This Friday, WWE returns to Saudi Arabia to host what they are branding to be a “WrestleMania-equivalent” show, Super Showdown. WrestleMania was not all that great to me in its totality, so at least they are being realistic about the bar they are setting. While the PPV is sure to cause controversy for obvious reasons, its still a show with potential implications on future plans going forward. Here are my predictions for Super Showdown this Friday.
By the way, if you are curious to see how Super Showdown fared last year, take a look at my review of last year’s show and see for yourself what has changed.
Lars Sullivan vs. Lucha House Party – 1 on 3 Handicap Match
Winner: Lars Sullivan
Braun Strowman vs. Bobby Lashley
Winner: Braun Strowman
Finn Balor (C) vs. Andrade – Intercontinental Championship
Anyways, this feud kind of hurts from the standpoint that Finn hasn’t been there to build hype up for the match. However, since he’s selling Andrade’s insane sunset powerbomb, it makes sense. Meanwhile, WWE inexplicably has Andrade cutting promos with Zelina Vega literally just standing there listening to him. If you’re not going to have Vega speak, what’s the point of her being there exactly?
Andrade seems to have the support of a lot of people backstage, so I think it’s set in stone that he will win the Intercontinental Championship one day. I just don’t think it will come against the Demon this Friday. However, if any title match is subject to have a title holder go belly up, it’s this match.
Winner: Finn Balor
Roman Reigns vs. Shane McMahon
If we want to put things into the proper perspective, Roman squashed Elias within a minute at Money In The Bank. Shane McMahon shouldn’t last 30 seconds. The biggest beef I have with this match is that WWE is building up Shane as a threat by having other people beat him up. Shane has the power to create tag team matches on Smackdown, so why doesn’t he use his power to make this match into a handicap match with Elias and Drew McIntyre, since he probably already knows he can’t take Roman in a fair fight? It’s like he forgot he is a McMahon and can create unfair advantages for himself.
The other issue is that Shane seems to still have unfinished business with The Miz. It’s a shame that in 2019, if you were to tell me that the biggest heel in WWE who is a consistent part of WWE programming and said Shane McMahon, I’d begrudgingly agree. That is a severe indictment on WWE’s booking team. Anyways, Roman wins because of logic and I have a brain.
Winner: Roman Reigns
Triple H vs. Randy Orton
Another reason that I cannot get behind this match is due to the lack of chemistry Orton and Triple H have in the ring with each other. To say their matches are boring is to state the obvious. They just work a slow, methodical, sluggish style of match that often goes longer than needed. When you combine Triple H’s main event style of matches, and Orton’s often uninspired efforts in the ring, it doesn’t make for a good combination. The Saudi Arabian crowd may not care, but this has all the makings of a snoozefest. Orton’s a full-time superstar while Triple H shows up once every so often. I’d say Orton wins, but I think Triple H will put himself over. Just because.
Winner: Triple H
Kofi Kingston (C) vs. Dolph Ziggler – WWE Championship
If there is one thing that I can give this match, it’s that it at least has a clear focus. Dolph Ziggler is quite clearly envious of Kofi Kingston, who has been a singles competitor in WWE for about as long as Kofi has, and Ziggler believes all of the moments Kofi benefited from should have belonged to him. Kofi correctly replies by telling Dolph that when he gets opportunities and fails, he quits. Credit to WWE for actually not only mentioning their history competing against each other, but also that Dolph relinquished the US Title for, well, reasons.
Kofi isn’t losing the title this soon, especially not to a backup option for his original opponent. One would think one day Ziggler will reach the brass ring, and maybe he will. It’s just not happening on Friday. Or in other words, it won’t be Dolph.
Winner: Kofi Kingston
Seth Rollins (C) vs. Baron Corbin – Universal Championship
Brock Lesnar stated that he will cash in on Friday (which evidently means he’ll actually be cashing in next week). That will be the main story of the match, not whatever Corbin does. Rollins winning this Friday seems like the biggest formality on this card, because the question will be if Brock will follow through on cashing in.
Winner: Seth Rollins
The Undertaker vs. Goldberg
The only interesting thing about this match is how long they are going to allow these two guys to go. Personally, my bet is on 4 minutes. As long as this match doesn’t overstay its welcome, I don’t really see a problem with it. Personally, I’ll say Goldberg wins. Undertaker is at the point in his career where losses will not hurt him, and he can certainly take a loss to Goldberg. I think Undertaker has shown he doesn’t have a good history with people who have spears as their finisher anyway.
Winner: Goldberg
50 Man Battle Royal
If there was something up for grabs here, I would be more excited. The winners of the traditional 30 man Royal Rumble match get a future WWE/Universal Championship match. So what does the winner of the same match with 20 added competitors get? Bragging rights? A trophy? A belt which they won’t carry around? Ugh.
Last year’s battle royal was immensely boring because all they did was give spots to individual members of tag teams who do not get airtime and people we have never heard of before. All we can do is discern who the biggest names on the roster who don’t have an announced match will be. Off the top of my head, we have Drew McIntyre, Elias, Samoa Joe, Cesaro, Ricochet and Aliester Black.
I’ll go out on a limb and say Drew wins the match to build him up for his match against Roman Reigns at Stomping Grounds (yes, there is already another PPV in two weeks already).
Winner: Drew McIntyre
Will Super Showdown be another flop in Saudi Arabia, or can it surprise and surpass expectations? We shall find out this Sunday.