Slow news week in WWE and this show is no different. They gave us the same Divas match as last week and used the same men’s singles match two nights running on Main Event and then here on Superstars. Not sure I’ve seen them ever do that before.
Byron Saxton seems to be being given a push; he’s now the regular
colour announcer on this show and has appeared on Main Event as well as still
being on NXT. Pretty sure it won’t last very long.
Natalya v Tamina Snuka
In a rematch
from last week, Tamina Snuka takes control in the early going. It kind of feels
like they’re trying to make Tamina into what Awesome Kong never got the time to
be in this company. She’s tall but because she lacks skill, ring experience and
ability, she’s not fooling anyone. Funniest spot here is after a really nice
stiff running clothesline from Tamina, she boots Natty in the back a few times
and then takes off her biker vest (a la Steve Austin c 1997) and throws it at her.
Looked like the most whimpish, cowardly move.
Tamina’s
offence is fairly limited. If you look at the up-and-comers like Summer Rae,
they really have so much more to offer in the ring. Her move set is
essentially, chops, punches, knees, a Samoan drop, a power slam and her father’s
finisher. Case in point: Natalya hits two really neat suplexes that look great
and is immediately just kicked in the face to ruin the flow of the match.
The finish
has Tamina scream something inaudible at the crowd almost Vickie Guerrero-like
as she goes for the Samoan drop. Natalya wriggles out and puts her in the
Sharpshooter. Tamina taps out immediately. Awful way to book a monster heel.
Even Steven
booking means Natalya gets her win back. If we get the same match next week,
they need to improve on this for all our sakes.
Winner: Natalya via submission in 4:39.
On the Raw
Rebound this week we get the 6-man tag between The Rhodes brothers & Rey
and The Wyatts followed by The Real Americans v Sheamus & Christian. Cesaro
was the star of Raw on Monday in my eyes.
They showed
that tremendous Lita Hall of Fame video. In the light of this video package, never
has the Divas division look so tame.
Big E comes
out next, probably in his last ever appearance as ‘Big E Langston’. They
actually cut the ‘Langston’ off from Justin Roberts’ ring announcement for him
which just sounded really odd and was kind of unnecessary but there we go. His
Titantron video still has a huge dumbbell with ‘Big E Langston’ written on it.
Think they need to take that white belt off of him too.
Big E v Drew McIntyre (w/ Jinder
Mahal)
This was a non-title match and the same match was also taped the
following night at the SmackDown! tapings for Main Event. Technically,
therefore, this match happened first but was shown second. Who cares, right?
They were both non-title matches but, of the two, this was a better match that
was given more time.
Without looking it up, guess when Drew McIntyre was IC champion?
Four years ago, 2009. He beat John Morrison at TLC and had a little run as
champion under that period where he was ‘the chosen one’. And look at him now.
Drew’s a good worker, though. He’ll come again but they’ve buried him so far
down this card in this comedy trio spot that there’s just no way he’ll ever get
to that kind of level again. Typical WWE: too much, too fast, too soon.
Interesting that Heath Slater is not here again, I wonder if he’s
OK – he was off for personal reasons before the New Year for some time. Mahal
is in ring gear just in case we were wondering if he might try to get involved.
Early offence is all about Big E who catches Drew trying a cross-body
and gets hit with multiple backbreakers and manages to kick out at two. Big E
powers up and chain wrestles McIntyre and, just to prove how agile he is, Big E
leapfrogs Drew out of an Irish whip is if he were a lithe 200lb-er. Langston
hits a diving shoulder tackle reminiscent of the Ultimate Warrior, tries to put
Drew into the Big Ending who fights out and rolls to Mahal outside the ring as
we go to a commercial.
After the break, Big E hits a scary belly-to-belly suplex but McIntyre
dodges a repeat attempt at a shoulder to his midsection and starts to get some
moves in on Big E. Weirdly, probably ironically, we get duelling “Big E
Langston-3MB!” chants as Drew locks in on Big E’s left arm. Drew gets in a near
fall when he lands a drop kick on Langston he also does an impressive kip up
but Big E finally gets the heat when he throws McIntryre off the second rope.
He uses another belly-to-belly, a huge splash and after chasing off Mahal who
has tried to interfere, he hits the Big Ending for the win.
Drew McIntyre
v Big E is not a ppv quality match but Drew’s good enough to go 10-15 minutes
with someone like Langston and, given time, would easily deliver a good match.
Winner: Big E via pinfall (6:47)
The show
finishes with the end of the main event Randy Orton v John Cena match from
Monday. If that’s your sort of thing, I highly recommend it.
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