WWF Superstars (December 22, 1996)

 

Original Airdate: December 22, 1996 (taped December 16)

From Tampa, Florida; Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Jim Cornette

WWF Champion Sycho Sid brags about beating both Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart in the span of a month

Davey Boy Smith and Owen Hart v Savio Vega and Jesse James: The WWF Tag Team title is not on the line here. Owen and Bulldog crack themselves up doing a bit where they cover each other's ears to block out Jesse’s singing. Hart and Vega start, and trade wristlocks. Tag to Jesse for a wristlock of his own, but Hart takes a cheap shot on a ropebreak. He tries a cross corner whip, but Jesse reverses, and Savio comes in with a spinheel kick in the corner. Vega tags in officially, but loses a criss cross to a drop-toehold, and Hart grabs a headlock. Savio counters to a hammerlock, but Owen escapes, and tags out, as Steve Austin split screens in to talk trash about Davey. Meanwhile, Savio reverses a hiptoss on Bulldog, and Jesse tags in to 2nd rope axehandle him. He tries an armbar, but Davey muscles him into the heel corner, and the champs double team. Owen with a leg-feed enzuigiri for two, and they work James over. I love Ross and Cornette, but paired with each other is too much of a 1990 WCW vibe, and it doesn’t fit this promotion. Savio gets the hot tag and runs wild - Roseanne Barr the door! Hart hits Vega with a spinheel kick from behind, allowing Davey a running powerslam at 7:46. This wasn’t bad in any particularly notable way, it was just dull. And felt endless. ¾*

WWF Christmas Carole

Steve Austin v Jason Ahrndt: The lights are way, way down here, as they’ve got less than 3,000 people in a building that can hold 18k. I’m surprised they even booked such a big building, frankly. Austin with the stunner at 2:05. Afterwards, Austin chews the jobber out, and tells him to go find a partner, so he can beat them both in a handicap match next week. DUD

Sunny visits Santa to let him know that she’s been a ‘bad girl,’ but will still get what she wants

Kevin Kelly brings Shawn Michaels out, and it’s pretty hilarious hearing them hyping 70,000 people for the Royal Rumble when they couldn’t even get 3,000 people into the building here. And what’s even crazier is they still wound up with a big crowd for the Rumble anyway! Anyway, Shawn doesn’t care if Bret Hart thinks he was cost the title at In Your House, because Shawn is going to get it himself at the Rumble. Michaels sounds like he’s still reeling from the MSG crowd turning on him at Survivor Series. The character was getting really dark here, especially for a babyface. The cloying ‘boyhood dream’ character was terrible, but this is terrible too. His ‘cool babyface’ run in 1995 was incredible, so it’s not like he doesn’t know how to walk that line

Pierroth v Matt Hardy: I get that they were trying some cross promotion with AAA, but come on, how is this on TV? Pierroth split screens in to show us his visit to Santa as well, since we don’t want this AAA thing to work, I guess. And this match is so unimportant that we split screen to the commentators calling the match just to get some semblance of star power on screens, I guess. Pierroth with a powerbomb at 3:43. This was really long, and did nothing to get Pierroth over. DUD

The Starburst Fruit Twist Rewind is Austin hitting the stunner earlier

Honky Tonk Man is back, and promising a big reveal tomorrow on RAW. Bringing Honky back at this point in the 90s was a weird fit

Undertaker v 'Diesel': Wow, a WrestleMania rematch, and they couldn’t draw a bigger crowd? Diesel kick starts the match, and cross corner whips Undertaker, but Undertaker rebounds, and turns the tables for some abuse against the turnbuckles. Undertaker with a cross corner whip, and he follows in with a corner splash, then a ropewalk forearm. Undertaker throws a big boot, and he chokes Diesel in the corner a bit. Another charge hits a boot, however, and Diesel clotheslines him. Undertaker no sells, so Diesel gives him a sidewalk slam, followed by a pair of elbowdrops. A slugfest goes Undertaker’s way, so Vader runs in to attack him for the DQ at 4:32. I can’t believe they didn’t put Undertaker over fake Diesel. ¼*

BUExperience: Woof. This is really the low point for this entire promotion (or, at least, one of them), and even the A-shows weren’t particularly good, so what would you expect with what is increasingly becoming a complete afterthought of a show?