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.