A Debrief: WWE Superstars Report for 10/29/09

Jack Swagger’s promised to go until the end of the year undefeated, meaning he’ll probably be beaten on the last RAW of the year by a complete unknown to start a feud with whomever costs him it.  He’s against Primo tonight, so his winning streak’s set to continue.

Swagger starts off with his usual amateur wrestling style, getting in behind with a waistlock and grounding Primo a few times, before slapping the back of his head.  Primo comes back with a stiff left, very narrowly dodges a right from Swagger ducking underneath and delivers a nicely executed monkey flip.  Primo gets briefly on top, using his speed and agility advantage, hitting an RVD-style shoulder into the turnbuckle and a dropkick to the knee of an advancing Swagger. Primo’s looking quite good tonight again, he’s really improved since I started covering Superstars, every move’s been tight so far.

Swagger catches him as he tries to avoid a shoulder into the corner and slams him hard, and takes a bit of time to draw some heat.  He hits the running second-rope body press for 2 and starts working Primo over with a few submissions.  I’m convinced I heard a ‘Swagger’ chant.  A strong clothesline to the back gets another 2 for Swagger, but misses a big leg drop.  Primo picks up the pace, hitting a springboard elbow, then a running, spinning elbow, clothesline, cartwheel and a dropkick for 2.  He goes for a springboard cross-body but gets caught, reversed again into a rollup for 2, but a big boot stops him in his tracks.  Picture-perfect Gutwrench powerbomb from Swagger for the win.

Winner:  Jack Swagger

Rating: 4.5/10 – Seemed a bit

Ask the Divas – I have a body like a Diva, what should I go as for Halloween? (from a girl, you’d hope).  Everyone except Natalya and Katie Lea said themself.  Natalya said a French Maid.  Win. Katie Lea just said ‘I doubt you’ve got a body like a Diva, work it out for yourself’

RAW Contribution #2:  Kelly Kelly vs. Alicia Fox

Remember bra and panties matches?  I do, fondly.

Alicia hits a tiltawhirl backbreaker at one point.  Something involving the ropes went badly wrong.  As Snappy would say, hair and screaming.  Alicia hits the Axe Kick for the win.

Winner:  Alicia Fox

Rating: 0.3/10 – The backbreaker was alright.

ECW Contribution:  Zack Ryder vs. Tyler Reks

Who the hell’s Byron Saxton?  Where’s Striker, damn it!?  Reks must be nearing his last chance. He starts out with a series of shoulders, Ryder escapes to the outside and Reks misses a baseball slide and Ryder wipes him out with a big boot.  He starts punching away at the grounded Reks on the outside, still, throws him back in the ring and continues with a series of strikes.  He hits the Bootwash into the corner, and locks in a submission.  Reks quickly counters into a back suplex, and follows up with a nice reverse suplex.  He hits the sliding stomach punch, and follows up with the faceplant.  He’s doing a good job as well tonight, that gimmick’s still holding him back though.  He gets no pop whatsoever when he tries for one, I think I even heard a few boos... and he hits a big elbow drop.  Ryder gets his boot up to a shoulder charge and hits the Zack Attack. That’s it?

Winner:  Zack Ryder

Rating: 2.5/10 – Reks did about as much as he possibly could, but got absolutely nothing from the crowd.  He really needs to go back to the drawing board, get a new gimmick.  The finish was... well, rubbish.  I guess it’s trying to add a bit of credibility to the Zack Attack.  Compared to the matches these guys had when I first started reporting, it was probably technically better, but the rating’s lower because by now I expect more from these guys.

Big Show promo and Bragging Rights recap

Smackdown Contribution: R-Truth and Cryme Tyme vs. Mike Knox and The Hart Dynasty (w/ Natalya)

Oh, there’s Striker, on Smackdown.  Cryme Tyme get a massive pop on the way out, and they decided to put the ads in during R-Truth’s.  I’d say there’s a really good chance Shad’s going to get pinned after what happened pre-Bragging Rights.  Knox doesn’t get his own music, coming out with The Dynasty, which is a shame, I like his entrance.

JTG and Tyson Kidd start off.  JTG’s someone who’s really impressed me lately, in some ways I’d like to see him get a push, but Shad being ill means that Cryme Tyme’s not going anywhere fast and the singles market on Smackdown’s already very heavy.   If you were to put him on the road to the IC Title against Morrison, where he’d lose, then he’d have to get ahead of the likes of Ziggler, McIntyre, R-Truth, Matt Hardy, even Escobar, and that’s not going to happen. Meanwhile, JeriShow aren’t going to be giving up the Tag Titles any time soon.  I’m not sure if he’d count in this class, but I feel I should try to push for the return of the Cruiserweight belt again.

The camera completely misses a 2-count, Tyson does a quick flip and just shouts/screams at JTG.  That was weird.  Striker tells us it was to try to get into the psyche of JTG.  No other commentator would know what the hell was going on.  Tyson gets on top but JTG hits a Goldust-esque sliding punch to a Tyson looking for a back body drop.  JTG hits a boxcutter (Regal neckbreaker onto the knee) for 2.  Tyson gets the tag to Knox, and after JTG takes a bit of punishment, he gets the tag to Shad, who lands a few rights, but fails to take Knox off his feet when he hits a shoulder charge.  Grisham starts to push the ‘mad scientist’ gimmick for Knox, which I like, as he gets on top of Shad.  Shad gets a tiny bit of momentum before Knox throws him to the outside and Natalya runs away, just in time for the ad break.

We’re back and Shad has Knox in an armlock.  The face with the submission?  Interesting. Apparently Shad did some stuff on the outside during the break.  Knox charges Shad into his corner and tags in DH Smith for the first time.  Shad fights back, but a dropkick from the apron by the illegal Tyson Kidd gives DH Smith the opportunity to hit the high-angle back suplex that I thought was his finisher... but he only gets 2.  He works Shad’s back, losing his balance at one point, and locks in a camel clutch.  Shad’s taking a lot of punishment, probably as a punishment... no getting ill on the WWE’s watch!  Smith tags in Kidd and hits a snap-neckbreaker to the seated Shad, and Tyson kicks him hard in the back.  Good little double-team there, and now Knox is back in with a big splash, following up with a bearhug.  Knox just cracks JTG, who’s standing on the apron getting the crowd going, but the distraction gives Shad enough time to recover and hit a back suplex.  It’s hot tag time and R-Truth’s in against Tyson Kidd.  He hits a dancing punch, nearly completely screws up his handspring so instead of going for the splits and calf kick, he hits a hiptoss instead.  Not flashy, but a good recovery.  Knox comes in and boots him in the face, then dumps Shad to the outside, but JTG does the same to Knox... but gets caught by a boot from DH Smith, who is in turn low bridged by R-Truth.  Tyson’s rollup is reversed by R-Truth for 2, but from that it’s reversed into a 2 for Tyson, in a neat sequence.  R-Truth hits the Lie Detector, which still sucks, and picks up the win.

Winner:  Cryme Tyme and R-Truth

Rating: 5.5/10 – Another decent match, but I’m sick of Cryme Tyme vs. The Hart Dynasty, basically.  I know they’re the only tag teams on Smackdown... but surely that just means they should get some more tag teams in?  Jimmy Wang Yang’s not doing anything right now other than dark matches, put him alongside someone interesting.  Get R-Truth and Matt Hardy together as a team on a more regular basis.  Why did they break up Jesse and Festus again?  Neither of them have done anything other than cameo appearances since the draft, and they were an entertaining enough team.  Put Charlie Haas with someone with charisma... maybe make him Mike Knox’s evil sidekick.  That might be a laugh.

On another note, why did they move Sheamus to RAW?  They’ve already got enough guys on there that aren’t getting enough airtime, like MVP.  Meanwhile they’ve got Festus, who’s of a similar build, who could easily undergo a gimmick change, standing around inactive.  The end of his feud with Shelton was rushed, and quite poorly done really.  That feud had so much potential, and to finish it using the Pump Kick, when the Irish Curse is his finisher... it just didn’t work in my head.  The match itself I thought was very good, and I really hope Shelton’s next in line for a shot at Christian.  He deserves it ahead of the likes of Yoshi, Zack Ryder (particularly on tonight’s performance where he was dominated by ECW’s jobber) and Regal.  I like Yoshi, he can put on a good match and he’s getting very popular, but he doesn’t quite strike me as a credible champion yet.  Shelton Benjamin could, as long as they continue giving him airtime outside of the ring.

Show rating: 4/10 – It’s Superstars, what do you expect?  Still, hope you’ve enjoyed reading.

I’ve been The General, consider yourself debriefed.

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