Match Of The Week: 06.23.07.

June 28th, 2007.
TNA Impact!
Kurt Angle vs. Christian Cage vs. Rhino

WWE ran some really weird programming this week. The company was a bit shook up though, so it was understandable.

However, on TNA Impact! we remembered what great wrestling could be like. For the entire hour, the TNA Title was on the line as Kurt Angle defended against both Christian Cage and Rhino for a spot at Victory Road alongside Samoa Joe.

Not only was this a great match, but the fact that it took up the whole hour showed just how special and meaningful it was. It also lead you to believe a title change could actually take place- something you don't see in WWE much.

TNA wins it this week, even if just because WWE was caught off guard, but I can only hope next week will produce much better shows all around.

R.I.P. Chris, Nancy and Daniel Benoit.

Match Of The Week: 06.16.07.

June 18th, 2007.
WWE Monday Night RAW
The HooliganZ vs. The World's Greatest Tag Team

In the aftermatch of TNA's Slammiversary, WWE was building up to Vengeance. We saw some interesting matches on ECW and Smack Down!, but nothing really worth noting. On TNA's Impact, Samoa Joe was crowned the new X Division Champion in a match against current X Division Champion "Black Machismo" Jay Lethal and Chris Sabin. Looks like TNA isn't ready for Lethal to main event just yet.





What I think was the coolest part of this week though was that The HooliganZ pulled double duty. They somehow managed to face Deuce & Domino (Don't know why) on SD!, while facing The World's Greatest Tag Team on RAW as well.





As many know, I've been a long time fan of both teams, but HZ vs. TWGTT is SD! fan's dream come true! The match lived up to as much hype as it could for a television match, and with Cade & Murdoch the tag champs on RAW, the scene may just get more interesting!

Match Of The Week: 06.09.07.

June 11th, 2007.

WWE Monday Night RAW

C.M. Punk vs. Carlito

Coming off WWE One Night Stand (and yet another John Cena/Khali match), the most interesting deveopment this week was the draft lottery on a special three hour edition of RAW.

When Ric Flair got moved to Smack Down!, it was nice to see him actually fight Edge. But for the most part, everything else this week just lacked. RAW had the best all around show (up until the end) because they had inter-brand matches. One of which happened to be Carlito vs. C.M. Punk, two of my favorite wrestlers and a dream match of sorts. Of course then Vince McMahon had to fake his own death and ruin everything, but still.

Not too much of note for this week. Just a small dream match I wanted to see happen.

Match Of The Week: 06.02.07.

June 7th, 2007.
TNA Impact! on Spike TV
"Wildcat" Chris Harris vs. "Cowboy" James Storm *No DQ King Of The Mountain Qualifier*

This was one of the more eventful weeks for wrestling, especially for WWE. On Saturday night (The 2nd), WWE held Saturday Night's Main Event. The show was comprised of John Cena vs. Khali (And yes, while they had been fighting in one form or another for a little while on RAW now, they were also scheduled to fight the very next night!), Batista & Chris Benoit vs. Edge & MVP, Finlay & Hornswoggle vs. Boogeyman & Little Boogeyman and Umaga/Viscera/Kevin Thorn vs. Kane/Eugene/Doink the Clown closed out the show for some reason. Really, none of the matches were that bad and the tag match probably would have won it had it not been for Batista stinking it up.

The following night was WWE One Night Stand. ::: yawn ::: I won't bore you with the details.

Really only one memorable thing happened on WWE RAW. While Cryme Tyme teamed with Candice Michelle to take on the new MNM (Johnny Nitro, Melina & Kenny Dykstra), Santino Marella fought Chris Masters in a pretty useless feud, Randy Orton fought Ric Flair because apparently Orton and Carlito are interchangable to WWE, Carlito "wrestled" Torrie Wilson and there was a John Cena vs. Khali vs. Umaga match as well. What stands out most to me though was Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch defeating the Hardy Boyz for the Tag Team titles. Had they not played it off so much as "They only won because the Hardyz were injured", it probably would have won this spot.

ECW on Sci-Fi was more of the same. Lashley fended off Tommy Dreamer, the Sandman and Balls Mahoney in an extreme rules match, Kevin Thorn squashed Stevie Richards, The Major Brothers mt Elijah Burke & Monty Brown and C.M. Punk main evented against Matt Striker. Nothing particularly bad, but nothing too special either.

Smack Down! was about the same. The Boogeyman was made to look weak by Mark Henry, Jamie Noble/Daivari/Chavo Guerrero fought the HooliganZ & Jimmy Wang Yang, Edge met Chris Benoit in a feud I wish would take off, Deuce & Domino double teamed Matt Hardy and MVP showed Batista what wrestling is really like. That match would have won this spot as well, had it not been for Batista stinking it up yet again.

The spot this week goes to TNA Impact!. They only had three matches- Jerry Lynn vs. Robert Roode, Ms. Brooks vs. Gail Kim and the main event, but I really liked the main event. A good old fashioned brawl between two guys who have had a great feud thus far with a lot of build. By dragging it out so long (With lots of interaction, but less actual fighting) this has become feud of the year as of right now. The best part was that as of right now, the King Of The Mountain matches have all been pretty cut and dry. However, Storm and Harris battled to a double count out. While it would have been interesting to see either man advance to the title picture (And seeing which one TNA chose would have been neat as well), it's kind of fitting because now we're left wondering who will be in King Of The Mountain. Much more entertaining than the countless hours of WWE on this past week.

Match Of The Week: 05.26.07.

June 1st, 2007.

WWE Friday Night Smack Down!

Deuce & Domino (w/ Cherry) vs. William Regal & Dave Taylor vs. The HooliganZ *Tag Team Title Match*

This week, WWE was building up to their One Night Stand pay-per-view. Does it seem to anyone else like WWE is holding too many pay-per-views lately?

On RAW, we saw some boring matches. A big diva thing, Randy Orton vs. Ric Flair, John Cena & Lashley vs. Umaga, Shane McMahon and Khali, Ric Flair & Torrie Wilson vs. Carlito & Victoria... Blah. An episode worth missing, though seeing the eight man tag match almost made it all worthwhile: Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy, Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch vs. Charlie Haas, Shelton Benjamin, Kenny Dykstra & Johnny Nitro.

ECW on Sci-Fi was the same old story. C.M. Punk vs. Elijah Burke... yet again. Kevin Thorn vs. Balls Mahoney... yet again. And Randy Orton main evented against Tommy Dreamer.

TNA Impact! had only three matches. Hector Guerrero teamed with Rhino to take on LAX. Chris Sabin fought Kaz and A.J. Styles main evented against Tyson Tomko to see who would go into the King Of The Mountain match at Slammiversary. I would have preferred seeing A.J. Styles vs. Jeff Jarrett, but the Christian play was interesting.

Smack Down! had five matches and closed with Batista on The Cutting Edge. MVP & The Miz teamed against Chris Benoit & Matt Hardy. Jillian Hall fought Michelle McCool. And the little Boogeyman fought Hornswoggle. But obviously the winner was the three way dance for the Tag Team Titles. Why? Well, because I guess tag team wrestling still exists in WWE. And that's good enough for me.

Match Of The Week: 05.19.07.

May 24th, 2007.
TNA Impact on Spike TV
Samoa Joe vs. Sting

This week, following WWE Judgment Day, we had a pretty piss poor edition of WWE Monday Night RAW. Ric Flair rematched Carlito and we saw the debut of Johnny Nitro and Kenny Dykstra as a tag team, but 98% of the show was Vince McMahon and Lashley. If anyone wants to see an entire show based around Lashley, they must be crazy.

WWE ECW On Sci-Fi was the same old. RVD & Punk vs. Elijah Burke and Marcus Cor Von in the main event. Dreamer/Snitksy, Striker/One Of The Majors and even Kevin Thorn over a jobber but without a real reason as to where Ariel went.

Smack Down! had The HooliganZ vs. William Regal & Dave Taylor turn into an all out brawl with Deuce & Domino. Matt Hardy beat The Miz. Chavo Guerrero got pinned by Jimmy Wang Yang. And Batista won a pointless four way match to become the number one contender for a title he just lost twice in a row. Ugh. MVP's celebration on becoming the new U.S. Champion was better than the actual wrestling this week in WWE.

TNA Impact! on Spike TV gets the overall win this week, as it had a solid show with three segments based around tag teams and a main event of pay-per-view proportions (At least on paper)

Impact! opened with Team 3-D and The Steiner Brothers confronting each other. This was really cool and had a really big feel to it. Two of the greatest tag teams of all time are set to feud, and it just looks like it's going to be awesome.

LAX took on the team of Christian Cage and Tomko, while Damaja & Basham took on Kip James & Lance Hoyt. Some solid tag team action.

But it was the main event that sealed the deal for me. Samoa Joe went one on one with Sting for the first time (When was the last time WWE pulled out a good "first time" match?) and Christopher Daniels was at ringside. Ultimately, Daniels would hit Sting with a baseball bat and allow Joe the 1-2-3 to go on to Slammiversary in the King Of The Mountain match. This is interesting for several reasons. First off, it's odd to see the Fallen Angel sort of on the same side as Joe for a change in TNA. Also, I was really hoping Sting wouldn't be in King Of The Mountain because he's probably my least favorite guy to be champion right now, so I'm glad Joe got in instead of him. (And yes, I could have seen Sting going in and TNA writers sending Joe off to fight some other pointless match) Samoa Joe also didn't even use any of his finishers to get the win, so it should make for an interesting rematch-- unfinished business if you will.

So we're going to get a Sting/Christopher Daniels match at Slammiversary and Samoa Joe moves closer to the title while Sting seems to be moving further away, which is a good thing. Next week on Impact!, A.J. Styles fights a qualifier against Jeff Jarrett. Should be interesting as I can't really see either of these men not being in King Of The Mountain at Slammiversary.

Match Of The Week: 05.12.07.

May 17th, 2007.
TNA Impact on Spike TV
Motor City Machine Guns vs. Jerry Lynn & Tiger Mask IV

WWE was busy this week planning for Judgment Day, which pretty much looked like a car wreck waiting to happen. The majority of their shows, sadly, revolved around Lashley and Vince McMahon so they really just bored me.

What's more so than the actual matches and shows from WWE this week is the fact that not one but four superstars were given their walking papers. 2 Cold Scorpio- who never even got a chance to return- Scotty 2 Hotty, Nick Mitchell and Ariel were all released by WWE. I am most upset and disappointed by the release of Ariel. Why/how WWE could do this is still beyond me.

TNA Impact, however, had a really good episode. Kurt Angle fought Rhino in the main event, and Christopher Daniels beat Raven in a first blood match despite already have a cut on his head. Kind of cool stuff to see. But we also saw the Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) take on Jerry Lynn and Tiger Mask IV. I didn't expect to see Tiger Mask on Impact, so this was really cool. Plus, the aftermath of a decent five minute or so match saw Jay Lethal amongst others come out. This whole thing is far more interesting and entertaining than any storyline WWE currently has going.

Match Of The Week: 05.05.07.

May 11th, 2007.
WWE Friday Night Smack Down!
The Undertaker (Champion) vs. Edge *World Heavyweight Championship Match*

While TNA was building up to their Sacrifice pay-per-view on Impact!, WWE was having quite a different week. Not too much exciting happened between Raw, Smack Down! and ECW except what was revolving around Edge.

Mr. Kennedy had come up with an injury. Which was most unfortunate because The Undertaker was also injured and it was rumored Mr. Kennedy would be cashing in his Money In The Bank and winning the World Heavyweight Championship from 'Taker. And honestly, who else could have done it? Randy Orton was in hot water. 95% of the other main eventers are injured.

That's when Edge took over.

On Raw, Edge challenged Mr. Kennedy for his Money In The Bank briefcase. He won.

On Smack Down!, Undertaker went through a brutal cage match with Batista. As both mens feet hit the floor at the same time, it was declared a tie and Undertaker kept the belt. Many expected Batista to win because Undertaker was going away with his injury.

Mark Henry then came out and destroyed both men.

Edge picked up the pieces of a bloody Undertaker, cashed in and became the new World Heavyweight Champion.

Though it may not have been the best plot, it could have been worse. At least Batista isn't holding the belt again.