WWE Superstars TV Report – 27th June 2014

Noteworthy: Adam Rose appears on this show again. Hornswoggle is still wearing wigs and hasn’t had his hair cut since getting buzzed at the last ppv. RybAxel are getting a mini push.

Adam Rose beat Health Slater (w/ Hornswoggle) with the Party Foul in 4:25

Rose comes out to a mediocre reaction, but the crowd sure do love that theme song so that makes it look like he’s over. Slater (now a solo artist, of course) seems to be permanently with Hornswoggle who is with wig. Still.

They lock up and a sloppy drop toe hold allows Rose to ride Slater like a pig and smack his ass. I hate this spot. Slater is angered; they shove each other until Heath pulls Rose through the ropes to the floor outside. Slater goes to work on him, throwing Rose into the dasher boards. Slater rolls Rose back in goes for a cover but only gets a two count.

Rear chin lock from Slater gets the crowd singing Adam Rose’s song which helps Rose to powers out. He then eats a heel kick and Slater can only get a two count. At which point Heath gets bored and goes for a wander – he and Hornswoggle go outside to taunt the Rosebuds which allows Rose to get to his feet. When Slater has been shunned by the entire posse he turns round to eat a baseball slide from Rose.

Rose rolls him back in, goes to the top rope and hits a beautiful high cross body, followed by a tilt-a-whirl headscissors. Hornswoggle comes in the ring and again is de-wigged. Rose turns back to Slater, blocks an attack and hits the Party Foul out of nowhere.

The Raw rebound was a tremendous Rollins and Ambrose music video followed by Vickie and Steph’s segments from Monday.

We got a brief, whacky backstage segment where Byron Saxton tried to interview RybAxel who intimidated him. Saxton brings up their loss on Main Event and the imminent match against Goldust and Stardust on Sunday and Ryback got nasty and played the bully.

RybAxel beat R-Truth & Xavier Woods with the Shellshock in 7:24

Ryback and Curtis Axel both came out wearing bright red Ryback merchandise beanie hats, making them look completely ridiculous. RybAxel are facing Goldust and Stardust at Money in the Bank this Sunday.

I’m pretty shocked that Xavier Woods hasn’t been cut: he’s as good a worker as many that got cut and is pretty uninteresting and lacking in charisma. Truth and Axel start things off and exchange wrist locks. Woods comes in as a rain of ‘Goldberg’ chants start up. Yep, that’s still a thing.

Ryback works over Truth until he goes face-first into the mat from a drop toe hold. Woods and Truth double team Ryback with a hip toss and then throw him out the ring. Axel comes in and is also sent packing while Woods launches himself over the top rope into a senton on Ryback who had just got to his feet. We crash to the break.

Ryback eats a heel kick and is rolled up for a near fall. Blind tag lets Axel get in the ring, throwing Truth outside and beating on him. Truth plays babyface in peril in the ring as quick tags keep him in their corner. Money in the Bank chat is high on the list of topics this week on the show as Saxton and Philips talk of little else. Ryback hits a second rope splash and snap suplex for a near fall.

Woods gets the hot tag and takes Ryback down with a drop kick and a top rope missile drop kick. He gets a near fall, hits another drop kick goes for the Honour Roll and reverses Ryback’s reversal attempt into a swinging DDT for a pin that is broken up by Axel. Axel and Truth brawl outside and Woods gets caught with a meathook clothesline and Shellshock from Ryback for the win.

The Raw Rebound recapped the 4-on-3 handicap match from Monday night.

WWE Superstars TV Report – 19th June 2014

Noteworthy: RVD is demoted to Superstars this week. The Raw Rebound makes a big deal of Roman Reigns but just as bigger a deal of the fact that he and Rusev were the last two in the Battle Royale. Nikki Bella wrestled Alicia Fox and it wasn’t too bad.

Nikki Bella beat Alicia Fox with the Rack Attack in 4:03

Well. Alicia’s big new unhinged crazy chick gimmick has made it all the way to Superstars – it probably saved her from being cut with the others last week, actually.

Nikki explodes out of the bell and double legs Fox, going to work immediately on her left arm. She puts her arm over the bottom rope and stomps on it and then applies a wrist lock. Fox struggles to find a way out of the hold. Nikki drops the hold, runs the ropes and hits a missile drop kick which forces Fox to cower and take sanctuary under the bottom rope.

Fox chokes Nikki on top rope to the outside, rolls back in and now takes control with a rear chin lock. She hits a sweet northern lights suplex and gets a near fall, goes back to the rear chin lock and the crowd start to get behind Nikki.

Nikki powers up, hits two flying clotheslines another missile drop kick but gets caught by Fox with a neck breaker. Fox uses an Irish whip to the corner but misses the follow-up charge which allows Nikki to pick Fox up, put her on her shoulders and hit the Rack Attack for the win.

There was no post-match reaction from Fox – at least if there was live, we weren’t shown it. A nothing match, but Nikki was better than usual here.

The Raw rebound – was a rehash of the Battle Royale to find the last contestant for the Money in the Bank World Heavyweight Title match. They made a big deal out the Rusev and Reigns spots at the end and made sure to make Roman Reigns look like an absolute hero.

They did this last week – a new segment – we got a brief, 20 second, back stage promo from Zeb with Swagger. He pumped him up for his match with RVD and they ended with a stereo “we the people” which the crowd joined in with. Short, sweet, to the point. Nice. Taking a leaf out of the NXT playbook with that one?

Rob Van Dam beat Jack Swagger (w/ Zeb Colter) with the Five Star Frog Splash in 7:48

I’ve written this before when he’s been on Superstars, but am I the only one who thinks that Swagger is looking puffy, bloated, unhealthy and overweight? If you compare his frame and face to the Swagger that won the title in 2009, he’s a lot bigger round the waist and much ruddier in complexion. As for RVD, well he looks 50 years old.

So, this was the battle of the singlets.

Swagger gets the early going with a shoulder barge to show off his strength to RVD. RVD nods and says, “Ok, Ok, its like that,” as Zeb and Swagger lead the crowd in an early “we the people.”

They lock up and eventually RVD hits Swagger with the first of many heel kicks in this match, splashes him to the corner and then clotheslines him over the top rope. As Swagger gets to his feet, RVD flings himself into an over the top rope crossbody. This is essentially like every WWE RVD match you’ve ever seen.

RVD hits the leg drop on Swagger and gets a near fall and then goes for a headlock. When Swagger is down and struggling, Van Dam climbs to the top rope but Swagger stumbles to his feet and throws him off top rope and into barricade. This looked pretty messy and the crowd came to life as we crashed to the break

Swagger’s in control as we return, hits a clothesline gets a near fall and then goes for a rear chin lock, rest hold. RVD powers up, hits the Roll of Thunder but Swagger catches him at the end of the move and reverses it into the Patriot Lock, in what was easily the most creative and interesting spot on this whole show.

RVD struggles in the Patriot Lock but eventually frees himself with kicks to Swagger’s head which makes Swagger bleed from the mouth. It’s probably about time that someone stiffed Swagger back – guy practically kills people every week. RVD manages to hit a top rope thrust kick and both men go down.

RVD gets to his feet first and goes to the top rope for a Frog Splash attempt but this is countered when Swagger leaps up to the top rope and throws him down to the mat. He jumps back down, covers him but only gets a near fall. Swagger than grabs RVD and slams him with a German suplex but Van Dam is able to grab the bottom rope to stop the count.

The finish sees the Swagger Bomb countered by RVD with a kick to the head. He climbs the ropes, hits the Five Star Frog Splash and gets the win.

The Raw Rebound finished this show – Kane v Cena in a stretcher match.

WWE Superstars TV Report – 13th June 2014

Noteworthy: Titus O’Neil seems to be exclusively on this show, this week jobbing to Dolph Ziggler. 3MB have their last TV appearance before Mahal and McIntyre’s release.

Dolph beat Titus O’Neil with the Zig Zag in 5:30

Dolph may need to get used to losing now that these guys have been released. He was really over with this crowd - which really isn’t that unusual - and these two wrestled a perfectly fine match. Dolph wasn’t too rushed, Titus paced things well.

Dolph bumps all over for Titus out of the lock up and eventually hits a drop kick to finally take Titus down to the mat. He goes to the second rope and hits a cross body but is caught and O’Neil reverse it into three back breakers, before tossing Ziggler to one side.

O’Neil beats him up now with stiff looking (and sounding) slaps and forearms. He then lifts Ziggler to his shoulder and drops to his knees to hit a huge backbreaker and gets a near fall. Dolph tries to power up for a comeback but is immediately hit with a huge clothesline that looks like it pretty much knocked Dolph’s head off. Titus carries on the onslaught with a scoop slam, followed by a huge Hogan-esque leg drop for another near fall.

You know by this point that O’Neil isn’t winning this one. He goes for a torture rack style hold on Ziggler who wriggles out, dodges the subsequent charge to the corner and both men go to the mat for a seven count to build the drama. Titus is up first and Dolph reverses his charge into a DDT.

The finish sees Dolph go for the famemasser, who is blocked by a big boot and out of nowhere Dolph hits the Zig Zag to steal the win.

The Raw rebound was a music video about Daniel Bryan’s current plight and the title match at Money in the Bank. This was followed by a package that storylined Seth Rollins’ turn.

In a rare treat, Byron Saxton interviewed 3MB with Hornswoggle backstage. They made some references to hair and purposefully messed up a gag about Adam Rose being the grass and them being the lawn mowers. They looked like goofs.

Adam Rose beat Heath Slater (w/ Jinder Mahal, Drew McIntyre & Hornswoggle) with the Party Foul in 7:33

Heath Slater rarely works but is way better than Jinder and more entertaining than Drew. This was all comedy but that’s about as much as you could expect here. Drew and Jinder’s last moments on WWE TV were being knocked off the apron by Adam Rose.

Headlock, wrist lock exchanges kick this off until Rose shows off his impressive ability to do forward rolls. Copied by Slater, who does a weaker job at them, Rose rolls him up trying to steal an early win. When he kicks out, Rose smacks his ass and then hits him with a drop toe hold and begins to ride him like a donkey round the ring, pulling his hair and smacking his ass. Really. This happened.

Slater is pissed off - as you would be - and gets up and shoves Rose. Rose retaliates with a European upper cut and so Slater rolls out the ring for a breather. Rose follows, hits him with a big kick to the head, rolls back in and we crash to the break.

Rose hits a huge top rope cross body when we return and gets a near fall. Slater uses a heel kick to get a near fall of his own and then we go to a rest hold. Meanwhile, on commentary, I swear Tom Philips genuinely said, “Heath Slater, the veteran of the WWE”. What?

Rose goes for a sleeper but Slater gets out by hitting a big side suplex and we get a near fall. Then another rest hold. Scoop slam from Slater allows Rose to try a small package but when Slater kicks out, we go to the finish.

Rose hits an inverted atomic drop, a spinning neckbreaker, a forearm and takes out Jinder and Drew who are on the apron. Hornswoggle interferes, walks across the ring and so Rose grabs him and pulls his wig off. He hits the Party Foul for the win.

A nothing match that was all comedy and saw the end of their WWE careers for Jinder Mahal and Drew McIntyre.

The Raw Rebound finished this show – Shield & Cena v Wyatts.

WWE Superstars TV Report – 30th May 2014

Noteworthy: Big E warms up for Payback against Rusev with a win against Superstars regular Titus O’Neil. RybAxel chalk up a win against Xavier Woods (remember him?) and R-Truth.

Big E beat Titus O’Neil with the Big Ending in 4:59

If you thought they’d given up on Big E, they’ve clearly halted any ideas for Titus O’Neil. He’s on this show pretty much every week now and normally loses, despite his huge size. Last week it was Big Show, this week it’s Big E. Big E gets the rub presumably because he’s going to tap out to Rusev on Sunday.

Titus gets the early going and shows off his strength with Big E. Huge scoop slams and back breakers show just how strong he really is. Huge forearms and a big boot send Big E to the mat and Titus gets a near fall before slapping on a rear chin lock. Lots of standing around and waiting/watching from O’Neil slow the pace of this match down – he rarely seems desperate to capitalise on his opponents being on the mat.

The crowd get behind Big E. O’Neil is really stiff with Big E here and charges at him in the corner to a rain of boos until Big E dodges a second attempt and dumps him over the top rope.

O’Neil gets back in the ring after a count of eight and meets Big E who crushes him with a clothesline and a belly-to-belly followed by the Big Splash. He pulls the straps down and hits him with the Big Ending for the win. Almost a squash here.

The Raw rebound was Daniel Bryan and Stephanie build for his ‘big announcement’ on Payback regarding the titles and a Cena v Bray music video.

RybAxel beat Xavier Woods and R-Truth with the Shellshock in 8:50

I had literally forgotten about Xavier Woods’ existence until he came out here with R-Truth. He completely stole Brodus Clay’s music, dancers and gimmick a few months ago and now both men seem right at the back of newly shuffled deck.

Woods and Axel kick things off and Woods hits Axel with a tilt-a-whirl head scissors to get Truth into the ring who then hits Axel with a smooth drop kick. Tag gets Ryback in who gets far too easily beaten up by Truth with punches and forearms; Truth goes for a wheelbarrow roll up but gets a near fall. Woods blind tags in and hits a top rope clothesline on Ryback for a one count of his own.

Byron Saxton amusingly notes that “Woods and Truth could be the sleeper tag team here in the WWE” yes, ‘sleeper’ is the right term: nobody ever sees or hears from them. A double team hip toss on Ryback gets Axel into the ring and all four men brawl. Ryback gets clotheslined over the top rope and Axel gets dumped as we go to a break.

Truth is playing babyface in peril when we return, getting beaten up by RybAxel. Axel hits a stiff drop kick, stomps and kicks Truth into the corner and chokes him out on the middle rope. Ryback tags in and they double team Truth who takes a suplex from Ryback for a near fall. We got a rear chin lock rest hold and the crowd get behind Truth.

Truth powers out and runs into an elbow and continues to get beaten down by RybAxel. Both men hit second rope double axe handles and Truth powers up, eventually getting Woods the hot tag after a heel kick to Axel. Woods runs wild on Ryback using a missile drop kick, an enzuigiri and a top rope clothesline for a near fall. The ring fills and Axel gets dumped by Truth and both men brawl outside. Woods eats a meat hook clothesline from Ryback and is finished with the Shellshock.

A decent tag team match but nothing special. Woods is OK but isn’t standout enough to make an impression on this roster.

The Raw Rebound finished this show - Evolution and Shield build for Payback this Sunday.