WWE Superstar Spectacle (January 2021)

Original Airdate: January 26, 2021 (taped January 22)

                                                          

From St. Petersburg, Florida; Your Hosts are Michael Cole, Corey Graves, and Shahoz Ali

Opening Match: Finn Balor v Guru Raaj: Balor is the NXT Champion, but this is non-title. Raaj is competing in order to make enough money to buy his family air conditioning, which is certainly a different angle. Feeling out process to start, dominated by Raaj. Balor tries an abdominal stretch, but Raaj escapes, and throws a backelbow for two. His cover attempt there felt like it had a stutter, straight out of an old video game. Raaj with a senton splash for two, so Finn starts pounding him in the corner, but Raaj fights him off with a schoolboy for two. Raaj starts throwing (weak looking) strikes, and a flying bodypress gets him two. Front-powerslam, but Balor counters with an inverted DDT, and the running corner dropkick sets up the Coup de Grace. No cover, as instead Balor decides to spike him with the 1916 at 8:06. Raaj looked super green here. ½*

 

Eight-Man Tag Team Match: Dolph Ziggler, Shinsuke Nakamura, King Corbin, and Cesaro v Rey Mysterio, Ricochet, Dilsher Shanky, and Giant Zanjeer: Dolph starts with Shanky, who looks to be bigger than the dude with 'giant' in his name. Maybe he's an ironic giant? Shanky pounds both Ziggler and Nakamura in the corner, and passes to Giant to do what he does best: be a non giant giant. He pounds those same two guys, PLUS Corbin, as Rey and Ricochet get down on all fours and bark like dogs. What the fuck are we watching? Rey gets into trouble in the heel corner to turn the tide, however, and they go to work cutting the ring in half on Mysterio. Dolph and Rey are dressed like they're a tag team. Lots of dancing from the heels. Rey fights Corbin off in the corner to allow the hot tag to Ricochet, and he comes in... well... hot... on Ziggler. Lots of dancing from him too. Dolph fights him off with the Zig Zag to allow a tag back to Cesaro, but Ricochet quickly slips away for the tag to Giant, and Roseanne Barr the door. Shanky with a splash on Cesaro, but the heels save, so Giant chucks Ricochet onto a bunch of them for a dog pile on the outside. That allows Shanky to big boot Cesaro to set up a 619 from Rey, and Mysterio adds a flying splash from off of Shanky's shoulders at 7:22. This would be below par for a house show effort. ¼*

 

AJ Styles v Jeet Rama: The entrances look so polished that I'm legit having a hard time telling them apart from a videogame. Rama looks old as hell, like that one dude on Ted Lasso. Feeling out process to start, dominated by Rama. I like how the Network description of this show includes the phrase 'a unique showcase of Indian-inspired action,' like it's a curry infused cauliflower at Trader Joes, or something. Styles gets control and dumps him for a plancha, and back inside, AJ works a chinlock. Rama fights him off and makes a comeback, and I really hope this dude has a finisher called the Rama-lama-ding-dong. Rama with a German suplex for two, but he gets so flustered that AJ is in the ropes that he totally loses his train of thought, and Styles comes back. Seriously? He's in there with a multi-time world champion, and he's surprised that a single German suplex isn't enough to put him away? Has he even studied any tape? Or even AJ's tats, at least? AJ with a fireman's neckbreaker for two, but Rama blocks the Clash by railroading him into the corner, so AJ just goes to the Calf Crusher instead. Rama manages to escape, and he hits another suplex, but AJ barely stays down. Dude, don't make Rama cry in front of a worldwide audience. Not cool. Rama tries a superplex, but Omos helps his charge block, and AJ puts it away with the Phenomenal Forearm at 9:14. ¾*

 

Charlotte Flair and Sareena Sandhu v Bayley and Natalya: Kind of weird that Charlotte, one half of the WWE Women's Tag Team Champions, is teaming with an unknown instead of her partner. Flair and Natalya start, and they feel each other out a bit. Tag to Bayley, but she runs right into some patented Flair chops, and Sandhu tags in to hit both with a flying bodypress. The babyfaces add stereo baseball slides, and then stop to do some dancing. Dancing has been very, very important tonight, Phil. Someone should make a meme of Carmella waiting by the phone to get booked for this show. Inside, Sandhu hits Bayley with a butterfly suplex for two, so Natalya tags in, but Sandhu is ready with a small package for two. Neckbreaker gets two, but Sandhu runs into a double team in the corner, and ends up down on the outside. Bayley clips her leg out there, and inside, the heels go to work. Natalya locks on the Sharpshooter to put it away, but Flair comes in with the Natural Selection to save - Sandhu covering for the pin at 7:04. Sandhu looked green as hell, but the pros carried the bulk of this here, and it was fine. Basic, but fine. *

 

Main Event: Six-Man Tag Team Match: Drew McIntyre and Indus Sher v Jinder Mahal and The Bollywood Boyz: Poor Heath Slater. Ric Flair acts as the special guest ring announcer, but apparently that's too confusing for him, because he does nothing. He also looks old as all fuck. Drew wants Mahal to start, but he gets one of the Bollywood Boyz instead (the announcers don't know/care which), and you can guess how that goes. Tag to Rinku to beat on him as well, as the announcers talk about Rinku's baseball background. Over to Saurav with a powerslam for two, and we get a really forced dog pile sequence on the outside where the heels have literally no reason to even be standing around there. Rinku misses a corner charge to turn the tide, and the heels go to work cutting the ring in half on him. Rinku manages to reverse a suplex from Mahal to allow the hot tag to Drew, and Mahal goes to suplex city. Drew with a neckbreaker, but Mahal blocks the Claymore with a knee. Both men tag, and Saurav has a better time running wild against both Bollywood Boyz - Indus Sher putting it away with a combo at 9:03. ¾*

 

BUExperience: What was the point of this show? I mean, I get making a show exclusively for the burgeoning Indian market (even if the pandemic prevents them from shooting there), but what was the point of this show, where all the Indian guys lose, unless they happen to be teaming with the big, bad WWE guys? And in bad matches, to boot.

 

DUD