February 12, 2016
Episode 357
(taped February 8, 2016)
City: Seattle, WA
Venue: Key Arena
Commentary: Rich Brennan, Byron Saxton
Ring Announcer: Lilian Garcia
Intro Video
“New Day Coming” by CFO$
Match 1
The Ascension vs Fandango & Damien Sandow
(referee: Rod Zapata)
Result: Viktor pins Damien Sandow after Fall of Man
Time: 4:53
Match Thoughts
Pretty good match, but it was nothing special. There was a little back and forth, but The Ascension kind of ran this match. The crowd was cheering for Sandow nearly the entire time and did not like it whenever he was on the losing side of the battle. It was interesting to see Fandango and Sandow not antagonize each other like on Main Event this week, but this show was taped before Main Event so it makes sense.
Video
RAW Rebound featuring Reigns, Ambrose, and Lesnar.
Video
Celebrating Black History Month with a profile of Mark Henry.
Match 2
Stardust vs Zack Ryder
(referee: Chad Patton)
Result: Zack Ryder wins via pinfall after a Rough Ryder
Time: 8:07 (1 break)
Match Thoughts
This was another good match between these two. Again, the ending seemed a little sudden, but it was good. They seem to be developing a nice little rivalry. A rivalry that pretty much nobody will see.
Video
A look at Daniel Bryan’s WWE career.
Video
A replay of Daniel Bryan’s retirement speech from RAW.
Show Impressions
The matches this week are worth watching. Ryder and Stardust were nicely competitive, and the tag match had Sandow in it.
Match of the Night
Stardust vs Zack Ryder
Definitely the better match, and a good continuation of their little feud.
Watching this show I got to thinking that the US title should be a Superstars/Main Event title. Not exclusively, but they should defend it on these shows every once in a while. Guys like Ryder and Stardust deserve to be in that title picture, and these shows are where they thrive. Plus, the matches could actually get some decent time so they could potentially be better than matches on Raw and Smackdown. But then, maybe that’s one of the reasons they don’t want to develop stories and defend titles on Superstars and Main event…