How WWE failed with Super ShowDown 2020
WWE SuperShow 2020 left fans with a bad aftertaste for what was looking like a decent PPV.
Unlike previous events in Saudi Arabia, the results of this PPV will have implications for the Road to Wrestlemania as “The Showcase of the Immortals” is a little over a month away. The event in the Mohammed Abdu Arena saw 10-matches with five titles being defended on the night. The most important match of the night, the main event of course, saw “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt defend his WWE Universal Championship against a returning Goldberg.
You would think WWE brass wouldn’t possibly do anything drastic with WrestleMania right around the corner. If you’d agree, then you haven’t been keeping up with WWE. In just 2:57 we saw WWE undo this fantastic four-month build of The Fiend by making him drop the title to Goldberg, a devastating end to this sloppily done PPV.
The match started with Wyatt immediately eating a spear from Goldberg who had to be ticked off from his failed pyro-entrance but only resulted in a one-count.
Confused, Goldberg went on to dish out three more spears but still failed to put Wyatt away. Finally getting in some offense, Wyatt locked in the Mandible Claw but Goldberg was able to get out of both attempts and put away the champion quickly with a rough Jackhammer for the shocking win.
In puzzling booking, we saw The Fiend who ate stomp after stomp, and brutal attacks from a sledgehammer from Seth Rollins lose clean to a poorly done Jackhammer. Wyatt barely got any offense and no matter how tough fans thought he looked for taking the spears, nothing will wash away the stench of losing to a part-timer. And if this wasn’t frustrating enough to see, the post-match antics from Wyatt was just as disappointing with him scurrying away. Wyatt who has been over with the WWE Universe since his return just looked bad here and all his credibility is gone, no fault to him of course but to the WWE brass who has failed him time after time.
Unfortunately, the WWE keeps relying on the stars of the past to carry this event, much to the dismay of fans. This just highlights one of their biggest problems, their inability or refusal to properly build a brand new star. Look at Ricochet who’s run has been and up and down and now all-around after being german suplexed across the ring by Brock Lesnar in basically a squash match. Luckily we have Drew McIntyre to rely on with his recent hot streak and Rumble win but there’s the possibility that WWE messes that up as well. No seriously, they can.
If Vince thought this shock factor was a good idea then he really whiffed this one just like he did in 2017 with Kevin Owens. No one wanted to see Goldberg carry another title to WrestleMania at this point in his career, especially at the cost of arguably WWE’s best draw these past months. Now fans have to wonder what’s next for The Fiend as Elimination Chambers draws near. And this loss might have not been so bad if the other part-timer Lesnar didn’t have a stranglehold on the WWE Championship.
Now we probably won’t see either top men prizes being defended in the confines of the Elimination Chamber, let alone on weekly programming. The chamber would've been a good match too for Wyatt to thrive in if booked right. Now he will have to find an opponent to rival with in the meantime because Goldberg most-likely won’t defend the title until WrestleMania. And there’s no promising Wyatt will even get his rematch as fans are speculating this was all a ploy to get a Goldberg-Roman Reigns Mania match. If this is the case, then the WWE is in for a world of trouble as they will no doubt boo the outcome regardless of the winner. A shame for Reigns who has been rightfully in good graces with the WWE Universe since his return. A even bigger shame to Wyatt who will now be cast aside like yesterday’s new like Kofi Kingston post the move to Fox.
In the end, Vince and WWE’s top execs just couldn’t help themselves from this finish. Now they will have to pay for it during the ever-so important stretch to April 5th.
