Above you're looking at an Exploding Death Match from Japan. There won't be anything like that on the card when One Night Stand hits San Diego tomorrow.

While I'm a sucker for pretty much every gimmick match (except silly blindfold or scaffold matches) the death match's absence, and a host of other things missing, begs the question why this pay-per-view is still trucking four years after its inception.

Indeed, there is likely to be some great matches on tomorrow's card. Randy Orton and Triple H always have the capacity to bring us a five-star performance (their cage match at Judgment Day not withstanding). Edge excels at Tables, Ladders, and Chairs and Undertaker ain't too bad himself with a stepladder. Jeff Hardy will likely use every inch of the San Diego Sports Arena in his falls count anywhere match. Women's wrestling is on the rise, and Melina Perez and Beth Phoenix will put on a great show. Shawn Michaels always elevates his opponents no matter who they are. Lastly, we're guaranteed blood with John Cena and John Bradshaw Layfield's First Blood match.

However, there are a number of reasons why One Night Stand should have petered out as soon as Edge speared Cena and Rob Van Dam won himself his first WWE Championship.

The event was originally sanctioned as a reunion of sorts for ECW alumni, especially people who didn't, for whatever reason, make the jump to WCW or WWE when Paul Heyman closed his doors in 2001. It was coupled with a few shows called Hardcore Homecoming also in the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York and the old ECW (now New Allehambra) arena in Philadelphia.

When we had an encore in 2006, yes, it was a platform to put Van Dam over, but it still had the feel of the original ECW brand even though it was wholesale booked and produced by WWE. Both pay-per-views were great, classics even, for different reasons.

Then came One Night Stand 2007. Gone was the intimate atmosphere of the Hammerstein and we were back to the same old arena venue, this time the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena in Florida. You know, that famous arena which hosts Barracudas Southern Professional League hockey and the local university's men's basketball team.

OK, bigger arena means more tickets can be sold; therefore, more wrestling fans can enjoy the show. But wait a minute. There's no mention of ECW for the show.

All right, ECW at that point was a brand on its own under the WWE umbrella. Sure, the new brand bore little resemblance to the Viking Hall days, but it was finding its way as the red and blue shows' minor league so to speak, a place where young performers could get some television time with the advantage of attracting fans by using ECW's known quantity appeal.

Besides, ECW breathed its last gasp probably at 2005's Hardcore Homecoming: November Reign (Which if you haven't seen, go grab yourself a DVD) with a classic sendoff--performers breaking kayfabe, a dog collar match between Shane Douglas and "Pit bull" Gary Wolf, a hardcore tornado tag between The Dudleyz and Terry Funk & Sabu---it's awesome.

Nevertheless, it was time for the ECW brand, for better or for worse, to move on.

So, we got a main event that was the Great Khali versus John Cena in a Falls Count Anywhere match for the WWE Championship.

Did I miss something here? Neither performer is known for their in-ring prowess or their ability to go "extreme."

To make matters worse, we had more than half a dozen "brutal" gimmick matches and not one drop of blood. Perhaps that's hyperbole, I believe there was some when a performer legitimately busted his lip, but still. I'm not asking for an Abdullah the Butcher style massacre, but if you're going to invoke that area of the sport, at least have someone blade their forehead.

And correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn’t a one-night stand imply that the event will happen one time. The initiator will most likely nary call or even mention the episode again. We're up to four now, and I fully expect a fifth in 2009 (for which I'm keeping my fingers crossed for piranha match). Do you get my drift?

Still, the show is booked far better than last year's fiasco. But with fourteen ppv's on the WWE schedule (some squeezed just two weeks apart) this might be one that should fade into DVD memory. There are plenty of other big shows that can carry the gimmick match gimmick.

Twenty years from now, fans will undoubtedly be looking to pad their DVD (or BluRay as it might be) collection with One Night Stand's 2005 and 06. The ones after will probably stay on the shelves next to Alien Resurrection and Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter.

Well, that last one does have Corey Feldman in it...

I'll post some more in depth thoughts on the upcoming show tomorrow before bell time.