WWE: Superstars 2nd July 2009

Ah, Superstars. My favourite of cross-branded WWE TV show. Santino vs. The Brian Kendrick is the Raw match. It would be good if they could make Santino a little more rounded as a comedy character now he's been turned, mainly by the crowd, babyface. His schtick as a heel was funny enough that the audience began to cheer for him - I don't see any need for him to switch to a different routine. The match is entertaining for the three minutes it gets, and both guys are hard to not enjoy.

Smackdown match number one is John Morrison versus Charlie Haas. John Morrison is also a guy whose babyface turn has led to the a complete change in character. It''s just lazy writing for someone to basically press refresh on the attitude, where a gradual and justifiable evolution is so much more rewarding. I'm also not as convinced by him as a singles guy as I was in his team last year - sure, he gets to do all his impressive flippy offence, but he doesn't feel like the guy putting good matches together. I liked his match last week with Punk, but not as much as some others, and I'd place any credit for it with Punk. Anyway, this match is another example - he takes a nasty bump chest first onto the steps, but ignores it soon after to hit his gymnastic stuff. It's like the bump is just another way of being flashy, rather than contributing anything to the match.

The ECW match is the debuting Tyler Reks, who I think was or is the FCW champion against Zack Ryder, a guy whose character at least is somewhat of a guilty pleasure. Match is too short (again) to really get into, but I will note that for all his goofiness, Ryder has some perfectly decent offence, and you can't fault him for effort.

The WWE have apparently jumped onto the latest fad, which is called reading. What ever happened to good old fashioned listening to words? That clip from the gauntlet match on Raw really makes me want to watch that match on Raw without already knowing what happened on Raw.

CM Punk vs. Edge is the main event. Of the many great things in this Punk slow-burn heel turn is how JR is utterly convinced by everything Punk says and does - here completely siding with the eye injury explanation for the Bash title match. All that stuff I said about lazy writing in turns earlier...completely does not apply to Punk. JR also redefines the word undisputed: "Undisputed means they go to any brand to defend their tag titles". No it doesn't. You can all see what I have done there. The match is passable and not particularly exciting, but it serves its purpose with the finish. I said it of the Bash and it applies here too - this is the first time I've seen the WWE use these non-finishes to actually achieve something. Usually, a DQ in a title match on PPV is used because the writers want to feud to continue for a bit, but don't want the babyface to lose. Here, the finish still draws the ire of the crowds, but channels it towards Punk's on-going character development. And the best thing about it all - it all makes complete sense. His motivation, his actions, the response from commentators - it all follows on naturally and is completely consistent. The best heels, as Foley noted, are the ones that truly believe that they are right.