This Week in DVR: OOOOHHH YES! PAUL BEARER RETURNS~!

We missed you, Mr. Paul Bearer!
Photo Credit: WWE.com

I watched what I couldn't watch live on my DVR this week. Here's what stood out:

Matches:

Goldust vs. William Regal on Superstars - Not as good their match a few weeks back, but whenever these two guys get in the ring with each other, it's a treat to watch. Regal worked the leg over really good, especially with that sequence on the ring steps. Goldust winning out of nowhere with the Final Cut was a nice touch, especially with the finish a couple of weeks ago when Regal won out of nowhere with the Knee Trembler.

Jeremy Buck vs. Alex Shelley on Impact - This was a nice little match with a few big spots, especially the neckbreaker by Buck on the apron. This was a good match in the context of their feud, which is one of the only good things going on in TNA right now.

Samoa Joe vs. Pope D'Angelo Dinero on Impact - Joe did a good job leading Pope by the nose in this match. It was a basic wrestling match, but I think for TNA, it stood out because you don't really see good matches that look like they were laid out by road agents all that often. The finish was wonky, as the whole "get distracted by stuff outside the ring" is played, especially when the new Wolfpac-flavored product beating on Jarrett had NOTHING to do with the match at hand, but at least it was clean-ish.

Chris Masters vs. Kane, non-title, on Smackdown - Masters keeps impressing me. He went the extra mile to sell Kane's offense to make the World Champion look like a dominant wrestler, and yet he made himself look good in the match by hanging in there and really selling his fight and determination. Fun little opener. I hope they give Masters a run with the IC title, because I'd love to see him run with Dolph Ziggler, Alberto del Rio, CM Punk and other mid-to-upper carders, most of which on Smackdown can work really, really well.

Kaval vs. Chavo Guerrero on Smackdown - I'm not thrilled that Kaval is on the job train after winning NXT Season 2. This could be the old Kenta Kobashi push where they build to his first big win after a bunch of losses to quality competition, but I don't have the faith in the WWE to do that. That being said, it was a really good match. Kaval did everything well, and Chavo was game too. Chavo seems motivated again, and when he's motivated, he's one of the better wrestlers out there. I loved the finish, where Chavo countered the super rana by holding onto the ropes and then landed the frogsplash. Very well-done match.

Luke Gallows vs. CM Punk on Smackdown - Punk played the opposite role here than he did at Night of Champions, back on his heels for most of the match. The WWE seems to like to do the winner-gets-dominated-most-of-the-match template lately, and I hope they don't overuse it, because it's a good way to get a guy over when done sparingly. Punk played the role of punching bag very well, and Gallows looked pretty good on offense. It wasn't Punk's best Go 2 Sleep, and it's not a great looking move to me anyway. Still, it was a pretty good match.

MVP vs. Dolph Ziggler on Smackdown - Wow, this was the best MVP has looked in a long time, maybe since his match with Randy Orton last year on RAW. Ziggler carried the action, but I gotta give MVP his props too. The Vickie Guerrero/Kaitlyn stuff told a story. It's not really the best of angles, but hey, at least they're doing something with one of the NXT girls, and it gets heat for Ziggler, so it's a necessary evil. It was unclear whether it was for the IC title or not, but regardless, I still loved the finish. That's how you put a potential challenger to a title over without jobbing the Champion out clean. Countout finishes, especially intentional forfeit countouts, are good finishes in situations like these.

Shows:

NXT - Season 3 is turning into a tale of two shows - the embarrassingly bad content in the ring and the captivating commentary featuring Josh Matthews, Michael Cole and now, CM Punk. It's amazing how jarring a juxtaposition you've got there. It's almost like the trio in the booth is giving the show in the ring a MST3K feel. What I thought was the best was Punk indirectly poking fun at his own womanizing all throughout the broadcast. But in the ring? The only thing that I really thought was interesting was during the Talk the Talk challenge, when Naomi refused to talk on her topic and say she was "there to wrestle", which elicited a pop from the crowd. Quite the telling stat there to all the people who boost the "entertainment" part of sports entertainment, isn't it?

Superstars - Why is there any reason to replay a match from RAW in the middle of Superstars? Such bullshit. The burial of Nexus wasn't even all that great when it happened the first time. I mean, they couldn't have taped a shitty Divas match or something? I digress. The bookend matches were pretty good though. JTG/Primo didn't make the honor roll, but it was still pretty fun. Superstars is at its best when you get to see people you don't normally get to see expanded exposure on RAW or Smackdown, and replays defeat the purpose of that.

Impact - Rob Van Dam trying to sell long term injuries was hilarious. Meanwhile, Abyss, who tortured someone last week on camera, made a murder threat caught on tape. These are things that if everything was "real" like kayfabe wants us to believe it is, that the Orlando PD would have arrested him for. Add in the pointless brawling between Extra Virgin Olive Oil EV 2.0 and Fortune during yet another non-title ladder match on Impact, Lacey von Erich continuing to shove women's wrestling back by years with every move she makes and the continued insistance of Dixie Carter to shoehorn herself as a character on TV, Impact has too many handicaps week in and week out to be a good show. Also, way to get on the "bros icing bros" bandwagon when it was lame to begin with. Ugh.

Smackdown - Let's get the criticism out of the way early. I wasn't a fan of Emo-Taker, and the Hornswoggle/Dudebusters comedy stuff wasn't funny at all. Still, they could have had another Osbourne RAW-esque segment of terrible, horrible comedy and it still wouldn't have mattered, because PAUL BEARER IS BACK, BABY! So what if the angle is cheesy? Kane's execution, added with the unmitigated nostalgia of seeing Bearer again makes it bearable. It was a great ending to a solid show this week, full of really good wrestling matches. Kane himself said on radio that Smackdown would change from a "wrestling show" to a "TV show" when it went to Smackdown. However, I hope he's wrong, because when Smackdown is good, when it's based on the matches in the ring and not non-wrestling bullshit, it's one of the best shows on TV.

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