Commentators: Scott Stanford, Josh Matthews & Matt Striker
Championship's roll call: WWE Champion: CM Punk… World Champion: Daniel Bryan… Intercontinental Champion: Cody Rhodes… United States Champion: Zack Ryder… Tag Team Champions: Air Boom… Diva's Champion: Beth Phoenix
Evan "Air" Bourne (w/ Kofi Kingston) vs. Epico (w/Primo & Rosa Mendes): They lock up and Epico gets an arm drag; Bourne works the arm and wrests him down into a headlock. Epico comes back with a mare and dropkick to the back of the head. He tries another snapmare but Bourne lands on his feet and hits a crucifix sunset flip for two. The lasso hurracanrana and a dropkick, sends Epico to the floor; Primo comes to his aid so Bourne baseball slides and wipes them both. Back in the ring a low bulldog nets two for Evan. Epico finally takes over backdropping Bourne into the ropes. Epico hits a lovely gutwrench-style butterfly bomb; he works the back and tries a vertical suplex but he knees Epico whilst in mid-suplex to counter. Bourne charges right into a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker though, and gets sent to the floor. Back from commercial, Epico is pounding away on Evan wile Kofi shouts encouragement. Epico tries the rolling backdrop suplexes but Bourne counters the second one, shifting his weight, into a crossbody, for two; Epico retains control with a release German suplex. Epico slaps on the Gory Special; Bourne frees himself into a sunset flip for a one count. Bourne begins a comeback dropkicking out of a backdrop and hits a series of high knees and spin kicks. He heads up top for the double knee press. Rosa hops up on the apron allowing Epico a rollup, for two, Bourne reverses, also for two. Epico tries the tilt-a-whirl backbreaker again but it's hard to hit two of the same signature moves in one match (especially the second time); Bourne lands on his feet and kicks Epico's head off. He loos for Air Bourne, on the heel side of the ring, of course, so Primo can get involved, this draws Kofi over for a springboard (off the ring apron) crossbody, to wipe out Primo. Epico tries to sneak up on Bourne, who was busy marveling at Kofi, but eats a straight roundhouse kick. Air Bourne finishes. 7.5/10 Outstanding match to kick off Season 4 (2012) of WWE Superstars. These teams have great matches between each other (and it spills over to singles matches as well). High flying and mat work is fully represented, the Colóns are well schooled in aerial and mat work so Bourne's Indy style (the forgotten WWE/ROH champion) works well with that.
Here is your winner… Evan Bourne @ 12:20 (broadcast) via Air Bourne pinfall.
Clips of the 1988 Royal Rumble (full review, click here) are shown, one word… Hooooooooooo!
Mason Ryan vs. JTG: Ryan's hair is getting long, going the way of the Wade Barrett; no Tamina with JTG because of her "babyface" turn last week. Ryan runs over JTG in the early portion of the match (duh). Mason drops his head on a backdrop attempt and eats a Gutter Punch, he charges… and Ryan catches him in a fall-away slam; he clotheslines him in the corner and hits a few shoulder tackles. JTG goes to the leg and hits a second-rope Timberland dropkick; he hits a running Timberland and applies a front facelock. Ryan tosses him off but JTG submarines his knee out and works the front chancery again. Ryan begins to power out so JTG tries to stop him but eats a backdrop and a clothesline comeback. A running boot puts JTG down again. The full-nelson bomb finishes JTG posthaste. 2/10 That comeback sequence shows you all you need to know about Ryan's progress. Three moves, that could be construed as "he is so powerful his comebacks are short" or "this guy sucks and has no offensive moves so his comebacks are short". Either way this match was all chinlocks and a comeback. Bleh. Mason Ryan matches are extremely similar to Ezekiel Jackson matches, which is why I turned them heel and teamed them up in my WWE '12 season. I just haven't settled on a team name, any suggestions?
Here is your winner… Mason Ryan @ approx. 6:40 via full-nelson bomb pinfall.
Yoshi Tatsu vs. Tyson Kidd: Yoshi is back to the entrance mask but no more facepaint; Kidd's hair is getting longer than bald of late. Matt Striker called Yoshi "Piston Honda" during the entrances; I guess Kidd will have to be leery of eyebrow wiggles. They run the ropes a lot at the bell and Kidd gets clotheslined to the floor; Yoshi looks to fly but Kidd pendulum kicks him to cut off a topé. Deadly. Kidd takes over and tossed Yoshi into the buckles and kicks him down. Kidd applies a Dragon Sleeper, which allows me to mention the Twitter war between all of the Superstars level SmackDown stars, involving Kidd and Tatsu but also Curt Hawkins, Tyler Reks and Trent Barreta; they all make fun, tease and play pranks on each other, which is a clever way (for the actual superstars) to build feuds and not waste television time (or Creative's time either, apparently) so Superstars can simply focus on the in-ring end of things. Anyway, Tatsu reverses the hold and slingshots Kidd into the turnbuckles. Tatsu chops his way back and spin kicks Kidd into the corner, he hits a Yakuza kick and a standing Shining Wizard, for two. Tatsu to the top and MISSES the super spinning wheel kick. Kidd retreats to the apron but MISSES a beautiful double jump springboard moonsault. Tatsu capitalizes with a roundhouse kick to the back of the cranium for the pinfall. 7/10 Another great match for the first Superstars of the 2012 season; if this match was allotted a few more minutes it could have broken into the 8/10 range. The WWE never gives these two time to build to a big match, or a main event slot, even on Superstars. It would be a good one.
A Raw Rebound is shown; all of the crazy stuff went down is shown, for my full review click here, which I was really late watching, completing and posting (like this report) due to new job and less time.
Ezekiel Jackson vs. Jinder Mahal: Speaking of which, here's the other half of my new heel tandem in WWE '12; thought of a good team name for me yet? Matt Striker actually explains the color significance in India, especially the turban; Mahal's is burgundy, which represents the highest caste in India; sometimes his nuggets are actually useful and informative. I like the affluent Indian heel or nasty Middle Eastern gimmick; it's always been a tried and true heat getter. Striker says "humbled" a few times here, a direct reference to the Iron Sheik, who is in my top five, "wrestlers to drink a couple of beers with" list. Jackson pushes him into the corner and smiles; he uses POWER to shove Mahal around. He nails a couple of elbows to the face and a HUGE hiplock out of the corner. Mahal tries to punch his way back but makes the stupid mistake of trying to charge Big Zeke. Mahal winds up on his ass again and Jackson takes over with CLUBBERING blows to the back. Ezekiel hits a nice vertical suplex but Mahal kicks the knee to push him back. Jinder tries a boot but Jackson catches t and pushes him back down. I like the face that Jackson is growing hair and a goatee, he looked too generic bald and shaven, he also has more designs on his trunks, which helps too. Jackson entangles Mahal in the ropes and gives a clean break allowing the heel to get a forearm in and take over; he floors Jackson (finally) with a pair of swinging neckbreakers. Mahal focuses on Jackson's neck, shoulders and throat, in prep for the Camel Clutch, with knees and a side Russian leg sweep, he applies a rear chinlock and keylocks the arm. This is a pretty good match, since Mahal is controlling, although this chinlock is going on for a while, which is the same problem that JTG had with Mason Ryan, can't do much with them; Jackson stands up and rams Mahal into the buckles a few times to break his grasp. He whips Mahal from pillar to post and hits some heavy clotheslines in the corner. The fans react to Jackson, which is good for him, as he enters the bodyslams series. He shouts for the Rack but Mahal reverses and tosses him in to the post, shoulder first. Smart. He immediately applies the Camel Clutch (called the Punjabi Clutch by Striker) and Jackson TAPS OUT! 6.5/10 I call that a BIG win for Mahal, the old 2011 Mahal would have lost to the Torture Rack but the new 2012 pushed Mahal counters and even taps the much larger Jackson; in WWE terms that is huge, despite Jackson being a lower midcarder. I like Mahal and this match was pretty watchable, so he can carry bigger guys to a decent match, which is also important for upward movement in the WWE.
Here is your winner… Jinder Mahal @ around 9:00 via Torture Rack submission.
OVERALL 7/10 WWE Superstars kicks off 2012 with a bang, three out of four good/decent matchups, which is a ratio I'll take every time while recapping this show. Jinder Mahal looks to be on a path since besting Ted Dibiase in their little affluent feud. I think the WWE should follow my lead and put Ryan and Jackson together in a muscly heel team to add to the tag ranks, they're doing nothing in singles matches but squashing little guys and jobbing to on-the-rise midcarders; it worked for Kofi and Bourne, two babyfaces who were on the exact same path; the singles section of the WWE is loaded with guys and with Chris Jericho's return and Kane's rebirth, that takes up more limited main event slots.
Please follow Marc Elusive on Twitter or like Marc Elusive on Facebook or check out www.marcelusive.net for reviews and recaps (of current WWE and old WWF PPVs, DVDs and VHS tapes) and a little analysis; more of a play-by-play style, like my reviews here on 411mania. Thank you for all of your support in 2011 and future in 2012 (before the final alien invasion on December 21)!
