WWE Superstars TV Report – 28th November 2013

This week’s show was the ideal Thanksgiving show: clean, fun, family-friendly, yet thoroughly entertaining. Happy Thanksgiving to my readers from the United States!

Fandango and Summer Rae kick off the show for the second consecutive week with their entrance. Again, tiny pockets of yokels are found in the nose-bleeds half-heartedly doing the dance for our viewing pleasure. Tom Philips and Alex Riley wish us a happy Thanksgiving and Riley produces a frozen turkey from under the announce table. I have no idea why – it wasn’t funny – he came off like a weirdo. He’s cut off by Zack Ryder’s music who makes his way to the ring to zero reaction to face Fandango.

Zack Ryder v Fandango (with Summer Rae)

At the bell, in typical Superstars fashion, both men pause to show off to the crowd: Fandango wiggles his hips and Ryder fists pumps and shouts ‘woo, woo, woo!’ They lock up and Fandango backs Ryder into the corner and hits him with a shoulder to the midsection and a few strikes to the head. He Irish whips him and Ryder reverses, hitting him with a flapjack followed by a nicely placed drop kick. He then climbs the ropes, trapping his opponent, and punches him in the corner but Fandango, in a clever move, ducks under his legs and yanks Ryder to the mat.

Fandango kicks and stomps Ryder who gets to his feet only to eat a spinning heel kick. He goes for a cover but Ryder kicks out at two for the first near fall of this short match. Fandango is in great shape but is looking a little heavier around the waist this week.

Philips asks Riley who should be the one champion of the WWE (remember this is recorded before Raw, so Philips must have known that it was a unification match, even if it wasn’t clear on Raw) and Riley says that Orton should be “because he’s been the face of the company for the last six months and has the backing of the authority”. Huh. What a terrible opinion.

Fandango continues to dominate with chops to Ryder followed by a hard Irish whip into the corner. Fandango then catches him with a reverse chin lock – yes, the WWE Superstars go-to move. Ryder tries to power his way out with punches and, out of a whip, sends Fandango face-first into the mat. He climbs the second rope and brings up his knees to block the charge of Fandango. Then he hits him with a missile drop kick from the middle rope and waits in the corner, poised to hit the Broski Boot.

The finish sees Ryder set up for the Rough Ryder (which he normally misses first time) and hits it, covers Fandango and gets the three count. So, Fandango is now jobbing to Zack Ryder on Superstars!  This was a very short match even by Superstars standards.

Winner: Zack Ryder via pinfall (2:35)

The Raw Rebound is next – and the last thing we need on this of all weeks is another opportunity to watch segments from a god-awful Raw! However, all the comedy segments are ignored and we’re shown the making of the unification match with Orton, Cena and The Authority followed by the handicap match between Punk & Bryan and The Wyatts.

Out next on Superstars are The Usos who have been given some nice spots of late and have benefitted from more TV/ppv exposure. They generally get over well with live crowds and especially do well in this pre-Raw slot where crowds are getting revved up for the show. Their opponents tonight are The Real Americans. No time for a promo from Zeb this week – there must be so much great stuff to show us from Raw this week…

The Real Americans (with Zeb Colter) v The Usos

Cesaro and Jimmy start things off and Jimmy uses a side headlock and shoulder tackle out of the Irish whip. He goes for the cover and gets a one count. An angry Cesaro gets to his feet and kicks Jimmy in the stomach and smacks with a forearm to the back of the head and then applies a side headlock of his own. Out of the whip, Cesaro tries to copy Jimmy’s shoulder tackle and does so, stopping to place his hand on his heart and say ‘we the people’ but Jimmy then plants him with an uppercut.

I like how The Usos are improving. The rarely work poor tag matches these days. Cesaro should turn babyface – people chant along with him when he says ‘we the people’ because they like him, they don’t when Swagger does it.

Jey tags in and he climbs up to the top rope for a double axe handle to Jey’s left arm. Jey follows with a snap mare and, running the ropes, uses a neat sliding clothesline on Cesaro. He goes for a cover but only gets a near fall. Jey rings the arm and Jimmy tags back in. He repeats the same process, going to the top rope for a double axe handle to Cesaro’s left arm. He rings the arm again but this time Cesaro hits him with a knee to the midsection and a European uppercut. Jimmy comes back with a punch and chop followed by a side headlock as the crowd start to chant “Uoos – O!” Cesaro breaks out of the headlock, Irish whips Jimmy and catches him with a tilt-a-whirl back breaker. Swagger finally tags in.

Swagger immediately catches Jimmy with a belly-to-belly slam. He picks up Jimmy by the hair and sends him through the ropes to the floor and tags in Cesaro.

On commentary, Phillips is listing Swagger’s decorated past, naming the ECW championship. It occurred to me that many youngsters watching this on a Saturday morning will have no clue what that was or means. As we go to the break, Cesaro charges Jimmy with a three-point stance clothesline.

After the commercials, Swagger is in the ring and has a hold of Jimmy, punching him to mat. He gets to his feet and Jimmy punches and chops Swagger but Swagger runs Jimmy into the corner. Cesaro heels as the referee is dealing with Swagger’s over-aggression and chokes Jimmy using the top rope. Swagger then hits him with a double jump Swagger Bomb and Cesaro tags in and follows it with a leap frog double stomp for a near fall.

Cesaro then applies a reverse chin lock and Jimmy escapes but Cesaro catches him as he tries to leap for the tag. Swagger is tagged in and Cesaro catapults Jimmy to Swagger for a power slam and a near fall. Swagger now applies a front face lock on Jimmy who tries to get to his corner but Swagger pulls him into the centre of the ring. His attempt to escape is now to use a sunset flip, which he gets a near fall with, but Swagger lands him with a knee to the midsection.

Cesaro tags in and hits a leg drop for another near fall as the match gathers pace and Jimmy continues to play the babyface in peril. Swagger comes in and they hit a double back elbow and Swagger goes for the cover, getting a near fall. Swagger then uses an arm bar, Cesaro tags in but Jimmy gets him with a kick to the shoulder and he avoids the charging Swagger by pulling down the ropes so that he goes to the floor outside the ring. To make things even more convenient, Jimmy is able to dodge Cesaro who misses a Stinger splash to the corner.

Jimmy crawls across the ring to try to make the tag but Swagger tags in and he tries to knock Jey off the apron but Jey moves and Swagger hits the turnbuckles. Finally, Jey tags in and he hits a clothesline on Swagger, running over to knock Cesaro off the apron, hitting another clothesline on Swagger as he turns around. He then uses the savate kick and an uppercut (reminiscent of Goldust) followed by a Samoan drop out of the Irish whip.

Most Uso matches finish like this and we’re not disappointed: Jey dives over the top rope and hits a plancha that pretty misses Swagger outside; he rolls Swagger back into the ring and he hits the running butt splash (the Stinkface tribute that they always do) on him in the corner but only gets a near fall because Cesaro breaks it up. Jimmy then sends Cesaro over the top rope to the floor which leaves Jimmy and Jey to hit a double super kick and then Jimmy hits a plancha onto Cesaro outside while Jey hits the Superfly splash about a mile across the ring for the win. A really fun match as always from these four. I like what The Usos are capable of but they tend to work by numbers now, particularly in their finishes.

Winners: The Usos via pinfall (7:53)

This was a clean, wholesome and fun Thanksgiving edition of WWE Superstars that would lighten any WWE fan’s mood during this holiday season. The show closes out with the end of the tag match between Cena & Big Show and Del Rio & Orton, focusing on the concussion angle.

WWE Survivor Series 2013 Review and Comment

Well even though this show was really quite poor for a Survivor Series show, I think the trend has been thus for a few years now. In fact, 2009 was probably the last time the show had a good main event. What once again will look good in later years are the beautiful video packages that they put together. WWE are excellent at this the other 29 days of the month but at ppvs, and particularly at the big four, their production values on their video packages are just a wonder to behold.

5-on-5 Traditional Elimination Tag Team Match:

Cody Rhodes, Goldust, The Usos and Rey Mysterio vs. Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Jack Swagger and Antonio Cesaro

When you consider that this show didn’t get better than this, it’s a depressing way to start a review of Survivor Series. This match did everybody a lot of favours. Jey Uso, Rollins, Goldust and most of all Roman Reigns came out of this as real stars. Reigns needs to turn babyface in the New Year now and should be pushed as one of the company’s top men. Yes, he’s still got a lot to learn but he’s got way more potential than Ryback ever had, having shown great improvement in the year that he’s had so far on the main roster. He not only has a great look but he’s the ideal badass, in the role of Diesel, Stone Cold and, more lately, The Rock.

A fantastic finish to a very good ppv match and opener. The Boston crowd loved the heel win here.

WWE Intercontinental Title Match:

Big E. Langston (c) vs. Curtis Axel

Langston retained here but I fear for Axel. They gave him everything and he blew it. He’s just a poor character with zero charisma. He ought to join one of the stables now if they’re even interested in rehabbing him.

Big E is so agile for a big guy and he’ll be pushed now. It’s starting to feel like they have a few ideas about who they want to be their stars going forward but they have no idea who they’ll pair them with. Matches have no build right now.

7-on-7 Traditional Tag Team Elimination Match:

Cameron, Naomi, Natalya, Eva Marie, Jo Jo and The Bella Twins vs. AJ Lee, Tamina Snuka, Alicia Fox, Kaitlyn, Summer Rae, Rosa Mendes and Aksana

This was horrendous but who really cares? Some of these girls have the potential to be fairly dangerous in the ring so I was glad when they quickly pinned them so that we didn’t see anyone get dropped on their head. AJ v Natalya is about as good as it gets here. Jojo was pretty good considering.

I don’t really see why they’re putting these green girls in there without any real idea of what to do. It’s embarrassing and completely pointless.

Ryback Open Challenge:

Ryback v Mark Henry

Henry is advertised for WrestleMania so it makes sense that he’s back for the next 6 months. He looks great, having lost a lot of weight (and hair). For the New Orleans crowd, it’s important to have a black star and Henry is undoubtedly that.

Ryback has no direction now. He and Curtis Axel have been shuffled to the bottom of the deck. I look forward to writing about them both on Superstars soon!

Henry went for a clothesline and Henry did a sort-of crossbody (that was awful yet awesome), followed by the World's Strongest Slam. A short match, the crowd weren’t much into it at all.

World Heavyweight Championship Match:

John Cena (c) vs. Alberto Del Rio

This ought to be the blow off to this feud but the fact that the chair keeps being used in this feud by Del Rio could suggest that we’ll have to see this match again next month under different stips. The ‘chairs match’ is fairly laughable but does make sense in this context. They, of course, teased Orton and Cena at the end of the show. It’s weird to see Cena not closing out the show anymore with this title. I guess that must be why they’re putting him with Orton next month.

They made the best of this but no-one ever expected Del Rio to win this and so the crowd were fairly disinterested. It was a long match but it didn't have as much heat as most Cena matches. John Cena was kind of sloppy in the match on offense: he sold his arm a great deal but this ended up being really similar to the match they had last month; it was almost the same finish as Del Rio had the armbar on the left arm, but Cena picked him up and power bombed him, then used the Attitude Adjustment for the pin. Not nearly the level of most WWE World title matches but not bad either.

Tag Team Match:

CM Punk and Daniel Bryan vs. Luke Harper and Erick Rowan

The Wyatts had a late swing in the odds but didn’t go over - I would still have picked them anyway. They need carrying less and less but who better to do that than Punk and Bryan? I assume one of these two is now going to go up against Bray Wyatt at TLC unless they add another and make it a 6-man. Either way, Bryan v Punk at Mania, please.

In fairness they had a good match here. I love Punk’s attention to detail: he was wearing Boston Bruins colours tonight on his trunks. The finish saw Bryan take out Rowan with the Busaiku knee and Punk pin Harper after the GTS. Harper may have hyper-extended his knee as he took a tope from Bryan, causing him to limp badly and be tagged out.  He came back in later but didn't seem to favour the knee that much. Rowan looked better than he ever has here which is probably good for his career - he won’t get many second chances at this kind of level. After the match, they teased that Bray Wyatt would hit the ring but he then backed off.

WWE Championship Match:

Randy Orton (c) vs. Big Show

Given that Orton himself already accepted that he might not be able to beat Big Show on his own, we were to expect Triple H to interfere. I could see it leading to Orton covering Show for the win which would set up Triple H v Big Show at TLC, maybe even at the Rumble. But who wants to see that match now?

This was one of the worst WWE main events in the last few years. They were outside the ring and Show knocked Orton out. Show threw Orton in the ring, but HHH, Stephanie and Kane all came out. Show was distracted, and Orton hit the RKO.  However, Orton was still selling and couldn't get the pin. Orton then went for the punt and actually missed it, but it was sold like he hit it. He then pinned Show. A dull finish to a dull match at a dull ppv.

After the match, Cena came in the ring and it looked like they’re teasing a Cena vs. Orton match for next month. Maybe it was just a Boston thing: Cena showing what a true champ should look like in his home town of world champions. Either way, it meant Cena closed out the ppv – what a dick. I guess more will be made clear tomorrow. Orton and Cena both have no opponent for next month and going against each other means both titles will remain in their hands. Again, no one will pay to see that but then few will have paid to see this tonight, if they had any sense.

The History of WWE: 50 Years of Sports Entertainment DVD Review

I’m not sure that anyone needs to buy The History of WWE DVD but I think people need to see the two hour feature documentary: there’s something of aesthetic legitimacy about it. A legitimacy that is perhaps as much of a work as much of the industry itself.

I was reminded on initial viewing of Ken Burns’ recent addition to his documentary series, Baseball: The Tenth Inning. WWE, too, have used a beautifully-knit array of talking heads, newspaper clippings, images and film to tell the story of the last 50 years of their business. The high-production values, stunning editing and re-mastered HD footage are all narrated by the man whose voice Burns, himself, employed for his latest offering - Keith David. If ever you wondered whether Vince McMahon really still wanted his promotion to be taken as seriously as any sport, this, I would say, is as clear a proof as any.

The documentary tells a story that is familiar to most of us (certainly from 1985 onwards) but the matches, angles and promos chosen to be representative of the last 50 years of wrestling on the subsequent discs are largely already out there and available for purchase. Other than the Bruno Sammartino v ‘Superstar’ Billy Graham match from April 1977, a Tribute to the Troops match from 2008 and this year’s Cena and Punk Raw match from February, all matches come from the big four ppvs and have been released on DVD – you probably either own them or have no interest in owning them. Many of the key stories here are also available elsewhere and have been approached in recent collections – think the Attitude Era, The Rock, Steve Austin, Triple H, all who have had collections released in the last two years.

With that said, the documentary has some wonderful moments and is littered with stars from the past, hall of famers and current roster talent. One voice is decidedly absent however: that of Vince McMahon. Vince did no sit-down interview for this collection. Instead, everyone else tells his story for him, especially Linda, and he appears as if from beyond the grave in pre-recorded interviews from over the last 30 years. This decision is understandable to an extent but is also fairly baffling: should the man who turned this industry into what it is today have a say on his company’s 50^th anniversary in 2013?

His father is given huge kudos by all who speak about him. He is described as fair, honest, classy; a man who treated talent like family. On the advent of wrestling TV, Vince saw this as the place where wrestling was able to grow. At the Capitol Arena, Washington on Thursday nights, wrestling started to get a new image and a new set of viewers who hadn’t previously had access to it. It seduced many. The re-mastered, black and white footage in HD looks tremendous here.

From that era, one man is given top billing: Bruno. Crowds flocked, he was a massive draw, a fan favourite told as if it was of Beatle-mania proportions. As a headliner of MSG nearly 200 times, the man who was on every cover of every wrestling magazine (and there were many), it is wonderfully fitting that he should have made up with the company so that he could be present here on this documentary feature. He looks wonderful, speaks with insight and precision and is an asset to the film. And, I had no idea that he had at one time had a private audience with the Pope. Quite remarkable.

From Sammartino onwards, WWE had a steady trickle of stars from Backland to Andre to George ‘The Animal’ Steele to Jimmy Snuka and Billy Graham. They went into syndication and began to evolve. Sgt Slaughter claims that he was the first man to have music play him to the ring and that Vince was spearheading that kind of change in the industry that would survive to this day. The ‘82 takeover, he said, “kicked the doors open and let in some fresh air.” A wonderful phrase but the aggression hinted at in his words is mirrored by those who speak about the way in which Vince went out to buy out those territories.

WWE and Hogan needed each other and they have no problem in painting that truth as the picture of the time. There is tonnes of footage of Hogan from the early days of his time with company, looking chubby and bloated but by WrestleMania I, Roddy Piper puts over how real the heat was on him because of the way he acted towards the likes of Hogan. I thought it was interesting that, of WrestleMania I, Bret Hart noted that many had felt that it would probably be their last ever big high and that beyond it, it was probably game overt. Linda tells the story that by 3am on April 1st she had gone to Vince to say that they had broken even.

Dick Ebersol (SNL) is a real advocate of the company and adds authenticity to the documentary. When they had gone to Saturday Night’s Main Event on NBC - a monthly, late night television show that would combine wrestling, music and comedy – they were giving a new exposure to wrestling and getting many new eyeballs on the product. He talks about the merchandising opportunities that this then allowed them to venture into. It’s eye-opening, actually. When you see just how much they were shelling, through so many different market areas, you realise just how different this national frontage allowed them to be.

The steroid trial in the early 90s is told with a certain amount of passivity. Within a few minutes of summary, the first wellness policy is mentioned instead of going into any great depths of the three week trial. They take a fairly cursory view of the trial, the accusations and, although they indicate that all involved were under great stress and strain, they assure us that the experience was ultimately positive since it let the new generation of younger, unproven talent come through. Vince the victim had turned the ultimate potential disaster, the perfect storm, into the chance to “hit the reset button’ (Jim Ross). It allowed Bret Hart to become a main star and as Undertaker states, “it made us work hard, cos everyone wanted to be the guy who would take us forward.” Raw followed in a time that was all about being fresh – MTV had gone, ‘unplugged’, wrestling was now ‘raw’. Linda said that “some fans who didn’t have access to ppv, this was their first experience of live wrestling.”

The Monday Night Wars are painted, briefly, as a battle that was about money that was ultimately won because WWE had ‘better talent’ and told ‘better stories’. Montreal is told in about a total of 3 minutes: “WWE no longer needed Bret Hart.” (I’m not sure how Bret will feel about that.) They put over Vince’s character as a result of Montreal – “it was just all so well thought out” – Steve Saks of Pro Wrestling Illustrated (it was?). But they do correctly indentify that this was the turning point, the launching pad for what would become the Attitude Era.

The Attitude Era is painted as a hellish Rome: women in droves, gratuity, cursing, sex, crazed characters, general chaos; unscripted anarchy. The kids that watched the product during Hulkamania were now teens and wanted this, Lawler says. “Sex sells.” Steph giggles that her room-mate at college was a kindergarten trainee and 5 year olds would imitate DX at school which “became problematic.” The era saw the biggest stars in company history but they’re looked at fleetingly. We’re given a montage of stars: Triple H, Austin, Rock, the household names who had made “it cool to watch wrestling.” I can see why they’re not given much more time – their stories are out there already - but Cena gets way more air time than he deserves later.

The Owen Hart tragedy is told for the first time on a WWE DVD. Ross says, “our producer said ‘we’re going to give an update on Owen after the next segment’, and I said ‘what is the update?’ He said, ‘he’s dead,’ ‘what?’ ‘he’s dead. And we’re coming to you live in 30 seconds.” Linda recalls that it was “the most awful night I have ever experienced,” while the Undertaker recalls that “it was devastating, most people won’t see that side of Vince but it really hurt him. It was like losing a family member”

From here on, it feels anachronistic at times but is told at a real pace: SmackDown! debuts, the first weekly wrestling show for the company on network television, which allowed the roster to “become two” and gave people more TV time; stars remember the power of the 9/11 show; the company became a publically traded company in 1999. Vince says that he needed to be able to “look in the mirror” and make sure that he’d done the best with the product every day; WCW is purchased; people sighed with relief; “Our competition is now everything that’s out there on entertainment television.” – Steph; they have the brand extension and all of sudden we speed through the post-attitude era until we hit 2005/6 and John Cena.

Time slows. John Cena is remembered as if he, too, was long gone. The documentary here takes more than just a pit stop on the timeline to look at the family-friendly, clean, wholesome work of one John Cena. Most notably it is his charity work that is mentioned most - in great detail - while his ring craft or his shopping list of decorations and titles with the company isn’t touched upon at all. His image and persona is used as a springboard for the documentary to look at the future of the company, at pace.

Films, WWE Studios, filming in HD, the website, twitter, social media, pre-shows, the app, youtube and NXT and the WWE Performance Center are all covered in a blink-and-you’d-miss-it fashion. The only saving grace of the last quarter of the film is the time that they take to illustrate the importance of the Hall of Fame and its’ inductees. The last 10 minutes is a tribute to Vince and the lasting impact of the company.

The gloss, polish and lustre of this documentary is something to be admired. WWE does production and editing better than just about any company in the entertainment business; it’s no wonder that they’re now venturing into the world of E! - they’ve met their match there. Of course, WWE aren’t going to turn around and tell you a complete story of 50 years in two hours that is wholly true and pure. But, if you bought Triple H’s DVD earlier last month, you’d be forgiven for thinking that you’d be slightly short-changed by this feature.

‘Sports Entertainment’ never looked this good but, unfortunately, accuracy and truth aren’t measured through aesthetics.

WWE Superstars TV Report – 21st November 2013

This week’s show saw it compulsory for all competitors to have names that ended in ‘o’ (unless you’re Tyson Kidd) and gave Los Matadores  and El Torito their debut on a show that will no doubt be their home for the foreseeable future.

Fandango kicks off the show with Summer Rae. Cue a couple of shots of patches of geeks doing the dance up in the gods. Riley starts singing Florida Georgia Line to Tom Philips in order to segue into talk about Raw from Monday and Survivor Series. Clearly, they had nothing to say about Fandango. Tyson Kidd, tan and all, is his opponent tonight and boy did they sweeten his reaction in post-production. This ought to be a good match.

Fandango v Tyson Kidd

Out of the lock up, Fandango hip tosses Kidd immediately and wiggles his hips, posturing to the crowd. Tyson, looking disgusted, gets up and drop kicks Fandango through the ropes and begins to do his own Fandango dance in the ring while Summer Rae goes to Fandango’s aid. As he approaches the ropes, Kidd swings through between the top and middle rope and lands him with a missile drop kick as the referee starts the count.

Outside, Kidd stomps on Fandango and rolls him back in the ring. Tyson leaps over the top rope and goes for a cover with a sunset flip – Fandango kicks out at two. Kidd then goes for a wheelbarrow victory roll but Fandango reverses it into a modified German suplex. He gets a two count as Riley mentions the Total Divas angle that lead to this minor feud.

Fandango starts to hit Tyson with strikes and chops in the corner and whips him into the opposite turnbuckle as the crowd start to get behind Kidd. Fandango starts to wear Kidd down with a rear choke. Kidd rolls him off, ducks out of a charge to the corner and then mounts the second rope and uses a tilt-a-whirl headscissors to launch Fandango face-first into the second turnbuckle. Kidd then starts to work on Fandango with kicks and drop kicks, getting a near fall.

Kidd charges at the recovering Fandango in the corner who ducks, making Kidd leap frog into the turnbuckle. As Tyson recovers, Fandango goes to the top rope looking to land the leg drop but eats an enziguri and sells it by hanging, limply from the ropes. Riley compares Kidd to RVD which Tom Philips and I both clearly thought an interesting comparison.

The finish comes when Kidd misses a top rope frankensteiner on Fandango who hits the Beauty in Motion (leg drop) and covers him for the win. Man is that finisher going to shorten his career. This was a good 4-minute match; I’d happily see more of these two.

Winner: Fandango via pinfall (3:59)

The Raw Rebound is next – we get the return of The Authority with the Orton v Maddox match and we get the Ryback v Big Show match with the Orton interference.

Out next on Superstars are Los Matadores with El Torito who make their WWE Superstars debut. Their opponents (minus the bikes) are Hunico and Camacho. It’s been a while but if memory serves, Camacho is dreadful while Hunico is tremendous…

Los Matadores (with El Torito) v Hunico &Camacho

Hunico and Diego lock up and exchange arm drags until Hunico gets the better of him, does a kip up and generally looks in excellent shape. Hunico beats down Diego and then locks in a wrist lock which Diego escapes by climbing the ropes and using a top rope, springboard hurricanrana. Diego then gets caught charging Hunico but locks in a headscissors and brings Hunico down to the mat.

Fernando tags in and hits a drop kick on Hunico followed by a monkey flip that leads him to roll out of the ring. He then hits him through the ropes with a tope and ‘Oles’ the crowd as we head into a break.

After the ads, Fernando is being controlled by Hunico until Camacho tags himself in and begins to beat him down. This guy is huge but is a complete contrast to Hunico – he has no grace and, while the others are all silky smooth performers in this match, he is ungainly and lumbering. Camacho lifts and holds Fernando in a side suplex and boots him in the corner as he tags in Hunico.

Hunico goes for a cover but only gets two and so tries a rear choke hold to wear Fernando down. Fernando tries to power out but gets schoolboyed and at the point of kicking out is picked up and slammed back down for another pin. This time, Hunico hooks the leg but, again, only gets the two count. Camacho tags in and power slams Fernando and again covers him but only for two. Back in comes Hunico and they double team poor Fernando.

Finally, Diego gets the hot tag when Fernando completely botches a tilt-a-whirl headscissors takedown. Hunico sells it anyway (even though the crowd “ooh” and wince) while Fernando gets up, plants Hunico with a DDT and crawls over to make the tag. Camacho also tags in and Diego runs wild.

The finish sees Hunico interrupt a pin attempt from Diego who had spent a good minute trying to get Camacho into the right position for him to hit his senton. Fernando sends Hunico packing while El Torito flies off the top rope onto Hunico on the outside. Inside the ring, Camacho takes a double back body drop from both of Los Matadores and Diego, the legal man, covers Camacho for the pin.

This had a few botched spots and showed Hunico’s ring rust and Camacho’s inexperience. There were at least ten headscissor-takedowns or similar in this match and it all ended up looking a little sloppy.

Winner: Los Matadores via pinfall (7:58)

This was a clean, wholesome and fun edition of WWE Superstars that would lighten any WWE fan’s mood on a Saturday morning. The show closes out with the Wyatts & Shield v Rhodes, Usos, Punk & Bryan match with Mysterio’s return.