Tag: Undertaker

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!