WWE’s 25 Greatest Pay-Per-Views of All Time
By Tim Sherry
credit: wwe.com
17. One Night Stand: Extreme Rules 2008
One Night Stand 2008 really only contained one classic, all-time match. And that was the TLC main event match between Edge and The Undertaker. But more on that in a minute. Now it’s not to say that the rest of the matches were bad, not that at all. Shockingly, the 5-way Singapore cane match between The Big Show, Tommy Dreamer, CM Punk, John Morrison, and Chavo Guerrero was quite good. As was the Shawn Michael/Batista stretcher match which was a surprise because there really has never been a good stretcher match in history other than this one.
But other than the main event, what really made One Night Stand 2008 so different is just how creative it was. Along with the aforementioned 3 gimmick matches, there was also a falls count anywhere match between Jeff Hardy and Umaga, a first blood match with Cena and JBL, and an “I Quit” match pitting Beth Phoenix against Maria, and a last man standing match between Triple H and Randy Orton. Talk about variety. So with all these fun gimmicks, One Night Stand 2008 turned out to be a really fun card. Sure, there were some missteps, but overall it worked.
And then of course there was the main event that basically took a night that was very good, and made it great. The drama was heavy in this match as the vacant World Heavyweight title was on the line as well as Taker’s WWE contract, and the two fought as you would think two people would with that much at stake. In what turned out to be one of best TLC matches of all time, Edge used all his resources to seemingly end “The Deadman’s” career and wrap up what was had been one the company’s best feuds for the better part of 18 months. The night played out perfectly, slowly but surely simmering until the climactic main event made it all worth the price of admission.