If there could only be one One Night Stand

[Dowdsy McDowds]

...which would it be?

I finally got round to watching ECW's One Night Stand from 2005 in its entirety a couple of days ago and though it was by no means a classic PPV, the context of it gave it a significant boost in meaning;

Bischoff's involvement with the "WWE Invaders" / his history with ECW/Heyman.

Ex-ECW guys either returning from the wilderness or (at that time) current WWE guys who had made a name there.

The ending where Bischoff is embarassed/beaten up by Stone Cold and the ECW guys.


For me, despite the PPV's flaws it seemed like a fitting testimony to what ECW was able to achieve in their heyday. Yet a year later there was another One Night Stand, again largely significant due to the surrounding context, this time it was mainly about RVD/Cena in the main event.

RVD represented the old, alternative and underdog aspect, whereas Cena was the new, mainstream and heroic character that represented the naturalised state of Wrestling Entertainment. Such a contrast between the two men (and organisations) culminated in an electric Main Event where RVD, with a little help from Edge and Heyman, won the OTHER company's main title, a huge moment for ECW.


So the question I ask is, if you could only have one ONS exist, which would you rather have?

You don't need to just refer to the Bischoff/Cena dimensions, feel free to mention other matches on the card. I just used the ME's to typify what the main theme was of each night.

 

[CB429]

i still feel that the masato tanaka/mike awesome match was one of the better ones that i have seen in my life and thats the reason i liked it more... The matches in 06 kinda sucked and they didn't even have ecw guys in all matches and had a match show/batista.... It was definitely funny with all the hate cena got though... still 05 was true to ecw so i gotta go with 05...

 

[Savior with faith 101]

I would go with the original ONS, it seemed more to be more passionate about the Original ECW whereas the second one was seemingly more about RVD. The Heyman promo on the original was a classic moment and the matches in general were a better standard.

But mainly id take the first one ust because it was the original, and 9 times out of 10 the original is the best, and that still stands (awful pun intended) with these PPV's

 

[boozinjedi]

I'd have to go with the first ONS,It had the true feel of the original ECW.

To me the only thing missing was another Eddy/Dean classic,
Eddy wrestled Benoit that night,still a great match..I think Dean had some neck problems back then,Would've been great to see those guys go at it one last time!

 

[Iversen]

In terms of it being about ECW the first one without a doubt the second one was a lot more about WWE and their reviving the ECW name.

I enjoyed both to be honest RVD winning the title in the 2nd one was a great moment but the 1st one just felt like more of an ECW show.

 

[Slyfox696]

I would want to take a combination of the two, as the undercard was well done on the first one, but the main-event of RVD vs. Cena in the second one completely blows everything on the 05 card out of the water. I think the atmosphere was better in 05, but 06's main-event was easily the best thing to come out of One Night Stand.

Except for Sandman's entrance to Metallica's Enter Sandman and the whole crowd singing along. That was pretty badass.

 

[Dowdsy McDowds]

I think what would have sealed 05 for me would have been if,

a) Angle didn't wrestle for ECW the next year, and
b) Terry Funk was on the card, not necessarily his 06 match with Edge, but doing something due to him being such a big part of ECW's first PPV.

If Funk were to go on the card, I'd have replaced the Mysterio/Psychosis match rather than the Guido/Tajiri/Super Crazy match, because their match had just a bit more energy to it.

I guess 2006 just about edges it for me, but both of them have a lot of great moments. What sours 05 the most is the retrospective aspect of Joey Styles laying into Mike Awesome, just quite tough to listen to given what happened afterwards.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

The original ONS was by far better. It was the first PPV under the ECW banner since the company went under and pretty much all of the main stars of the original ECW were involved.

You had Sandman, Dreamer, Rhino, Sabu, Tanaka, Awesome, Storm, Jericho, Eddie etc and even Taz. I absolutely loved the first one, and I thought it was really special. The shoot promo's from RVD and Paul Heyman were also brilliant, and I much preferred the matches than those in the 2nd.

The Lance Storm v Lionheart Chris Jericho was a fantastic match (why did Storm retire?! He was still awesome in the ring that day), and the Masato Tanaka v Mike Awesome match is one of my all time favourites. It was great to see Awesome back in the ring and he was as good as ever. The surprise appearance of Sabu was another great moment too.

The main event was extremely entertaining too, the crowd was on fire throughout the whole show and I didnt even really mind seeing the WWE "invaders" either. I would have preferred it to just be ECW guys on the PPV but I dont think the invaders really spoiled the show.

The 2nd ONS was also good- I actually ordered it on DVD the other day, but it was never going to be as good as the 1st one, although having RVD win the world title finally was a great and very memorable moment. Also, the brutal intergender tag team match was spectacular

 

[Rock Bottom]

At the time of the first ONS I had only been watch wrestling for a few years, I didn't really know the background of or understand ECW and I certainly didn't know about the Alliance storyline from a few years earlier. The original ONS really did introduce me to ECW and I became a big fan, that tag team match between Dreamer/Sandman and The Dudleys was insane!

The ONS the following year was still entertaining, just to see all the abuse that John Cena got from the ECW fans was great and I never expected RVD to actually win. That would never ever happen in the current WWE climate. So for me it had to be the first ONS.