Tag: Goldberg

WWE Super Showdown 2019: Every Match Ranked

Super Showdown is now in the books and well…yeah that was about what I was expecting it to be.

I normally like to put a positive spin on these intros, but I just can’t do it with this show. It started out decent enough but once it slowed down it just ground to a halt and caused a 7 car pile up. If I’m being honest I could just have the sentence “This was boring” for almost every entry and kick back with a job well done, but I’ll try to get more out of it than that.

Let’s rank ’em then, here’s what I thought of every match from WWE Super Showdown 2019.

10 – Randy Orton def. Triple H

Honestly, it’s impressive that this match – a match I had the lowest of expectations for – still managed to underwhelm me.

This was the longest match of the show at just over 25 minutes (more than 15 minutes longer than any other match on the show) and quite frankly it only needed to be about 5. All anyone wants to see from these big nostalgia matches is for the two guys to hit all their signature moves on one another, and one to get pinned, that’s literally all we care about. Instead, whoever’s producing these matches (probably Triple H himself) decides we need almost half an hour of two guys well past their prime doing basically nothing until right at the end they hit their big moves and one gets pinned.

I actually timed it, and from the moment the bell rings it takes a whole minute for them to even touch for the first time, then it’s another minute before anyone actually does a wrestling move, and that was pretty much the pattern for the whole match. Honestly, the moment the match was over, I could not tell you a single thing that happened during it other than the opening and the finish, which by the way was telegraphed so hard, I saw it coming about a minute before it actually happened.

It’s very rare that a wrestling match makes me this bored. Even during Triple H vs Batista this year (which I hated), I was never so bored that I actively wanted to stop paying attention and watch something else. I don’t want to sound like some whiney punk, but Triple H needs to get over himself and realise all we want to see him do is the cool signature moves…and I’ll admit I have a soft spot for the over the top entrances.

9 – Lars Sullivan def. The Lucha House Party via Disqualification
(3 on 1 Handicap)

Honestly, this match should thank every God anyone’s ever believed in its not last place.

Pretty much what makes me like this match more than HHH vs Orton is that A) It’s shorter and B) It didn’t move at the pace of a snail with arthritis. Once again, I went in with low expectations and was underwhelmed, the LHP guys put in the most meagre of offences against Lars, and quite honestly Lars barely did anything in return either other than standing there and looking cross.

While the finish made the whole thing seem like a huge waste of time, it was admittedly the smart thing for LHP to do, if they then didn’t undercut it by going back into the fray after making their quick exit. I hope this is the end of this (although I have a feeling it’s not) because both sides deserve something better.

8 – Braun Strowman def. Bobby Lashley

I’m not saying this match was predictable, but I was sitting there telling my friend what was going to happen before it happened.

A match like this between two big guys desperately needs to be more than stalemates and rest holds. It needs to be explosive, take Undertaker vs Batista from Wrestlemania 23 as an example, that’s what these guys need to do, just on a smaller scale. Instead, we got Strowman running around the ring like an idiot – because turning a 90-degree corner kills all your momentum, thus making you slower – and Lashley responded with offence that felt like it had no power behind it.

I really don’t have anything else to say here other than I never want to see this match again.

7 – Shane McMahon def. Roman Reigns

Oh for fu-

WWE, it’s ok, Shane Mcmahon can lose a match once in a while, just stop, please. I just don’t understand what kind of shit anyone was smoking when this match was booked because it doesn’t help anyone. If Reigns beats Drew, loses to Shane and then beats Drew in order to get revenge then all that does is make both Reigns and Drew look weak. Reigns looks weak because he couldn’t beat Shane and had to fight a guy he’s already beat instead, and Drew looks weak because Reigns beat him twice.

Outside of that, the match was boring too. Once again most of the spots were predictable and the ones that weren’t were mostly just rest holds. Like I said in my predictions, I had a secret thought that this match could rock, but that’ll teach me to have hope.

6 – The Undertaker def. Goldberg

Well, this was just depressing.

I’ll be honest, during the first half of this match, I was actually entertained. While the transitional stuff was pretty boring, I thought they were hitting all the right notes, just going for the big moves and hitting each other very hard in the middle, then the rest of it happened…

So first Undertaker hit a Tombstone and looked like he was about to drop Goldberg at any moment (luckily he didn’t), but things got worse from there as Goldberg got busted open from…something, and after a pretty good looking spear he went for a Jackhammer and oh boy. I don’t know if Undertaker was too heavy, or he hadn’t adjusted his weight right, but Goldberg couldn’t hold Taker up and almost dropped him directly on his head on the way down. Then it came to the finish, and the pair were going for the classic, “Tombstone gets countered into the other person’s Tombstone” spot and just as they were about to complete the rotation, Undertaker just drops Goldberg, Taker then didn’t even bother trying to do another one and instead just hit a crappy looking Chokeslam for the win.

I don’t blame them for the things went wrong in this match, and watching it makes me more worried for both of the guys in the ring than annoyed that the match was bad, but I’d be lying if I said it was any good.

5 – Mansoor wins the 50 Man Battle Royal

As much as it’s not what I would’ve done, I can’t really argue with this booking decision. For one thing, it popped the crowd something fierce, I wasn’t entirely sure if they’d know who he was but thankfully they definitely knew and he got the loudest reaction of the night when he won, but there’s just one thing that would ruin this win: If he wasn’t on TV regularly from now on. Raw, Smackdown, 205 Live or NXT, Mansoor needs to actually become a regular fixture of one of these shows now or this win will do nothing for him.

The rest of the battle royal was about as entertaining as you’d expect a pointless battle royal in an overcrowded ring to be. There were a couple of fun spots, and the action picked up a little once we got down to the last few men, but it was still nothing to write home about. At least someone will likely benefit from this, which is more than can be said about the ARMBAR.

4 – Kofi Kingston(c) def. Dolph Ziggler
(WWE Championship)

As much as I wasn’t too excited about this one in my predictions, I quietly hoped this one would be good, and it was, at least by this show’s standards.

This match wasn’t anything special, not by a long shot, and in fact, if it were on a regular episode of Smackdown it would probably still be characterised as mediocre, but thanks to the absolute sea of utter shite that came before it, I actually got a bit of enjoyment out of this one. Not much mind, but in the spots where the pace picked up I thought there was some good back and forth, unfortunately, there was a lot of Ziggler “wearing Kofi down” which is always extraordinarily dull.

The finish was also a tad confusing, I get Xavier was just getting revenge for what Ziggler did to him earlier on and I imagine that’s how they’ll justify it as a face move come Tuesday, but what really was the point in it? Was it just to set up Kofi vs Ziggler for Stomping Grounds? Because that seems hilariously redundant. What’s worse is a small thing like that opens up amazing opportunities for storylines between Xavier and Kofi, for example, Xavier could be so desperate to keep the train rolling that he’ll cheat in order to allow Kofi to retain, even against Kofi’s own wishes. WWE do this all the time, where they tease us with the possibility of something interesting, only to throw it away for something boring, so onto Stomping Grounds I guess.

3 – Finn Balor(c) def. Andrade
(Intercontinental Championship)

You know, if Triple H didn’t insist on needing 25 minutes for his matches, maybe this one could’ve been long enough to actually be awesome.

Of course, this match was at least somewhat enjoyable, these two could put on a good match in their sleep, but I really felt like this thing was hindered by a lack of time and a lack of urgency. The time thing is totally out of their hands of course, but a match like this really needed an extra 5 minutes or so of back and forth around the middle to really build to the kind of climax it was going for because the one we got fell flat a little.

I also didn’t help that the crowd seemed really uninterested in this one for some reason, despite it only being the 3rd match of the night, when Finn kicked out of Andrade’s finisher, I couldn’t believe how little reaction there was to it. It might be because this match was weirdly slow paced given the two guys involved, it just never really felt like it properly got going, even though most of the action was very solid. I guess maybe it’s the heat? Since commentary wouldn’t stop telling us how hot it was for some reason.

2 – The Usos def. The Revival
(Kickoff Show)

These kickoff show matches just keep getting better and better.

In an ironic twist, being on the kickoff show means that this match didn’t get saddled by being stupidly overbooked, and was allowed to just go out there and entertain the crowd with some simple wrestling; which on this show is a God-send. Unfortunately, it’s also the match I have the least to say about, because it was just a good wrestling match, plenty of back and forth action, a couple of exciting tags and reversals with a definitive finish, that’s really all there is to it.

1 – Seth Rollins(c) def. Baron Corbin
(Universal Championship)

And now, we pair something we always see (Seth Rollins in the best singles match of the night), with something I never thought we’d see (Baron Corbin in the best singles match of the night).

Admittedly, this is pretty much just the best match by default, but it’s still surprising to be talking about a Baron Corbin match in the number one slot. Maybe it’s because it was at the start of the show, but I really did find myself enjoying this one a decent amount. The pace was pretty quick and the tone seemed to be pretty light throughout and it told a decent, self-contained story in the match, that being the fact that Baron Corbin is too much of a prick for his own good.

Much like Corey said on commentary, Corbin has no-one to blame but himself for that loss, and it fits in so perfectly with his character that it was him trying to lord himself over officials and make himself seem more important than he is, is what caused him to lose that match; it allows him to whine and heelishly cry foul play without making Seth look weak.

Then there was the stuff that happened after the match (which doesn’t affect the rankings, but this is the only place I can talk about it) which wasn’t really what I was hoping for, but did wonders to keep Seth looking strong and keep the briefcase on Brock. I don’t know if this means we’re going to have a vengeful beast anytime soon, but it should make the eventual rematch between these two extremely heated.

So that’s it! That’s what I thought of every match from WWE Super Showdown and, in a sentence, it was crap, let’s hope Stomping Grounds can pick up where Money in the Bank left off later in the month. Until then let me know what you thought of the show on Twitter @10ryawoo and make sure you come back this time next week for my rankings of every episode in Doctor Who Series 2!

WWE Super Showdown 2019 Predictions & Analysis

So I’ve said a few times now so far this year that main roster WWE is yet to put on a bad Pay-Per-View…time for that to change.

I usually try to be as optimistic as possible when going into these predictions because at the end of the day, I never want any of these shows to be bad, but sometimes it’s an unavoidable truth that it will be. I don’t know this for certain of course, but Crown Jewel shattered any and all remaining faith I had that these Saudi Arabia shows could be anything fun to watch.

Once again, I’m not going to make any comments about the political controversy surrounding the Saudi Arabia & WWE deal because I don’t have the desire or the knowledge to get involved in that discussion, there’s just wrestling going on, on Friday and I’m here to predict the winners; so let’s do that.

The Usos vs The Revival
(Kickoff Show)

So this feud has had two phases throughout its time on our screens, there’s the “stupid shit Vince thinks is funny” phase and the “not on TV” phase, and it seems weird to have this blow off match amidst the latter. Either way, this could be a decent match if these two teams are given a little bit of freedom, and aren’t made to pretend their crotches are on fire or whatever bollocks Vince comes up with.

I also think it’s a pretty easy one to pick, The Revival beat The Usos on Raw a few weeks ago, so it only makes sense that The Usos pick up the win here. Not to mention, The Usos need to move up the card and win those titles ASAP, because the fact that the Raw Tag Titles have barely been on Main Event since Wrestlemania is an absolute disgrace.

The Lucha House Party vs Lars Sullivan
(3 on 1 Handicap)

We are gathered here today, to mourn the passing of The Lucha House Party.

Seriously, there’s no other way this goes down, Lars Sullivan is going to destroy these guys. LHP will probably get in a good few licks along the way, but it won’t take long for Sullivan to take out all three of them, probably simultaneously. I really don’t know what the future holds for Lars, it feels like we’ll likely get a Braun Strowman Lite rise, but I doubt it’ll have much staying-power while Strowman is still around. Not to mention how the fanbase at large despise Sullivan for many of his past online comments.

What I do know, however, is that Sullivan is walking out of this match with barely a scratch.

Braun Strowman vs Bobby Lashley

Welcome to the directionless section of the Pay-Per-View.

Has there been any reason for these two to fight? I know they’ve been interacting a bit since the match was announced, but were there any hints of animosity building between these two before it was randomly announced? I don’t see what any of the plans are for either of these men this summer apart from maybe fighting with each other over and over again until we all go and do something more fun, like jamming forks into our eyes.

This match might have one or two cool looking spots, especially if the match is given a more vicious tone of two big dudes who want to flatten each other, but other than that I’m really not expecting much at all from this one. Realistically it could go either way, but I think Braun Strowman is the more likely winner because everyone still loves watching Strowman flatten people and he hasn’t got any notable wins in a little while now.

Roman Reigns vs Shane McMahon

Do you think the whole Crown Jewel thing was just a long plot so Roman can say he beat the best wrestler in the world?

Once again, if you’re having trouble picking a winner to this one, you must be new to wrestling, because there’s really only one way this could go. I know Elias and Drew could get involved and I wouldn’t be overly surprised if we got some kind of boring DQ finish were Roman gets beaten down only to trash everyone, but Shane is in desperate need of some comeuppance right now.

This is one of those matches where I’m not really expecting a great deal from it but could surprise me with how intense it ends up being; which describes almost all of Shane’s major matches to be perfectly honest. I feel pretty confident in saying Roman Reigns is going to win though and hopefully this will be a one and done.

50 Man Battle Royal

Anyone got a 50 sided coin I can flip?

I really don’t know what to say about this one, there’s been basically no build other than us being told it’s happening, it doesn’t even have a section on the WWE.com page for the show so clearly management doesn’t give a shit about it either.

50 men in one ring also seems like it’s going to be a pretty big clusterfuck. At least with a 50 Man Royal Rumble there are pacing and storytelling opportunities over the length of it, but with all 50 guys starting in the ring all at once? There’s barely going to be any room to move, let alone tell a story. It’ll probably get exciting once we get down to the last 6-8 guys, battle royals always do, but I’m not expecting a great deal of anything from this match.

Also basically anyone could win it, sure the Greatest Royal Rumble last year was won by a top guy in Strowman, but WWE could easily flip it to be a joke thing or even worse a lower mid-card thing that will never amount to anything, like the ARMBAR at Wrestlemania. So I’ve decided I’m breaking all the rules and going with what the betting odds are saying because I honestly don’t care about this match. Surprisingly they have Ali to win with 1/1 odds, so I guess that’s my pick.

Finn Balor(c) vs Andrade
(Intercontinental Championship)

Oh wow, a match that probably won’t suck!

Once again it falls to the Intercontinental Championship to give us a small ray of hope in an ocean of shit, I’m hoping for great things out of this match. Balor & Almas have a handful of great matches on Raw & Smackdown since Wrestlemania and it seemed in those like they were really getting to grips with the chemistry they had, so with any luck that will be on full display here and make for a refreshingly good match in the middle of what promises to be a boring ass show.

Unfortunately, I don’t see Andrade picking up the title here, as much as I want him too. Balor hasn’t had that long of a reign with the title yet and there are still tonnes of great opponents for him to fight for the title with on Smackdown and regardless of any of that, Finn’s going to be The Demon, so there’s no way he’s losing, Finn Balor is retaining.

Kofi Kingston(c) vs Dolph Ziggler
(WWE Championship)

Oh great, another boring heel Dolph Ziggler return this is gonna su- Wait, what do you mean he’s been cutting good promos and has been entertaining to watch? That can’t be right…*checks notes*…well I’ll be.

A month ago I would’ve groaned and rolled my eyes at the thought of this feud, but now I’ve watched it play out in front of me, I’m actually feeling alright about this match. The promos Ziggler has been cutting this month has been great stuff, probably because it’s based in some small level of genuine frustration he’s had at some point in his career and when you think about it, it’s entirely possible that Ziggler could’ve done the exact same thing as Kofi had things turned out differently.

I’m quietly hopeful that this match will be good but you can never quite tell when it comes to Dolph Ziggler, for every great Miz vs Ziggler match there’s a boring as hell Ambrose vs Ziggler match, so this could go either way. Plus there’s the possibility that we get some sort of non-finish to tide the feud over, which will put a huge black mark on the match no matter how good it is.

When Kofi won the WWE Title I was expecting to be constantly worried he was going to lose it in every defence. Like last month at Money in the Bank, I picked Kofi to win, but I wasn’t confident, however here I am pretty confident that Kofi Kingston is going to retain this time, because if there’s one person less likely to get the WWE Championship in 2019 than Kofi Kingston, it’s a heel Dolph Ziggler.

Seth Rollins(c) vs Baron Corbin
(Universal Championship)

Nothing fills 60,000 seats like a Baron Corbin world title match.

I suppose this was a match we were always going to end up getting at some point, so we may as well get it out of the way as early as possible. I don’t Baron Corbin like I do many other wrestlers like Bobby Lashley or Lars Sullivan, I think Corbin fills a necessary role on Raw and a lot of his promo work is actually quite good; his in-ring work however…leaves a lot to be desired.

As long as he doesn’t spend too much time on offence doing the standing still method of wrestling and “wearing him down” with weak ass rest holds for 5 minutes, there could be a pretty fun match in this; it is Seth Rollins we’re talking about after all, who can get 4 star matches out of damn near anyone.

I think if any match is likely to have a non-finish or DQ ending, it’ll be this one. Corbin is anything but a fair fighter and I would not be surprised at all if he got pissed off with not being able to win and did something dirty to end the fight prematurely. That said, there’s no way he’s picking up the title and be it by pinfall or DQ, Seth Rollins is winning this match.

Triple H vs Randy Orton

You know what I really wanted from this PPV? A repeat of one of the most boring Wrestlemania main events of the last 10 years, thankfully WWE has me covered with this match.

There really isn’t a great deal to say about this match, it’s not like it’s going to have any bearing on future events in WWE unless Cody Rhodes and Ted Dibiase Jr are planning on returning any time soon. This match could be a fun watch if they just decide to go out there and have a fun match, but I’m not overly confident that’s going to happen. It’ll likely be that exact boring Triple H vs Randy Orton match you’re thinking of right now and no-one will be talking about it come Saturday.

As for a winner, I guess it could go either way. Triple H has been winning all of these recent nostalgia matches against Undertaker, Brothers of Destruction and Batista so I guess it makes sense for him to win here, but Randy Orton is still a semi-active competitor in WWE, so surely he should win instead? My gut says Triple H, but I’m going to ignore it just this once and say Randy Orton is winning.

The Undertaker vs Goldberg

Take the match that everyone’s wanted to see since Goldberg became a big star, add 20 years and a hip replacement to each man and here you have it.

If this match goes under 2 minutes it’ll be awesome, if it goes over it’ll suck. All this really needs is for these two guys to hit all their big moves on each other, and one of them to pin the other because let’s face it, that’s all anyone wants to see, even the people who are really excited for this match. However, if this gets dragged out to 15 minutes it’s going to be awful, Goldberg can’t do long matches at the best of times, but add age and a battered Undertaker and you’ll end up with a match similar to the main event of Crown Jewel.

Does it really matter who wins? It’s not like either man is going to wrestle outside of these bi-annual Saudi Arabia shows – or occasionally a Wrestlemania – anymore, so does it actually matter for either man? Once again, I can make a case for both men, on the one hand, Goldberg is still somewhat fit and can likely go for a few more years than Taker can at this point, so he should win. On the flip side, it’s The Undertaker, so he should win, not to mention that this is technically another WWE vs WCW match, and the WCW guys can never win those, plus Undertaker hasn’t won a match in over a year, so I’m going with The Undertaker in this one.

Those are my predictions for WWE Super Showdown! Thank you so much for reading, a share would very much be appreciated, and let me know what you think is going to happen in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo, and make sure you come back this weekend for my review of the show!