By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Dixie Carter Introduced Her New Stable

Hearing Dixie's entrance theme kick off a show I had high hopes for wasn't exactly the best way to kick off the night, but at least the segment served a purpose. It explained why Rycklon (Big Zeke) and Snitsky are in TNA and why they're aligned with the Carters, even if no one in attendance cared. Nothing against Rycklon or Snitsky, but they're not big enough stars to make an impact (no pun intended). At least Ethan Carter III cut a good promo on Bully Ray and company. I could have done without the constant ECW mentions, but here's hoping it's only being down when they're in New York where there's a big market for it.


TNA World Tag Team Champions The Wolves def. The Hardys

Wow! I had forgotten what tag team wrestling was all about until seeing this match. Seriously, this was off-the-charts awesome. This was seen as a dream match in the eyes of fans and it definitely delivered on all cylinders. The action was extremely entertaining and the live crowd was receptive to all the suspenseful near-falls. The Hardys put The Wolves over in a big way and it was cool to see the two teams shake hands after the bout. My only complaint would be that it should have gotten more time, but that's a minor gripe as they more than made the most of the 10 minutes they were given.

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Alberto Del Rio def. Justin Gabriel

This marked Del Rio's third appearance on Superstars in the last month. Is he slowly becoming the new face of the Thursday night program? Not to mention that this was the guy who was involved in the main event of the Money in the Bank pay-per-view for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at the end of June. You have to assume Del Rio is just counting the days until his contract expires. Anyway, this was a pretty good matchup as the two had similar styles and they worked well together. I couldn't tell you the last time Gabriel was on any WWE show (aside from NXT), so it was nice to see him even in a losing effort. Del Rio playing to the crowd at various points was interesting, but I'm sure it's gotten to the point where he doesn't care whether he stays within character or not especially on a throwaway show such as Superstars.


The Slater Gators def. Zack Ryder and Sin Cara

On paper, I figured this would be the same exact match we saw on Main Event this week, but it ended up being much more fun than it had any right to be. The action was enjoyable and the live crowd was hot for a lot of what Ryder did. It the most motivated I've seen him in a long, long time. Even Sin Cara held up his end of the bargain well. The match was done to establish the team of Heath Slater and Titus O'Neil, but as I've said before, the two have zero chemistry together and it feels like a randomly paired team to me. At least they had a nice match on this show.

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Tyler Breeze def. Angelo Dawkins

This match might have taken place when Breeze was still recovering from his injury, so similar to his match with Mojo Rawley from a few weeks ago, I'm not surprised this bout was as short as it was. That said, it shouldn't have gone any longer than it did and Dawkins was the perfect person to take the loss since he's an enhancement talent anyway, unlike Rawley. Breeze's post-match promo about submitting his music video was comical and he and Adrian Neville had an enjoyable exchange on the mic. It's amazing to think it's been over two months since Breeze first became No. 1 contender to the NXT Championship. Will he get his shot at the next live special in September?


NXT Women's Champion Charlotte def. Becky Lynch (Non-title)

First off, bonus points for Lynch undergoing a chance in entrance music. It's encouraging to see that she's dropped the lame Irish shtick and is now able to be herself a bit more. Lynch is still relatively new to the roster and I'd protect her as much as possible, but she had a nice showing against the champ here. Charlotte looked better in this match than she did last week and no indication was given as to whether her feud with Summer Rae will be continuing going forward. Her backstage segment with Bayley made it seem that those two are now set to feud over the title which I'd be totally content with.

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Alberto Del Rio Interrupted Dean Ambrose

It was odd to not see Ambrose featured on Raw this week, but his appearance here more than made up for it. He cut another excellent promo as usual hyping his feud with Seth Rollins and Del Rio's promo was logical as well. He may be boring as all heck on the mic, but at least he got one over on Ambrose by kicking his injured shoulder and then scurrying off. It built some tension for their advertised match even if they have no prior issues together.


WWE Tag Team Champions The Usos def. Rybaxel (Non-title)

As always, The Usos and Rybaxel delivered another quality matchup, but it felt like nothing we haven't seen before. At least the never-ending matches between The Wyatt Family and The Usos stayed interesting. Rybaxel, despite the fact they may win here and there, are no threat to the tag titles and therefore fans don't buy into any of their nearfalls. Ryback really needs to branch off on his own again and transition back into the fan favorite role that got him over in the first place. On a side, Xavier Woods was great on commentary in explaining his faction with Kofi Kingston and Big E but not giving away too much. The stable still holds my interest and them challenging for the straps at SummerSlam would be great.

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Paul Heyman Interrupted WWE World Heavyweight Champion John Cena

Coming off the biggest victory of his career over The Undertaker at WrestleMania 30, there is absolutely no way Cena can take Brock Lesnar lightly going into SummerSlam by cracking jokes. Thus, I'm happy Cena cut a straightforward, intense promo here, even showing fear of Lesnar at times. Heyman cut a very good promo per usual hyping up the accolades of Lesnar. Cesaro coming out seemed strange at first given how they just parted ways, but he made sense of it by saying he was coming to Heyman's aid as a friend. His "you can't wrestle" one-liner toward Cena was hysterical and his brief promo led nicely into their subsequent match. What a way to kick off the show.


WWE World Heavyweight Champion John Cena def. Cesaro (Non-title)

After their fantastic match earlier this year on Raw, I didn't expect anything less from Cena and Cesaro in this matchup. Once again, the action was awesome from start to finish due to the two having such great chemistry together. You knew going in that Cena was coming out victorious, but Cesaro looked so strong in defeat (literally and figuratively) that it didn't even matter. This was the best bout he's had in months (not counting his match with Dean Ambrose from last week's SmackDown) and it felt like nothing had changed from earlier this year. I hope this match opened the eyes of officials in that they start pushing him again.