The tree is cut down, the lights are up and only a few more sleeps until Christmas and there is no gift that is more giving than another episode of WWE Superstars! That’s what I keep telling myself anyways. If you are anything like me, then you likely have the attention span of a 5th grader and find yourselves here instead of watching Raw three hours a week. Plus if you are anything like me, you are probably pretty good looking to boot! But in all seriousness, is there anything better than watching wrestling to pass the time while you wait for Santa to come – hoping he brings you that iPad, big-screen television or the meat slicer you’ve been asking for all year? I say no! So sit back, grab someone you love and enjoy WWE’s weekly “online only” serving of creative mistletoe we call Superstars! Let’s head down to ringside!
Your announcers tonight are Tom Phillips (fresh off his two-second mention on Main Event this week) and the always merry Alex Riley.
SUMMER RAE VS. KAITLYN
Big pop to start us off as Summer Rae – minus Fandango – struts to the ring using her NXT music as she gets set for singles action. Quick note since a much bigger name reviews NXT for us each week, I have to get in my comments in when I can. Before she was the second best valet Fandango ever had, Summer was the top heel diva in developmental working the whole “First Lady of NXT” gimmick. Her matches against Paige and Emma were fun and at the time, much more enjoyable to watch than any of the Major League Divas were putting on. They even created an NXT Women’s Championship during the summer to further this blonde bombshell’s rivalries with the NXT female roster. Great stuff!
Kaitlyn meanwhile, is getting a great deal of secondary show action lately which I think is great for the division. She almost seemed like an afterthought when added to the Divas Survivor Series team but now she appears to be on TV every week. She even had a match with AJ on Main Event which when those two get together it’s usually pretty good.
Summer uses some Memphis stalling at the onset. When it seemed like she was about to take a walk out of the match, she surprised Kaitlyn with a heel kick to the dome and seized control. Throughout the contest, she truly put over that she has long legs and not afraid to use them. She also has that mean streak where she openly screeched out trash talk adding insult to injury. Solid heel work if you ask me. Kaitlyn fought back and even hit that nasty gut buster finisher but missed with the spear and ate the ring post for her troubles. A rollup and a three-count later and we have a serious Divas push on our hands. Shhhhhh! WINNER: SUMMER RAE
Huge win over a former Divas Champion for Summer Rae. Pretty soon, Fandango will be carrying her bags if that hasn’t happened already. Awesome trash talk post match as she kept calling Kaitlyn “Dallas” and making cry baby faces. No I will not make a Cowboys joke here!
We now jump to Raw where the new (Spoiler Alert) WWE World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton addresses the WWE Universe and the entire locker room fresh off his victory at TLC. I loved the hype going in, the match left me wanting more but I like where this angle is going. Orton, whiny as he is, needs to be built up so when he does lose eventually, we’ll all be begging for it! Hopefully he stays clean and motivated so he can put on good matches and not be a human rain delay whenever he’s on camera. A triple-threat with Cena and Daniel Bryan could help cover up some warts and draw money as the established guys put over the internet darling. Bryan could win the Rumble, Cena could triumph at Elimination Chamber and they’ll both stake their claim on the number one contender status. Regardless, I think we’re all in for a treat!
Back to Raw and CM Punk (my mother’s new favorite) teams with The Usos to fight The Shield. The Hounds of Justice get their win back which seems odd to me given that they looked like they were about to explode after Punk upset them on Sunday. The Shield look stronger than ever, Punk looks like an idiot for not realizing that Reigns was the legal man and we get some good old fashion 50/50 booking. This won’t ruin my day because let’s face it, all six of these guys have terrific chemistry and wins and losses in this case seem irrelevant. This pairing makes us all winners when we watch.
R-TRUTH & XAVIER WOODS VS. 3MB (MAHAL & MCINTYRE)
It’s Morphin Time! Again, I’m not auditioning for the NXT recap I swear but should you ever go back and watch, you’ll see how crazy and brilliant Xavier Woods is when given a microphone. I wish I was trapped in the 1990’s forever. I’d watch “Coach,” listen to Arrested Development and wear Hammer pants to the mall and no one would look at me funny like they do now. Riley boosts Wood’s charisma from the get go and I’m pretty stoked that he’s not in there with Brodus Clay tonight. I like him working again with the veteran Truth and the fans in Texas are behind him which is not hard to believe seeing as though they are facing the extremely stale 3MB.
Truth plays face-in-peril and takes quite the beating including that nasty flying boot to the face spot McIntyre has been using a ton lately. They really need to break up the band. I think McIntyre has learned his lesson because his work in these jobber tag matches has been great. He deserves better and fortunately for him, he is still relatively young at 28 so unless he gets future endeavored, better days are ahead. After a hot tag, Woods – who once wrestled using an Apollo Creed-esque gimmick – displayed his innovative offense including his finisher appropriately named “Lost in the Woods.” Mahal eats the pin and let the celebration commence! WINNER: R-TRUTH & XAVIER WOODS
We end with a trip back to Raw for the main event as D-Bry battles The Viper. I know they want to focus on the new unified championship but were we supposed to forget about the Wyatts dismantling Bryan on Sunday? Biggest win of their short career and they get dusted under the rug one day later. Sure Bray cut a quick promo on Monday but should we have expected more? I’m sure their involvement with Bryan is far from over. Anyway, I’ll still buy the triple-threat theory or even the Cena putting Bryan over scenario because I do believe those two have a great respect for one another. Orton loses cheaply here and I think that will be par for the course until he finally gets his at Wrestlemania.
A very good showing by two NXT standouts this week. A foreshadowing of things to come I suspect. The future looks bright! Perhaps someday I’ll get a mega push but if not, I’ll settle for an iPad… or a meat slicer!
