Match Of The Week: 01.20.07.

January 26th, 2007.
WWE Friday Night Smack Down!
The HooliganZ & Ashley vs. MNM (all three)



With MNM heading into a match with The Hardy Boyz at the Royal Rumble and The HooliganZ left off the bill, it was pretty obvious that this match would end with an MNM victory somehow. Still, seeing this match is always great and, well, given what happened during the rest of the week, it's pretty obvious it will also be the best match of the week, given the talent involved.

On RAW, we actually had some matches, but none were all that great. Jeff Hardy vs. Joey Mercury, Kenny vs. Carlito, some pointless women tag stuff, John Cena vs. a bunch of heels, Chris Masters vs. Super Crazy and Shawn Michaels vs. Edge in a street fight main event. You know, the main event would have almost won if it didn't have to prove Shawn Michaels was not to be beaten... ever... by anyone.

ECW had a special "preview" of Lashley vs. Test, which was going to be a title match at the Royal Rumble but just a normal boring match on their show. C.M. Punk beat Elijah Burke, Monty Brown squashed a no-name jobber and there was a little battle royal action... yawn.

On TNA Impact we had a total of two matches (Yes only two) which were all right on their own, but still, nothing to really write home about. Chris Sabin and Austin Starr fought Jerry Lynn and Senshi, while Christian did the main event against Christohper Daniels. These matches have great athletes in them, but all around could have just been so much better.

The rest of Smack Down! was the same old, same old. Batista pretty much squashed Gregory Helms (disgraceful), Chris Benoit beat The Miz, Kane fought MVP, Deuce And Domino fought some no-name tag team, Booker fought Finlay (double yawn) and there was another nonsense battle royal type thing where Undertaker pretty much destroyed everyone. Big surprise.

So I shouldn't have to explain to you why this match was the best of the week so much as why the rest of the matches were just so bad.

At least next week Wrestling Society X is coming to Mtv. Mmmm... New blood.

Match Of The Week: 01.13.07.

January 16th, 2007.
ECW On Sci-Fi.
Monty Brown vs. Cassidy Riley.

As much as this match may not have been the best overall, it was at least the best in my eyes for several reasons.

First off, most everything else within the week left something to be desired. WWE RAW was the same old predictable stuff they just can't seem to come back from since the Rosie/Trump incident.

The rest of this ECW show was pretty forgettable because it was mainly building toward Test vs. Lashley.

And even TNA did an all right job but still failed to capture the win this week because I expected a decent A.J. Styles vs. Kurt Angle match before an awesome PPV encounter. But their match was just so-so. TNA really needs to step things like this up a notch if they want to compete with WWE more.

And WWE Friday Night Smack Down! just furthered the Batista/Ken Kennedy feud. It's funny because some years ago, Brock Lesnar was a heel champion and he was defending the title at the Royal Rumble against a face Hardcore Holly. Literally no one wanted Hardcore Holly to win. Now I'm starting to feel like more people are cheering for Kennedy to win than Batista. Ugh. Anything but Batista.

While this may not have been the best match because Monty Brown got a silly name change and wasn't allowed to yell out "POUNCE!" and had to do an arm bar afterwards, well, you know... This is WWE after all. But the thing is, they also could have used someone like Shannon Moore or Stevie Richards for Brown to squash, because this just made Riley look like a flat out jobber, whereas he could otherwise have a pretty decent WWE career.

I picked this match for one reason and one main reason only though: The novelty of it.

Okay, we're all used to seeing two ex-WWE wrestlers fighting in TNA. Recently, Christian fought Kurt Angle in an Impact main event and it's going to be a title match now coming up as well. That's something that we could have seen on WWE a few years back. Fine. That's cool. But the thing is, like... ex-WWE wrestlers are always everywhere. I bet you could go to some small rinky dink show somewhere and see something like King Kong Bundy vs. Doink the Clown, which was possible as a WWE match in the 1990s.

So, honestly, having two ex-WWE stars fighting each other outside of WWE is not that uncommon. But having two ex-TNA stars fighting on WWE television? Now that's pretty cool. It'd be like seeing Samoa Joe vs. C.M Punk in an ROH style match in WWE.

And, mostly, I think the novelty of it is that it's almost like WWE saying in a way, "Hey, if we want to start having some decent television matches, let's put two former TNA stars together". It's almost like WWE admitting in a way that TNA is having better television matches than them or something. I don't know. It just seems like the world flipped upside down for this match, and for that, I loved it.

Match Of The Week: 01.06.07.

January 12th, 2007.
WWE Friday Night Smack Down!
The HooliganZ (Paul London & Brian Kendrick) vs. William Regal & Dave Taylor *Tag Team Title Match*

After months of build, the team of Regal & Taylor finally get a fairly serious title match. Especially given the match they had against each other prior and the constant hints of a break-up, I halfway expected London & Kendrick to drop the titles here. But they didn't. And that's a good thing.

Sure, it's a good thing because I'm a fan of The HooliganZ and I think it'd really mean something and bring some credibility back to the tag team wrestling of WWE if they could hold onto those belts for a full year, and they don't have that long to go, but honestly... Having a newer tag team beat the title holders and then the former champs break up is WWE's formula. The fact that they're breaking themselves of that bad habit is good news to me.

Plus, we also got some traditional beat down wrestling from Regal & Taylor mixed with the quickness and overall craziness of London & Kendrick. Yes, as long as London & Kendrick keep putting on matches like this, they'll keep winning this spot from me. And, I mean, while TNA was all right, RAW had Rosie vs. Donald Trump which was just something that should never be mentioned inside a wrestling blog ever again.

Match Of The Week: 12.30.06.

January 5th, 2007.
WWE Friday Night Smack Down!
Paul London vs. Brian Kendrick *Beat the Clock Sprint*

To say that 2007 started off rather poorly would be an understatement. On RAW, we had John Cena- the WWE Champion- pinned by Kevin Federline- the unemployed ex-husband of Britney Spears. That's pretty much all that needs to be said about that. TNA Impact! was all right, but it actually had a really bad main event. Christian vs. Kurt Angle never really happened, per se, as Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle just kept brawling. Aside from that match though, Bobby Roode vs. Rhino was all right. And on Smack Down! we had a "Beat the Clock Sprint Challenge", which was actually kind of interesting, to see who would get a title shot at the Royal Rumble. People were randomly selected and some of the matches we were treated to included Kane vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr., Gregory Helms vs. Booker T, Ken Kennedy vs. Chris Benoit and this one- Paul London vs. Brian Kendrick.

Aside from the fact that this week in wrestling wasn't that great anyway, this would still have probably won My Match Of The Week honors because it involves two of my favorite superstars in all of WWE and no one else in there with them to muck it up.

This match didn't exactly have all of the high flying spots you'd expect from London and Kendrick, but rightfully so. A high risk move gone wrong could have easily allowed the other man to score the win and that's not something either man was willing to risk on this particular night.

I also think that this match was really good because (aside from the wrestling, of course), it had a great feel to it where The HooliganZ were not actually breaking up, though they'd been teasing it in recent weeks. It continued to walk that fine line between them being at blows for real (and thus breaking up) and them actually sticking together as a tag team. So the fact that WWE didn't just pass it off as "Oh, they're broken up now" either before or after the match, well, I have to give them credit for that.

Finally, I think this match was great because it was two tag team champions going head to head. It's something you rarely see, so it was a nice change of pace. Imagine if Shelton Benjamin had faced Charlie Haas in the prime of The World's Greatest Tag Team. It probably would have been like this and been My Match Of The Week, if this concept had existed back then.

So the week wasn't a complete wash, and I at least found this to be a good way to start the year. Paul London vs. Brian Kendrick? Oh, how sweet it is.

Match Of The Week: 12.23.06.

December 25th, 2006.
WWE RAW
C.M. Punk vs. Shelton Benjamin



This was actually the only new wrestling for the week for WWE. Both ECW and Smack Down! went into a "best of" mode. Impact! was all right, with Joe in the main event of a tag match, but still... They need better booking.

This match wins pretty easily because even though it was taped, it was still one of the only actual new matches this week. Plus, you know, between this and Undertaker vs. Johnny Nitro, I think the winner is pretty obvious.

Match Of The Week: 12.16.06.

December 18th, 2006.
WWE RAW
30 Man Battle Royal

While this Battle Royal itself wasn't much to speak of, not a whole lot was for this week. The HooliganZ were left off of Smack Down! and Vince Russo continued his horrible booking in TNA. It seems as the weeks get closer to the end of the year, the promotions just quit trying.

While there wasn't too much special about this Battle Royal, I'm just glad they didn't cut to commercial and have more than half the guys eliminated already. Sure, they lost a few here and there, but they've actually seemed to get the Battle Royal concept down on televised events such as this. So for that, and for everything else sucking pretty hard, I give them this spot. Edge's win was predictable (as was his loss later that night to John Cena), but you know, it's this or Vince Russo and Finlay. Honestly.

Match Of The Week: 12.09.06.

December 15th, 2006.
WWE Friday Night Smack Down!
The HooliganZ & Jimmy Wang Yang vs. William Regal, Dave Taylor & Gregory Helms

Jimmy Wang Yang is feuding with Gregory Helms. The HooliganZ are feuding with Regal & Taylor. See how well this match works?

There isn't a lot to say about it. It was just a decent match in an otherwise crappy week for televised wrestling. Six of the brightest and best stars on Smack Down! though (And possibly within all of WWE for that matter) and this is the best picture I could get from WWE.com? Yet there are numerous pictures from this same show of The Miz. Hmm... A sign of things to come? If so, it's a bad sign!