WWE Superstars TV Report – 13th February 2014

So the last episode of WWE Superstars before it becomes available to all on the WWE Network started up with a match to build up this Sunday’s ppv kick off show match. Yes, its low but its more than Superstars is normally deemed worthy of. Byron Saxton and Tom Phillips are again on commentary this week. If anyone knows where A-Ry is, let me know.

Cody Rhodes and Goldust come out to the ring: in the brief period between losing the tag titles and deciding whether or not they should pull the trigger on that brother v brother angle for WrestleMania, they’re here on Superstars. Cody is working tonight against Curtis Axel.

Cody Rhodes (w/Goldust) v Curtis Axel (w/Ryback)

Axel is comfortable on this show. Before this new failed gimmick he was a regular on Superstars as Michael McGillicutty. The difference is, tonight he’s joined by Ryback. Ryback comes out in a beanie hat and a leather vest/waistcoat and to be honest looks like a mechanic by day, bodybuilder by night, from Queens. Still, this is better than we’re used to on this who.

At the bell, Cody stops to try to get the crowd behind him. I guess when you know you’re about to try to go 8-9 minutes with Curtis Axel, you need to buy all the time that you can? A little harsh, yes. Axel over-celebrates an armdrag out of an Irish Whip and they cut to Ryback who pulls this wonderful smug face, kind of reminiscent of something Paul Heyman would do.

After some back and forth, Rhodes counters a suplex with a signature front suplex of his own. He goes for his moonsault (I still wince at the memory of the one in the cage) but Axel rolls out of the ring. Ryback tries to distract Cody but he sees Axel coming and clotheslines him to the outside. Cody climbs to the top rope and hits a flying forearm on Axel, celebrates to the fans and we head to a commercial. This looked great.

Cody is still in control out of the break. Axel regains some control when he dodges a splash to the corner and begins to beat him down getting a couple of near falls in the process.  Axel has some neat heel offence and thwarts Cody’s attempts to regain control with a stiff clothesline that really showed how slight Cody is. They do a spot where Cody is on the top rope being pummelled, they tease that Axel will suplex him off the ropes but Rhodes punches him off and hits the moonsault. Pleased to say Axel catches it.

With both men down, we go to the finish: Cody hits a springboard dropkick which causes Ryback to appear on the apron. Rhodes sees him off by hitting him with the Disaster Kick and Goldust makes sure he stays out of the way. Axel tries to roll Cody up but he holds the ropes and when he turns round puts Axel in the Cross Rhodes for the win.

This was fine, they worked well together but this isn’t whetting anyone’s appetite for the ppv pre-show.

Winner: Cody Rhodes via pinfall in 9:13.

On the Raw Rebound this week we get the opening segment on Raw where all six Elimination Chamber contestants cut promos in the ring and then we’re shown the last half of that wonderful Cesaro v John Cena match.

On Superstars next is 6-man Divas tag team action. The first team seems fine enough: The Bellas and Natalya. But when I saw their opponents, I feared for the worst: Summer Rae (a great, emerging heel – had new music this week), Tamina Snuka (improving but still fairly limited) and Eva Marie. Yup, seriously.

If Eva Marie makes it into the ring, it’s a rib.

Natalya & The Bella Twins v Eva Marie, Tamina Snuka & Summer Rae

Summer Rae and Nikki start off in the ring and its all comedy: Summer Rae, as she often does, busts a few dance steps so, in response Nikki does The Worm. They lock up and Natalya quickly blind-tags in. She hits a clothesline on Rae who forgets to take a bump until the last possible second so it just looked stiff and awkward. Nikki comes back in and they double team her.

Tamina comes in but only because Rae tags her shoulder. She punishes Nikki in their corner while Rae blind tags herself back in. Tamina tags back in, puts her hand out to tag Eva Marie but Summer snatches the tag. Eva acts pissed off. Summer works over Nikki but gets caught and is given an Alabama Slam and we get a double tag: Brie and Tamina. Brie has clearly learnt from Daniel Bryan on how to do a heat spot and looks really good here amongst the mediocrity so far.

The match breaks down as Tamina breaks up Brie’s pin attempt on Summer Rae. Eva Marie comes into the ring… but only to be quickly thrown to the outside by Natalya. Brie kicks Tamina's midsection, gets shoved back and smacked with a Superkick. Tamina goes for the Samoan Splash (and does that hilarious spot again where she takes off her waistcoat and throws it at Brie) but Brie dodges and hits the X-Factor for the win.

Nothing match, little to say about it. I really don’t know why the feel the need to put Eva Marie in matches if she is not ready to wrestle. I guess from next week, they’ll be trying to do more tie-ins on these sorts of shows because they’ll know that their audience base is likely to be larger, especially during the Network’s free trial period and in the run up to WrestleMania.

Winner:  Natalya & The Bella Twins via pinfall (4:04)

The show finishes with the end of the main event Randy Orton v Sheamus from Monday’s Raw which was also s really strong match.

WWE Shawn Michaels: Mr WrestleMania DVD Review

WWE DVD releases may be about to become less heralded than ever. When the WWE Network launches next week, collections like these won’t stop being purchased over night but, I have no doubt, will be things associated with an era that was keen to repackage and remodel as often as necessary in order to squeeze as many dollars and cents out of a product as possible. Because, let’s be honest, we didn’t need another Shawn Michaels DVD collection. Every match on these discs is already available on multiple formats and, from next week, will be more easily accessible than ever. In fact, in the last eight years, Shawn Michaels has had two career DVD packages released as well as his sit down ‘Greatest Rivalries’ documentary with Bret, not to mention an autobiography and countless talking head appearances on other superstar’s and company retrospectives. So, why is this one even worth a second look?

As candid as ever, Shawn Michaels introduces each match on this collection. When he speaks you really listen. What he says is wise and comes with hindsight and a clarity of mind that he didn’t have for years. Erudite, articulate, witty, poised, cheeky and, above all, utterly at ease, Shawn is a joy to watch. If this is anything to go by, his spoken-word tour of the UK this spring will be tremendous. For the sum of his words alone, this DVD is worth buying.

For the purists out there, obviously there are some omissions here. Jesse Ventura’s commentary has been edited out from WrestleMania V and VI – which largely leaves some dead air and can make for fairly awkward viewing – and the Chris Benoit match from WrestleMania XX has been culled so as not to glorify Benoit’s rise to main event status and so as not to make Shawn have to openly talk about him in the past tense or praise his strengths.

And so to that aforementioned hindsight. Shawn details, with honesty, his rise to stardom at the biggest show of the year and as we move through the timeline he seems to grow in confidence – in himself and in his abilities as a performer. This culminates in his closing thoughts where he asks, “did I leave money on the table? Yes, because I can still do it, I can do it now and I can still be good at it. Not because I’m anything special but because I know that I can.” He insinuates that he won’t be coming back but the confidence and pride that he puts behind those words suggest that given the right time and place he might just be willing to do it once more.

With regard to his early WrestleMania matches, where Shawn is working with Marty Jannetty in The Rockers, he talks about the accomplishment of just being on the card and is very open about the fact that he was burning the candle at both ends and yet was, crucially, “always able to deliver.” Part of “being able to prove yourself as a man in those days” was to be able to stay out until 3 am the night before and still get in the ring the next day and perform to an extremely high level. He says that his split from Marty (which Shawn suggests stemmed from money being made on a cereal commercial) made him “one unpopular dude.” They’d just worked in the ‘Popcorn Spot’ – where fans rush to the food vendors between bigger matches on the card – at WrestleMania VI and were feeling that they were so often put on last on house shows because they brought the house down that they were deserving of the titles. They agreed to quit and then Vince called him up and the rest is history.

Shawn describes how his habitual abuse got worse and worse by WrestleMania XIV which he says is just “a blur”. He remembers that the message that day had been “just get him to the ring and we will be ok.” His rise through the ranks until WrestleMania X which “put [him] on the map” was really one where he was frustrated and unsure of his future. Working the opening matches at consecutive Manias (VIII & IX) was, for Shawn, like being labelled “a good little hand” and, even as Intercontinental Champion, he felt “undervalued”. He worked with Tatunka (a match that Dolph Ziggler is said to be a huge fan of) and had an angle later in the show with Mr Perfect but was left unsatisfied and worried by the return of Hulk Hogan which he states was, “not good for any of us”. On the WrestleMania IX event, as a whole, he says that “there is a veil of negativity over that show.” It certainly shows.

He defends Scott Hall and to those who say that he went out there and had a match with a ladder he remarks that “that is not giving Scott enough praise […] he was a 270lb stud who went out there and sold, bumped and worked his tail off for a guy who was 205.” For all that he defends office decisions, he is also critical of the company and of Vince when he feels the need to be. His match with Kevin Nash at WrestleMania XI left him disgruntled for a few reasons: firstly, he felt uncomfortable about “being outshined by people who you don’t work with” – in relation to the Lawrence Taylor main event – and, secondly, because Vince made Nash kick out at one after Shawn’s Superkick which received, as Shawn was adamant it would, a rain of boos from the building. He said that after that, he was a pain in the ass to Vince and got written off TV. “But for all that I was a pain in the ass, ultimately, I always did what I was asked to do, which is why I’m still here 50 years later [sic].”

Shawn’s comeback match against Jericho at WrestleMania XIX starts the string of extremely high calibre matches on this collection. Excusing the match against Vince in 2006 (which, all things considered, is still good and Shawn says was like “having a WrestleMania off”) every bout is different and every bout steals the show. The Kurt Angle match from WrestleMania XXI is probably the most complete but, clearly, his matches against The Undertaker – particularly the first, at WrestleMania 25 – are tremendous.

When he starts to open up about the latter part of his career, Shawn grows with the confidence that I mentioned earlier. He shrugs off the fact that he “never hit [his] time mark” because he “never rushed things […] I always felt that if I take this out, you’ll disengage, so I left it in.” And he starts to talk in absolutes: “I knew no-one could touch me” and on wrestling with Cena at WrestleMania XXIII, “I knew that there was nothing on the line except being in the ring with me.” His respect for others is clear but he desire to be treated as the gold standard is just as patent.

If you ever wondered how he felt about Ric Flair wrestling again after his ‘retirement’ match at WrestleMania XXIV, you may be surprised to know that Shawn is hugely kind: “knowing Ric, I knew he’d wrestle again but I knew that WWE wouldn’t let him be involved in a big match again.” At the end of the match as Ric is crying in the ring, Shawn tells us, tearing up to camera, “I told him I loved him and that I hoped it was special to him.” He explains that this was one of the few times where there was little blurring between Shawn Michaels and HBK.

“Taker and I were always in the same place but always in so many different places” and after their match at WrestleMania 25, he felt so at peace because “it was as close to perfect as you can get.” The decision to follow it a year later was justified, he says, because he was the one person who was able to “break the unbreakable”, in that he made Undertaker vulnerable for a moment and broke his character shown when Shawn is desperately climbing and crawling to get to his feet and Taker yells at Shawn to “stay down!” The amount of respect that he has for Undertaker is tangible but just as lucid is the fact he doesn’t feel unworthy to have been in that spot.

This collection chronicles many of the highest points in Shawn’s WWE career and yet originally it could never have been conceived that way; like so much of the industry, it is largely down to luck, timing and hard work. Shawn is a pleasure to watch and listen to and, with a wonderful objectivity, imparts so much wisdom about his character, career, his friends and his foes. With a sense of an ending being dangled in front of our eyes, we’re left with a sentence that will ring in your ears for days. A sentence that is just enough to sow the seeds of doubt in your mind that one day Mr WrestleMania may well come back and wrestle again on the grandest stage of them all. Side on, speaking to the director, clearly and audibly, he ends by saying, “I was built to wrestle”.

WWE Superstars TV Report – 13th February 2014

Slow news week in WWE and this show is no different. They gave us the same Divas match as last week and used the same men’s singles match two nights running on Main Event and then here on Superstars. Not sure I’ve seen them ever do that before.

Byron Saxton seems to be being given a push; he’s now the regular colour announcer on this show and has appeared on Main Event as well as still being on NXT. Pretty sure it won’t last very long.

Natalya v Tamina Snuka

In a rematch from last week, Tamina Snuka takes control in the early going. It kind of feels like they’re trying to make Tamina into what Awesome Kong never got the time to be in this company. She’s tall but because she lacks skill, ring experience and ability, she’s not fooling anyone. Funniest spot here is after a really nice stiff running clothesline from Tamina, she boots Natty in the back a few times and then takes off her biker vest (a la Steve Austin c 1997) and throws it at her. Looked like the most whimpish, cowardly move.

Tamina’s offence is fairly limited. If you look at the up-and-comers like Summer Rae, they really have so much more to offer in the ring. Her move set is essentially, chops, punches, knees, a Samoan drop, a power slam and her father’s finisher. Case in point: Natalya hits two really neat suplexes that look great and is immediately just kicked in the face to ruin the flow of the match.

The finish has Tamina scream something inaudible at the crowd almost Vickie Guerrero-like as she goes for the Samoan drop. Natalya wriggles out and puts her in the Sharpshooter. Tamina taps out immediately. Awful way to book a monster heel.

Even Steven booking means Natalya gets her win back. If we get the same match next week, they need to improve on this for all our sakes.

Winner: Natalya via submission in 4:39.

On the Raw Rebound this week we get the 6-man tag between The Rhodes brothers & Rey and The Wyatts followed by The Real Americans v Sheamus & Christian. Cesaro was the star of Raw on Monday in my eyes.

They showed that tremendous Lita Hall of Fame video. In the light of this video package, never has the Divas division look so tame.

Big E comes out next, probably in his last ever appearance as ‘Big E Langston’. They actually cut the ‘Langston’ off from Justin Roberts’ ring announcement for him which just sounded really odd and was kind of unnecessary but there we go. His Titantron video still has a huge dumbbell with ‘Big E Langston’ written on it. Think they need to take that white belt off of him too.

Big E v Drew McIntyre (w/ Jinder Mahal)

This was a non-title match and the same match was also taped the following night at the SmackDown! tapings for Main Event. Technically, therefore, this match happened first but was shown second. Who cares, right? They were both non-title matches but, of the two, this was a better match that was given more time.

Without looking it up, guess when Drew McIntyre was IC champion? Four years ago, 2009. He beat John Morrison at TLC and had a little run as champion under that period where he was ‘the chosen one’. And look at him now. Drew’s a good worker, though. He’ll come again but they’ve buried him so far down this card in this comedy trio spot that there’s just no way he’ll ever get to that kind of level again. Typical WWE: too much, too fast, too soon.

Interesting that Heath Slater is not here again, I wonder if he’s OK – he was off for personal reasons before the New Year for some time. Mahal is in ring gear just in case we were wondering if he might try to get involved.

Early offence is all about Big E who catches Drew trying a cross-body and gets hit with multiple backbreakers and manages to kick out at two. Big E powers up and chain wrestles McIntyre and, just to prove how agile he is, Big E leapfrogs Drew out of an Irish whip is if he were a lithe 200lb-er. Langston hits a diving shoulder tackle reminiscent of the Ultimate Warrior, tries to put Drew into the Big Ending who fights out and rolls to Mahal outside the ring as we go to a commercial.

After the break, Big E hits a scary belly-to-belly suplex but McIntyre dodges a repeat attempt at a shoulder to his midsection and starts to get some moves in on Big E. Weirdly, probably ironically, we get duelling “Big E Langston-3MB!” chants as Drew locks in on Big E’s left arm. Drew gets in a near fall when he lands a drop kick on Langston he also does an impressive kip up but Big E finally gets the heat when he throws McIntryre off the second rope. He uses another belly-to-belly, a huge splash and after chasing off Mahal who has tried to interfere, he hits the Big Ending for the win.

Drew McIntyre v Big E is not a ppv quality match but Drew’s good enough to go 10-15 minutes with someone like Langston and, given time, would easily deliver a good match.

Winner:  Big E via pinfall (6:47)

The show finishes with the end of the main event Randy Orton v John Cena match from Monday. If that’s your sort of thing, I highly recommend it.

WWE Superstars TV Report – 6th February 2014

WWE took CM Punk off all their opening show titles this week and so they took the opportunity to update the Superstars opening. Batista is there, as are The Wyatts and Curtis Axel. The latter is the only one I’m likely to see wrestle on this show. Ever.

A-Ry’s still off this show; Byron Saxton seems to be a permanent fixture which, as discussed last week, is a huge downgrade in quality.

Natalya comes out. She looks great at the moment: she has new ring gear, looks very slim and comes out full of beans, high-fiving everyone. Unfortunately, I think she’s about to job to Tamina Snuka.

Natalya v Tamina Snuka

Tamina Snuka has been around since 2010. I’d say in the last 4 years she’s got marginally better but she still lacks fluidity in the ring. She wears this black waistcoat/vest like something Nash or Austin would have worn in the last 90s and looks like a biker’s girlfriend who is just wearing the threads to fit in.

Natty gets the best out of Tamina here. There’s quick, neat little roll ups and some nice mat chain wrestling that Tamina just about keeps up with but Natalya is really just playing puppeteer here. Somewhere early on Tamina cuts her elbow and is bleeding a little throughout the match. Tamina uses some really nice heel offence culminating in a Samoan Drop.

Tamina goes for the Superfly splash but clearly doesn’t commit to it and Natalya rolls out of the way. Snuka boots her between the middle and bottom rope and they brawl on the outside, using the announce desk. Natalya rolls her back in and gets the heat; she goes for the Sharpshooter, but Snuka gets to the ropes. Natalya ducks a superkick and gets two on a surprise cover, but Snuka jumps up off the mat and hits a superkick for the win.

Nice little opener. Really good to see these Divas matches improving in quality over the last few weeks. Natalya really is the one to get a good match out of newer talent; she’s such a safe pair of hands. That Hart dungeon certainly developed some protective workers.

Winner: Tamina via pinfall in 4:07.

On the Raw Rebound this week we get Randy’s opening promo on Raw where he didn’t dare pause for breath for the first two minutes in case people chanted for CM Punk. The cage match follows and, yes, Cody’s ridiculous moonsault gets yet more air time. What a complete waste of a spot on free television. I should note, though, Superstars always carries a ‘don’t try this advert’ every week during the show.

Los Matadores are out next sans El Torrito but are joined for 8-man tag action with The Usos who perform the Siva Tau. Usos were wearing black armbands, it’s not made clear why.

Curt Hawkins is still employed! I checked my notes and this is his first WWE TV appearance since October 4^th 2013. He’s out with 3MB and boy does he look tubby. Frankly, he looks out of shape. A shame because Curt is a decent worker.

Los Matadores & The Usos v 3MB & Curt Hawkins

This was all house show comedy from the get go. The announcers make out that this is some kind of initiation match for Curt Hawkins to try out for 3MB. Slater takes early offense, but gets sent to the outside as we go to a commercial. They do the spot where all four guys are outside the ring and Diego teases a dive through the ropes but stops short and all the guys cower and disperse out of fear.

After the break, Diego beats up Mahal, but a boot to the stomach and a blind tag from Slater puts Diego into the opposition corner. Jimmy Uso gets the hot tag from Diego and gets the heat on Hawkins. He hits his kick, a Samoan drop, his stink face alternative on Curt who kicks out of the cover and tags Slater in.

Hawkins shows that he’s more than capable in the ring here. He’s had an odd career to date in the WWE: he was a member of the Edge’s La Familia in Edge’s title runs in 2007, then he won the tag titles with Zack Ryder in 2008 but more lately he’d been tag teaming with Tyler Reks. When Reks left to be a Dad in 2012, Hawkins was back at the bottom of the deck again. Hunter quite likes Hawkins and used him to help get into ring shape for his match with Undertaker at WrestleMania 28.

There was a cool spot here where Jimmy goes to superkick Hawkins who is in front of Jey. Hawkins ducks, meaning that it looks like Jimmy will kick his brother but Jey catches his leg and then swings it back into Hawkins’ face.

The finish sees Slater use his ‘save’ to break up a cover between Jimmy and Curt. The ring fills and when it clears again, Jimmy suicide dives over the top rope on to 3MB outside. Inside the ring, Jey superkicks Hawkins, and The Usos hit Samoan Splash for the pin.

This felt a bit like they all felt that if they all turned up that it would just work and be OK. In reality, adding more men to this weekly Superstars match just made it slightly worse.

Winners:  Los Matadores & The Usos via pinfall (7:52)

The show finishes with the end of the fantastic Randy Orton v Daniel Bryan match from Monday which was one of the longest ever main events on Raw.