WWE Superstars 2010: The First 4 Months, #20-16

Nobody watches Superstars, but there have been plenty of weeks this year that the free TV MOTW has been on Superstars. It's truly the new generation Velocity, with weekly 6-8 minutes matches from guys who don't otherwise make TV. Over the next week I'm going to be counting down the top 20 Superstars matches of January-April 2010, so you can go see for yourself what most of you have been missing.

20. Chavo Guerrero & Zach Ryder vs. Evan Bourne & Yoshi Tatsu (4/8/10)

These four seem as good a place to start as any, as they’re kinda the torch-bearers for Superstars these days (would’ve been even more appropriate if it was a 6 man and Ziggler and Masters were included). Bourne and Tatsu are two guys I really dig, and I wish they were getting the Kofi Kingston TV push. The fans seem to really take to them, so who knows. These tags are almost always about Chavo vs. Bourne sections, as they really know how to bring the best out in each other. Chavo takes all his ranas really great (doing a great tumbling bump to the floor), takes the double knees to the shoulder really well, and Chavo always busts out less common offense against Bourne (rolling single leg crab, slingshot senton).

Heels work over Bourne for a bit and there aren’t too many guys that can put over a beatdown like Evan Bourne. Crowd is jacked for the hot tag to Tatsu and Yoshi Tatsu has a bunch of cool spin kicks that actually look really good. Bourne/Tatsu are a perfect babyface tag team and I wish they got a nice run. Conversely, Ryder and Chavo work really nice as a team, doing a bunch of cool heel control spots. The end is pretty nice as Tatsu does a rolling leg lock on Chavo to get him into position and hold him in position while Bourne does the Air Bourne. Fun stuff.

19. William Regal, Jack Swagger, & Zach Ryder vs. Christian, Yoshi Tatsu, & Mark Henry (3/18/10)

WWE knows how to do a mindless fun 6 man tag better than any promotion this side of NOAH. Here we got to see 6 stars from the former WWECW just let loose and get all their stuff in. Henry looked great, doing some cool press slams and doing a mammoth headbutt in the corner. His apron work was really stellar, too, as it was almost too easy for him to get the crowd into the action. I have no clue as to why his face push stopped so suddenly, as the crowd really responds to him well. Christian excels in these types of matches, and Swagger looked really good too (hitting a BOSS belly-to-belly). Tatsu played FIP really well, Regal threw some great knees and really dishes some damage to Tatsu in the corner, and Rosa Mendes is fairly underrated as Ryder’s cheerleader. I love a fun 6 man that gets some time. This kind of thing is just all killer no filler and everybody gets the opportunity to shine (and usually do).

18. Chris Masters vs. Ted Dibiase (1/7/10)

Masters has had a really fun 2010 so far, and this match was a good use for the really bland Dibiase. Masters spends most of the match building up and teasing the Masterlock, Dibiase seemingly always in trouble. Get Masters to the ground, catches you in a half nelson. Try to hiptoss him, grabs your arm and gets you into a half nelson. So Dibiase starts working the arm over, not a bad plan. Masters fights through and spends a lot of the match on the offensive, which is really for the best. Whenever Dibiase is on offense it doesn’t really look great, and it wasn’t helped by Masters doing the Ray Traylor “slow falling tree” bump (think his bumps as War Machine in the second War Games) for every piece of Ted offense. The bump works when the offense looks good, but doing the bump for a wimpy Dibiase forearm just kills it. Masters is a really good bumper and Ted wasn’t giving him much to work with here. He finally gets the Masterlock applied and Dibiase makes fun muggy “oh shit I’m stuck in the Masterlock” faces, then wisely runs towards the turnbuckles and ducks, smashing Masters into them. He then gets back in the ring and hits his ultra goofy Million Dollar Dream Slam. This was a pretty awesome one man show as Masters really showed a lot (as he would continue to do, mostly on Superstars).

17. Chavo Guerrero & Carlito vs. Evan Bourne & Primo (2/18/10)

Chavo and Bourne match up better than just about anybody on the roster. They hadn’t gone up against each other in awhile as they’d both been on different brands, but Chavo is responsible for maybe Bourne’s BEST match in WWE, so it was great to see them together again here. As expected, any time they’re in against each other it completely rules, with Chavo eating a bunch of Bourne’s beautiful ranas and headscissors and flying all over the place for him, and Bourne doing cool things like countering the Gori Bomb with a nice sunset flip. Sometimes it gets a little sloppy when Carlito and Primo are in, but never enough to derail the match. Primo hits a completely nutty bump over the top to the floor, so who can really complain that much? Buncha fun stuff in this one and the time just flew right on by. I really want another Bourne/Chavo singles match.

16. Goldust vs. Shad Gaspard (4/22/10)

Holy cow, it happened: a good Shad Gaspard match! Shad and JTG have been kicking around for 4 or 5 years and still look pretty lousy most of the time. WWE felt it would benefit both to take their semi-over campy tag team and break it up, guaranteeing both would flounder. I can’t think of one good match I’ve seen involving either of them, including tag matches…until now. Goldust has been on a phenomenal roll since returning to WWE, and this should be proof that this guy needs one last IC title run. He completely gets the crowd into ANY opponent, and makes himself and the opponent look great in the process.

Action starts hot with a headlock exchange followed by both men hitting the floor, Goldust missing what would’ve been an awesome baseball slide dropkick, and Shad punishing his miss by just slamming Goldust backwards into the ring steps. Shad control segment with Goldust putting it over huge came next, until GD got a comeback with a great atomic drop and a bulldog (which Shad took like a total goofball). GD can really whip himself around the ring at crazy speed these days. GD leans WAY into a Shad big boot, but gets a small package that I thought was the finish. Shad recovers to hit the STO, and there you have the best match featuring a member of Cryme Tyme. Shad would follow this up a couple weeks later by having a never-ending match against JTG that was just awful.