WWE Superstars Review – 6/3/16

Match #1

Summer Rae vs Paige

Summer is on a damn roll on these Main Event/Superstars shows. Just in this last ten days we’ve had a good Paige/Summer match, an awesome Summer/Natalya match and then arguably the best match of Summer’s career in Summer/Sasha. Now Paige/Summer. Summer smacks Paige on the back of the head and taunts her, along with the crowd a bit. Paige smacks Summer on the butt and gets her mad, causing her to trip over Paige in a drop down. Summer goes for the jumping DDT but Paige catches her and turns it into a fallaway slam. Paige with the knees to Summer on the apron. She chases Summer around the ring but eats a spinning heel kick. Summer tells the crowd that this is her house and kicks Paige in the back a few times. Paige goes for a small package and Summer breaks out and clotheslines her. She mocks Paige a bit and chokes her on the ropes. Summer locks in the Lotus Lock while commentary does something that the main show commentary has never done, praise Summer Rae’s ring skills. Summer eases up to grab Paige by the hair and taunt her, allowing Paige to get some elbows in and break out. Paige kicks Summer in the stomach twice and the face once. Running knee in the corner by Paige. Running knee to a seated Summer Rae. Paige hits a superkick and goes for the PTO. Summer fights out but goes for another spinning heel kick .Paige catches it and locks in the PTO for the win.

Thoughts

Ending was a bit unremarkable and has been done between them a few times now but I had no real issues with it. Both of these women are such smart wrestlers though. Every action has the proper reaction and just about every move is done for a reason. Something I especially like is that when Summer or Paige are doing a submission, the other is always actively trying to get out. There’s a lot of wrestlers that just let their arms hang around and act like they can’t do anything. So far this year Summer Rae has earned being a standout of Superstars/Main Event. She’s done phenomenally well despite merely winning two matches all year on those programs, both against Alicia Fox. She has yet to beat Paige or Natalya on these shows, despite facing each at least 5 times, but still comes out looking like gold. I think it’s a good sign that she’s given consistent mic work on these shows too. Shows WWE has faith in her on the stick. I think it’s unfair to Paige that people act like she’s somehow not as good in the ring as a couple years ago. She’s still doing great but because it’s on Superstars/Main Event, no one notices. Paige was supposedly ‘overrated’ last year however this year she’s become criminally underrated. People act like your wrestling ability is just how many moves you can do but in my opinion it’s really what you do with the moves you have, and Paige is very good at that. It’s still a shame that these two, who literally started women’s wrestling being taken seriously in NXT have yet to even get a legit feud with each other on the main roster.

Skipping over the twenty three minutes of Raw recap. You really can’t cut five of those minutes and add them to Summer/Paige, WWE? Isn’t This Week in WWE good enough for Raw recaps?

Match #2

Jack Swagger vs Viktor

They might not use Jack Swagger much on TV, but this dude still gets a great little pop when he comes out. And he always looks fired up during his entrance. And it’s impossible not to get fired up during Viktor or The Ascension’s entrance. The music is amazing and Viktor still manages to carry the intensity on his own and he’s still wearing that awesome face paint. Swagger tries to lock on the Patriot Lock early but Viktor gets out. Swagger looks very fired up. Swagger with an amateur style takedown and goes back for the ankle. He gets it locked in for just a moment but Viktor has the ropes. Viktor swings at Swagger but misses and he takes him down again, this time bridging into a German suplex position for a cover. Viktor manages to get Swagger in the corner and slowly begins taking him down with well placed strikes. Crowd with loud USA chants for Swagger as Viktor Irish whips him. Swagger dodges two attacks and shoulder blocks Viktor. Viktor runs off the ropes and Swagger ducks down, grabbing Viktor’s ankle and locking in the Patriot Lock, only for Viktor to fight out. Viktor sends Swagger into the middle turnbuckle and then hits a diving knee off the second rope. We go to commercial break. Honestly, WWE? Does this need a commercial break. We’ve got a 50 minute show with maybe 20 minutes of wrestling. C’mon now. We come back and Viktor is chopping away at Swagger in the corner. Swagger is tossed chest-first into the turnbuckle and gets a beating on the midsection from Viktor. Viktor uses strike combinations quite a bit which look good. Swagger is bleeding a bit from the mouth as Viktor locks in a deep headlock. Swagger manages to fight out into a school boy roll up. Viktor kicks out and scurries into the corner, hitting a running, spinning uppercut to Swagger. Viktor loses his mind when he realized Swagger kicked out. Viktor climbs the ropes but Swagger runs up after him and hits a belly to belly off the ropes! Viktor’s facepaint has somehow transferred to Swagger’s face. Swagger is selling the midsection like a champ. Swagger slams Viktor and picks up some speed on the ropes before clotheslining him. Swagger gets hyped up and hits the Swagger Bomb. He nearly gets the win but Viktor grabs the ropes. Swagger sells the ribs a bit from his own move. He grabs Viktor’s ankle but Viktor hangs onto the ropes for dear life and Swagger has to let go. Viktor goes for the flying knee off the middle rope that he hit earlier but Swagger catches the leg and locks in the Patriot Lock. Viktor is forced to tap! Swagger is so fired up after! He looks badass as he’s half covered in Viktor’s facepaint and a bit of his own blood.

Thoughts

I adore the ending of this match. You’ve got Swagger going for the Patriot Lock the whole match and you’ve got Viktor knowing that and avoiding it well. Viktor sees an opportunity to hit a move that did a lot of damage earlier in the match. He goes for it but Swagger manages to take advantage of the situation and catch the leg. I also felt that they established each guy’s strengths and weaknesses early on with Swagger being a technical guy and Viktor being a complete brawler. Viktor has impressed me a lot over the last two weeks. I’ve always liked The Ascension as a team but my only knowledge of singles Viktor was a match he had in 2006 ROH against Samoa Joe where he didn’t look too great. Also props to Jack Swagger for retaining a following from the crowd despite not being booked like someone that matters for ages now.

Overall

Yet another fun week of Superstars. Summer/Paige wasn’t even in their top three best encounters but it was still a very fun match. I honestly can’t remember a match between them that wasn’t enjoyable. And Swagger and Viktor both impressed quite a bit in their match. I’m not trying to say these matches are HBK/Taker, Cena/Punk, etc quality, but they’re really fun and I don’t have a finite amount of enjoyment to give out. I can still really like these matches despite them not being five stars, and I love the little stories they tell. Perhaps I have low standards, but I don’t see why that would ever be a bad thing. Also commentary does a fantastic job of pointing out people’s reasoning for what they’re doing. Tom and Byron work very good with each other without having to have a face/heel dynamic. They just call the matches and talk about the wrestler’s intentions. And it’s nice seeing the announcers talk up people like Summer and Viktor who never get any kind of credit on the main shows. I can honestly say Superstars is my 2nd favorite WWE weekly program after Smackdown. This group of Swagger, Ryder, Viktor, Summer, Breeze, Paige (more Main Event for Paige, generally) Social Outcasts that usually work Superstars do a phenomenal job being entertaining. It stinks that there’s a lot of good talent here that probably deserves better, but at least they’re in a position where they can actually wrestle instead of being squashed.