Where do I begin? Oh my God what a show last night! I knew One Night Stand would not disappoint me. Okay listen, I’m still very hyper from watching last night, so let me get right into it. I cannot wait to talk about probably the best pay per view I’ve seen in a long time. The fans that were at the Hammerstein Ballroom ROCKED! Man they were so hot they were on fire. I want to cover the matches first and then everything else.
I will be totally honest with you, the first hour lacked something. One thing that I was disappointed in was the opening match with Chris Jericho vs. Lance Storm who was accompanied by Dawn Marie. No I wasn’t disappointed in the match because this match had it; these two looked excellent in the ring. I was disappointed that this match was about 7 minutes long. I expected to see at least a twenty five minute match. And that was the problem in the first hour; the matches were all good but way too short.
The triple threat match with Tajiri accompanied by Mikey Whipwreck and Sinister minister vs. Super Crazy vs. Little Guild accompanied by the FBI, again was damn good but it seemed rushed, like all of a sudden it was over. This again would have been a show stealer had it been a lot longer. I will say Rey Mysterio vs. Psicosis was the match that didn’t come off like I thought it would. Again it was good but I was waiting for a lot of high flying moves. However with Rey Mysterio suffering an ankle injury I think that held him back and kept this from really being one of the best matches of the night. Believe me everyone involved in the matches that I just mentioned worked their asses off; I am not taking anything away from any of them.
However things totally picked up when The Whole F’N Show came out. It seems like years since RVD has been on TV. It was so great to see him again and his mic work was dare I say, SUPERB. Rob last night talked about the same thing he told me last week in his interview. So I knew first hand that everything he said he meant. When he just about broke down talking about his knee surgery that got to me. RVD was very strong on the mic last night and it was his segment that really got the rest of the show going. By the way Alfonso’s whistle blowing was quite artistic last night. Okay seriously this was the beginning of some GREAT things to come. When Rhyno came out and hit RVD with the GORE I was so surprised. Let me tell you how engrossed I was with RVD’s promo. I’m listening to every word he’s saying and then I see Rhyno and all of a sudden I yell out, “Rob, Rhyno it’s Rhyno.” Do you think he heard me? I didn’t expect the Gore and it came off brilliantly. And then to have Sabu come out to rescue RVD from that big bully Rhyno was the topper. Sabu seemed right in step and he put on a great performance. I loved this match, it was brutal and it was like watching ECW from years ago.
Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Benoit was a good match; hey you have two of the best working with each other. But again the match was rushed and not given the length of time it should have had been given. Chris Benoit is so consistent when he’s in the ring that I look forward to his matches each week, because I know I’m going to see him put his all in each one. Eddie Guerrero like Chris will go that extra step to give the fans what they want. And it would have been so cool to see this go on a lot longer than it did. When I saw that Mike Awesome vs. Masato Tanaka was added to the card, I wasn’t exactly looking forward to it. When I think of Mike Awesome I think of how he was ruined in WCW, and how in WWE he was never used. Masato Tanaka I really don’t remember seeing him before. So when the match came on last night I told my son, here’s a match that I could do without. Well I was so off, so wrong. THIS WAS THE MATCH OF THE NIGHT. I was amazed, in awe and just plain glad that this match was booked.
Mike Awesome was just that, awesome. This man came to entertain and he was fantastic. I forgot that Awesome was good in the ring, I forgot what he was capable of doing in the ring and last night he certainly refreshed my memory. And Tanaka? My God he was amazing. The more chair shots he took from Awesome the more I felt my head hurting. Tanaka is a man that you must see watch at least once. He is agile and when it comes to taking bumps, especially chair shots the man is not to be believed. This was the match that really got the fans going. I could not believe what I was seeing. These two guys complimented each other beautifully and I will be re-watching this match probably all week. And now to the main event. Tommy Dreamer and the Sandman vs. The Dudley’s. This was a super finale. We were entertained by so many ECW stars. Like BWO, with Nova, Stevie Richards and the Blue Meanie. Kid Kash, Balls Mahoney, Axel Rotten, Francine, and believe me she was the last person I expected to see on the show. But there were more stars like Justin Credible, Beulah and Spike Dudley. Each person played a nice little role in this main event. But it was Dreamer, Sandman and the Dudley’s match and it was a blood bath. Of course with Tommy Dreamer in there I wouldn’t have expected anything less. Tommy got a cheese grater rubbed in his face courtesy of Bubba Ray. Blood not only covered Dreamers face but it actually just flowed out. Sandman and D-Von took some nasty bumps with the ladder. And all of this was fun to watch. There was one part where Dreamer’s wife Beulah got in to take out Francine and then she and Tommy together did a double DDT on the Dudley’s. And I don’t want to forget about Tommy Dreamer being power-bombed onto a flaming table by the Dudley’s. And as Dreamer is down on the mat, Sandman checked on him. He screamed, ‘I NEED A BEER, I NEED A BEER.” That was it for me I could not stop laughing. What a main event, what a show. Not one bad match, no just too many short ones, but everything clicked last night.
Okay let me get to some really good stuff. First when Joey Styles walked into that ring after being gone for so long and the fans cheered him, and he started crying, well this chick almost started crying. Joey Styles did a phenomenal job last night. It didn’t take him long to make you think that ECW was still alive and that he never left. His colleague Mick Foley didn’t come off quite as good as I thought he would. But since Styles was so damn good, Mick came off okay. And then there was Joel Gertner. It was great seeing him again. I wish they would have given him more to do, but he came off funny especially when he begged Eric Bischoff for a job at WWE. Believe me I wish WWE would sign him. I loved all the videos that they showed between matches. Some of them brought back memories others I had never seen so it was a treat to see them.
I liked that they brought in guys like Al Snow and Head, I can’t forget Head, Amish Roadkill, Danny Doring, and Pitbull Gary Wolfe, who I will admit I don’t know but it was nice that they were included and they were the ones to introduce the videos.
As far as the WWE invasion angle. I could have done without it. I didn’t need it at all. However the fans reacted to it so well they made it a blast. For me things got a lot more fun when Edge came out and Joey Styles said something like, oh its Edge it’s a good thing I left my wife home. And then the fans were relentless with Edge. I heard You Screwed Matt Hardy chants, and Lita has herpes chants, this crowd had me hysterical. Edge seemed to soak it up, but at least the fans got their feelings across. I didn’t particularly like the camera focusing on the WWE guys every time something was going on in the ring. But you know I expected it and it certainly didn’t kill the mood for me. I found JBL’s promo way too long, and Kurt Angle’s little promo was nothing out of the ordinary, he insulted the ECW fans and ECW. But those fans gave it right back to him with some lively little chants about him sucking something. Anyway, it was the crowd during all of this that kept me from getting upset about WWE being involved with this show. But it was Paul Heyman that really did it for me. Heyman had me in tears, yeah he did and Heyman had me standing up. When that man first came out like Styles and RVD he started to breakdown. And that got to me, because I know what ECW and the fans meant to him and still mean to him. And when Heyman slammed Bischoff with insult after insult I was applauding and talking right back to Heyman with, yeah you set him straight. Heyman giving it to Edge by saying “It’s Edge, hide your wives,” or when he told Edge I have two words for you, “Matt Freaking Hardy”, well that was three but we got it, I was like yeah you tell him. Edge took this all with a grain of salt and smiled throughout, but at least Heyman got to say what he wanted. JBL was next and when he told JBL that the only reason that he had the title was because HHH didn’t want to work on Tuesday’s my mouth hung open and then laughed and thought good for Heyman. Heyman was angry and bitter and I could feel that and that’s why I got emotional. This man was spewing things out that I’m sure he’s wanted too for along time. He was magnificent, and I have nothing but respect for all he did for ECW and because I know ECW is like his child I knew that this man meant every word that came out of his mouth.
Now after the main event all the ECW guys came out and stood in the ring, and who came out next, Steve Austin. I will be honest with you, it kind of bugged me that Austin was the guy to come out and get it all going with the WWE guys. I guess I feel it should have been Tazz to rally the ECW guys against the WWE guys. I know Austin was in ECW and had every right to be there, but in my opinion this part should have been given to Tazz or even Tommy Dreamer. But it was Austin and he did a good job and got things going, and he got those tough WWE guys to come to thing ring and then the brawl started. I can’t say it was the most brutal brawl, but it was good and thank GOD the ECW dominated the WWE guys. And it all ended when the WWE guys departing as Mick Foley brought Eric Bischoff into the ring and Eric got it but good. He got the Dudley 3-D, Chris Benoit’s flying head butt and finally the old Stone Cold Stunner.
This show was so off the charts so brilliant that I just read that ECW is still alive at least on Smackdown. It looks like things will carry over to Smackdown this week. Listen if Vince doesn’t find a way to incorporate ECW into his programming then he’s a fool, he’s missing out not only on big money but getting so many fans back. This show is a MUST SEE, and it was so worth ordering. I don’t know how many of you have read that JBL beat up Blue Meanie during that brawl. He did it intentionally and there are pictures of Meanie after the encounter. If you go to the sites you will read a statement by Meanie on this subject. All I can say is JBL is a jerk, and you hear about him bullying the young talent backstage constantly. While I feel he’s been a great character on Smackdown, I’m tired of all his crap. I wish Vince would put this guy in his place, but he won’t and that will give him the right to continue being the jackass that he is. It’s too bad that he had to act like a brat; I certainly wouldn’t want him representing my company. He makes Bob Holly look like a pussycat, and that’s not saying much. Okay I will take the day off tomorrow, no Raw thoughts, but I will definitely be back on Friday to talk about Smackdown. Just remember it’s Cena and Jericho vs. Christian and Tomko, so that should be a good one. And Raw drafts another guy from Smackdown tonight, could it be Kurt Angle? Enjoy the show. Now finally before I go a reader of mine Justin was so nice to share with me some of his pictures from last night’s One Night Stand, so he gave me the okay to share them with you. I’ll be back on Friday.
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Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com
