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In around two weeks, WWE will be going to Australia for Super Showdown. This looks to start a trend of having different international stadium pay-per-view events every year, along with the regular shows and the ones happening in Saudi Arabia. 2018 really has been a year of change, at least in terms of pay-per-views, for WWE. They are currently building towards the Australian blockbuster. Several matches have been announced for the show, with the card looking pretty good.
Matches like Becky Lynch vs Charlotte Flair, AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe and Daniel Bryan vs The Miz are all likely contenders to steal the show, while we have lots and lots of star power on display as well. Triple H and The Undertaker will face off one last time, with their respective partners in their corners, and a couple of tag matches are loaded with names. From the likes of Ronda Rousey and The Bella Twins to The Shield and Braun Strowman to John Cena, WWE has one hell of a show they can put on at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
While it is not that much more than a glorified house show, you can be guaranteed a fun and fulfilling evening of action. Super Showdown certainly has the scope to provide many memorable moments, certainly more than what Greatest Royal Rumble had to offer. Prepare to see some great wrestling, shocking title changes and Iconic moments when WWE goes Down Under. Here are five cool moments that could happen at Super Showdown.
#5 Happy homecomings for Aussie superstars
WWE has a handful of Australian wrestlers, all of whom are at decent positions on the roster. The IIconics, Peyton Royce and Billie Kay debuted on the Smackdown after WrestleMania after a period in NXT. They are hugely comfortable on the mic, even if their act has gotten pretty one dimensional and stale. They are set to wrestle Naomi and Asuka in a tag team match that would have had no place on the card whatsoever if there were no Australians in the match.
Anyway, Billie and Peyton should be on course to a victory in their home country. After the match, it would be fun to see an Asuka heel turn. Despite being very unlikely due to other women around her turning, her going bad would rejuvenate a stagnant career. However, one man who has rejuvenated a stagnant career is Buddy Murphy. The other Aussie-born wrestler in WWE has had somewhat of a career renaissance along with 205 Live. He is putting on belters consistently on the show.
Murphy will challenge Cedric Alexander for the Cruiserweight Championship at Super Showdown and this seems like the perfect opportunity for the belt to change hands. Alexander has been an excellent champion, with some fantastic matches on 205 Live with the likes of Murphy, Hideo Itami and Drew Gulak. However, he cannot stay champion forever. It is time for a change. Murphy winning the title in his home country after another excellent match would garner a huge pop, one of the biggest of the night without a doubt.
#4 Charlotte-Becky double turn
Becky Lynch is now the Smackdown Women's Champion. All is right in the world. Except for one thing. WWE is still adamant about keeping her heel, while Charlotte Flair remains a face. While recent weeks have suggested a slight change in approach, the post-match moment between the two was clearly booked to portray Becky Lynch as a villain. Fans are still cheering her and she remains the most over star on Smackdown. It indeed is difficult to boo someone like Becky, who scratched and clawed her way back into the main event scene after languishing for over a year.
Her latest actions have all been reminiscent of a certain no-nonsense, anti-authority, tough guy who did whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. Becky's current character is as close to "Stone Cold" Steve Austin as anybody has gotten in recent times. Why would fans want to boo that? Also, the fact that Charlotte has been in the title scene all the time has made people grow tired of her, even though she remains one of the best wrestlers on the roster. It is important for Becky to be established as a babyface by the end of this feud.
The perfect time would be at Super Showdown, where Charlotte will get her rematch for the title, to switch the roles of the two competitors. She does work much, much better as a heel. The hint is literally in her name, dammit! She could get overly emotional and just attack Becky viciously, throwing the match out in the process. While the belt does not change hands, Charlotte Flair stands tall as the bad guy she really should be. We then get a feud-ending stipulation match at Evolution, which Becky valiantly wins. It is that simple. Book it, WWE. Please!
#3 Daniel Bryan finally beats The Miz
This one seems likely, purely because of the fact that The Miz has gotten one up over Daniel Bryan at every meeting between the pair. Their much-anticipated match at SummerSlam ended with a symbolic 'punch' to the face with brass knuckles, or likewise, given to The Miz by Maryse. The wives would get involved in this feud for Hell In A Cell, where the heels would prevail again in a mixed tag team match. Bryan must have something to show for in this rivalry as it is set to temporarily end at Super Showdown.
The pair will face off in a number one Contender's match for the WWE Championship, with the winner moving on to either AJ Styles or Samoa Joe, depending on who leaves Melbourne with the title. The Miz should absolutely become the WWE Champion and very well could by the end of the year, but Daniel Bryan needs this win. His return since being cleared in March has not exactly set the world on fire, besides this hot program with The Miz. Bryan needs to regain some of the steam and momentum he had tons of in the past.
While he will always remain universally loved and over, Daniel Bryan needs to change things up and his next program has to be a good one. Giving him a WWE Championship match against either Styles or Joe would offer viewers a real treat, as both matches actually happened or were about to happen before the likes of Shinsuke Nakamura and Big Cass ruined it. This is the chance for WWE to do something worthwhile with Daniel Bryan beyond his feud with The Miz. The Awesome One can win the title after Bryan has had his shot, as we get closer and closer to WrestleMania.
#2 The Shield holds all the gold
As of right now, The Shield is currently set to face the team of Braun Strowman, Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre in six-man tag team action at the Melbourne mega-show. However, WWE could very easily raise the stakes of this match and literally have a Super Showdown, by putting every male title on Raw on the line in this match. They are all in the hands of participants in this six-man match. Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins hold the Universal and Intercontinental Championships respectively, while Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre are the Raw Tag Team Champions.
At Hell In A Cell, we saw matches for the Universal and Raw Tag Team titles. Ziggler and McIntyre retained the tag titles by the skin of their teeth in an absolute barnburner of a match against Rollins and Ambrose, while the main event Hell in a Cell match ended in a cheap and terrible no contest when Brock Lesnar invaded the structure. Reigns and Strowman still have unfinished business. They are set to do battle in a triple threat involving the Beast at WWE Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia, but there's over a month for that.
Having all the titles on the line accomplishes a lot of things. It gives Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose one more run with the tag titles, before the inevitable betrayal and destruction of the Shield. Braun Strowman could lose a Universal Championship match without getting pinned, although doing that too much would risk Strowman losing his credibility. However, we will get a cool visual at Melbourne Cricket Ground, with all three members of The Shield holding all the titles on Raw. It also adds stakes to a match which features every male champion on the Raw brand.
#1 Samoa Joe becomes WWE Champion
AJ Styles has been the WWE Champion since beating Jinder Mahal in Manchester, at the start of November. That is agonisingly close to a full year on top of Smackdown. However, his reign as champion has not exactly been the best. Styles was completely overshadowed during his program with Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, as the latter two were embroiled in a dragged feud with Smackdown commissioner Shane McMahon. After that, Styles endured a long and rather disappointing storyline with Shinsuke Nakamura. His feud against Samoa Joe has been a breath of fresh air, giving us a story to latch on to.
Even if it somewhat involves AJ's wife and daughter, Samoa Joe has made it all work thanks to his amazing heel work. Joe has that rare talent of keeping the audience hooked on every word he says and his promo delivery is excellent, probably the best in the company. Their feud has consisted of two matches so far, both of which were really good. Their matches at SummerSlam both ended in an inconclusive way, whether it was by disqualification or Styles wrongfully winning, but they were so good that the results hardly bothered us. They furthered the story. That is what we want, a story.
Styles and Joe will have one last match, no disqualifications and no countouts, at Super Showdown. It is sure to be another fantastic showing between these two surefire legends. Hopefully, it ends with Samoa Joe winning his first WWE Championship and finally ending the super long reign of AJ Styles. While he is not as mobile as he was a decade ago, Joe is still a very good wrestler who would be an amazing champion. He deserves to hold the top prize in wrestling at least once in his career and this is the time to do it. After getting screwed out of the title at Hell In A Cell, when AJ tapped out before getting the three count, Samoa Joe needs to stand tall in Australia. He is the best all-round superstar in the company today.
