5 mistakes WWE made at Super ShowDown 2020: WrestleMania headliner misses show, Unpopular rivalry finally ends
WWE Super ShowDown 2020 proved that Saudi Arabia shows are no longer "glorified house shows". They have become legitimate PPVs where anything can happen. The Universal Championship change in Crown Jewel 2019 marked the first major title change to happen on one of these shows and this edition saw two major title changes - the second of which has sparked major outrage.
As a whole, the show wasn't too great and felt unnecessarily long. Moreover, the match-placement wasn't too good while the crowd wasn't as hot as they usually are for these shows.
There has unfortunately not been a single edition where the overall event was solid. This time, it was a mix of average matches and an extremely deflating finish, which we'll get to shortly.
Either way, we hope that the Elimination Chamber PPV can fix some of the problems that have arisen. The road to WrestleMania 36 is an exciting one, but this PPV felt like a big roadblock.
#5. Having an unnecessary Roman Reigns-King Corbin match
The Roman Reigns-King Corbin rivalry has been an unpopular one among fans simply due to how long it's dragged on. Their rivalry finally concluded inside a steel cage at Super ShowDown, with Reigns getting the win yet again.
Michael Cole seemed to confirm that the feud is officially done and we couldn't be more relieved about it. In our opinion, the rivalry should have ended at Royal Rumble 2020, since it had a Falls Count Anywhere stipulation and the stage was big enough to have the pay off there.
Instead, they chose to drag the rivalry on for a month longer than required just to fill the Super ShowDown card. While it was admittedly one of the better matches, it was still an unnecessary one.
#4. No Drew McIntyre
Drew McIntyre was noticeably absent from the WWE Super ShowDown card. In all likelihood, he won't be seen at Elimination Chamber as well since WWE doesn't seem to want to put him in a filler rivalry.
Brock Lesnar vs Drew McIntyre at WrestleMania 36 now seems to be a done deal and McIntyre is now the most important babyface on RAW. He was what Seth Rollins was last year, except he feels like a much bigger deal.
Perhaps it's because we knew the Rollins push was coming (unfortunately due to the Roman Reigns leukemia situation), but the McIntyre one came as a pleasant surprise even though in retrospect, it appeared to have been slowly building.
McIntyre should have been on the show in some form or atleast in a small capacity to confront Brock Lesnar. While we understand the logic of them wanting to build the rivalry on RAW, McIntyre has an aura about him right now and having him present on the show, even for a brief role, would have been great.
#3. Ricochet getting squashed
Everybody said that Ricochet would stand no chance against Brock Lesnar. As it turned out, they were right. In the minds of many, Ricochet should have been one of the "smaller" opponents that worked well with Brock Lesnar, similar to AJ Styles in 2017 and Daniel Bryan in 2018.
Lesnar seems to like working with smaller Superstars and the dynamic in the ring turns out to be better. However, none of this applied to Ricochet. He was in the ring for the "biggest match of his career" and he ended up getting squashed in 80-90 seconds.
He didn't get any offense in and was taken to suplex city and quickly finished. While nobody expected or wanted Ricochet to win the WWE Championship, the least that the company could have done for him would have been to have a good match in which he's allowed to get some offense in.
It could have even been just 8-10 minutes. They had the time on the card but instead, they chose to utilize that on the wrong matches.
Also read: 5 reasons why Ricochet lost to Brock Lesnar in only 1.5 seconds at Super ShowDown 2020
#2. The setup for The Undertaker vs AJ Styles
The opening contest of the night was the Gauntlet match to crown the winner of the "prestigious" Tuwaiq Trophy. The commentators emphasized how "prestigious" it was, yet it was a complete afterthought.
Ultimately, what happened was that R-Truth had a good showing, eliminating Bobby Lashley, Andrade, and Erick Rowan before losing to AJ Styles. The Phenomenal One was supposed to face Rey Mysterio at the end, but Gallows & Anderson assaulted the legend.
The duo would soon be struck down as well and it was The Undertaker who took Rey Mysterio's spot, hitting AJ Styles with a single chokeslam and winning the Tuwaiq Trophy. Except, at this point, the trophy didn't matter at all and he hardly took in a glimpse of it.
It was just a prop to build to the Styles-Undertaker WrestleMania match. They could have done it differently and built towards it from RAW rather than use the trophy to set up the match for the show of shows.
#1. Goldberg becoming Universal Champion
When Goldberg ended Kevin Owens' great reign as Universal Champion in 2017, the general consensus was "this shouldn't be happening in 2017". Moreover, Goldberg would face Brock Lesnar and it was clear that the two were far bigger than any of the titles and didn't need it for their match either.
This appeared to be the case this time around as well and while we thought that The Fiend would end up beating Goldberg, he hardly got any offense in and ended up getting squashed within minutes.
He was finished by an awful jackhammer and after the match, he got right back up to stand toe-to-toe with Goldberg, only for the lights to go off and for him to disappear.
Goldberg ended the night celebrating as the Universal Champion and the rumor is that he'll be facing Roman Reigns while Wyatt will face Cena. While both matches are great for WrestleMania, it would have been better for Wyatt to defend the Universal Championship at the show of shows.
This entire main event was a big mistake and the title change was the biggest of the show.
One of Samoa Joe's colleagues had harsh words for him HERE
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Arvind Sriram