WWE Superstars Results
May 17, 2012
Taped 5/14 & 5/15
By Justin James, PWTorch contributor

1 - ALEX RILEY vs. HEATH SLATER

It's noticeable that Riley consistently gets a legit pop on his entrance. The match starts and neither man can get an advantage early on. Lots of back-and-forth. Slater catches Riley going to the top and they cut to commercial.

[ c - Over the Limit ad, Cena vs. Laurinaitis ]

Slater has control out of the break. Scott Stanford tells us that Slater hangs out with Trace Atkins, who's name and face regularly crops up in WWE. Slater mouths off to the crowd and the ref while working Riley over. The crowd cheers Riley out of a hold, but he gets a neckbreaker for his efforts.

Riley finally gets some space with big rights, but Slater dumps him to the ringside. Riley finally back on the attack coming into the ring. Riley turns up the speed. Big spinebuster and Riley's got the crowd involved. A-Bomb in the corner for a nearfall. Out of nowhere, Slater hits a strange new move, it is like a half belly-to-back suplex followed by a reverse STO. That's good for the win.

WINNER: Heath Slater in 10:00. Slater has progressed from someone that I cringed at when he came onto my screen to a reliable, capable performer. He's had a number of longish matches in the last few months, none of which were bad. Riley has done an amazing job at maintaining his momentum despite a lack of TV time, and his matches are usually good. This was a fun match.

2 - TYSON KIDD vs. LORD TENSAI

Tensai starts to destroy Kidd out of the gate. Tensai shows much more speed than he has on Raw. Kidd uses his speed to make a small comeback. Kidd walks into one of Tensai's power bombs giving Tensai the chance to return to the attack. Tensai locks on the claw, slams Kidd to the mat, and Kidd is down.

Post-match, Tensai returns to hit Kidd with a running senton.

WINNER: Lord Tensai in 3:00. What a waste of Tyson Kidd. Tensai showed much better enthusiasm than he has in the past, but it still does not redeem him too much. I highly question the wisdom of feeding Kidd to Tensai; Kidd has been slowly building a following with his work on NXT and Superstars over the last year, and having him lose decisively not only hurts him, but makes everyone he has had hard-fought matches with lately (Yoshi Tatsu and Michael McGillicutty) look like chumps, too.

3 - THE USOS vs. JACK SWAGGER & DOLPH ZIGGLER (w/Vickie Guerrero) - Tag Team Match

Jey Uso and Ziggler are starting off. Striker brings up an interesting question, which is what Vickie thinks of "AW" starting his own stable. Ziggler stalls a bit to frustrate Jey, who doesn't take it and brings in Jimmy. They double-team Ziggler, who is able to get a tag to Swagger. Swagger whiffs a double leg drop, so he gets a tag to Ziggler, who takes offense from Jimmy.

Ziggler gets relief and a chance to tag Swagger, so Swagger and Ziggler keep Jimmy in their corner. Jimmy gets to his corner and Jey gets some fast offense in. Jey with a full nelson sit-out slam and Swagger has to break up the cover.

[ c - Over the Limit ad, Cena - Laurinaitis ]

Back from break, Swagger does push-ups to show his dominance. Ziggler and Swagger demonstrate they they can work as a team. I don't think that I have ever seen this ref before, incidentally. Jimmy counters the Fameasser, prompting a double tag. Jey with a ton of speed to take Swagger down and clear Ziggler from the ring.

Swagger takes a stinkface for a nearfall. Swagger uses a distraction from Vickie to slip out of a Samoan Drop attempt, but Jey counters a gutwrench powerbomb with a roll-up to pick up the win. There is a bit of tension post-match between Swagger and Ziggler.

WINNERS: The Usos in 13:30. Enjoyable tag match, but the booking is bizarre. Ziggler and Swagger have a Tag Title chance on Sunday; why undermine them with a loss a few days before?

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