WWE Superstars Review – 7/15/16
Match #1
Summer Rae vs Becky Lynch
Nattie on commentary for this. Becky with a bunch of different roll-up attempts early until Summer grabs the ropes and screams to get Becky away from her. Summer yells at fan. Summer slowly gets away from the ropes and tells Becky she wasn’t ready. Summer kicks Becky in the stomach and goes for a headlock takeover while Becky reverses into a headlock. Becky with a couple arm drags and Summer flies out of the ring to stall. Becky hits a running clothesline off the apron to Summer. Natalya gets up from commentary and distracts Becky. Becky rolls Summer in the ring but she looks back and Natalya and Summer kicks her in the stomach. Summer yells over to Nattie ‘Thanks!’ effectively ending their 3 year feud. And they say nothing happens on Superstars. Crowd chants for Becky and Summer tells them to shut up as she clotheslines her. Big leg drop from Summer. Summer goes for another leg drop but Becky dodges it. Becky starts fighting back with clotheslines and a leg lariat. Running elbow in the corner from Becky, following by a kick and an exploder suplex. Becky goes for the Disarmer but Summer pushes her into the ropes and hits the spinning heel kick for two. Becky hits a modified samoan drop and locks in the Disarmer but also wedges Summer’s head under her thigh, not allowing her to move. Summer taps. Becky and Nattie staredown after the match.
Thoughts
Short match but pretty fun. Becky is extremely good at getting a crowd behind her. Even though there were definitely some amplified sounds, the crowd did seem to be behind her. Summer is amazing with fan interaction, yelling at people and telling them to shut up, which will obviously make them louder. Great selling from both of these women. And there’s just a certain level of emotion they put in that shows that they both really care about what they’re doing. It’s almost the exact opposite vibe Shining Stars vs Breezango gave off last week. I really want to see these two end up on the same brand and have a legit feud. Basically every match Summer’s had in her career over 6-7 minutes has been good, yet she’s only had about 10-12 of them. Both women really let their personalities shine and do the talking in this match. Also there were some cool different variations of moves. I like how Becky trapped Summer in the Disarmer since Summer was somewhat close to the rope. And Summer actually sells the submission still after the match (cough Charlotte, cough Nattie cough). Not a five star match by any means and not a long one but I firmly believe a match doesn’t have to be long to be enjoyable. (See Titus/Slater from Raw as well).
We get a recap of the #1 contender battle royal for the IC title. Then we get a recap of the Rollins/Ambrose promo from Raw.
Match #2
Sami Zayn vs Curtis Axel
Axel has Bo and Slater in his corner for the match. Axel and Sami trade headlocks and hammerlocks early on as Slater is heard outside praising everything Axel does. Axel trips Sami and Bo and Slater go nuts. Bo yells out “THAT’S MY BEST FRIEND!”. Axel hits a shoulder block on Sami and runs out of the ring to do a victory lap with Bo and Slater. Despite looking annoyed, Sami also looks mildly amused. Axeman gets back in the ring and Sami arm drags him 3 times, sending him right back out. Sami goes to dive out onto the Outcasts but they move and Sami catches himself and flips back off the ropes. Back from commercial and Sami lights up Axel with some chops and follows it up with a ten punch in the corner and a bodyslam. Slater distracts the referee and Bo Dallas punches Sami in the face. Bo and Slater celebrate while Axel takes control. Slater talks some trash while Axel chokes Sami over by the ropes. Beautiful dropkick from Axeman. Huge knee to the head by Curtis. Sami and Axel trade some chops but Axel knees Sami in the stomach, sending him to the mat. Axel locks in a headlock and punches away on Zayn. Headscissors takedown by Sami! Sami ducks a clothesline and hits Axel with a clothesline of his own. Tornado DDT from Zayn! Sami sets up for the Helluva Kick but Slater slides into the ring. Sami stomps away on him. Bo gets up on the apron but Sami knocks him off. Zayn hits the Exploder into the corner and follows it up with the Helluva kick for the win!
Thoughts
Another extremely fun match. The Social Outcasts are just plain entertaining, constantly making a big deal out of every little thing Axel did. And Sami plays a sympathetic babyface like not many can. I like that Superstars is the kind of show where we can see a competitive match between Sami Zayn and Curtis Axel. It’s not the kind of thing you get on Raw or Smackdown. Axel and Zayn are really two of the cleanest and most skilled wrestlers on the roster and they made for a fun match here. I’d like to see more competitive matches for the Outcast guys where they’re basically in it because of help from the other members. It makes for a good dynamic.
Overall
This was a great episode of Superstars! Two fun matches that are fairly simple but still very entertaining. Superstars isn’t going to give you Bret vs Austin from WM 13 but it’s going to give you nice easily digestible matches with talent that generally aren’t given the chances to perform like this on the main shows. Entertaining wrestling can come in lots of forms and while these matches don’t have a million different moves going, they usually tell a pretty good story in each one. I would say this week is definitely worth the watch.
