It’s Thursday Night on the Pulse and time for WWE Superstars! After watching the Cubbies beat the Astros keep your channel locked on WGN for WWE Champion Randy Orton’s first appearance on Superstars in tonight’s main event!
John Morrison vs Tyson Kidd: Todd and JR welcome us to the show and they let us know that the main event for this week’s Smackdown will be John Morrison vs Jeff Hardy for the World Title. Kidd is accompanied to ringside by his fellow Hart Dynasty members, Natalya and DH Smith, Morrison is accompanied by slow motion video and a large coat.
Before the match John makes fun of Tyson’s hair as the announcers talk about how much time he spends on it each day. Slow going action to start with neither man doing much or gaining the advantage. Kidd briefly takes control with a side headlock down on the mat and the crowd starts a light U-S-A chant. A nice sequence for Morrison with a flapjack, followed by a nip-up followed by a break dancing legdrop gets him a nice reaction from the crowd and a two count. Morrison is dumped outside near the other members of the Hart Dynasty and we have our first commercial break of the show.
We return to action with Kidd again trying to control Morrison on the mat with a headlock but John fights out of it with a belly to back suplex. Morrison gets the comeback going with a few of his standard kicks and soon clotheslines Kidd outside. But before John can take advantage, Smith gets in the way and has a few words for him. But our ref is on top of the situation and ejects Natalya and Bulldog Jr from the ringside area. As they leave Morrison hits a dive outside onto the still groggy Tyson Kidd. Both men are soon back inside the ring and the action starts to pick-up. Kidd is knocked back out onto the ring apron but leaps back in with a sunset flip attempt that John rolls out of it and hits a running knee. He’s near the corner, heads up to the top and hits Starship Pain for the pinfall victory. A high quality match that showcased the skills of both workers.
The announcers pitch a new “feature†on WWE.com called “ask a Diva†and then showcase a few of these questions and answers. I can only hope/guess that this is for the PG13/highschool portion of the crowd. But still, any excuse to see more of the Divas right?
William Regal vs Yoshi Tatsu: I rarely watch ECW so I have no clue who Yoshi Tatsu is but Josh and Matt assure me that he is the talk of the WWE Universe. A video package also shows that this is their second match on TV with Yoshi winning the first (on ECW) and angering Regal in the process. A bit of the back and forth to begin and Yoshi uses his quickness to take an early advantage. Regal reverses a maneuver in the corner into a nice suplex and sends Tatsu to the outside. He sends him into the apron and instructs the ref to count hoping for the cheap win but the newcomer beats the count.
Regal continues to control the tempo limiting Tatsu’s comebacks and ability to use his quickness. Double underhook leads to William hitting another powerful throw and Regal is tossing some nice suplexes in this match. Yoshi tries the headscissors out of the corner but Regal smartly just drops him to the mat. Sir William off the ropes with a running knee to the youngster’s head and quickly pins him for the three count. Faster finish than I expected but it told a good story.
MVP gets our Superstar promo video of the week and our Raw Recap from Monday is Shaq-tastic. I have more interest in a possible Shaq vs Big Show match than Show as Jericho’s tag-team partner. We also get a brief interview from the locker room with Randy Orton (and Josh) in which he promises to defeat Primo tonight and Cena at SummerSlam.
WWE Champion Randy Orton vs Primo Colon: Even though I was horribly inaccurate with my Night of Champions predictions, I’m glad Orton retained his title. I just wish we could see him defend against some one not named Triple H or John Cena. Randy quickly takes control using his size advantage with a couple of shoulder block knockdowns and side headlocks. Primo gets back into it with a series of armdrags and Randy takes a break outside. Orton back in and looks to dominate the action with an attack in the corner but again Primo uses his quickness to fight back Orton is sent into the ropes but holds on as Colon was attempting a dropkick. With Primo on the mat, we are sent to a rare commercial break without someone having been tossed outside the ring.
As we return Orton is firmly in control of the match and after flooring Primo with an uppercut, begins to stomp (then walk dry) a mudhole on his opponent. I’m not sure Primo has been on his feet for more than a few seconds since we’ve returned from commercials as Orton continues his attacks. Crowd not terribly into things as Orton continues to attack with knee strikes and headlocks. But they perk up a bit as Primo does fight back with a series of quick strike maneuvers leading to a missile dropkick that get a 2.5 count on the champ.
Primo heads outside looking for a springboard crossbody off the ropes but Orton ducks it sending Colon crashing down to the mat. Randy’s had enough and no sooner does Primo reach his feet than the RKO is hit for the pinfall victory. Decent match that was entertaining despite going exactly how you would expect. A good episode of Superstars this week with the opener between Tyson Kidd and John Morrison being the highlight of the night.
