch of officials come in to break it up. That's good because it probably means that the feud will continue. They can wrestle 500 times and I'd be fine with it.
ECW World Title Street Fight - Vince McMahon vs. Bobby Lashley
Vince has Shane & Umaga with him while Lashley has nobody with him. He's cool like that. I miss Armando Estrada. Get him out there. The ECW announcers are calling this one.
Lashley hit a crazy plancha over the top rope on Umaga although he didn't hit him fully. That's got to hurt the hips.
Eventually Shane hits a DDT on Lashley on a steel chair in the center of the ring as the heels get to work over Lashley. Vince has yet to really take a bump.
The next few minutes involve the heels beating him down. Vince hit him with the slowest spear ever for two. A few minutes went by and Lashley finally came back. He sent Umaga and Shane out. Oooh, big chairshot to Vince's head and then about seven shots to the back of Vince.
Lashley hit the running powerslam for two as Umaga pulls him out to the floor. The announcers called it the Dominator although that's not the same one that Ron Simmons used to use.
Umaga hit him with a splash off the apron to the floor. Then Shane followed it up with a top rope elbow through the ECW announce table. That move is still awe-inspiring even though he's been doing it for like eight years. I remember how huge it was at Summerslam '99 against Test. Vince covers for just two. Umaga hits the running hit splash in the corner.
Now they set up the trash can in front of Lashley in the corner, but Bobby moves and the can hits Umaga in the face. Spear for Shane. Spear for Vince. It looked a lot less violent than his usual ones. He protected the boss there. There's the pin and it's over as Lashley wins after 13 minutes.
Winner: Bobby Lashley
Post match, Lashley speared Vince again although the camera barely caught it because they were doing replays.
Analysis: *1/2 This was probably the end of this feud. I think the goal of it was to increase Lashley's stature in the eyes of the fans and I think in that sense it did exactly that. The pop Lashley got here was bigger than he did at WrestleMania, so in that sense it worked. This was more of an angle than any sort of match. I did enjoy it. They got all the spots in that you'd expect them to and obviously Vince was protected from doing a lot of bumps.
Backstage, Santino Marella talks to Maria in Italian and she loves it. The Grish asks Maria her expert opinion on the match and she uses big words to describe the pudding (like viscosity), which is funny because she's dumb. Feel the comedy! Candice walks by, asks for a kiss and Maria surprisingly kisses her. Santino loves America he says and there's Ron Simmons to end the comedy segment with the "DAMN!" line that we all love so much.
Pudding Match: Melina vs. Candice Michelle
This is non-title. What's there to really say? There's a tub full of pudding, they go inside of it and splash around. For those curious the pudding is brown and there is whip cream inside of it.
Candice just did a DDT in the pudding. She chokes her in the pudding somehow and Melina tapped out giving Candice the win. Match, if you want to call it that, was about 3 minutes.
Winner: Candice Michelle
Post match, Maria comes out to interview Candice. Melina throws pudding on her, so Maria jumps in and then they throw the ref in and it's fun all around.
Analysis: No rating, nor was it even good T&A. You couldn't see their T&A because the pudding covered it. Crowd was dead for it too.
World Title Steel Cage Match: Edge vs. Batista
The match can be won by pinfall, submission, through the door or over the top. I hate that. I wish they did it so that the only way you win the match is by climbing over the top of the cage to the floor. That's the point of the cage, not beating a guy with a pinfall. It also makes more sense then having a guy try to climb up when he can just run out the door.
Edge is out first (I don't like that - champs should be last) and I think his pyro display is as good as any in WWE today. The best ever pyro on the intro belongs to Goldberg even though I don't care for that man. Batista gets a good pop and I have to give props to his fireworks display as well. I just like Edge's more. I guess I'm a biased Canadian in that regard.
I missed a couple minutes, but came back to see Edge spear Batista into the side of the cage. Then a sliding dropkick to the cage.
Interesting to note that after two hours of "extreme" rules there has been no blood on this show. I'm guessing that ends in this match.
Edge exposes the turnbuckle, but his attempt to ram Batista into it obviously fails. He comes back to hit the backwards head slam (or Edge-o-matic) and then decides to climb up the cage. Why not run out the door? Who knows?
Wow, nice spot as Batista goes to leap off the top rope for some kind of splash and Edge countered with a beautiful dropkick.
Then a spot that wasn't as nice as they both got up and went for the spear and collided into eachother with shoulderblocks.
Batista beats him up with some power moves. Let me use this opportunity to say as I do during every PPV that I absolutely love JBL on commentary. He's the best in WWE right now.
Hey, Batista just hit a Bossman slam as Edge came running off the rope. Abyss in TNA uses that, but haven't seen that in WWE in a while.
Batista slingshots Edge into the cage and then rolls him up in a cradle for two. Great ode to their previous match when Edge won with that move. The announcers didn't say that, though. They should have.
Edge goes face first into the cage and there's our first blood of the night although it's not a big gusher. It's from the mouth. He comes back by dodging a tackle, Batista goes into the exposed corner and Edge gets a spear for two and a half.
Edge goes to climb, but Batista catches him and spinebuster for Batista gets two.
Batista Bomb, but Edge uses the momentum to push himself into the cage. He climbs up so that he's laying on the cage as Batista goes up there to pull him back. Two low blows by Edge sends Batista down and then he crotches himself just for fun.
Edge goes for the climb up the cage while Batista crawls through the door on the opposite side. Edge touches the ground first and he wins after 17 minutes. Batista had his hands on the ground when Edge touched the floor on the other side.
Winner: Edge
Post match, Edge takes off through the crowd without his belt and Batista spazzes at ringside over the fact that he lost again.
Analysis: ***1/2 That was a very good cage match that gives both of these guys another good PPV match under their belt. They got 7 more minutes this time compared to Judgment Day two weeks ago and they were able to put together a better match as a result of that. I liked the story of the match where it was back and forth with each guy hitting big moves back to back. There wasn't a spot where one guy dominated the match. They really built it as an even match that ended only when Edge was able to get out quicker. It also gives Edge a victory over Batista without having Batista to take another pinfall. I was very pleased with this one because it was a very good world title match and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Falls Count Anywhere for the WWE Title: John Cena vs. The Great Khali
Khali comes out first. All the ladies scream for him because he's such a sexy beast. Or not. I still don't understand the booking from Saturday Night's Main Event when they had Khali beat Cena clean. It was non-title of course, but I still don't understand it. It does of course mean Cena's winning here, in case there was any doubt. There's the champ after some delay. He still can't afford pyro apparently.
We get the Khali offense to start the first couple of minutes.
Is it really flexible when he sticks his leg up in the air and Cena runs into it? I'm not so sure.
Took four minutes for Khali to miss a move - a legdrop - and Cena capitalizes with the flipping snapmare thing he does.
Cena's foray to the top is for naught as Khali chops him off the top to the floor. Cena takes the bump on his feet. Ouch. That got two.
They fight on the floor, Cena blocks the chop, so Khali just chucks him over the retaining wall as they go into the crowd.
Cena finally got some offense with a TV monitor shot, but Khali blocked the FU while continuing to pound and kick away at Cena.
Cena used the portable camera boom to toss it into Khali's face and that's the first time Khali was on his back. That got two. Another FU attempt fails.
They're back at the entrance way and there are two giant cranes over there as a part of the set. Khali chucks Cena onto it. Cena rakes the eyes of Khali and hits a huge FU sending Khali to the concrete. I'm not sure what broke his fall - it was probably cables and tables or something, but it was a six foot drop or so. Looked very impressive. Cena covers for the pinfall victory.
Winner: John Cena
Analysis: * The thing about giants in wrestling is they sure are able to dish out punishment, but they're often beaten after only a move or two. They're about as durable as cheap AA batteries, basically. This one will be remembered for Cena hitting the FU. That's what people wanted when they got this PPV and they got it. It was a good way to end the show with the top guy looking good once again.
FINAL THOUGHTS
There were eight matches and two of them were very good. Those two were the Raw tag title match featuring the ladders and the Smackdown World title match featuring the cage. I think if you missed Hardys/WGTT then it's worth going out of your way to see because they did some cool spots in it and I know I always appreciate it when wrestlers do bumps like that. The World title match wasn't jaw dropping or featuring moments that were new, but it was a competitive wrestling match that did its job as far as putting over Edge as a credible World Champion.
If you're looking for bad parts of the show then obviously the Kane/Henry match stands out as well as the pudding match. The other matches like Orton/RVD, the ECW tag, the Vince/Lashley and Cena/Khali were all pretty much what we expected. I was surprised that RVD won his match, but I'm not surprised that Orton "took him out" like he did with Michaels.
Looking back at One Night Stand I'd call it good because of two quality matches as well as some other cool moments. Just like at Judgment Day everybody worked hard and they did what they could given the booking. With the Hardys retaining, RVD winning, the ECW guys winning, Candice winning, Lashley getting his belt back and Cena retaining his the story is that the good guys got the job done for the most part. The only two heel victories were by Edge, which was obvious because he's the main guy on Smackdown and Henry, who they need to put over because there's a lack of heels. He's probably the next challenge for Cena, as I alluded to earlier. That's just a guess at this point. Seems like it's likely, though.
It was a predictable, yet slightly above average show. No major complaints here. I enjoyed it enough.
The next PPV is Vengeance later this month. It's billed as a Night of Champions where every match will be a title match. It'll be interesting to see how things take shape following next week's draft. I'll try to be here to do a running diary for that one too.
Smell ya later,
John C. - oratoryjohn@gmail.com
MSN: oratoryjohn@hotmail.com - Do not email me here! Will not be read!
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