Original Airdate: Friday, January 12th, 2007
Peoria Civic Center
Peoria, Illinois
Beat The Clock Sprint Match
Finlay vs. Matt Hardy
The time to beat is 5:07. Finlay starts off quickly, trying to catch Hardy off guard. Mr. Kennedy is watching backstage and we have a collision between the two men here. Both men are down with 2:30 left until Hardy gets a backslide for 2. Hardy hits a Side Effect and again Finlay kicks out at 2. Hardy goes up to the second rope, but Hornswoggle is out and the distraction allows Finlay to hit a shillelagh to the knee, but Hardy kicks out. We are under a minute and Finlay puts on a leg submission hold. He leaves Hardy in the hold, but he doesn't tap and the match is over. Out comes Joey Mercury with a facemask on and he attacks Hardy. He puts a chair over his face and is going up top, but officials get in the way to block Hardy. The match was limited due to the amount of time they were able to work here, but it was entertaining.
Match Rating: *3/4
Mercury says that he wants to make Hardy's face hurt worse than his does.
Jimmy Wang Yang vs. Tatanka
They really want to do this again, huh? Tatanka pulls out a tree of woe, which I don't think I've ever seen him use before. Yang makes a comeback by working on the left knee of Tatanka. Yang hits a swinging neckbreaker and a standing moonsault for a 2 count. He follows that up with a heel kick that connects. Tatanka catches Yang off the second rope and hits a spinning slam for the victory. JBL declares that Tatanka is a force to be reckoned with. This wasn't terrible or anything, but neither guy is going anywhere.
Match Rating: *1/4
We get Maryse in a towel speaking French.
They show highlights of the tag team ladder match at Armageddon. Paul London and Brian Kendrick are backstage when William Regal and Dave Taylor remind them that their match tonight is not a ladder match, it's a standard match.
Chris Benoit is on his way to the ring backstage.
They show a WrestleMania 23 Recall and it's Triple H/Chris Jericho from WrestleMania X-8.
Mr. Kennedy vs. Chris Benoit
Benoit gets off to the quick start, but Kennedy shifts the momentum by throwing Benoit through the ropes. Benoit hits some German suplexes and now Chavo Guerrero is out and we're headed to a commercial break. When we come back, Chavo is at the announce table. Benoit hits a suplex that sends both men over the top and to the floor. Kennedy puts on the abdominal stretch and uses the top rope for leverage. Kennedy hits a superplex and goes to work on the back. Benoit makes a comeback, hitting a top rope headbutt. It doesn't last long, as Kennedy is able to hit a hot shot for a 2 count. Kennedy hits a rare missile dropkick, but Benoit gets his foot on the bottom rope. Benoit hits the series of German suplexes and puts on the Sharpshooter. Up comes Chavo and Benoit gets to him before he can do anything. He goes for the Sharpshooter on him, but Kennedy rolls him up and gets the victory. This kind of felt like a long match just for the sake of having a long match. After the match, Benoit attacks Chavo, but Chavo throws him into the ring post and runs through the crowd.
Match Rating: **1/4
We see part 2 of Batista's story with him attacking Mark Henry.
WWE Tag Team Championship Match
Paul London & Brian Kendrick vs. William Regal & Dave Taylor
Well. we're finally getting the proper title match between these two. Not that they've had a lot of memorable feuds, it still is surprising to me that London and Kendrick were able to retain the titles for as long as they did. They get the hot start before Regal and Taylor slow things down. Regal tries to block the tag, but the momentum sends him to his back and in comes Kendrick. He hits a big boot to the face and gets a 2 count on Regal. Regal almost steals a victory, but London comes from out of nowhere to save it. Kendrick puts on a backslide and picks up the victory. That one was definitely disappointing. I know these two can do better.
Match Rating: *1/2
They show highlights of MVP getting burned at Armageddon.
We get more Maryse.
Beat The Clock Sprint Match
MVP vs. Vito
Vito. Still a thing. MVP is selling his injuries from Armageddon on his way down to the ring. 5:07 is still the time to beat here. Vito goes after the burned back of MVP and Michael Cole is all excited about it. These guys are having a really weird match, with the selling of the burned back just really being all there is to this one. The fake crowd noise is also very noticeable in this one. We're down to a minute and MVP hits the big running boot in the corner. We don't get too much drama at the end and the match is over. MVP attacks Vito after the match, as is often the case here. Vito gets the best of him though by throwing him into the steps. This wasn't a good match.
Match Rating: 1/2*
We get a lengthy Raw Rebound and find out that next week Chavo Guerrero will face Chris Benoit.
We then get a Batista backstage interview. He says that he would never look past facing Mr. Kennedy and then says facing Undertaker would be a first. I love that they don't even give Undertaker's "mystery" opponent a chance.
Undertaker vs. Miz
Miz walks out petrified and is dominated early on. Taker hits a big clothesline and gets a 2 count. Out comes Mr. Kennedy to provide a distraction. This allows Miz to get his split second of offense in before getting dominated again. We're down to a minute left and Taker hits Snake Eyes. I'm not sure why he wouldn't have just hit the Tombstone there. Jimmy Korderas gets knocked down and Kennedy gets knocked off the apron. Taker hits a chokeslam, but Korderas is still hurt. Taker grabs him and that allows Kennedy to grab Miz out of the ring. Taker has Miz back in and takes too long to hit the Tombstone and just misses the victory as the buzzer goes off. The storytelling was solid here, even if Miz looked like a complete jobber.
Match Rating: *1/4
This was a big improvement over last week, even if it wasn't anything spectacular. The action was mostly decent and we at least have Kennedy's moment coming up at Royal Rumble.
Overall Rating: 53%
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