WWE Superstars TV Report – 16th January 2014

This week’s WWE Superstars was dedicated to the memory of Mae Young. And rightly so. If ever the word ‘Superstar’ had any meaning, it had meaning when assigned to the likes of Mae Young. A truly incredible woman.

The Funkadactyls come out to start off the show accompanying Xavier Woods. Anyone else think that he looks like Richard Pryor? R-Truth is alongside them and comes out to do commentary. I still can’t believe that they have just replaced Brodus with Xavier Woods. Why think of another gimmick when you can just give it to someone else? Truth appears to be wearing the most enormous crucifix you’ve ever seen. I wonder if they’ll ever go with him as a preacher – he’d be excellent in that role.

Brodus comes out to face Woods. The new music, look and style suit him. Having spoken to him, I know that he was never fazed by the Funkasaurus stuff but I’d guess he’s happier in this role. He’s the kind of wrestler, though, who is honestly just happy doing what he’s doing so long as he gets to be in WWE.

Xavier Woods v Brodus Clay

They lock up and Brodus shoves Woods into the corner who then retaliates with punches and kicks. He slides through Brodus’ legs and then stuns him with a drop kick. Brodus stumbles but isn’t knocked down and then hits him with a headbutt (Truth noting on commentary, “God that headbutt hurts”) and elbow drops Woods. Woods is man-handled and kicks out at two.

Brodus goes to work on his lower back with punches and hits him with a splash, following it up with an elbow drop. Brodus lifts Woods into a torture rack and then uses a backdrop into a backbreaker submission to continue to wear down Woods’ lower back. Not often you see wrestlers working the back these days.

Brodus gets caught by an enziguiri which allows Woods some room. He uses a basement drop kick to take out Clay’s legs and then hits him with a big flying forearm to the face and a drop kick. He goes for a cover but Clay kicks out at two. Woods then goes to the second rope but gets caught mid air and Brodus transitions it into his signature overhead suplex. Rather than trying to capitalise, Clay takes his time and climbs to the second rope, goes for the Splat! but Woods rolls out of the way.

Woods hits Lost in the Woods and covers Clay for the win. This was a nothing match but listening to R-Truth playing cheerleader on co-commentary was fun.

Winner: Xavier Woods via pinfall (4:42)

The Raw Rebound is next – we’re shown Punk & The New Age Outlaws v The Shield, with Punk getting screwed, followed by Kofi’s stolen win on Orton leading to Orton laying out Cena’s dad. Raw was pretty great on Monday, has to be said. Hopefully, a sign of things to come as we head into Mania season.

The Prime Time Players are out next on WWE Superstars. We’re shown a few geeks in the nose-bleeds doing the Millions of Dollars dance and then 3MB come out. Well, it’s nice to see Heath Slater back after his personal issues but I can’t believe Jinder gets the nod ahead of Heath to actually work in the ring.

Prime Time Players v 3MB (w/ Heath Slater)

Mahal and O’Neil start things off and Mahal immediately looks for a wrist lock, botches it, which angers O’Neil who then grabs him and throws him into the corner and viciously open-hand slaps his chest. This looked shoot actually. The way that O’Neil grabbed him and the scowl on his face looked like he was legitimately angry with Mahal. All very odd. He hits him again and then picks him up and chucks him to the mat because Heath Slater is up on the apron.

Young tags in and they double team Mahal with a battering ram and a backbreaker. Young covers him but Mahal kicks out at two. Mahal thrusts Young into the corner and hits him with shoulders to the ribs and Drew tags in. Drew uses punches and Flair chops only to then run into Young who catches him with a clothesline, an atomic drop and finally a snap scoop powerslam a la Randy Orton. He covers McIntyre but only gets a one count.

Young puts in him a headlock and tags in O’Neil who again uses open hand chops to the chest on McIntyre in the corner. McIntyre reverses and uses some Flair chops of his own. I think there’s some beef between these two teams, you can just sense it in the way they’re being tonight. McIntyre talks trash at O’Neil but gets smacked with a stiff clothesline. O’Neil picks him up by the hair and walks him over to tag in Darren Young. They double team McIntyre: O’Neil scoop slams him to the mat and then gourdbusters Young into Drew. Drew rolls outside; Mahal tries to interfere and gets run out of the ring. They regroup outside and we go to a break.

After the commercials, O'Neil controls McIntyre with stiff offense. Getting a two count.  O’Neil tags in Young who come off the top rope and hits Drew with a flying forearm. McIntyre gets Young isolated in the 3MB corner after throwing Young through the ropes to the floor.  O’Neil is fuming but can’t help out. A series of quick tags sees 3MB take control, working over his right arm, getting a single near fall in about two minutes of fairly dull work.

Finally, Darren manages to hit a released Northern Lights suplex on Mahal which sees both men down.  They crawl to their corners and we get a double tag. Titus gets the heat and dominates McIntyre with clotheslines and a Stinger Splash. Mahal breaks up a cover but takes the Gut Check from Young. This leaves McIntyre to be the one who takes the Clash of the Titus and gets covered for the win.

Pretty standard tag team house show stuff here. I do think they need to start getting Slater into the ring with 3MB. He’s a much better worker than Mahal and really lives the gimmick. Time too, I think, to take Titus to the next level as a singles star; he’s fairly over and seriously strong.

Winners:  Prime Time Players via pinfall (7:17)

The show finishes with the end of the Bryan & Usos v Wyatts cage match. Bryan at the top of that cage, leading the Yes chants as the camera pans out to see the crowd ALL doing the same, is probably the most iconic image that WWE have created in some time.