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Wrestling’s 4R’s Monday Edition 9.13.10: Superstars & SmackDown Reviewed!
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In HD where available…
[Jer’s note: No ROH on TV aired this week. Back next week!]
By: Jeremy Thomas
Superstars 09.09.10:
QUICK RESULTS:
R-Truth def. William Regal [* ½]
Goldust & Gail Kim def. Primo & Jillian Hall [* ¾]
The Dudebusters def. Hawkins & Archer [*]
The Big Show def. Luke Gallows [½ *]
Nada
R-TRUTH vs. WILLIAM REGAL: Superstars kicked off with an opening match between Truth and Regal, which was a good way to perk up the crowd. Truth is perennially over, and Regal will get the heat no matter how far into enhancement talent-mode he’s gone. As we also learned he’s good for a laugh as he got on the mic and tried to out-rap Truth. You know what, Regal was so freaking awesome in the way he played this out that I don’t know how you can dislike it. Yes, he was terrible, but he was clearly having a freaking blast with it; he even turned his flub into a laugh. I laughed my way through it thanks to the man’s dedication to making it work…good times. Unfortunately, the match wasn’t nearly as good as it could have been. They just pretty much went through the motions and while what we saw wasn’t, say, Diva level bad it was more than I expected out of what would be a decently long match on any of the other ‘E shows. Truth got the win of course, but I can’t say that this elevated him any. It was there to entertain and the rap promo did that, while the match didn’t.
GOLDUST & GAIL KIM vs. PRIMO & JILLIAN HALL: Goldust and Primo’s Rookies Aksana and AJ were along with them for the ride for this match. I’ve been enjoying seeing Goldust get a new lease on life in his career as of late and he’s been doing some pretty good work. They probably will never go anywhere with it—and probably shouldn’t—but it’s still nice to see. This match had some pretty good moments to it but it was mediocre overall. I’m happy to see Jillian and Gail do some better work that we’re used to seeing from them and Goldie and Primo were matched up well but the booking of the match made for some awkward timing. This worked well enough and it made sense for Goldie to get the win since Primo’s Rookie won on NXT, but I would have liked to see a bit more from them.
ARCHER & HAWKINS vs. THE DUDEBUSTERS: Hey guys, remember when they spent a full month building up Hawkins and Archer trying to make an impact on SmackDown? Yeah, that was time well-spent. Apparently the Busters are making a slow face turn. Good to know. These two teams were matched up well but they just didn’t click here with the amount of time they were given. Hawkins and Archer got a good amount of offense in before Barretta made a hot tag and it was pretty much all over. I will say that the Dudebusters are looking better and better, and maybe they can really start to become something, but there wasn’t enough in this match for me to judge or really care.
LUKE GALLOWS vs. THE BIG SHOW: Gallows came out with Joey Mercury and got on the mic, where he talked about being better than us and proving that he’d be the straight edge enforcer by dismantling Show. Yeeeah, that didn’t happen. Show came down to the ring with a big ol’ jolly smile, then proceeded to beat Gallows around the ring for a couple of minutes before flattening him with the Knock-Out Punch. Okay, there was a little more to it than that but not much; Luke got one boot and three punches in the entire match before he got flattened. This was fine for a squash and I have no problem with Show getting a squash win, but I would like to see what happens to the Society after this. Do Luke and Joey go into midcard obscurity while Punk rises up, or what? Whatever, I wasn’t big on this match and for good reason.
THE NXT RECAP: I don’t usually put recaps in the R’s as their own section, but I’m just putting this in because we had to see portions of that retarded dance sequence again. Ugh.
Yeah, this whole show was pretty much a waste of time. You had some brief storyline advancement in Show getting momentum toward Night of Champions, some face time for a couple Diva Rookies and that was it. None of the matches impressed and while nothing was atrociously bad, that was an hour of my life that would have been better spent. I still say that NXT needs to replace Superstars on WGN, but that’s just me. SHOW RATING: 4.5 |
[Jer’s note: No TNA Impact aired this week. Back next week!]
By: Jeremy Thomas
WWE SmackDown 09.10.10
QUICK RESULTS:
Jack Swagger def. MVP [** ½]
Alberto Del Rio def. Matt Hardy [** ¾]
Drew McIntyre def. Kaval [**]
Kofi Kingston & Chris Masters def. Dolph Ziggler & Chavo Guerrero [* ¼]
The Undertaker def. CM Punk [*** ¼]
PUNK’S OVATION FOR THE DEAD MAN: SmackDown kicked off with the Undertaker’s music sounding, fire blazing and then the Undertaker appearing in the ring. That’s one way to get the crowd popping right off the bat. Taker looked better than he has as of late, since he needs to be getting better from his “coma” and they’re doing a nice job with that. Taker’s done a nice job of making his transition from weakened to full-strength be a gradual and believable thing. Anyway, this promo was all about Taker denying that he was the weaker brother and saying that he would be giving Kane unpleasant memories at Night of Champions. Taker also challenged little bro into making the match a No Holds Barred match. Decent stuff here; nothing that burned up the promo charts but it was more than adequate and the crowd loved it.
But we weren’t done yet. Out to the ramp came CM Punk, doing the fake enthusiastic applause. He called for applause for Taker, got the crowd to pop and then revealed why—because no one would see Taker again after Night of Champions. Punk had a lot of fun with this, mocking Taker for being broken up and having bitten off more than he can chew. The crowd was rabid for Punk, and he no-sold Taker’s threat while showing confidence that he’d beat the Dead Man tonight. Good stuff by both men and it kicked off the show strongly.
JACK SWAGGER vs. MVP: So I have to assume that this is the feud finisher, and in my mind it couldn’t have come soon enough. Both of these guys are too talented to continually feud with each other when they have no chemistry and a threadbare feud, and the sooner they can both move on the better. I will say that this was one of their better matches, so they are ending (if it’s ending) on a high note. Both Swagger and Montel looked motivated and furthermore they were selling the animosity of their feud nicely in both the intensity and the layout of the match. They had a crispness we haven’t seen in previous matches between them and more importantly, enough time to actually make something worth watching. Swagger got the win, and quickly via the ankle lock to boot, but the one thing I believe this feud has done is give MVP just a bit of cred again and a bit of an upswing in fan support. I can’t argue with either of those things, and this worked nicely.
ALBERTO DEL RIO vs. MATT HARDY: Alberto came out first for this match with his fantastic entrance. I know, for the record, that it’s JBL’s with a ring announcer addition, but that ring announcer is awesome. This was another example of Matt Hardy facing an opponent Christian faced. Are they going to do anything with this alliance/feud or just subtly tease it forever? Anyway, Matt had another good match where he helped get the heel over and he and Alberto worked well. Matt had his moments of control but generous in letting Del Rio get his offense in as well. That enzuigiri sounded nice and sick, and it let Del Rio take control of the match. That basically built the story here of Matt having to fight back from that kick and it got the crowd solidly behind the Sensei of Mattitude. I agree that Del Rio went back to the chinlock a bit much in the middle of the match but it didn’t hurt the match at all; we’re not looking at a PPV match and they need to have a rest-hold period in there. Matt did a nice job leading this match and this was one of those matches where losing helped Del Rio and didn’t hurt Hardy, because Matt is perennially over with the crowd. Afterward Christian showed up to make the save; if they’re trying to build anticipation its working but they need to pull the trigger at some point if they plan to.
CM PUNK vs. THE UNDERTAKER: I will certainly admit that I was looking forward to this match because I felt that when they were on, Punk and Taker worked well together. Of course I knew who was losing here but that doesn’t bother me at all. It’s a rare person who beats Taker on Pay-Per-View, much less in his return match. I really appreciated Taker’s performance here, because he was playing himself as if he wasn’t at 100% and that was very nice storytelling on the Dead Man’s part. Taker’s slip on the Old School which was pretty obviously intentional (since it wasn’t edited out) allowed Punk to take control and let the crowd now that despite his words, Taker was still recovering. This was actually one of their better matches and they let Punk have a solid period of control. He even nearly beat the man but for that damned Hell’s Gate, which I enjoyed seeing them bust out because it reminds the crowd exactly how sudden and dangerous it is. Punk losing is fine by me because he’s not facing a guy of Taker’s standing in the card; Show is a main eventer but not an Undertaker main eventer, and so he still looks like he could be a threat to the man while Taker gets a win against a very over heel. Good stuff by both men and again Kane got the last laugh with his pyro. This was a strong way to end the show, no doubt.
KAVAL vs. DREW McINTYRE: Backstage before this match, Team Lay-Cool was talking about who was going to face Melina at Night of Champions; apparently their in with Vicki gives them the ability to choose at the last second. They both wanted to face Melina and Layla started acting like a child when Michelle tried to talk Logic. Kaval cut in and said he couldn’t hear himself think because of all the whining and bitching. That turned Lay-Cool on him and Michelle had an admittedly funny deadpan Kaval face. You know, I’ve had my complaints about Lay-Cool but they worked well here.
Kaval’s first opponent was Drew McIntyre, and really I think the ‘E kind of put themselves in a tough point here. They had to choose between hurting the NXT Season Two winner a bit in his debut or stalling McIntyre’s momentum again. Personally I think they made the right choice, but there may have been better matches to debut Kaval with. Kaval came out without Lay-Cool following the segment and he did have a pretty decent match with Drew, as much as you can have in about four minutes’ time. This basically had Kaval have some good moments of control midway through before a rookie mistake cost him the match. That was the best way to pull this off, but it can’t quite get a Right from me because of flaws in the matchup itself.
DOLPH ZIGGLER & CHAVO GUERRERO vs. KOFI KINGSTON & CHRIS MASTERS: So apparently, Kofi gets another shot at Dolph and the IC Title at Night of Champions. Seriously, can this feud end? It’s been good but both guys need to move on. Vicki came out with Kaitlyn and berated her; apparently that will be the shtick which will be sure to get Kaitlyn over as a face. Or probably not actually, but we’ll see. This upcoming match appears to finally be the blow-off to the feud and I’m okay with that; any DQ or Countout will cost Dolph the belt. Anyway, I had concerns about the match here because Chavo and Masters do not generally end up in matches lasting more than four minutes and…oh look, about three minutes for a tag match. Sure, that’ll work. The match was all right I suppose, but far from great by any stretch and they really didn’t have a chance to shine. The point here was to give Kofi momentum and that was fine; good effort by all involved but the match was screwed from the get-go.
BIG SHOW INTERVIEWS HIMSELF: Okay, what was this exactly? I get it, Big Show is funny, and in a brief, weird way this had a funny moment. Maybe two. Show talked about how he’d taken out Joey Mercury, Luke Gallows and (awesomely) “that other bald-headed dude in their organization.” Man, I love me some Serena and hate that she’s gone, but was funny. Then Triple K showed up and so did Joey, and it all got incredibly goofy. This could have been worse, but that doesn’t mean it was that good.
DID YOU KNOW?: Nope. And, as always, I don’t care.
This was a really strong SmackDown, with only a few scattered problems and a lot of things done right. The Taker/Punk match was very nicely done and Alberto Del Rio and Jack Swagger looked good in their wins while no one really suffered in defeat. If the Blue Brand can keep this going, they’ll be sitting pretty come Night of Champions. SHOW RATING: 7.5 |
…and remember to stay grounded!
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