WWE Superstar Spectacle - January 26, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

NXT Champion Finn Balor def. Guru Raaj (Non-Title)

Not only did this mark Balor's ThunderDome debut, this was also his first main roster-related appearance since returning to NXT in October 2019. His last match on the main roster before that was against The Fiend at SummerSlam that year. Michael Cole was smart to run down what he's been doing since we last saw him because I'm sure there are fans who forget he's still with WWE because they don't watch NXT. Obviously, Raaj was never going to win, but this was all about him looking good in defeat and he accomplished that. It would have been ridiculous for him to last longer against Balor than he did, so this was exactly what it needed to be.

Rey Mysterio, Ricochet, Dilsher Shanky and Giant Zanjeer def. SmackDown Tag Team Champion Dolph Ziggler, Cesaro, King Corbin and Shinsuke Nakamura

I really liked the dynamic of the two smaller stars in Mysterio and Ricochet teaming with the much larger Shanky and Zanjeer. Zanjeer specifically gives me Great Khali vibes and considering he was trained by him, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. If he's only slightly better than Khali was in the ring, he'll do just fine in WWE. He and Shanky clearly have a long way to go, but their partners and the heels did a great job of masking their weaknesses and carrying them to a competent contest. I still look at Nakamura as a babyface despite him teaming with heels here.

AJ Styles def. Jeet Rama

Similar to Balor vs. Raaj, Rama had no chance of beating Styles. Rather, this was a test to determine if Rama could hold his own against one of the best in the world. I had no idea he's been with WWE for five years. Is he ever going to make his NXT TV debut at this point? He and Styles had a solid match. Styles was the perfect person for him to face as it's rare Styles produces anything subpar, regardless of who his opponent is. Rama impressed me with his performance.

WWE Women's Tag Team Champion Charlotte Flair and Sareena Sandhu def. Bayley and Natalya

Putting Sandhu in there with three experienced and talented women was a smart call. Much like the six-man tag team match earlier in the evening, everyone else did the work and she had her time to shine. She's super green, but she wasn't terrible, either. This was easily the weakest match of the night, but I applaud their effort and it was cool that Sandhu got to pick up the winning fall over Natalya. It's not like Natalya has anything left to lose at this point, anyway.

WWE Champion Drew McIntyre and Indus Sher def. Jinder Mahal and The Bollywood Boyz

It's about damn time Indus Sher resurfaced. I know they're not the most polished duo and they need more time to improve, but keeping them off NXT TV won't do them any favors. Hopefully their appearance in the main event of this show will lead to their NXT return sooner rather than later. Them and McIntyre made for a great team while it was fun to have Mahal and the former Singh Brothers back together for one night, even though they annoyed the shit out of me during Mahal's WWE Championship run. Does this mean we can expect Mahal back in the Royal Rumble on Sunday? I'm glad he's healthy again, but this is really how far the extent of a possible feud between him and McIntyre should go. Maybe a match on Raw, but anything beyond that is unnecessary.

Overall Show

There was also a dancing celebration with Spinning Cycle as presented by The Street Profits and The New Day's Xavier Woods and Big E. Michael Cole mentioned on commentary at one point the possibility of a Performance Center in India, which is basically what the purpose of this show was along with WWE wanting to expand their audience in India if an NXT India brand ever materializes. It was filmed at the ThunderDome, so it's not like the Saudi Arabia shows where WWE goes all out and the matches aren't good. This was definitely different but in a good way. We got a look at several Indian up-and-comers and some of them showed potential. Putting them in there with established talent and the pre-match video packages on each them were a huge help. There really isn't anything more you could ask for out of a 90-minute special. It isn't worth going out of your way by any means, but this exceeded expectations as I thought WWE did a really nice job with it.