A show that had some pretty average wrestling; a show that saw the return of Alica Fox to the ring on Superstars and a show that really put over what’s going on over on Raw.
We kick off with The Usos coming out and performing the Siva Tau – an entrance that I always think really sets them up to be more entertaining than they actually turn out to be. Even the new face paint isn’t really working for these two. Then 3MB come out and we realise that the Usos are streets ahead of Jinder Mahal. Alex Riley is back doing colour commentary next to Tony Dawson.
Match 1 – The Usos v 3MB (Drew McIntyre & Jinder Mahal)
The Usos pinned 3MB in 7:27. Jinder and Jimmy lock up and both try to pander to the crowd to get them going. They exchange wrist locks and Jimmy drags Jinder to his corner and tags in Jey. There’s no hard cam again this week for this opener – as I’ve mentioned many times, they often do this on Superstars and I can only assume it’s because they are still setting up the cameras for the live taping that follows. Jey lands a double axe handle from the second turnbuckle and gets some offense in until Drew drags Jinder out of the ring by his legs for a time out. This sets up Jimmy to land one of the worst planchas I’ve seen in a long time when McIntyre and Mahal just barely catch him. Jey does this same on to Slater as we go to the first break.
McIntyre is in the ring with Jimmy after the commercials and kicks him clean out of the ring. On the outside, Slater hits him with a great super kick and Drew comes outside to join in the mauling. He launches Jimmy into the apron and the dasher boards again and again, rolls him back in the ring and gets a near fall. Drew tags in Jinder and things slow way down and we get the Superstars go to move - the rear chin lock.
Drew tags back in after Jimmy powers out of the chin lock but gets hit with a high knee by Jinder who continues to work over Jimmy. Jimmy tries to get some offence in, using Flair chops but is stopped when McIntyre hits him with a really sloppy looking drop kick. Riley does a good job on commentary putting over Drew, though. He says that he lives and breathes wrestling and that he survives on 2 hours sleep a night just so he can do what he loves – sounds like a babyface to me, Alex? Meanwhile, Jinder stomps on Jimmy some more, tags in Drew who gets caught with an enziguri so that Jimmy can slowly crawl to his brother to get the hot tag.
Jey gets in and, in the best spot of the whole show, flies into Slater who has appeared on the apron to cause trouble. In doing so, Slater flips off the apron and his glasses go flying too, right off his face. It looked great and what was made even better was that when he was on the floor afterwards the first thing he went to do wasn’t tend to his wounds, it was to find where his glasses had gone! Living the gimmick, I love it. Jey hits a Samoan backdrop, Jimmy comes in and the double super kick Jinder to set up for the diving splash and the pin.
This was standard Superstars fodder; nothing special save the sunglasses spot. Next is the Raw Rebound which is Cena and Bryan’s contract signing with Brad Maddox and then Punk and Heyman’s tremendous promo segment.
Layla and Alicia Fox come out next. Both appear as babyfaces, neither even tries to play the heel on entrance. Fox made her first screen appearance at Payback, backstage, and has been on Raw and SmackDown this month in bits and pieces. Not sure where’s she’s been for the last year but she’s ok in the ring – Superstars is definitely her level.
Match 2 – Layla v Alicia Fox
Layla pinned Alicia Fox in 5:03. Fox works the heel role in the ring but Layla dictates the early pace. She uses a head scissors over the top ropes which is really creative and then gets back in the ring and does a springboard missile drop kick followed by a drop toe hold and her version of Naomi’s ‘Rear View’ (an ass bump to the face) for the first near fall of the match. It’s way too early for pins here but Fox uses a drop kick to Layla who is on the apron, bashing her face on the way down and is rolled in the ring for another early near fall.
Fox uses a creative move of her own as she starts to dominate the offence with submission holds: she uses her shin to as a choke hold on Layla, using the top rope as leverage. Fox then uses a head scissors with some vigour and meaning to it as Layla tries to power out – it is rare these days that a head scissors actually looks threatening but this actually did. Layla powers out but gets hit with a clothesline. Then Fox misses a big boot allowing Layla to land some horrible clotheslines that Fox just does not sell and so look sloppy and then the LOL crossbody for another near fall. Apparently, the LOL stands for ‘lots of Layla’ and the move sees her in the corner with her back to the opponent, bounce from the bottom rope to the second rope which she springboards off into a crossbody. It sounds better than it looks.
The finish sees Fox land a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker into a missed scissors kick so that Layla can hit an enziguri for the pin. There was zero build to this finish that came out of nowhere. 5 minutes was pretty generous for these two but Layla does know how to work and they do have some creative ideas.
The show ends with the Daniel Bryan gauntlet matches from Raw. Once again Daniel Bryan saves a WWE TV show!
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