Today on WWE Superstars, the WWE Tag Team Champions are in action. Epico and Primo go up against Alex Riley and Santino Marella. The crazy tag team division continues! Impact Wrestling will feature the follow-up from Against All Odds, where Bobby Roode escaped with the World Title once more after a mistake by Sting, and a #1 contender to the Knockouts Championship will be determined. Read on for my thoughts on the shows as they happen.
Spoilers: Taker, Cena, Del Rio, Big Show, Miz, etc. aren't going to be on this show despite being in the intro.
Are you serious? Maxine on Superstars? That's awesome!
Well, at least these two are getting ring time. NXT Season 3 flashback!
This is some pretty weird stuff character-wise.
Well, Maxine has the "yelling" thing down at least.
Aksana seems to have improved from NXT, but still seems kind of "clunky" and unrefined.
Yeah, I don't think these two are ready for this long of a match (mainly Aksana).
Matt Striker's guaranteed to make at least one reference that I won't get.
Yeah, I wish we had a mulligan for that one. Maxine tried hard, but this one just didn't click. Given how far Maxine and Kaitlyn have come from NXT Season 3, this was pretty disappointing in some ways.
That Aksana impression was hilariously bad.
Yay! Did You Know graphics!
Instead of this recap, they should show Kurt Angle's rendition of HBK's theme song. That was CLASSIC!
It's pretty weird that they try to position Cole as a credible endorser of HBK's talent given some of his stupid remarks on commentary. He bashed Bryan for not owning a TV, and we're supposed to respect his opinion on this matter?
You know what would have made that segment better? If they called each other "Paul" and "Michael" because being true to life is more important than telling a good story. Call Undertaker "Mark" too because that's his real name and everyone on the internet knows it. Yes, I'm being sarcastic.
Ooooooh. Not expecting a barn-burner from these two.
Mason's big; I'll give him that.
Don't cheer! You'll encourage him.
Swagger's doing his best here. Great selling.
NICE move at the ropes. Swagger's getting a lot out of a limited opponent, which I think is the sign of a really good performer.
Good. Glad they ended it that way, though it kind of derails Ryan's mini-push. I'm not complaining as a fan!
Yeah, WWE.com gave away who's going to go into the Elimination Chamber in the preview of this show.
I like that name from Stanford.
That was pretty goofy from Riley.
Didn't take them long to make a Lin reference.
A helicopter, not to be confused with an airplane spin.
Good selling of the competitors by Stanford in particular.
I was thinking Rosa's yelling was throwing Santino off.
Santino's not bad in the ring by any means. He just gets written off as a comedy guy.
Great job goofing and showing the person who wins "tomorrow" on Smackdown in the Chamber video.
No Cobra puppet? He's screwed now. No way he can win with that move without it.
Theoretically (if people watched this show), this would be getting over the tag division by the champions facing some challengers.
Not bad for a guy who was going to be cast as a Russian MMA fighter (Santino).
Impressive by Riley.
Good stuff here to end the match. We're still in a holding pattern in the tag division apparently.
Impact Wrestling time!
They've got me hooked with this story.
I like the commentary, though it's not hard to tell it wasn't taped live.
I like the egotistical, delusional prick heel role for Roode.
Roode and Sting play off of each other pretty well. I wouldn't mind them clashing for the title.
Wow. That's pretty big. They've got to have something up their sleeves with that one.
Pretty gutsy putting this in the first 30 minutes of the show.
Lots of impact here. The rest of the show's going to have a tough time competing.
Roode's 100% chickensh*t heel. Haven't seen someone this good in that regard in quite some time. Survive by any means necessary.
Yeah, piledrivers are pretty serious business and should be treated as such.
Wwwwwhhhhaaaaa?? Didn't see that run-in coming.
I always wonder what the TNA voice-over guy looks like.
Really looks like we're going towards Roode vs. Sting.
Eric Young with a guitar... is that a hint at Jeff Jarrett?
Ok then. Makes sense for them to be in the #1 Contenders' match.
God, that was scary.
If Sorensen can make it through this, he's got the sympathetic comeback of a lifetime.
Good characters from these two. The X-Division's come a long way from the early days.
I wish WWE performers would be able to tap into distinct looks like we see here. These people stand out.
What did wrestling ever do without social media?
I think I might have called an audible and changed the X-Division picture after Sorensen's injury. Aries vs. Ion, heel vs. heel I'm not crazy about. At least throw Shelley in there.
Yeah, maybe Ion going to the top rope isn't what we should be seeing right now.
NICE. Classic story of oneupsmanship.
Enjoyable post-match as well.
One thing that kind of hurts wrestling in my eyes is that there are a number of days off-screen between episodes. On some shows, people wouldn't see each other in the time between episodes to "make up" after hard feelings.
I like Tara and Tessmacher as a team.
Ugh. ODB.
Double ugh. Hardcore Country.
Well, it can only get better after those last two points, right?
Oh, maybe not. They must be trying to get "pigeons" trending.
Maybe Rayne vs. Kim would unify the tag team titles since they're kind of props now.
My ears hurt from that promo.
I'm glad nothing else like Madison's voice is on Spike.
Oh yeah, I remember Rosita and Sorita. Didn't they have some guys they came out with?
No more Mickie/Gail and not ODB/Gail. I'm good with this.
Good idea to build sympathy for Velvet against two heels. They get basic storytelling here.
Oh, or maybe they're thinking of turning Sarita face?
Hahaha. That was actually kind of smart.
Good fired-up promo from Storm that didn't demean Bully Ray or his accomplishments.
I'm feeling this tag team. Can't wait for that rematch.
Ugh. We go from the future of the business to Hogan and Bischoff.
At least we get to look at Chelsea again.
Eric Bischoff can still cut a good promo. He's a natural villain.
I wonder what Garett's mom thinks of this angle.
Ugh. Even TNA's using the future endeavors joke now.
I was really expecting an interruption for that segment.
Good promo as always from Bully Ray.
Interesting, given Spike's relationship with MMA shows.
I hate that camerawork so much.
Heck, Young's not a bad singer. Don't know if he's actually playing the guitar. Crap segment, but at least he's making the most of his TV time.
I don't think if I've ever seen a character promote his calf muscles.
They're making it pretty obvious that the NFL player's going to be in an angle.
As someone who used to be pretty hard on Bully Ray, he's really impressed me with his ring-work lately.
Smart strategy by Bully Ray. We don't see nearly enough of this in wrestling.
Great story being told in this match. I'm glad we're getting this one.
Nice match, especially the ending. No complaints about any of this (other than maybe Storm's calf tattoo).
Maybe we shouldn't be sending the message that it's ok to jump the railing and celebrate with wrestlers?
He's a big guy.
Time to count the cameos- Al Snow, D'Lo Brown, and Simon Diamond.
Great selling by Bully Ray.
I'm guessing maybe next week for the title match?
Nice promo from Storm.
Awesome! They're saving it for Lockdown.
Kick ass beatdown by Roode. He's a really hatable character. Looking forward to more from these two.
That's it for Thursday's wrestling. I'll be back later tonight for Smackdown. A news post will be up later in the day. Thanks for reading!
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