One Night Stand Recap

Tonight’s show was an “Extreme” PPV event that featured eight matches with “Extreme” stipulations. Four world titles were on the line under these “Extreme” stipulations.

- The show starts off with all three sets of announcers welcoming us to the show. This six announcer set-up is very reminiscent of the baseball scene in The Naked Gun.

Stretcher Match: Randy Orton v. Rob Van Dam - The concussed RVD got off to a quick start but once he was hit in the head his eyes became glazed over and Randy took advantage of the situation. RVD was able to come back and even place Orton on the stretcher but he got greedy and tried a plancha on Orton through the stretcher. He missed and knocked the wind out of himself. Orton placed RVD on the stretcher and started to wheel him up the ramp. However, RVD started to punch Orton. RVD got up and the punches forced Orton to slump onto the stretcher which RVD pushed about 5 feet to get the win. After the match, Orton assaulted RVD and knocked him unconscious with a DDT on the floor. Doctor's came out, placed a neck brace on RVD and wheeled him out on the stretcher. Winner: Rob Van Dam

Six-Man Tag Team Tables Match: CM Punk, Sandman, & Tommy Dreamer v. Marcus Cor Von, Elijah Burke, & Matt Striker - Only one wrestler has to be put through a table for this match to end. After the table was brought into the ring, Tommy Dreamer was able to place Elijah on it. Punk then delivered a superplex on Striker that drove Elijah and his partner through the table. Winners: CM Punk, Sandman, and Tommy Dreamer

- Jim Ross announces that RVD had to be taken to the hospital because he suffered another concussion.

Ladder Match for the World Tag Team Championship: Champs The Hardys v. Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas - This was an incredible match that featured so many painful looking spots that my back started to hurt just watching these guys. I can never figure out how these guys don’t suffer severe injuries in this type of match. The match ended with each team on top of a ladder. The Hardys were pushed off of theirs but landed on their feet. They pushed their opponents ladder down and Benjamin was flung out of the ring while Haas was “lucky” enough to stay in the ring but got hit Jeff’s swanton bomb for his troubles. The Hardys then grabbed the titles from the rafters. Winners: The Hardys

Lumberjack Match: Mark Henry v. Kane – Whereas the last match was fast-paced, the action in this match was slow and methodical. Mark Henry targeted the back of Kane who was amazingly able to give Mark Henry a choke slam. Before he could pin him, Kenny Dykstra and Chavo Guerrero interfered. Mark Henry took advantage of the distraction and put Kane in a bear hug. The match ended when Kane was knocked out by th bear hug. Winner: Mark Henry

Street Fight for the ECW Championship: Champion Vince McMahon v. Bobby Lashley – Earlier in the evening, Vince was telling Shane that he had a bad premonition that something bad was going to happen to him but it wasn’t about this match. Shane and Umaga were at ringside for Vince. The majority of this match was a three-on-one beat down of Lashley. The highlight of the beat down was Shane McMahon delivering an off-the-to rope elbow through a table. A few minutes later he tried the coast-to-coast but wound up hitting Umaga with the garbage pail. Lashley then delivered a spear to Shane and then another one to Vince to win the title. Winner and New Champion: Lashley

- A commercial for the June 24th Vengeance PPV was shown. Every WWE title will be on the line in this “Night of Champions”.

Non-title Pudding Match: Champ Melina v. Candice Michelle - Candice shoved Melina’s head into the pudding and forced her to tap out. After the match, Maria and the referee wound up in the pool of chocolate pudding. Winner: Candice Michelle

Steel Cage Match for the World Heavyweight Championship: Champion Edge v. Batista - When Batista went for the Batista Bomb, Edge was able to grab the cage and start scaling the walls. Batista followed him up but wound up getting hit in the groin causing both men to fall back to the mat. Edge climbed up and out of the cage before Batista was able to exit through the door. Winner: Edge

- A commercial for SummerSlam is shown.

Falls Count Anywhere Match for the WWE Championship: Champion John Cena v. The Great Khali - Khali dominated most of the match and beat John to the side of the ramp area where a crane was set up. Khali tried to give Cena the throat slam off the crane but John broke out of the move with an eye rake. Cena then gave Khali the FU from the crane onto the concrete floor below. Winner: John Cena

What does this event mean for future?
This show was all about gimmicks and not important in the grand scheme of things. Commercials for two future PPV events were shown as well as next week’s draft being mentioned several times. Historically speaking, this could be the last WWE match for Rob Van Dam. Ending his WWE career at One Night Stand is ironic because he was responsible for getting the wheels in motion for the first ECW One Night Stand and won the WWE Championship and brought the ECW Championship back to life at last year’s event.

Overall Thoughts
This was a much better show than the PPV two weeks ago. It was a fun show based more on gimmicks than on great story lines. Excluding the pudding match, every match was good but only the ladder match was tremendously exciting.
One question I have is that with all of the PPV events now being tri-branded, is it necessary for there to be so many title belts. Three title belts (Intercontinental, WWE Tag Team, and Cruiserweight) have gone at least four PPV events without being defended. At least next month, every title will be on the line.

Match Results

• Stretcher Match: Rob Van Dam beat Randy Orton
  
• Tables Match: CM Punk, Sandman, & Tommy Dreamer beat Marcus Cor Von, Elijah Burke, & Matt Striker
  
• Ladder Match for the World Tag Team Championship: Champions The Hardys beat Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin
  
• Lumberjack Match: Mark Henry beat Kane
  
• Street Fight for the ECW Title: Lashley beat Vince McMahon to win the title
  
• Non-title Pudding Match: Candice Michelle beat Women’s Champion Melina
  
• Steel Cage Match for the World Heavyweight Championship: Champion Edge beat Batista
  
• Falls Count Anywhere for the WWE Championship: Champion John Cena beat The Great Khali

_{Photo: © 2007 World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved. “The World’s Strongest Man” Mark Henry can be seen every Friday night on the CW Network show Friday Night SmackDown}