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Post by hbkjason on Sept 19, 2023 3:05:59 GMT -5
I was shocked to see that September 20th 2023 marks 26 years since the UK PPV One Night Only! I have talked about it on here before, but it is always a fun event to discuss.
I was there live for this show, I had great seats in the lower tiered section so I had the perfect view of the ring. At the time, this was the biggest promotion WWF did for any of their UK PPV events (not counting SummerSlam 92 of course) the events that followed this would be fun and a fairly big deal, but the WWF never went all on like they did with this one giving it an actual PPV feel rather than just a big special event for the UK.
As excited as I was for this show, I will admit that I was bummed out that there was going to be no Stone Cold Steve Austin or Ahmed Johson, two guys I was looking forward to seeing live! However, we did get an epic Bret Hart vs Undertaker match which I think is the best match that these two had. To this day that chest first bump to the turnbuckle Bret takes here looks brutal and way worse than any other time he did this. I was also very excited to see The Legion of Doom! Yeah, I know that they were not what they once were, but I still loved them.
This was not just the 100 percent pure pro UK crowd that the WWF would have had you believe. I was rocking my HBK shirt and was yelling like a crazy person, but I knew to stop once the ending went down as you could feel the mood in the arena change. It was a really strange situation and when you think about it, why the heck did the Harts wait so long to make the save? Depending on how you look at it, they are either morons for taking so long to help Davey when he was clearly in trouble or they did not care about Davey and just left him to it!
I can still put this show on today and have a great time with it. I also have to say that I saw a few shows at this arena over the years and it was one of the better arenas in the UK for wrestling as it is a decent size, but if you are sitting in the tiered section there is not a bad seat in the house.
Also, this was the first time here in the UK where we had to pay for WWF over our Sky Sports subscriptions. I never understood the big deal made about this when they were like "people in the UK have been asking when are we going to get PPV?" Why would people have been asking to actively spend more money on something that they were already getting? At the time One Night Only happened we got all of the WWF PPVs as part of our Sky Sports subscription!
Did any of you guys go to this event or have fond memories of it at the time?
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Post by JokerFC on Sept 19, 2023 7:04:37 GMT -5
I remember watching it after being out of the loop for a month & was like "wait Michaels is heel again??" ð€£ð€£ð€£
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Post by MKSavage on Sept 19, 2023 8:37:57 GMT -5
I was shocked to see that September 20th 2023 marks 26 years since the UK PPV One Night Only! I have talked about it on here before, but it is always a fun event to discuss. I was there live for this show, I had great seats in the lower tiered section so I had the perfect view of the ring. At the time, this was the biggest promotion WWF did for any of their UK PPV events (not counting SummerSlam 92 of course) the events that followed this would be fun and a fairly big deal, but the WWF never went all on like they did with this one giving it an actual PPV feel rather than just a big special event for the UK. As excited as I was for this show, I will admit that I was bummed out that there was going to be no Stone Cold Steve Austin or Ahmed Johson, two guys I was looking forward to seeing live! However, we did get an epic Bret Hart vs Undertaker match which I think is the best match that these two had. To this day that chest first bump to the turnbuckle Bret takes here looks brutal and way worse than any other time he did this. I was also very excited to see The Legion of Doom! Yeah, I know that they were not what they once were, but I still loved them. This was not just the 100 percent pure pro UK crowd that the WWF would have had you believe. I was rocking my HBK shirt and was yelling like a crazy person, but I knew to stop once the ending went down as you could feel the mood in the arena change. It was a really strange situation and when you think about it, why the heck did the Harts wait so long to make the save? Depending on how you look at it, they are either morons for taking so long to help Davey when he was clearly in trouble or they did not care about Davey and just left him to it! I can still put this show on today and have a great time with it. I also have to say that I saw a few shows at this arena over the years and it was one of the better arenas in the UK for wrestling as it is a decent size, but if you are sitting in the tiered section there is not a bad seat in the house. Also, this was the first time here in the UK where we had to pay for WWF over our Sky Sports subscriptions. I never understood the big deal made about this when they were like "people in the UK have been asking when are we going to get PPV?" Why would people have been asking to actively spend more money on something that they were already getting? At the time One Night Only happened we got all of the WWF PPVs as part of our Sky Sports subscription! Did any of you guys go to this event or have fond memories of it at the time? Bret has been asking that very question for 26 years, too. I don't remember this event; I might not have ordered it back in the day. I'm going to have to watch it now. The WWF was really starting to pick up steam at this time, their show was getting more and more entertaining during the summer and fall months of 1997. |
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Post by hbkbigdaddycool on Sept 19, 2023 22:57:42 GMT -5
I remember that us Canadians got to see the PPV so I was happy about that.
It was a great PPV, I thought. Davey vs. HBK was great. Bret vs. Undertaker was great. Owen vs. Vader was a cool match too. The opener with Dude Love was interesting since Foley was Mankind for a while there again, but it was a cool match with Triple H.
I hated that Davey lost. I am such a huge HBK fan too but I felt Davey deserved that win more so than HBK did.
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Post by theoutlaw1999 on Sept 20, 2023 19:23:18 GMT -5
Being from the UK we had the old Sky Satellite at the time and the PPV cost £15 on Sky Box Office.
I remember I had to beg my parents to buy it, and from what I remember every UK PPV from that point had to be bought.
The card was pretty cool and as a kid I really started hating HBK after that event. His heel turn only started a few weeks previous.
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Post by ASR (therockisback) on Sept 20, 2023 21:21:04 GMT -5
Good old days
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Post by Grenouille on Sept 21, 2023 7:36:51 GMT -5
I remember this showâs tape being a test for the transition in the US from Coliseum Video to what became WWF Home Video. The pro to it was that it retailed for only $20, so half your typical CV. Cons were that it was in EP mode making for crappier video quality and they cut the Bret-Taker match.
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Post by MKSavage on Sept 30, 2023 20:18:28 GMT -5
Just watched this PPV for the first time. Not a bad PPV; it had two really good matches (Taker vs. Bret and HBK vs. Bulldog) and two more pretty good ones (LOD vs. Godwinns and Owen vs. Vader). Bret vs. Taker was really good, probably as good as their Summer Slam 97 match, but the finish at Summer Slam was much better. I really liked the fast start to the match. HBK and Bulldog was really good too, but the finish was disappointing. The finish could have been done better, at least have the Hart Foundation come down to the ring and interfere as well, then in all of the confusion, Shawn beats Bulldog by cheating. The fact that the Hart's didn't make an appearance until it was all over just looked ridiculous. The finish looks even worse when you hear the back story that Davey Boy was supposed to win and that he dedicated the win to his very ill sister to promote the match, only to have the finish changed at the last minute. If they really wanted to put the belt on HBK, they could have let this match go how it was supposed to go, then have Shawn beat Bulldog for the belt on the next Raw. At least let the crowd in England go home happy with Bulldog maintaining the belt on that night.
I was really surprised that the LOD/Godwinn match was as good as it was; the teams worked well together. Owen vs. Vader was also pretty good. The Patriot and Flash Funk had some good moments, but there seemed to be times when they crossed each other up. Patriot was pretty good, shame he wasn't kept after the Montreal Screwjob, but I guess they didn't need a pro-USA guy on the roster without the foreign heel faction no longer around.
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Post by TKO Propagandist on Oct 1, 2023 6:26:57 GMT -5
A one night stand in the UK
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