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WWE presents One Night Stand this Sunday evening.  The card is being billed as a night of "extreme rules" matches.  For those of you new to the business, One Night Stand started out as an annual reunion show for the defunct ECW.  The shows proved successful enough for WWE to relaunch the ECW brand.  However, with the current creative team in place the quality quickly went downhill, and the show is now made up of matches from all three brands.  Judging from the breakdown of those involved, apparently the Raw stars are the only ones the company has any confidence in, because the flagship show is involved in five of the seven matches.  Most of the matches are continuations of on going feuds.  I expect that this pay-per-view will be the blowoff to several storylines, and hopefully start setting the direction for their next pay-per-view, the Night of Champions.  In this column, we will take a look at who I believe will be winning the matches at Judgment Day, against who I think should win the matches.

 

 

Summary: Triple H and Randy Orton have been involved in the title picture essentially since last October when John Cena went down with an injury.  Orton beat Triple H to win the title at No Mercy in a Last Man Standing Match.  Triple H beat Orton to regain the title at Wrestlemania, and then retained it at both Backlash and Judgment Day.  Orton and JBL won a tag team match that gave the Legend Killer one more crack at the gold.  These two are no strangers to one another with the rivalry having been rehashed multiple times.  Hopefully, this will finally be the end.

 

Who Will Win:  Triple H.  With the exception of a couple of hours at No Mercy, Triple H had gone almost three years without a title reign.  I do not see him giving it up after a reign of less than two months.  It also helps to have a wife and father-in-law running the creative end.

 

Who Should Win: Triple H.  Randy Orton had a good reign, but there were a lot of people that just did not buy him in the top slot.  Triple H brings credibility, and by not holding the belt recently, a little more freshness to the position of champion.  Plus, I think most fans are ready for the feud to be over so that both guys can move on to new challenges.

 

 

Summary: The feud that made Cena a star has been restarted.  Cena won his first WWE Championship from JBL three years ago at Wrestlemania 21.  The feud restarted again when JBL was added to the championship mix at Backlash.  Cena eliminated JBL at Backlash, and then beat him again at Judgment Day.  JBL has responded by getting the better of Cena in their recent televised matches including a pinfall win in a tag match to set up this First Blood match.  The feud has been good for Cena's crowd response, which has been predominantly cheers lately.  Hopefully, they will have good brawl.

 

Who Will Win: John Cena.  Cena has been doing several jobs to JBL in tag matches lately.  I expect him to get one of those wins back on Sunday.  A Cena-HHH match for Night of Champions is also a better draw than HHH-JBL. 

 

Who Should Win: JBL.  I'm not quite ready for Cena to get back in the title hunt yet.  I think they need to hold off on that and build to the fans wanting to see him get it back.  Plus, HHH-JBL, while probably not a better drawing match, would at least be a new feud.  One of the complaints I constantly hear about WWE programming is that it is the same thing over and over again.  I would like to see someone screw Cena out of the win, and set up a side feud for him.

 

 

Summary: The feud started with Batista mad at Michaels for retiring Ric Flair, who was Batista's mentor and former tag team partner.  The feud has casually dropped that aspect, and actually became a three way feud with Chris Jericho being involved.  Batista hit the ceiling when he learned that Michaels had faked a knee injury in order to steal a victory at Backlash.  Batista has promised to hurt Michaels.  None of the three men have been turned heel yet, but that may change. 

 

Who Will Win: Shawn Michaels.  Michaels does not do very many jobs.  I don't expect him to do one here.  I think he will however do his best to make Big Dave look strong in defeat.  A lot could depend on Jericho, but there is no guarantee.  They teased Batista interfering at Judgment Day when Michaels faced Jericho, but he never showed up.

 

Who Should Win:  Batista.  This is one of the more interesting feuds in my view, and Michaels winning would mean it is over.  I think it would mean more for Batista to win and then send it to a third and deciding match at the Great American Bash, or even Summerslam.

 

 

Summary:  Hardy and Umaga have met many times over the last several months, one of which included a daring dive by the Rainbow Haired Warrior of the top of a steel cage.  Each man has won battles, and with the Samoan Bulldozer expected to be heading for Smackdown, this could be the last of their encounters.

 

Who Will Win: Jeff Hardy.  If he could have just stayed out of trouble, Hardy may have been WWE Champion by now.  Hardy is on his last chance, so they should probably proceed with caution.  With Umaga going to Smackdown, I expect Hardy to get the win.  They do not often let the "B" show guys beat the "A" show guys, and usually when someone is going from Raw to Smackdown, they leave with a loss.

 

Who Should Win: Umaga.  With Hardy coming off suspension, I think he should not be pushed so hard right away.  I think he should have to pay some penance first.  (Note: I feel the same about anyone who gets suspend for violating the Wellness Policy, not just Hardy.)  I also think it would give Umaga a big sendoff to head for Smackdown with a big win, something that has escaped him during his Raw career.

 

 

Summary:  These two women were part of a triple threat match for the WWE Women's Championship at the last PPV event.  The Glamazon and Melina have started a side feud.  Melina has inexplicably turned babyface.   Though in terms of the Divas roster, it is actually a good move, because it finally gives them a babyface diva other than Mickie James, who can actually work.  The winner most likely faces the Women's Champion at Night of Champions.

 

Who Will Win: Beth Phoenix.  I don't think the James-Phoenix feud is over yet.  I do think that Melina will give her a good match, but ultimately Phoenix will win out. 

 

Who Should Win: Beth Phoenix.  She has been very impressive, and has a lot of upside.  I think she has probably become what they hoped years ago that Chyna was going to be.  The matches with Mickie James have also not yet been done to death like the Mickie and Melina matches have been.  It's also possible that Melina could win to keep the feud going, and Mickie starts a feud with Katie Lea Burchill, which has been teased for the last couple of weeks.

 

 

Summary:  This is the fourth, and hopefully final chapter in the feud.  Taker has won the previous three pay-per-view encounters, while Edge has dominated the feud on Friday Night Smackdown.  The fire was further fueled by Vickie Guerrero stripping the Undertaker of the title (which was one of the stupidest booking decisions I've ever heard).  Many internet sites reported that Taker was supposed to get a long title reign, but they surprisingly took the title off of him after barely a month as champion.  The vacancy continued when their match at Judgment Day ended in a countout.  This time there must be a winner.  Whether Edge wins or loses, heavy outside interference from La Familia is a sure bet.

 

Who Will Win: The Undertaker.  I thought this might be where they put the title back on Edge.  Then, they put the stipulation in that if the Undertaker loses, he leaves WWE.  Since we know that he is going nowhere, the stipulation pretty much guarantees a victory for the Dead Man.            

  

Who Should Win: The Undertaker.  I think they absolutely should put the title back on him.  The ratings slightly rose with the title around his waist.  The fans also seem to be getting sick of the Edge-Vickie-screw-everyone-over-booking.  No one is buying Vickie in the wheelchair.  It's becoming like Iron Mike Sharpe and Cowboy Bob Orton, for those of you with long memories.  I would like to see Taker win, and also take out Vickie for a substantial amount of time, because she is very overexposed right now. (I never thought there would be someone on TV more annoying than Stephanie McMahon.)

 

 

Summary: ECW's lone entry in the pay-per-view that the brand initiated is at least an interesting one.  Five former champions are going to fight it out for one more shot at the title.  The winner faces Kane at the Night of Champions for the ECW Title.

 

Who Will Win: The Big Show.  Did you hear the pop on ECW this week for the two big guys facing off?  Show and Kane are at least two of the better working big men.  With the way Show mauled the other four guys involved, I'd be very surprised if he doesn't win.  While he probably won't reach the cane first, it will probably end up in his huge hands anyway.

 

Who Should Win: C.M. Punk.  Punk vs. Kane would be something that has not been done before.  Punk has been absolutely buried since winning Money in the Bank.  The way that they've booked him pretty much guarantees that when he does finally cash in the title shot, if he wins, it will come across as a fluke.  A feud with Kane could help rebuild Punk.  The bad booking at least has not hurt his fan support.  Punk continues to be one of the most popular guys in the company in spite of those running it.

 

As with any WWE event, the booking is always the biggest issue.  The people in charge either have no idea what they are doing, or have personal agendas to get across.  With not much time in between events, they have not really done enough to get most of us interested in buying the show, unless you are one of the few with plenty of disposable income, and order each event anyway.  On the plus side, with the stars involved, the in-ring work should be good to great.  If you choose to order the event, I hope it will be one you enjoy.

 

Feedback may be sent to Doug at brownsbros3@yahoo.com.