Rob Van Dam vs Seth Rollins
This isn’t particularly good, but it ends up being much
better than the nightmare that it looks like on paper. The early signs aren’t
good, with Van Dam rolling into the world’s slowest dropdown on a rope running
exchange, but he hits a great sudden kick in the corner, and a pescado that
looks more impactful because of how ungraceful it looks. It’s just RVD hurling
his body at Rollins without any concerns about it looking good. Both guys do
some token arm work, with both throwing their opponent shoulder first into the
corner, though this focus doesn’t get paid off by either guy. RVD gets pushed
from the top to the floor, bumping huge, whilst a half-hearted (and very
untrue) “This is awesome” chant starts. Rollins chucks RVD into the barricades,
but Van Dam reverses an attempt to send him into the timekeeper area, sending
Rollins instead, and RVD wins via count out. Functional stuff.
Curtis Axel vs Adam Rose
This was actually pretty decent, almost entirely due to
Axel. You’d never build a promotion round the guy, but he’s able to make six
minute C-show matches against questionable talent seem interesting. Here, he
hits some nice punches, a great boomerang clothesline, and really works in a
deep chinlock, making Rose carry his weight, working the hold. Rose hits a
decent spinbuster to comeback, as well as a sloppy leaping rana, and Axel fully
commits to a missed corner splash to set up the Party Foul for the Rose win.
Los Matadores vs Stardust & Goldust
This will have been filmed before the Raw where the Rhodes’
turned heel on the Usos, so this is ostensibly fought as face-vs-face, with
both teams getting hot tags. This is a fun sprint, with a great performance by
Goldust running thoughout. He looks terrific as the hot tag after the Matadors
control Stardust with some nice double-teams. Goldust hits a great bunch of
fired up clotheslines, his lovely scoop slam, and an elbow from the corner,
where it feels like he really whips back into his opponents face. Stardust does a corny exaggerated sell of a
chinbreaker to let Diego tag in, and he’s great, full of energy, until he
misses a top rope cannonball. A Stardust flatliner gets the win, neat little
tag sprint.
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