Hello Everyone, Brandon here with another edition of Extreme Talk. In this new blog, we like to talk about the extreme, especially when it comes to talking about the “Land of Extreme” itself, ECW. I’m talking ECW before WWE shut it down, where the word “Extreme” meant something. So latest take a trip back in time, when ECW invited WWE to its own house, let’s go back to 2005 and visit the best PPV of them all, 2005 ECW One Night Stand.
In the famous Hammerstein Ballroom in New York, New York, the fans are ready to see the stars of ECW past and present blow the roof of the place. However, ECW would invite WWE to its PPV, with the likes of Edge, JBL, Kurt Angle, and Raw General Manager at the time, Eric Bischoff, made the night even more intense as Paul Heyman, owner of ECW at the time, would have some very interesting words to say to the WWE. Teasing Edge about Matt Hardy, and JBL about his long title reign on Smackdown. When had the amazing return of the man himself, Mr. “OH MY GOD”, a.k.a Joey Styles as the night kicked off.
Chris Jericho would take on Lance Storm to kick off the night and was a match that would pit two originals against one another as Storm, with a little help from Justin Credible and a kendo stick would get the win in a shocking upset over the former WWE and AEW champion. We then got the best of the ECW high flyers as Tajiri took on Super Crazy and Little Guido. These guys would take high flying and extreme rules to the limit in a thrilling match as their factions would interfere as well during the match, however, Tajiri would get the pinfall against Super Crazy with a crazy moonsault for the victory.
The next match would feature a fan favourite from WWE and Friday Night Smackdown, Rey Mysterio, who was a former ECW Original from back in the days, taking on Psychosis. Now the match only lasted 7 minutes but fans seeing the 619 and Rey getting the win, brought back nostalgia seeing him in an ECW ring. After that Rob Van Damn came out and tried to trash talk the stars of WWE, but would be hit with a gore by Rhyno and followed by the return of Sabu, ECW Legend and sparking a match between two of the best of ECW roster. With a little help from RVD, Sabu won the match and would lead to the next match had a lot of meaning behind it.
Two WWE Legends and ECW originals would meet in the next match as “Latino Heat” Eddie Guerrero would face off against long time friend Chris Beniot. Now both were a part of WWE at that point but wanted to show that they had some extreme left in them. Chris Benoit would win the match with the Crossface as both would stare at each other and nod after the match. Then we got an ECW rivalry that has built its way up for years as Mike Awesome took on Masato Tanaka. This match showed extreme rules and a heated rivalry can really do, as Mike Awesome won the match by Powerbombing Tanaka through a table and a Suicide Dive to get the win.
The main event stole the show as one of the greatest tag teams in wrestling history and originators of extreme, The Dudley Boys took on ECW Legend Tommy Dreamer and a returning ECW Legend Sandman. This match had it all, trash cans, cheese graters, stop signs, and the best part of it all, the return of Spike Dudley and a flaming table. As an extreme man myself, that would be classified as a 10-star match, so extreme, it goes over the 5-star rating.
The night would end with an unexpected return of Stone Cold Steve Austin, who many didn’t know was an ECW Original back when he first got started wrestling before WWE and would have the entire ECW roster come to the ring and challenge the WWE Raw and Smackdown locker room to a fight, as we saw Tazz return and put a Tazzmission on Kurt Angle. However it wasn’t over there, Eric Bischoff was left alone in the ring as the Dudley Boys hit their signature move, the 3D, Beniot doing a diving headbutt, Rey Mysterio delivering a 619, and a Stone Cold Stunner would end the night for 2005 ECW One Night Stand.
I wish we could go back to the good old days of extreme like it was back in 2005, but since then, ECW was bought by WWE and was later replaced by NXT. Many fans still cheer and have gear of ECW, like me having the original ECW Championship. ECW may be gone but this night will forever be the night ECW rose back from the dead and became extremely relevant again.
What are your thoughts on ECW One Night Stand? Let us know below or tweet us @SLTDWrestling
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