One Night Stand bettered any expectations I had. 15-20 minute matches is what we want and we got it last night. I didn't order the match, but from my view, this is as good as it's going to get for the WWE this year. Obviously, they can't have this amount of stipulations every PPV, but hopefully it will be a wake up sign for them that this is the kind of stuff we want to see.
The Hardys vs WGTT was a godsend for me. Here is a feud that needs to be taken off and I hope their ladder match at One Night Stand is the launching pad. I prefer ladder matches to have a long buildup but having the teams in a match we've pleaded for for a long time is awesome. From the sounds of it, Haas and Benjamin performed very well in the match and I wished I could have seen it (thank God for youtube though.) Please WWE, more of this stuff.
Edge and Batista did sound a little sub-par, and I think Batista's schedule is worsening his minimal talents. Having steel cage matches so close together ruins their prestige, and you'd like to see it as more of a blow off match to a feud, rather than one just thrown in in the third week of it. I just can't get my head around the fact that Edge acts like a coward so much these days. Honestly, they've already gotten him over as a pussy heel, so why do they keep bothering making him look like the laughing stock of the WWE? Let him do some God damn spots for God's sake. He's the champion, let him look like one. The match did have some good spots but it just didn't sound like a decent cage match. A disappointing match from my view, but thank God Edge is still champion.
Melina and Candice in a pudding match. They should have warned all traditionalists to leave the room before this one. Utter, utter garbage. So much for their 'presenting the divas in a classier light' motive. Still, it went only 3 minutes which is all it should have, and the men got what they wanted to see out of it.
Henry and Kane. Could you think of a more awful matchup? Maybe Khali and Henry, but that's another thing. These two are fat, slow, old and terrible, terrible workers. It would literally have been the definition of these two vomiting in your eyes when you watched this match. For one, it ended with a bearhug. You'd think they could script a finish half-decently. Was there a point to the lumberjacks other than to stick them on camera there to save them doing nothing? To think of the calibre of some of the lumberjacks compared to who actually got the PPV match....Another waste of airtime, which is typical of the WWE lately. Did anyone care about this match? Hell no, and let's never hear of these two together again. Ever.
RVD and Orton. Here was McMahon's 'surprise' for us smartass smarks. To the WWE, they wouldn't have wanted either of these two to win in the first place, and I guess that surprise element won out in the end. It sounded like a good match, but if RVD wasn't so exhausted and had passion left, this match would have been great. Some good spots, but jeez, I read the results and every second move was a kick by RVD. Still, this beats some of the other matches on the card and was a decent 15 minute opener.
Cena and Khali. Give them a stipulation and they still can't wrestle for shit. Absolutely zero expectation for this match and hell, they lived up to it. I don't even feel like going into it right now, although the worst part was that neither Cena or Khali hurt themselves in the match. Damn. Predictable, and a sour note to finish on for the PPV.
Another match that bettered what we expected was the tables match. The 6 seemed to work very well together and was the surprise package of the night. Not surprising that Punk's team won though and the finish was a little dull, but the match was fast paced and very well put together. A good showing for the ECW guys, and these are the kinds of matches that should be held on ECW every week if we are to start liking that show. Some great spots and if it looked as good as I read it, I can't wait to watch it on youtube.
Overall, this PPV is going to beat anything the WWE come up with elsewhere this year, simply because of stipulations, and no one can deny that this card wouldn't have sold have the buyrates if they were normal matches like they have been for every WWE PPV in the past. I'm liking the tribranded PPV's, and I hope they can keep up the standards. Obviously, the PPV wasn't great compared with the ones of 7 years ago, but I think it's safe to say that it's been one of the WWE's best for a few years now. It was littered with garbage, but the stuff that was gold really shone on that night.
An A from me. Basically because when you compare this to Judgment Day or Backlash, I know for sure which one is better. A decent effort for once by the WWE here, and I want to see more of it, although this looks to be a one-off good PPV.
Oh, and Lashley beat McMahon. Surprise surprise. Where does he go to now? Against Snitsky? *Shudder*
