This is the last WWE Superstars episode before the “big†Night of Champions pay-per-view this Sunday. We’ve got William Regal vs. Christian and Kane vs. John Morrison on tonight’s show. So let’s see how this action on WGN measures up against Mark Buehrle’s perfect game earlier in the day.
William Regal vs Christian: Matt and Josh remind us that Christian will challenge Tommy Dreamer at the PPV for the ECW Championship and that he was never pinned when he lost the title. Collar and elbow lock-up leads to Regal taking control with a side headlock for a bit. As the match gathers some steam Christian seems to be playing the role of high flyer and Regal of mat based bully. With that said, CC has really only gotten two spots in as Regal has been in control so far. Captain Charisma is dumped to the outside and we are treated to a pose from Regal and a commercial break.
As we return the announcers assure us Regal has remained in control. Christian makes the comeback even getting a two count with a missile dropkick and tries to follow up with the frog splash but misses. He goes for the Killswitch but Regal reverses and destroys him with a nasty “reverse t-bone exploder†suplex but Christian kicks out at 2.999. A reversal sequence leads to a sunset flip by CC on Regal and it is good enough for the three count. Kind of surprised that was the finish but the match had a good second half after a very slow start.
Jamie Noble vs Evan Bourne: We are back with the King and Cole on commentary as Evan Bourne makes his way to the ring to face Noble. To my shock the announcers are actually giving both of these guys some props as the match begins. Jamie gains control for a bit by grounding Evan but for the most part the action has been back and forth.
The story of the match is that every time Bourne tried to go to the top rope Noble was there with a reversal including a really nice superplex. But eventually Noble can’t stop the climb and Bourne hits the shooting star press for the pinfall victory. It was a nice match but very short. I would have really liked to see these guys get more time and I bet they’d give fans a great match at a house show.
Our Superstar spotlight video package of the week is for Chris Jericho. We follow that up with the usual recap of Raw, a look at the card of Night of Champions, and a reminder that Shaq will guest host Raw next week. I enjoy the Superstar spotlights more than the Raw Rebounds and really hope Shaq is a better host than ZZ Top.
Kane vs John Morrison: Neither man has a match for this Sunday’s pay-per-view unless they are going to be Jericho’s mystery partner. But Todd and JR remind us of Morrison’s quest to challenge the winner of the World Title match and of Kane’s ongoing feud with the Great Khali. I hope that is not a spoiler for the finish of this match.
After an exchange of dumping each other over the top rope, Kane uses his power advantage to take control. There have been a couple of nice spots in the match so far where John attempts one of his normal moves only to have Kane reverse it because he is simply to large for it to work. Morrison is again dumped outside and we are dumped into a commercial break.
As we return Kane is firmly in control and the announcers question if he can get back into the match. A nice series of power moves by Kane leads us to a sweet reversal of a sideslam into a ddt by Morrison and the pace begins to pick up. Control of the match goes back and forth, including an awesome chokeslam reversal by Morrison as we get a few big moves by each man that lead to a couple of near falls. Kane is eventually dumped outside and seems to have had enough and hits Morrison with a chair for the DQ.
A really good match that I think deserved better than that lame finish. Kane sends Morrison and the chair back into the ring but before he can continue, The Great Khali joins us to help thwart further attack. Morrison uses the distraction to hit Kane with the chair but before Khali can get his hands on him, the Big Red Machine leaves thru the crowd and that’s our show. Despite the finish Kane/Morrison was the match of the night and I’d much rather see Kane working with someone like John than Khali.
