Greetings lady and gentlemen, welcome to “The Superstars Report.”
Justin Gabriel vs. Hunico accompanied by Camacho
Gabriel & Hunico exchange standing rear waist-locks, Gabriel flips Hunico into an arm bar, Hunico reverses with a head-scissors hold, Gabriel kips-up and the 2 are at a stalemate. Hunico applies a headlock, gets pushed off, knocks Gabriel down with a shoulder block, and runs the ropes for a bit before almost getting ejected from the ring via an inverted monkey flip. Gabriel uses another monkey flip and Hunico land rather awkwardly. Gabriel charges into the corner after Hunico and gets back body dropped over the top rope but lands on his feet. He knocks Hunico back with a forearm and reenters the ring with a slingshot cross body which gets a 1-count. Hunico sits up and dropkicks Gabriel’s left knee and then we see…Camacho’s reaction. ‘cause that’s important. The 2 take turns exchanging blows in a corner and Stryker lies tells a story about being treated to dinner by Hunico and his minion. Hunico charges into the corner and Gabriel pulls himself up resulting in Hunico ramming his left shoulder into a ring post and falling to the floor. Camacho checks on his boss, Gabriel runs and jumps over him to deliver a franken-steiner to Hunico from the ring apron. We got a nice “IN YO’ FACE!” shot of this as a camera man takes a tumble. Hunico is thrown back into the ring, gets a shoulder thrust through the middle rope and gets caught in a sunset flip. He rolls out of it and tries to take Gabriel’s head off with a kick, Gabriel ducks and uses a schoolboy pin. Hunico quickly gets to his feet and punts Gabriel right in his face for 2. Hunico applies a chin-lock as they fade out for a commercial or 2.
Gabriel starts with a crucifix then transitions to a sit-out pin which gets 2. Hunico kicks him in the face and drops Gabriel to a knee with a clubbing blow. Hunico sits on his back and applies a chin-lock. Gabriel fights to his feet but gets a knee to the gut and whipped into the ropes. Hunico throws him into the air and gets caught with a dropkick. Gabriel makes a comeback with a plethora of kicks. Hunico tries a back-body drop; Gabriel flips to land on his feet and rearranges a few teeth with a stiff forearm shot. Hunico is on the receiving end of a spin kick which puts his shoulders on the mat for 2. Hunico hooks up Gabriel for a saito suplex, Gabriel escapes and throws Hunico into a corner, Hunico catches him following closely behind him and drives him into the mat with what I’m going to call a school power bomb for a 2-count. Gabriel finds himself in a rear waist-lock so he quickly switches positions; Hunico reverses the reversal and German-suplexes Gabriel who lands face-first for 2. Gabriel uses a pair of kicks to the gut and a forearm to set-up his rival for a springboard inverted ddt but Hunico turns it into falling ddt which gets 2. Hunico goes up top for a senton bomb. Gabriel is able to get his knee up and goes for a quick crucifix pin which only gets 2! Gabriel finds himself in a corner but connects with a pair of kicks and climbs the turnbuckles. Camacho distracts him long enough for Hunico to sweep his legs and introduce his testicles to the top turnbuckle. Hunico decides to help him down with an avalanche back-body suplex but Gabriel is able to turn in mid-move to turn it into a splash and get the pin. Hunico shows that 2 can play that game and rolls Gabriel over to get a pin of his own and gain the victory. The handful of tights had nothing to do with it I assure you.
Alicia Fox & Kaitlyn vs. Beth Phoenix & Natalya
Fox has one of the worst entrance themes I’ve ever heard. It’s like her in-ring skills in musical form. Wait a minute; Nat & Beth are teaming again? Didn’t they…and there I go putting more thought into the women’s division than this company does.
A waist-lock takedown by Nat gets the action started. She throws Fox down by her hair and sits on her chest for the pin. Fox kicks out at 1 which sends Natty flying. Fox is shoved to the ground and Beth screams that she shouldn’t disrespect Nat. Fox kicks her in the gut and smacks her ass. Nat smacks the cheek on her face and throws Fox into a corner. Fox gets monkey-flipped but lands on her feet without breaking her neck, performs the most awkward leapfrog I’ve ever seen, rolls backwards, hooks her ankles around Natty’s neck and takes a few seconds to remember what she was trying to do before using a head-scissors takedown. Fox covers her for 2. Fox snapmares Natty and Kaitlyn dropkicks her in the back for 2. Nat knees Kaitlyn in the gut and Beth kicks her there as well. She does a lariat and pins Beth with a running cross body for 2. Kaitlyn applies a front face-lock; Fox gets the blind tag and uses a leg lariat to set up a pin which only gets a 1-count. Natty comes in and gets hip-tossed right onto Beth. Fox knocks down Beth with a baseball slide and avoids a lariat with a Matrix-y thing and scores with a dropkick. Fox whips Natty to Kaitlyn who uses a backbreaker to get 2. Natty receives a suplex and Kaitlyn appears to have injured her left knee executing it? So this is the only way that Beth & Natty could get back into the match? Whatever. Natty notices and pounces with a chop-block. Beth and Natty grab a leg to make a wish which gets 2. Double-team move now as Beth throws Nat into the corner so she can splash Kaitlyn. Nat goes for a shoulder thrust, Kaitlyn avoids it and goes to make a tag but is cut off by Nat. Kaitlyn is put on Nat’s shoulders and is rammed into her opponents corner who proceed to stomp her out. Beth throws her down and puts her in a single-leg crab. Kait almost gets to her corner before Nat comes in to knock Fox off the apron and she, if I didn’t know any better, falls in a way that could have injured her left knee. I wouldn’t be surprised if she injured herself. Again. Fox is okay though and jump on Nat with a Lou Thesz Press. She messes up her hair a little bit before being thrown out of the ring but Beth. Beth turns her attention back to Kaitlyn who surprises her with a small package to get the win.
Main Event: Alex Riley vs. Jinder Mahal
Is it just my imagination or has Mahal lost some muscle tone? Anyway he starts the match with a waist-lock. Riley breaks the hold with a wristlock and takes-down Mahal with a headlock. He’s rolled onto his shoulders for a 1-count before re-establishing his dominance. Mahal hits him with an elbow rushing into the corner and Riley responds with a…huh. I’ve never seen that before. I think I’ll call that a hip-toss suplex. Jinder rolls out of the ring, is chased back in and gets Riley with a knee to the chin as he tries to re-enter. A double-arm suplex gets 1 for Mahal. Riley uses a standing and running single-leg dropkick to turn the tide. He goes for 10-mounted-punches but gets shoved off after 4. He climbs to the top turnbuckle and gets pushed off, falling all the way to the floor. Mahal taunts his opponent and the crowd as they go to commercial.
Jinder Mahal is firmly in control now as he hits a trio of springboard knee drops and a knee-choke. He takes a second to taunt the crowd before going for the pin and gets 2. Riley fights out of a neck-hold and throws Mahal into a corner, Mahal kicks Riley in the face, Riley stumbles and falls down and Mahal uses a jumping elbow drop for 2. Riley tries to fight-out of a neck hold so Mahal knees him in the chest a few times and throws him outside. The ref. tells Mahal to back off; Riley uses the time to recover and nail Mahal with a single-leg dropkick when he sticks his head between the middle and top rope. Riley goes to work with a pair of clotheslines and a 180 spine-buster. A diving clothesline gets 2 for Riley. Riley sets-up for the jumping ddt, Mahal escapes and counters with a reverse S.T.O. to get 2. Mahal signals for the camel clutch and Riley crawls underneath him backwards to use the jackknife pin but only gets 2. Mahal escapes the fireman’s carry and gets him in a schoolboy pin but only gets 2. Riley springs up and nails the jumping ddt but only gets 2! Jinder is “begging-off” now. Riley isn’t going to fall for th-oh my gawd he’s an idiot. Mahal kicks him in the gut and face from his back, then he hits Riley with a move I’ve never seen before, it looks like a scoop side-slam, to get 2. Mahal stomps A-Ry in the corner and whips him to the opposite one, Riley vaults over and puts him on his shoulders again but Mahal elbows his way out. Mahal goes for a knee lift and Riley spins to avoid it. He tries to use a toe kick but Mahal catches his foot so Riley goes for a gamengiri instead. Mahal ducks and locks-on the camel clutch to get the submission victory.
well that’s it for this week. Good day and good luck out there.
