Commentators: Scott Stanford & Matt Striker
Championship’s roll call: WWE Champion: CM Punk… World Champion: Sheamus… Intercontinental Champion: The Miz… United States Champion: Antonio Cesaro… Tag Team Champions: Kofi Kingston & R-Truth… NXT Champion: Seth Rollins… Diva’s Champion: Layla
Yoshi Tatsu vs. Damien Sandow: Sandow: this guy is great. Josh Matthews is not there this week because he got thrown across the room by a crazy Kane at Summerslam. Damien begs our indulgence; he says we are all suffering from ignorance. He Shakespeareanly explains that he is out to save us. You’re welcome. It’s good to hear Yoshi’s music sometimes. Sandow, as usual, comes out firing and shoulderblocks the crap out of him in the corner; he drops a knee and gets a one count. A chinlock is applied. Tatsu comes out to a “Yoshi” chant and chops away. Sandow quickly breaks the momentum and drags Tatsu onto the apron and elbows him. He pulls the apron over his head and chokes him with a boot. Sandow picks up a two count as the ignorant masses chant “you suck”. Sandow applies a double chinlock with a knee to the back and yells at his opponent. Tatsu makes a quick surprise comeback and gets two off an O’Connor roll. Sandow hits an intelligent clothesline and educates Yoshi with stomps. Sandow tries a back suplex but E=MC2 and Tatsu scores two with a schoolboy. Tatsu with chops and kicks; a running knee in the corner sets up a spinning wheel kick. Yoshi to the top and completely whiffs on a super spinning wheel kick. Has he ever hit that move? Sandow adds the War and Peace leg sweep and follows with the Cubito Aequet. He hits the Finis, shouts “you’re welcome”, and gets three with The Thinker pinfall. 3.5/10 Complete squash; Sandow gets another win. Tatsu basically got one move, the spinning wheel kick, and then did the job.
Here is your winner… Damien Sandow @ about 8:15 via Finis pinfall.
Clips from Brock Lesnar decimating Triple H from Summerslam are shown, which leads into Raw and Shawn Michaels’ kind eulogy for HHH’s career. For my full Raw review click here. The TOUT of Lesnar “quitting” the WWE (again) is shown as well.
Alex Riley vs. Drew McIntyre: Rematch from last week. Drew gets full entrance. Drew sits in the corner for Riley’s entrance much like Raven would do. Drew plays up the broken hand and tries to get the quick advantage but charges into a hiptoss into a neckbreaker move. McIntyre uses a rope break to get Riley distracted and nails him. He pounds A-Ry down and hits a running clothesline; he hits the ropes and Riley completely blows a dropkick, or McIntyre ran too close, either way it went horribly wrong. Alex clotheslines Drew to the floor. McIntyre holds his head because he got legit clunked by Riley’s arrant boot on the dropkick fiasco. Riley gets a little impatient and heads out after him; it costs him because McIntyre sidesteps his leap off the steps and Alex crashes into the ring barricade. McIntyre spinebusters him onto the apron; back in the ring, McIntyre stomps away and hits a reverse elbow, for two. Drew applies an armtrap chinlock. Riley counters a backdrop with a backslide but ends up on the wrong end of a clothesline. Drew Stomp follows. McIntyre tries to lasso him in the Future-Shock DDT but Riley pulls him into the corner. He gets a little overaggressive in the corner and Riley is able to schoolboy slam him off the second rope… and scores a three! Whoa, that came out of nowhere. 4.5/10 Match did not get much of a chance to get off the ground before the abrupt ending; I like it though because it was different and did not follow a formula that some of these matches fall into traps with. Pretty good; Riley gets another win on TV.
Here is your winner… Alex Riley @ about 5:40 via schoolboy slam pinfall.
The end of Raw where CM Punk complains about hustle, loyalty and no respect from everyone.
Justin Gabriel vs. Cody Rhodes: This match came about because Rhodes tried to cock-block Gabriel in the back. Seriously, Matt Striker just explained it. They lock up as the commentators explain Rhodes’ obsession with desenmascarando Sin Cara. Gabriel gets a one off a schoolboy. Cody outwrestles Gabriel down and SLAPS him; they look for a test of strength and Gabriel beautifully outwrestles Rhodes and gets a shoulder straddle armlock takeover and head scissors into a cradle, for two. Rhodes does not take kindly to that and shoved Gabriel. Justin pulls him into the corner and SMACKS him there. Gabriel hits a nice float-over snap-suplex into a guillotine armbar. Nice move. Cody slugs his way free and then they counter-counter-counter a hiptoss until Rhodes gets hiptossed to the floor; Gabriel tries to come off the top but Cody smartly moves out of the way. Nonplussed, Gabriel darts through the ropes with a suicide dive to wipe Cody out; back from commercial, Gabriel is nailing a missile dropkick and nets two. Nice bookending highspots by the WWE. Rhodes finally takes over whiplashing Gabriel’s arm off the top rope. He works the arm over on the apron twisting it into unnatural angles. He plants him with a release gourdbuster and celebrates to fans’ boos. Rhodes works the arm with a knee with knees and oddball armbars and chinlocks. Gabriel tries to kick his way back but a Goldust Uppercut floors him again; Rhodes follows up with a running knee. Cody keeps on the arm and hyperextends it across his shoulder; Rhodes adds a hammerlock. Justin flips him off but Rhodes stays on the arm; Gabriel gets a desperation forearm in but misses the top-rope Lionsault. Cody applies a short-arm scissors; Gabriel tries to push into a cradle pinfall but Rhodes releases and keeps up on the arm. Gabriel breaks the momentum with a monkey flip. He begins a comeback with kicks and a roaring forearm for two. Rhodes runs into a side spinebuster for two. Rhodes breaks the momentum with a pair of boots in the corner but almost gets pinned with a cradle. They trade fisticuffs and Gabriel tries a reverse DDT but Cody exquisitely twirls him into Cross Rhodes for the three. 6.5/10 Good match with a quick surprise ending; a lot of that tonight. This was a fun main event that caps off a rather humdrum edition of Superstars.
Here is your winner… Cody Rhodes @ about 14:40 (broadcast) via Cross Rhodes pinfall.
OVERALL 4/10 This was a one match show. Gabriel and Rhodes delivered; the Riley/McIntyre match was entertaining and surprising (not the usual) but it was still not that good, despite it being entertaining. The rest of the show was Shakespearian squashes and highlights of Raw.
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