Csonka’s WWE Superstars Review 9.23.16

Csonka’s WWE Superstars Review 9.23.16

OFFICIAL RESULTS
– Darren Young defeated Curtis Axel @ 5:00 via pin [**½]
– #1 Contender’s Match: The Brian Kendrick defeated Cedric Alexander, Rich Swann and Gran Metalik @ 15:06 via submission [***¼]
– Goldust and R-Truth defeated Jinder Mahal and Titus O’Neil @ 7:10 via pin [**½]

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– I love that the Superstars intro includes guys like Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns, who will likely never appear.

– Tom Stupid Idiot Phillips and Corey Graves are on commentary.

Darren Young w/Bob Backlund vs. Curtis Axel: Axel threw his hat at Darren Young, which caused enough of a distraction to allow him an early attack. Young quickly battled back, hitting a neck breaker and seated senton for the near fall. Axel raked the eyes and then trapped Young in the ropes, hitting cross face shots and a clothesline to take the heat. Axel showed some nice aggression here, working over Young and talking trash to Backlund. I think we forget that Axel is a really strong wrestler, since he is never on TV and when he is it is in nothing matches. I’m not claming that he needs pushed to the moon, but he could certainly be used more on a three hour Raw when they absolutely need to fill some time. Axel worked a rock solid heat, leading to Young firing up and making a good comeback. Young then hit the backdrop suplex to the apron, and that got 2. Backlund called for the cross face chicken wing, Axel fought it off but ate the gut check for the win. That was a perfectly fine little match right there, nothing spectacular, but it was good use of the time and they worked hard.

– Backlund and Young celebrated post match.

– We get a video from the Cruiserweight Classic finals, featuring TJ Perkins’ victory over Gran Metalik.

– We get highlights from Raw, featuring the debut of the cruiserweights. You can read my WWE Raw Review right here!

– We go back to Raw, to watch the debut of the Cruiserweights…

Rich Swann vs. Gran Metalik vs. Cedric Alexander vs. The Brian Kendrick: Kendrick bailed to the floor early, allowing the others to battle. Swann and Metalik had some nice back and forth until Kendrick cut them off. They worked through the various parings, working the bland and basic one on one with the others on the floor. Commentary was pretty awful here, comparing these guys to “watching the Power Rangers wrestle” and “who says these guys can’t throw hands” and other demeaning lines as Swann and Alexander did some athletic shit and were peppering each other with strikes. The worst part is that they were trying to save the match from just existing. Alexander and Metalik both hit dives, and finally woke up the crowd. Kendrick cut off Metalik, he and Swann battled on the floor, and Swann was slammed to the barricade and then the steps. Kendrick then trapped his foot in the steps and kicked him in the face as we took a break. Post break Metalik hit a ropewalk elbow drop for a near fall. Metalik then got to run wild for a bit, as he worked over Swann. The moonsault ate knees and Swann hit the powerbomb for a near fall as Alexander made the save. It broke down into Swann vs. Alexander, with Alexander hitting a back handspring kick for a near fall. he and Swann have worked very well together here. Kendrick sent Alexander to the floor, Metalik back in and ct off sliced bread but ate a DDT from Kendrick for the near fall. it broke down, Swann set Alexander for the standing 450, it connected by Kendrick tossed him and Kendrick locked in the Saka Otoshi, but Metalik broke that up. Alexander shoved Metalik into Swann and hit the lumbar check, but Kendrick ran in and locked in the Saka Otoshi and Alexander tapped. The match was good and a lot of fun at times, but far from the homerun that I feel they needed to have coming off of the CWC. There were certainly fun spots, but it felt too chaotic and lacked a good flow to be great. I love that they got the time, but the set up really lacked. In my opinion, shoehorning this all into one segment was poor planning. I think that this could have worked better in two segments. Do two singles matches, leading to a pre-show PPV match to crown a contender and then the title match is on the PPV. This felt very thrown together, as if they weren’t advertising this for over a month. Also, by introducing the four guys at once, you’re forcing four new people onto the crowd and asking them to invest in a match with four guys a lot of them maybe unsure of. Which is another reason I feel that the two singles matches, 7-9 minute a piece with the guys going a bit more rapid fire, would have worked better. Kendrick winning works because he’s the established heel persona out of who they brought up, and is a first good challenger for Perkins to defeat, but the lack of Perkins being there for some sort of face off was not a good choice. Hopefully going forward the division won’t just be random multi-man matches, as that is the trap the X-Division has been locked into. Alexander and Metalik shined here as stars. It was an overall good, but flawed beginning for the division on Raw.

– We get highlights of Charlotte and Dana Brooke defeating Sasha Banks and Bayley on Raw. You can read my WWE Raw Review right here!

Goldust and R-Truth vs. Jinder Mahal and Titus O’Neil: Mahal and O’Neil is completely random. Truth and Mahal started things off, with Truth taking early control. Goldust tagged in and they worked some double teams, keeping control. Mahal took Goldust to his corner, Goldust fought them off as Truth returned to help. They cleared the ring and we took a Network break. Post break, Golden Truth worked double teams on Mahal and was in control. Truth hit a leg drop for the near fall. Mahal rushed him to the corner and got the tag to O’Neil, Truth tried to fight them off but ate a big boot from O’Neil, and he took the heat from there. O’Neil and Mahal worked a bland heat, it was fine but lacked any real urgency. Neck cranks and such to little reaction here. Truth hit a desperation leg lariat and got the tag to Goldust. He ran wild on Mahal, hitting the uppercut and bulldog. Nice fire from Goldust, but there is no reaction from the crowd. O’Neil broke up the near fall off of the snap slam. Truth took O’Neil to the floor and hit a plancha, leading to Goldust hitting the final cut for the win. Another solid match, although it felt rushed post break and didn’t have much in the way of crowd reaction. Still, nothing wrong from a wrestling standpoint, it was solid.

– We get highlights from Raw’s main event, featuring Reigns vs. Owens in a steel cage. Reigns won via escape, and post match, Rusev and Owens beat down Reigns until Rollins made the big save with the high cross off of the top of the cage. You can read my WWE Raw Review right here!

– End scene.

– Thanks for reading.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia.”

6.5

The final score: review Average

The 411

Superstars is a perfectly serviceable hour of TV, which allows you to see guys that haven’t been featured on Raw and also allows you to catch up on Raw’s major points if you missed the show.