WWE Superstars - September 27, 2012
by Scrooge McSuck
- Last week on Superstars, Ted Dibiase (Jr.) made his return from being Glass-Bones-Man, Drew McIntyre and Jinder Mahal had a match that wound up being pointless due to a new alliance formed on Smackdown, David Otunga looked like crap making Tyson Kidd look like a scrub, and the Prime Time Players went over the Usos in the Main Event for their 45th win as a team. Sadly, All 45 of those wins came against the Usos.
- As usual, it's the revolving door play-by-play team of Josh Mathews, Matt Striker, and Scott Stanford. For whatever reason, this show has become a pain in the ass to watch without problems, which is a good enough excuse for why I'm recapping this on a sunday morning, rather than thursday night.
Yoshi Tatsu vs. Heath Slater (w/ Jinder Mahal & Drew McIntyre):
Woah, woah, woah... will Slater actually win a match here? Judging by the beat down on Brodus Clay on Smackdown, that implies a mild push at least for all three men, and Tatsu is the new Funaki (no racial stereotype intended). Slater is a complete and total goof. Lockup, and Tatsu quickly rolls him up for two. He grabs a headlock, then comes off the middle rope with another roll up for two. Japanese arm drag and dropkick from Tatsu. Mahal with a distraction to allow Slater to gain control of the action. Stanford with the shoot of the night, how these three came together "I have no idea." Snapmare by Slater, and it's chinlock time. Tatsu quickly fights free, but runs into a jumping heel kick. Slater with a jumping knee across the chest for two, then back to the chinlock. Yoshi with another escape, and a charge to the corner misses. Tatsu makes the big comeback, connecting with a spinning heel kick. He goes to the top rope, and misses a super-sized version of the heel kick. Slater with the reverse DDT, and that's enough for the three count at around the 4:00 mark. Heath Slater won a match. Put it in the record books with ORANGE highlights. Afterwards, the threesome lay a beatdown on Tatsu, just because they can. Gotta' love that reasoning. Maybe if these three guys had more in common than "C-Show fodder" I would care more.Ted Dibiase (Jr.) vs. Michael McGillicutty:
So Ted Dibiase's son is allowed to carry on the name, but Curt Hennig's son has to have a name of a character from "I Love Lucy"? Stanford makes claim that the only time these two were in the ring together for a standard match was as a team, in 2007, in McGillicutty's debut. Lockup, and McGillicutty with an arm drag. Lockup to the corner, and he offers a bitch slap. Dibiase turns him around and unloads with rights. Whip to the corner, Dibiase avoids a charge, and kicks the leg from under McGillicutty, complete with Hennig-style over-sell. Dibiase sends him to the floor with a clothesline, and follows out with a suicide dive! Back in the ring, and McGillicutty catches Dibiase with a hot shot. He stomps away, then lays Dibiase out with a dropkick. Knee to the back, and McGillicutty slaps on a rear chinlock. Dibiase with blows to the midsection to esape, but McGillicutty pounds him back to the canvas. He comes off the ropes, and Dibiase nails hiom with a pair of clotheslines, followed by a sit-out spinebuster for a two count. Dibiase hooks the Million Dollar Dream, but McGillicutty rolls through to escape. He heads to the second rope, and a double dropkick spot goes in favor of Dibiase. McGillicutty with a tear drop suplex for two. He goes for it again, but this time Dibiase counters and hits the Dream Street (the Million Dollar Dream neck breaker) for the three count at 5:06. Winning streak! Sign him up for a U.S. Title Match! Match was enjoyable with minimal resting. Can't really say much more than that.Non-Title: Layla vs. Eve (Diva's Champion):
It's the rematch from Night of Champions no one wanted to see. Striker has taken over for Stanford on commentary, just in case I make reference to the chatter. Striker with a goofball reference, saying the "blonde attacker" of Kaitlyn's was either Beau or Blake Beverly. Lockup, and Layla quickly works the arm. Whip to the ropes, Layla rolls through a roll up and connects with a dropkick. Eve offers a totally untrustworthy handshake, but Layla doesn't fall for it this time. Eve with a side headlock, and Layla counters with a hip toss for two. Layla continues to work on the arm with a wristlock. Eve takes it to the ropes, pushing Layla to the floor. Layla avoids a shoulder and plants a kick to the face. Back inside, and another roundhouse kick gets two. Layla springs off the ropes, but Eve kicks her in her... ass? Layla's selling the ass, so I guess it was the ass. That got two. Whip to the corner, and Eve with some choking. Eve with a takedown, using a head scissors, and she blatantly uses the ropes for extra preasure. Eve takes it to the corner, but Layla turns it around with a few wild blows before taking a pair of kicks. Eve to the top rope, and the moonsault misses it (kind of). Layla with a roundhouse kick, and that gets three at 4:39. Wow, I actually enjoyed this one. Much more watchable than Night of Champions, and Eve's heel work was less over-the-top than at Night of Champions.- No Raw Rebound, sorry. My copy of the show excluded it. If you missed it (and so did I), C.M. Punk was punked out by John Cena and others, including Mick Foley. Sounded like crap. I did enjoy the opening segment, before it spiraled into hell with Paul Heyman mock proposing to A.J. because... she's crazy? I dunno, that was like a train coming off the tracks.
Kofi Kingston vs. Dolph Ziggler (w/ Vicki Guerrero):
This has potential to be good. Ziggler is still holding onto a Money In The Bank briefcase, but he's been jobbing to everyone on earth, so I don't try to understand the creative team logic. Lockup into the corner, and Ziggler grabs a side headlock. Whip to the ropes, and he puts Kingston down with a shoulder tackle. Kingston with a waistlock, then transitions into an armbar. Ziggler counters with another headlock, and comes off the ropes with another shoulder. Criss-cross sequence, and Kofi with a diving back elbow for two. He goes back to working the arm, but Ziggler quickly counters. Kofi sweeps the legs to escaspe, and splashez Zig' for two. Ziggler with a snapmare to escape an armbar. Kingston with a pair of arm drags, then back to working over the arm. Crowd with a mild "Let's go Ziggler" chant as he takes control of the action. Monkey flip out of the corner, but Kingston lands on his feet, and sends Ziggler to the floor following a monkey flip of his own. Kofi teases a tope', but instead comes off the apron with a body press.We return from a commercial break (But not before Sheamus tells us not to try this at home), with Ziggler in control of the action. The replay of the body press shows Kofi selling the knee on the body press, and then Vicki knocking him off the apron moments later. Kingston with a surprise roll up for two. Ziggler pops up quickly, and connects with a diving clothesline. Ziggler works the leg, applying a step-over toe hold and snapping back for a two count. Kofi tries for a comeback, but Ziggler plants him with a neck breaker for another two count. Ziggler with another toe hold, then turns it into a weird STF style hold. Kofi to his feet, and he lands a series of blows to the midsection. Whip to the ropes is countered, and Ziggler with a dropkick to the knees to regain control. He measures up from the corner and charges in, but whatever he was going for is countered with a powerbomb. Kingston with big chops to the chest, followed by a clothesline and Russian leg sweep. He hobbles around and drops the double leg (the Boom Drop). His selling smells like a job to me. He sets up in the corner, but Ziggler rolls to the apron, and hangs Kingston up across the top rope. Ziggler charges back in, and Kingston nails him with Trouble in Paradise. Unfortunately for Kofi, the momentum sent Ziggler to the floor. Back in the ring, and Kofi covers for two, as Ziggler touches the ropes with his fingers. Bastard! Kingston sets Ziggler up across the top turnbuckle, but Ziggler knocks him off and quickly connects with the Zig-Zag (jumping neck breaker?) for the three count at 11:37. Started off slow, but the last few minutes really picked up nicely. I'm sure these two have had way better matches, though, but still good enough for a C-Show "main event."
Final Thoughts: Solid show this week. We got a good main event from Ziggler/Kingston, a surprisingly entertaining Diva's match between Layla and Eve, and the undercard stuff between Dibiase/McGillicutty and Slater/Tatsu both were watchable wastes of 4-5 minutes. Nothing mind blowing to go out of your way to see, but worth a look if you can somehow find a good version of this episode.
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