The Undertaker Wins The Tuwaiq Trophy Gauntlet Match
The best way to describe this match is….well, I don’t even really know. It was clear from the jump that this was done to set up AJ Styles vs. The Undertaker at WrestleMania. However, the journey we took to get to that point was kind of all over the place.
First, it started with R-Truth playing the trope of the underdog babyface who survived a great deal of punishment. While I appreciate trying to mimic what Seth Rollins and Kofi Kingston did in Gauntlet matches in years past, this wasn’t nearly as entertaining. For the most part, the action was significantly slow and plodding. The crowd really couldn’t even get into some of the decisions because the matches took too long to get to the point.
Then you had The OC coming out to jump Mysterio, robbing fans of what probably would have been technically the best in-ring action of the match. This was only to spend a combined 7-10 minutes of seeing Undertaker walk down the ramp, do one sloppy looking chokeslam, win the match, and make the long walk back before doing his fist bump.
A gauntlet match featuring R-Truth, Bobby Lashley, Andrade, Rowan, AJ Styles, Mysterio and Undertaker should not cover nearly 50 minutes of time. We could have gotten to the point much sooner, but this was just slow filler to me. *1/2
John Morrison and The Miz def. The New Day (C) – SmackDown Tag Team Championships
Anyone could have telegraphed this title change, but this match ended up being very good. I thought the pacing was very slow to start, and after being subjected to a near 50 minute gauntlet segment, I thought there should have been a quicker pace to begin. That said, once Kofi got the hot tag and started to work with John Morrison, the match started to pick up a big deal.
These two teams have some pretty good chemistry, and I’m glad that these teams got time to tell a story and have a quality outing with Miz and Morrison winning because of better teamwork. I just hope that trust fall Kofi took on the outside doesn’t hurt him too badly, because that looked bad watching it live. Otherwise, a very good effort by both teams. ***1/2
Angel Garza def. Humberto Carrillo
I really didn’t think this match needed an impromptu match, but considering the performance the two put on this past week on RAW, I won’t kill them over it. Overall, the match wasn’t as good as the match on RAW, but it was still a pretty solid effort overall.
Since Garza is relatively new to the main roster, I’m not sure if the Saudi Arabian crowd could get acclimated him much, which means the match may have lacked some heat. Despite that, I still think they had some good high-flying action for the time giving. That said, I could have done without this. **3/4
Seth Rollins (C) and Murphy (C) def. The Street Profits – RAW Tag Team Championships
This tag team match was a little more tame compared to the SmackDown tag title match. Ford and Dawkins are never lacking when it comes to bringing the energy, and Rollins is a tag team specialist.
That said, there never was a moment where it felt like that the Profits could win the titles other than Ford hitting that frog splash on Rollins. Even then, Murphy was right there to save the match for them. It was pretty much a RAW-quality match. Not overtly terrible, but I easily will forget what happened here in about an hour. **1/2
Mansoor def. Dolph Ziggler
Another impromptu match, eh? Well, if there’s one thing that should be said about Mansoor, it’s that he knows his way around the ring. Ziggler is at the stage of his career where he can at least be asked to put over younger, new talent.
This match was actually better than I expected it to be, especially for a match that wasn’t announced in advance. While his match with Cesaro was leagues better than this, it was another solid outing for Mansoor on PPV.
The big issue, I guess not with the match, but after, was Michael Cole and the announce team acting like Mansoor’s victory was some sort of act of divine intervention. News flash, defeating Dolph Ziggler in 2020 is a pass time activity for more than half the active roster.
Mansoor’s post-match speech was also painful to listen to. Since when does defeating Dolph Ziggler, DOLPH ZIGGLER in 2020 warrant a “rah-rah” speech? It’s not like Eddie Guererro defeating Brock Lesnar. It was a solid outing, but upset? Give me a break. **1/2
Brock Lesnar (C) def. Ricochet – WWE Championship
Well, it’s not like I was expecting much, but I still find it disturbing matches that weren’t announced are longer than one of your card’s biggest matches. I suppose I can respect Ricochet for flying all the way out to Saudi Arabia so he can take approximately 4 moves in 90 seconds and get squashed in embarrassing fashion.
Ricochet was one of the biggest underdogs coming into this match that I’ve ever seen, and I guess if anything else, I can’t say the match didn’t live up to Lesnar being an overwhelming favorite.
The match will obviously not get a rating because the time given doesn’t even warrant one, but given the poor build to this match and the lack of building up Ricochet as at least somewhat of a threat made this a very disappointing experience overall. I never thought the day would come where WWE Championship matches would become a bathroom break, but here we go.
Roman Reigns def. King Corbin – Steel Cage Match
I have become so numb seeing these two in the ring. I’m actually halfway expecting Corbin to come out tomorrow and say that Reigns needed the chain to defeat him to give this feud an excuse to extend it further. You’d think the Last Man Standing match would end things, but this had better be the final curtain on this feud. These two need to be as far away from each other as possible.
Anyway, the match was pretty boring. WWE really hasn’t booked a great steel cage match in a while, and combined with the monotony of seeing these two for so long, there was little change this would be entertaining. Kind of slow, offense wasn’t really decisive, and I was just honestly waiting for it to end. At least there was no dog food involved so….good for them? *
Bayley (C) def. Naomi – SmackDown Women’s Championship
Sloppy match to say the least. The finish was also awkward as all hell too. I get what they were going for there, but it works so much better in your head than it does in practice. I have definitely seen worse, but in terms of recent title matches, this was kind of bad.
Also, them trying to prop this up as a historic match was also wearing me out early. You know WWE likes to push propaganda when they can, but it kind of got out of control here. Yes, Bayley was technically the first female superstar to defend her title in Saudi Arabia, but they aren’t the first women to do so. Are we going to have a parade for Asuka and Kairi Sane if they “become the first women to defend their women’s tag team championships in Saudi Arabia?” Like, give it a rest.
Even if this match was supposedly historic, the match fell well short of the billing. *1/2
Goldberg def. Bray Wyatt (C) – Universal Championship
A lot to digest for such a first match. First and foremost, I completely understand the decision to make Goldberg. Well, I don’t completely understand (I’ll elaborate more soon), but I at least understand the line of thinking. WrestleMania is the PPV for the big shows and WWE has historically opted to have big names compete, even if they are already in the Hall of Fame and presumably semi-retired. Also, WWE’s unpopular looming PPV deal with ESPN to make WrestleMania bigger than it actually is makes sense too. Here’s the part I don’t understand, and that’s the match.
WWE essentially booked themselves in a corner with The Fiend ever since his Hell In a Cell disaster with Seth Rollins. In that match, Rollins gave The Fiend 15 Curb Stomps and a sledgehammer with a chair over his face, and The Fiend no sold all of that. He has since been thrown off stages, been flung into stage equipment and has taken very violent offense after only to no sell everything as if he was barely touched. Hell, remember that Strap Match with Daniel Bryan, when Bray was getting whipped every which way, and then he just got up and finished the match instantly because he decided to not sell? So…what the hell happened here?
I was thinking that the payoff for finally defeating The Fiend would be either doing something so over the top or just catching him by surprise in general. But no, the formula for beating him all this time was 5 spears and a Jackhammer (which was ended up looking like just a normal vertical suplex)? I could maybe understand if Goldberg hit, like, 10, but it was so brief, each one of Goldberg’s spears felt just like an ordinary transitional move.
Also, The Fiend barely got any offense in. His matches have been built off of his overwhelming presence and dominating his opponents physically and mentally. All he did here was a half-assed Mandible Claw. That’s literally it.
But, wait! Here’s the best part! After the match, The Fiend is staring at Goldberg, no selling everything! And then he just vanishes. So what, did The Fiend’s powers not work? Was he intimidated by the offense of a 53 year old man who is already in the Hall of Fame? I don’t know how WWE intends to explain this one away, but maybe there just isn’t one and we have to just accept it.
Again, I want to make it clear. Goldberg winning isn’t the problem here. This isn’t anything out of the ordinary for WWE’s WrestleMania booking MO. It’s the journey we took to get there. WWE’s internal consistency was essentially withdrawn in this match and this match leaves more questions than answers.
Truth be told, I was starting to grow a little sour on The Fiend based on how his matches were progressing, but this felt like a huge slap to the work Bray put in to completely re-invent himself. It seemed just like yesterday we were praising Wyatt for his performance at Summerslam. Now, it’s like we are back to square one with Bray. Ho freaking hum. -*
Conclusion:
What does it say about WWE that in 2020, three of your biggest winners are Undertaker, Brock Lesnar and Goldberg in short efforts?
Allow me to save you the trouble here. If you invest time in watching Super Showdown 2020, you will not get an adequate return. If you want some perspective, the combined length of both world title matches amounted to half the time Bayley and Naomi got.
Questionable booking decisions, boring action and slightly above average efforts at best ruled the afternoon here, and this is not something that’s worth nearly four hours of your time. The New Day and Miz/Morrison put up a solid effort, but I really can’t recommend anything past that, even if you have time to burn.
At this point, Saudi Arabia needs to start asking for their money back, because WWE seems to screw them over with meddling too many bad shows whenever they come to town. They’re fortunate the fans there seem to eat anything up. Super Showdown 2020 is a thumbs all the way down.
