Big E Langston comes out and Tom Phillips asks Alex
Riley what his opinions on Battleground were. Riley’s right arm is in a cast –
must be an NXT or training injury because he’s not really on house shows or TV,
ever. He says he’ll be back in a month. Back where? Instead of burying
Battleground, he ‘spontaneously’ spits some rhymes about it. Awful. And then to
make matters worse he called his rap a ‘limerick’ which it wasn’t. I like Riley
but this is embarrassing.
Langston is without a program or push right now and
many believe that is due to the fact that John Cena is not around right now.
Expect that to change when Cena, who is high on Big E, returns. Justin Gabriel
is his opponent for his third straight week on Superstars.
Justin
Gabriel v Big E Langston
Big E blocks Gabriel’s attempts to lock up by tossing
him aside several times. He puts Big E in a headlock who then picks him up and
launches him across the ring. There’s no way that Gabriel should beat this man.
Langston puts him in a headlock and drags him around the ring only to then
shoulder block him to the canvas out of a whip. They repeat the same pattern
and Big E gets boos from the crowd.
Langston then rains down on Gabriel with punches but
again goes back to a headlock. Once again Gabriel battles out, they run the
ropes and this time when Justin tries to hip toss Langston, he is stopped in
his tracks. Langston goes for a hip toss himself but he reverses it only to be
thrown to the floor. Langston’s whole MO here is to treat Gabriel with distain and
to block any attempts at speed or high risk moves.
Big E goes for a gut-wrench suplex which Gabriel
reverses, pushing Langston into the ropes so that when he turns round he eats a
drop kick. Four minutes in is the first time that Langston is grounded. Trying
to capitalise, Gabriel goes for a top rope, springboard moonsault that Langston
rolls out of the way of. Gabriel lands on his feet, takes a punch to the
stomach and gets hoisted up on to Big E’s shoulders. It looks like he’s going
for the Big Ending but instead he drops him on to his thigh for a backbreaker.
Gabriel gets covered but kicks out at two as we go to a break.
When we come back, Langston is applying an abdominal
stretch (don’t see too many of those these days – is this Hunter’s influence?).
Gabriel again tries to gain some advantage but is again thwarted and is
punished by a stiff belly-to-belly but, plucky as ever, kicks out at two. A
frustrated Big E applies a bear hug. I like his old school move set.
The heat segment starts with Big E missing a splash
and then a charge into the turnbuckle. Gabriel hits him with a super kick and
hits a cross body into the corner followed by a springboard cross body. Big
then blocks another charge to the turnbuckle, grabs him with one arm and slams
him to the floor – this looked very cool. The straps come down, he launches
Gabriel into the Big Ending and pins him in 7:20. This was a well-told story and
was more than just a squash: it was the plucky high-flier v the freakish strong
man. A good match.
The Raw Rebound is next – Shawn Michael’s speech to be
referee at Hell in a Cell is followed by Del Rio v Ricardo when Vickie
interrupts him to announce Cena’s stupidly early return to the ring in 3 weeks.
Out next on Superstars is Kaitlyn. She turned 27 this
week and has been off TV for a while. Her opponent is Tamina who they are
constanly trying to rebrand and re-push. She’s now playing AJ Lee’s enforcer on
Raw and appears tonight in a leather vest over her ring gear and wear it
throughout the match. Kind of a Steve Austin look but for women. Odd.
Kaitlyn
v Tamina
The two shove each other; Kaitlyn pushes Tamina into
the ropes and then brings her down with a drop toe-hold. They mat wrestle until
Tamina charges her into a coner and kicks Kaitlyn until the referee is forced
to intervene. While he does, Kaitlyn goes for a schoolgirl but only gets a two
count.
Kaitlyn then catches Tamina with a drop kick which
makes her roll outside. On the apron, Tamina sweeps Kaitlyn’s legs, rolls her
back into the ring and covers her for two. Tamina then hits a neat and tidy
suplex for another two count but then locks in a rear choke hold. Phillips and Riley
put over Battleground with Tom Phillips actually claiming that Cesaro’s giant
swing was ‘worth the price of admission’. Completely ridiculous. I know for a
fact that most people would highly dispute that. Phillips is OK but he just
sounds like a baseball announcer – he lacks any undulation in his tone to be
anything more.
Tamina chokes out Kaitlyn on the middle rope and then
reapplies the rear choke hold. Riley points out that Kaitlyn was the 4th
longest reigning Divas title holder of all time. Seriously? Well, I looked it
up. There have only ever been 20 and Maryse holds the record at 216 days. Yes,
Maryse. Soon to be Mrs Miz. Oh the conversations they must have.
Tamina continues to dominate and slam Kaitlyn to the
canvas with clotheslines and keeps trying to wear her down with choke holds. Kaitlyn
gets some heat, landing a clothesline, a reverse elbow and then a horrible drop
kick that looked like it hit Taimina in the womb. She then uses her new
finisher which is an inverted DDT but Tamina kicks out at 2 and 7/8ths. They
both stay down until Kaitlyn gets up first planting Tamina in the corner to set
up for the spear. Tamina blocks it with a knee to the face and hits her with a
Samoan drop, pinning her in 6:40. A really rudimentary match until the finish.
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