Quick hits on WWE Superstars
• Two of the four matches on WWE Superstars Thursday night were Divas matches, including one in which Gail Kim defeated Jillian Hall that was the highlight of the show. Anyone who watched Kim when she was in TNA knows how talented she is, and Hall is a very underrated worker. One of the keys here is that they were given the time – approximately five minutes, which may not sound like much, but it’s about double what the Divas usually get – to have a good back-and-forth match that didn’t feel rushed. It also was refreshing to see the crowd actually get into a Divas match.
• The other Divas match, which saw Michelle McCool defeat Tiffany, wasn’t as good, but it accomplished its goal. It was booked to get McCool over, so therefore Tiffany did not get in a whole lot of offense.
• I wasn’t all that excited about the announced main event of Christian versus Chavo Guerrero, but I became a lot more interested when Vickie Guerrero came out in the middle of it and – “Excuse me!” – made it a handicap match with Dolph Ziggler as Chavo’s partner. It ended up being a decent match, which the heels won after Ziggler hit the Zig-Zag on Christian. The best part about this match? No sign of Hornswoggle.
• Vickie Guerrero playing the lecherous boss sexually harassing Ziggler is good stuff. I loved it when she dropped her stack of papers backstage and leered at Ziggler as he bent down to pick them up.
• Not surprisingly, Mark Henry was over big-time in his home state of Texas. As I watched him squash Primo and then receive a huge pop, it hit me that if someone unfamiliar with wrestling had walked into the room at that moment, they probably would have thought that Henry was WWE’s top star.
• I can’t believe Matt Striker actually brought up the little-known fact that Ziggler – under his real name of Nick Nemeth – played the role of Chavo’s caddy when Chavo was doing the (thankfully) short-lived Kerwin White character about five years ago. If you don’t know what Striker was referencing, check out the video below:
Comments
"It also was refreshing to see the crowd actually get into a Divas match."
They used canned, fake crowd noise a lot on Superstars. It sounds nothing like a loud crowd does on a Raw or a PPV, and the crowd can be seen sitting on their hands while you hear them going nuts.
I have really noticed it during Divas matches on Superstars as Divas who get little-to-no reaction when entering on a live show (which would be most of them) get huge reactions. Same goes for a lot of the girls' trademark moves and spots.
RESPONSE FROM KE: The difference was that this time you could see people cheering during the women's match. Kim and Hall were getting a reaction.
Posted by: chris102484@gmail.com | June 6, 2010 3:59 AM
I honestly had no idea what Striker was on about when he referenced the time when Ziggler played the role of Chavo's caddy, so thanks for clearing up the confusion. By the way, this is what I was talking about on your NXT blog about how guys should be able to use their real names if they sound good enough; when Chavo, or "Kerwin", introduces his new caddy as Nick Nemeth, I can instantly take him seriously as a character, because it's a believable name. Imagine how stupid it would've sounded if, in that little video, he was introduced as Dolph Ziggler. It just wouldn't sound right. And yet, he is introduced like that to us every week now on Smackdown. Bizarre.
Posted by: Paul | June 6, 2010 8:25 AM
So many of the IWC complained about Gail Kim's move from TNA to WWE. I don't think anyone is complaining now.
Posted by: Frank King | June 6, 2010 5:06 PM
The Kerwin White character was dropped after Eddie Guerrero passed away.
Posted by: Aaron Goldstein | June 6, 2010 6:04 PM
As always, Superstars is a fun, harmless show.
Posted by: Hank | June 6, 2010 6:54 PM
Zighgler being Chavo's caddy is way before my time watching WWE. However, I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Dolph as being a former member of Spirit Squad. You would think that could be used to get a little heat on Ziggler-as they were once Vince's errand boys for a time in 2006/early 2007!!!
Posted by: Paul | June 6, 2010 6:55 PM
wait they use fake crowd noises? wow that explains alot, everytime i watch superstars the guys seem to get a bigger reaction then they do on raw/smackdown.
when i mean bigger, i mean better than expected.
Posted by: delliott | June 7, 2010 5:12 AM
I was at a Raw house show in New Orleans a couple weeks ago and the place went NUTS for Henry.
Posted by: Alvaro | June 7, 2010 10:07 AM
Glad you brought up the quality of the Gail v Jillian match. I thought it was the best WWE divas match in recent memory. Gail looked like a younger version of herself and Jillian...well, all I can say is "where did that come from?" I had never seen any of her matches come anywhere close to that level. I can only suppose that it is rare when WWE allows its females to go all out in a match and show some athletic moves.
I wonder how her work at Fit Finlay's gym compared to other females who have survived that ordeal.
Posted by: LarryB | June 7, 2010 1:54 PM
I have to say that Kerwin White had one of the coolest entrance themes ever.
Posted by: paul | June 7, 2010 11:34 PM
Hey Alvaro, I was at that show too, down in the fifth row, and when Jericho made that VERY ill-advised Katrina joke I lost it and beamed him with my Dr. Pepper.
Security pulled me out of my seat for that, but it was worth it, haha.
I don't usually watch Superstars, but this was a great episode!
Posted by: Jules B. | June 8, 2010 11:14 AM
ha ha ha i think that was funny as hell ha ha ha ha ha.
Posted by: jordan foster | June 9, 2010 8:30 AM