With Super ShowDown 2020 coming up this Thursday afternoon, the go-home show of Monday Night Raw, at the very least, has given us an indication of what talent is booked for the pay-per-view and who is not currently scheduled. Of course, the card is always subject to change and WWE may end up making alterations to this lineup, but at the moment, the men and women in this breakdown are not currently advertised as being part of this event.
In some cases, this may be justified, or even a purposeful plan to set up a surprise. In other cases, it may be ridiculous. That is up to you to decide as we take a look at which superstars aren’t being promoted for this show.
From the Raw Men’s Division
— Akira Tozawa: Since coming to the Raw roster, Tozawa has been used only as enhancement talent. If there were a “biggest battle royal” type match on the card, he’d potentially be involved. Other than that, he’s the first entry in our typical jobber rule here wherein all future people in the same boat will just be designated “jobber status” as an explanation for their absence.
— Aleister Black: Saudi isn’t fond of Black’s more religious-themed tattoos. I’m not even making that up.
— The Authors of Pain (Akam & Rezar): Will AOP accompany Seth Rollins and Murphy to the ring and possibly interfere? It wouldn’t surprise me. But, even if that happens, it still hasn’t been advertised, so they still count here.
— Big Show: The World’s Largest Athlete isn’t a true member of the touring roster. He has said he’ll pop in here and there, but he’s not a regular.
— Cedric Alexander: Unfortunately, Alexander’s pushes on Raw dried up weeks upon weeks ago. Now, he’s only ever wrestling on Main Event or inserted in random enhancement spots.
— Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder: Jobber status. Sorry, guys.
— Drew McIntyre: It’s strange to me they didn’t book a match for McIntyre. Giving him someone to beat probably wouldn’t change anything for WrestleMania, but it wouldn’t have hurt to have him get a quick win over even Shelton Benjamin or something.
— EC3: After EC3’s concussion injuries, we haven’t seen him for the past few months. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if we never see him in WWE again.
— Edge / Randy Orton: This feud has to play out over the course of the next month, still. There’s no need for Edge to do anything, nor should Orton be preoccupied with anything else. That is, unless WWE wanted to book Jeff Hardy vs. Orton to tap into the Saudi yearning for older stars.
— Eric Young: Jobber status.
— Humberto Carrillo: This guy has been involved in this whole Andrade and Angel Garza situation. Frankly, I’m surprised WWE didn’t put him in the gauntlet match.
— Kevin Owens: Out of loyalty to Sami Zayn, it seems, as well as possibly other reasons, KO doesn’t appear on these shows.
— Mojo Rawley: Jobber status.
— No Way Jose: Jobber status.
— The O.C. (Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows): It wouldn’t shock me if Gallows and Anderson came out to try to help AJ Styles win the Tuwaiq trophy gauntlet match.
— Riddick Moss: There’s certainly a chance the 24/7 Championship has something to do with this card, even in a backstage bumper spot segment. In that scenario, Moss would be tied to that. However, that’s not a necessity by any means as it is a low priority.
— Rusev: He was advertised to be in the Tuwaiq Trophy Gauntlet Match until they randomly threw it out there that he was replaced with Rey Mysterio. They didn’t even replace him in the graphic. This seems strange.
— Samoa Joe: Joe recently suffered two concussions. It makes sense for him to be out of the mix for this event.
— Shelton Benjamin: Jobber status, unfortunately.
— Titus O’Neil: These days, O’Neil pops up once in a while, but isn’t quite active in any in-ring capacity.
— The Viking Raiders (Erik & Ivar): As The Street Profits are getting the title opportunity, there isn’t much for The Viking Raiders to do. They’re probably on the back burner until being in the title hunt again at WrestleMania.
From the SmackDown Men’s Division
— Apollo Crews / Sheamus / Shorty G: Sheamus has wrecked Apollo and Gable for a few weeks. They keep wanting to go at it, but they keep failing. This isn’t a storyline worth playing out any more, particularly on a pay-per-view.
— The B-Team (Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel): Jobber status.
— Braun Strowman / Cesaro / Elias / Sami Zayn / Shinsuke Nakamura: Zayn’s Syrian background has put him in a spot where he is not invited to the Saudi Arabia events. Politics, what can you say? But that shouldn’t stop WWE from booking something like Strowman against Nakamura for the intercontinental title, as they already did The Monster Among Men and Elias against Cesaro and Nakamura before. I guess they just decided to do that on SmackDown and keep these guys out of Saudi Arabia so that the next night’s TV show could have some reliable talent still in the country if something goes wrong.
— The Colons (Epico Colon & Primo Colon): These two haven’t done anything in WWE in a year. It boggles my mind why WWE has not release them.
— Daniel Bryan: Bryan has expressed his discomfort with the Saudi Arabia shows in the past. I’m not at all surprised he isn’t participating in this.
— Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode: Unless either of these guys has a problem with supporting the Saudi shows, I’d expect them to appear in the steel cage match in an attempt to help King Corbin.
— Drew Gulak: Jobber status….and it pains me to say that.
— The Hardy Boyz (Jeff Hardy & Matt Hardy): Matt Hardy showed up on Raw recently, but Jeff Hardy is still dealing with his injury and legal problems.
— Heath Slater: Jobber status.
— Heavy Machinery (Otis Dozovic & Tucker Knight): Otis had his heart broken by Mandy Rose and Tucker’s looking out for his boy. Other than a match against Dolph Ziggler, what else would be happening? And, let’s be honest, this isn’t the environment for that type of feud to be spotlighted, as opposed to just SmackDown or Elimination Chamber.
— Jinder Mahal: Mahal suffered a ruptured patellar tendon injury in a match against Ali on June 15th and will be out several months.
— Lars Sullivan: The Freak will be out of action until further into 2020 due to a knee injury.
— The Lucha House Party (Gran Metalik, Kalisto, & Lince Dorado): Jobber status.
— Mustafa Ali: Unfortunately, Ali hasn’t done a damn thing in months. It’s strange how that’s the case, when this time last year, he had a lot of momentum.
— The Revival (Dash Wilder & Scott Dawson): Perhaps they’ll show up on behalf of King Corbin, but I’m not counting on it.
— The Usos (Jey Uso & Jimmy Uso): If they appear, they’ll do something in the steel cage match.
From the Women’s Division
Crown Jewel was the first time a women’s match was allowed to happen on these Saudi shows. While it took far, far too long for that to happen in the first place, at least it finally did.
This time around, Bayley will face Naomi for the SmackDown Women’s Championship. The good news is that this means the women’s match the last time around didn’t upset people so much that they won’t allow it in the future. The bad news is that one women’s match seems to be the limit and more would be pushing it.
With that in mind, no matter what they were up to and their availability—injured or not—every other female superstar is sitting on the sidelines for this event other than Bayley and Naomi.
This includes the following names from the red and blue brands:
— Women from Raw: Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, The IIconics, The Kabuki Warriors, Lana, Liv Morgan, Natalya, Nia Jax, Ruby Riott, Sarah Logan and Zelina Vega (who may still show up to accompany Andrade to the ring, though)
— Women from SmackDown: Alexa Bliss, Carmella (who failed to win Naomi’s title opportunity), Dana Brooke, Ember Moon, Lacey Evans, Mandy Rose, Mickie James, Nikki Cross, Sasha Banks, Sonya Deville, and Tamina Snuka
Do you think these men and women or any others not on this list should have been booked on the card in some fashion? How would you have utilized them if given the opportunity? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!
