Kevin’s WWE Super Show-Down Review

WWE Super Show-Down
October 6th, 2018 | Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia | Attendance: 70,309

I’m a sucker for a big stadium event. Whether it’s WrestleMania, SummerSlam 92, the Greatest Royal Rumble, and now Super Show-Down. Taking place in Melbourne, in front of a huge crowd, the WWE is bringing up what looks like a fun show on paper. Building the hype around Triple H vs. The Undertaker doesn’t interest me, but most of the other matches do. I’m excited.

Giving this show a ton of pyro when others don’t get it makes it feel special. It’s a little thing, but it works. Michael Cole, Corey Graves, and Renee Young handled commentary.

WWE Smackdown Tag Team Championship: The New Day [c] w/ Big E vs. The Bar
It feels like forever ago that the Bar were the ones to ultimately end New Day’s historic title reign over on Raw. Interesting to see Big E on the sidelines considering the power of their opponents. That allowed for a battle of speed against power. The quickness that Kofi and Woods used for a barrage of offense early on set the tone. They made mistakes and got caught, leading the challengers to dominate for a long stretch. Woods was so out, he wasn’t even on the apron as Kofi got isolated. Even when Woods got the tag, the Bar was still in control. Down the stretch, both teams picked up several close calls until New Day busted out a Backstabber/diving double stomp combo on Cesaro to retain in 9:41. This is something WWE does better than anyone else right now. Have good tag team matches. This was to the point, featured a lot of action, and some good late drama. Ideal way to start a show. [***½]

WWE Smackdown Women’s Championship: Becky Lynch [c] vs. Charlotte
This is the definition of a feud that WWE just doesn’t understand. It’s almost impossible to cheer Charlotte in this situation, yet that’s what they want. Their HIAC match told a good story, but was surprisingly sloppy. Loud “Let’s go Becky” chants to start. Becky was aggressive right from the start. She kicked at Charlotte’s leg and viciously pulled her out of the ring onto her back. It wasn’t until Charlotte turned the tables and attacked Becky’s leg that she got something going. Becky found herself in trouble, especially when trapped in a Boston Crab, and attempted to walk out on the match. Charlotte stopped her and put on the Figure Eight. Becky couldn’t reach the ropes, so she instead grabbed her title and hit Charlotte with it for the DQ at 10:35. This was a solid little match that again, told a good story. The finish feels cheap, though it was clearly there to set up another match. WWE does it a bit too often, but I get it. [***]

Post-match, Charlotte went after Becky on the aisle. It backfired as Becky won out and hit her with a Bexploder on the outside. Becky is great.

Elias and Kevin Owens vs. John Cena and Lashley
John Cena is much more lean now. He also needs a haircut in the worst way. This started with Lashley showcasing his power. He overwhelmed Elias and Owens at every turn. However, they used the numbers game to their advantage and wore him down. They were building to a Cena hot tag. As usual with Lashley, he plays second fiddle to a bigger star in a tag (see: Strowman, Reigns). Cena eventually got the tag and went nuts. He hit everything moving and delivered the Attitude Adjustment to Elias. Instead of winning there, he added the new wacky martial arts move of his (THE SIXTH MOVE OF DOOM) to seal it at 10:02. Basically a prolonged squash. However, Owens and Elias are entertaining together and it was fun to see Cena back in action. [**]

After the match, Cena thanked the fans and said he wasn’t sure what his future held.

Asuka and Naomi vs. The Iiconics
Huge pop for the Iiconics. They legitimately played the babyfaces to the crowd. As usual, these personalities made for a fun match. Asuka and Naomi worked surprisingly well as a duo, with Asuka having a good time throwing in some dancing. The Iiconics were a perfect foil, with their antics just being a blast. Naomi was the one getting hot tag duty and did quite well, but the crowd was pro-Iiconics, so they didn’t pop for her. Billie cut off a Naomi springboard move and threw Asuka into the guardrail. That left Naomi alone to fall to a tandem move where Peyton hit a running knee at 5:39. A fun little tag made special by the personalities involved and the feeling of the Iiconics being home. [**½]

WWE Championship No Disqualifications Match: AJ Styles [c] vs. Samoa Joe
One of my issues with their matches has been a lack of feeling like a fight. This rectified that, with the two going at it in the aisle. Unfortunately, the pace slowed a bit once they got to the ring and the match officially began. Joe wore AJ down and ran through him with strikes. It took a while, about 12 minutes, before anyone went for a weapon. Joe got a chair but had it used extensively on him, only to plant AJ with the STJoe onto it. Following a table spot, AJ went after Joe’s bad knee. It worked as a story move because it puts a hurting on Joe and sets up the Calf Crusher. Joe countered the move into the Coquina Clutch for a close call, before Styles came back with a springboard 450 onto the leg. In the end, Joe had a few more close calls, but his knee gave out on the Muscle Buster and AJ countered the Coquina Clutch into the pin from HIAC. Joe kicked out this time, but then got put in the Calf Crusher and tapped at 23:43. I wanted Joe to win here, but he really should’ve won a title back in July of 2017 against Brock. Anyway, this was like a lot of AJ’s title reign. A good match that ultimately underwhelmed and went too long. I dug the leg work, it just needed more of it and some added intensity to truly work. [***¾]

The Bella Twins and WWE Raw Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey vs. The Riott Squad
A bit of arguing between Nikki and Ronda over who gets to start the match. Nikki got to start and was taken down by Ruby. They ran some Brie against Liv for the first time since the true Queen of Strong Style knocked her out. They had a cool little spot where Brie grabbed at Liv’s blue tongue and pulled. Most of the match was focused around the Bellas tagging each other and kind of ignoring Ronda. They’re planting the seeds for Nikki/Ronda, which should lead to a barrage of angry tweets once made official. Personally, I’m more than okay with that match as it makes sense from a business standpoint. Ronda finally got the big tag and did her thing. She beat both Sara and Liv with dual armbars at 9:58. A basic tag that was here to plant the seeds for Ronda/Nikki. [**¼]

WWE Cruiserweight Championship: Cedric Alexander [c] vs. Buddy Murphy
If you aren’t watching 205 Live, you’re missing out on some of the very best wrestling in the world. Huge pop for hometown boy Murphy, who wore an Australian flag to the ring. Murphy came out with a sense of urgency, attacking Cedric early and going for plenty of quick pins. Around five minutes in, we got the spot of the night as Cedric hit a top rope Michinoku Driver. It looked incredible. Alexander’s back was targeted, so he struggled to get in some of his key offense. He also looked taken aback by not being the crowd favorite for the first time in his title reign. Cedric came close with a Spanish Fly and went right into hitting the Lumbar Check. That seemed to be it, but Buddy kicked out to a LOUD ovation. Unsure of what to do now, Cedric went for a springboard move. Buddy kicked him and hit Murphy’s Law to win the title at 10:33. An awesome match. They were given ten minutes and made the most of it, throwing everything at one another. Murphy had a plan to overwhelm Alexander and it worked. The combination of Cedric’s best shot not working and the pro-Buddy crowd was too much for him. Outstanding. [****¼]

Braun Strowman and WWE Raw Tag Team Champions Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre vs. The Shield
Like the WWE Title match, this began with a brawl around the ring. Once the match officially started, Seth Rollins found himself in trouble. The Intercontinental Champion got decimated by his three opponents. The hot tag was continually cut off and by all rights, Braun’s team had the Shield’s number. The hot tag came after a dumb spot where Braun went up top and missed a splash. Why would he go for that when they were in control? Dean Ambrose was the one to come in hot for his guys. Roman Reigns eventually became the legal man and made the mistake of hitting Dean with an errant Superman Punch. The highlight was Braun’s guys surrounding the ring like the Shield. Dean was outside and stood up on the open side of the apron, as if he was gonna side with them over his brothers, only to run in and dropkick Braun. Great tease. Braun went to run him over outside, only for Roman to take him out with a Spear through the guardrail. Inside, Dean hit Dolph with Dirty Deeds to get the win in 19:37. A really good match. The Shield always delivers in six man tags. The Ambrose turn tease was done extremely well and the finishing stretch was hot. [***½]

Number One Contender’s Match: Daniel Bryan vs. The Miz
The Miz went to cut a promo but was cut off by Bryan’s entrance. Miz jumped him and went after the damaged ribs. He mocked Bryan, only to get kicked around. When Bryan missed the Busaiku Knee, Miz hit one of his own for a near fall. Then, in an awesome finish, Bryan countered the Skull Crushing Finale into a small package to steal this at 2:21. Fantastic ending. Miz gets to whine about it being a fluke, while Bryan got to embarrass him. The small package was a Bryan signature on the indies and it feels like he outwrestled and outsmarted Miz. A smartly worked sprint that was an excellent addition to their ongoing story. [**½]

AJ Styles vs. Daniel Bryan is official for Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia.

Charlotte vs. Becky Lynch III was announced for this Tuesday’s Smackdown.

No Disqualifications Match: Triple H w/ Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker w/ Kane
Contrary to what WWE would have you believe, this is NOT one of the greatest rivalries in history. This was made No DQ at the last minute. I’m not going to go too deep into this match. Put it this way: The match reminded me of something out of late 90s era WCW, but with more effort. Triple H and the Undertaker plodded through this and looked like they were moving in slow motion, just like WCW main eventers. However, I give them props for trying. It wasn’t like they were phoning it in on top of not being able to move. They, along with Kane and Shawn Michaels, took bumps and threw themselves into this trying to recreate an Attitude Era main event. I just can’t bring myself to care about it at this point and there were so many moments of them looking old and broken down more than anything else. A combination of a sledgehammer shot, Sweet Chin Music, and Pedigree kept Undertaker down after 27:34. As I said, too long, too slow, and a bit depressing to see these guys look so rough. [*¾]

Post-match, all four men celebrated together only for Kane and Undertaker to beat up HBK and HHH. It looks like we will be getting that tag at Crown Jewel. That might legitimately be the one major match this year I don’t watch. I don’t care to see bald Shawn Michaels mess up the memory I have of his incredible retirement match.

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

Again, I give a lot of shows this score, but most this year have been like this. Good, but with several things to keep it from being great. It mostly felt like a quick four hour show up until the main event. The CW Title, SD Tag Titles, WWE Title, and Shield matches were all very good. The tags were harmless fun that were mostly entertaining at the very least.