High Road/Low Road 06.81.07: One Night Stand and Extreme Rules
Posted by Chad Nevett on 06.08.2007
This past Sunday, One Night Stand was contested under Extreme Rules. Was this a good idea or a bad idea? You decide in this week's High Road/Low Road.
Welcome back to the High Road/Low Road! A brief explanation of the column: Uncle Trunx takes the Low Road (negative view) on angles, gimmicks, and other wrestling related "stuff" while Sat takes the High Road (positive view).
The Results for Edge on SmackDown:
High Road: 86%
Low Road: 06%
Both Roads: 08%
E-Mails:
There were no e-mails this week. I guess we managed to cover all of the roads for Edge on SmackDown.
This week's High Road/Low Road featuring...
One Night Stand as an Extreme Rules PPVs
High Road:
One Night Stand will feature all of the matches as Extreme Rules. This is a great idea because it makes it different from all of the other pay per views that the WWE offers. The WWE has a few distinct pay per views. These distinct pay per views are the Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, and the Survivor Series. All of the others have nothing special associated with them. I have been preaching for a long time that the WWE needs to give all of their pay per views a unique feel. One Night Stand has a unique feel because it will feature matches under Extreme Rules.
Low Road:
I may be wrong, but I thought that the Pay Per View events which were most successful were those with an established identity and a history to them; in other words, the big 4. One Night Stand was wildly popular because it was a revival of the old ECW; with the arrival of the new ECW, this has been taken away somewhat, doubly so with the tri-branding of the PPV events. Far from loading each with its own gimmick in the hope that doing so will replace such basic ideas as solid booking, they should cut the number of Pay Per View events down so that viewers didn't have three within about six weeks. Perhaps then, people would care about something other than the big 4.
Incidentally, didn't WCW try a similar idea with "Uncensored"? As I recall, it didn't set the world on fire as a concept.
High Road:
One of the things that has been bugging me about the WWE is how a match will be a street fight or a falls count anywhere match and basically these matches are the same. The only difference is the name. One Night Stand is going to be a pay per view featuring Extreme Rules and the card has a street fight and a falls count anywhere match, which means that the WWE has acknowledged that these are basically the same thing.
Low Road:
Surely having one of each on the card means WWE are still trying to portray them as different things? If not, why call 2 identical matches by different names? To me, it's just added confusion which adds to the confusion around such ideas as the brand split. WWE ought to make a few more solid decisions; currently, it all looks very thrown together.
High Road:
This is a short High Road, but it should be acknowledged. Extreme Rules is an ECW variety and One Night Stand was an ECW pay per view. Kudos to the WWE for giving some credit to ECW even though all of the pay per views are now tri-branded.
Low Road:
If WWE really wanted to give ECW any status at all, the ECW title would main event the show. That they have chosen to have the RAW belt as the main event (again) shows where the true priority lies.
High Road:
One of the problems with One Night Stand is that it falls during a period when there are three pay per views in the span of a month. If One Night Stand was not contested under Extreme Rules, then we would have had three pay per views in a month that would have been exactly the same. Because One Night Stand is going to feature Extreme Rules that means that we get two pay per views that are basically the same and one very unique pay per view in the middle. This situation is better than the situation that we could have potentially had.
Low Road:
It's not very unique, it's the same thing with a slight gimmick thrown onto the matches. This is where they could really have showcased ECW as a brand worth watching. Instead, we get the same matches we've seen before but with a bit more gimmickry, in this case amounting to screwy finishes with stunts instead of a properly booked wrestling match.
High Road:
As I stated above, One Night Stand is one of three pay per views offered in the span of a month. The fans need to be given a reason to watch this pay per view and the best way to do that is to make this an Extreme Rules pay per view. The reason for making this an Extreme Rules pay per view is that the fans are interested in hardcore type matches. What better way to get the fans to watch then to make a pay per view based entirely on Extreme Rules.
Low Road:
A better way to get fans to care might be to cut the overkill on PPV events, to pay attention to the brand extension so that it meant something, and to book feuds so that people cared about them. That, more than taking the DQ stipulation off the matches, might be a way to make people care about the Pay Per View events.
High Road:
I look at the One Night Stand card and I see four very bad wrestling matches. These matches are John Cena versus the Great Khali, Batista versus Edge, Vince versus Bobby Lashley and Kane versus Mark Henry. The WWE knew that these matches were going to be bad, so they decide to put these matches on a pay per view that is based on Extreme Rules. That is pure genius because now these matches have the potential to be decent or good.
Low Road:
It's not pure genius, it's lazy booking. Trying to disguise bad matches with stipulations is like trying to disguise bad meat with strong sauce. It might smell nice and you might get away with it for a little while, but ultimately people will see through the disguise. Then they'll take a massive crap and blame you for it.
Are you taking the High Road or the Low Road?
High Road/Low Road Plugs
We are taking the high road on these articles so you should read them...
There are other articles that we didn't list, so check them out as well.
E-mail us your reasons for taking the High Road or the Low Road and suggestions for future High Road/Low Road at satuncletrunx@gmail.com. Your reply will be included in next week's column.
