WWE Elimination Chamber (Feb. 21, 2021) -- Results & Afterthoughts

WWE Elimination Chamber (also known as No Escape in Germany) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. It took place on February 21, 2021, and was broadcast from the WWE ThunderDome, hosted at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. It was the 11th event under the Elimination Chamber chronology and the final event to air on the American version of the WWE Network before its merger with Peacock.

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Match Results: 

Kick-Off: Fatal Four-Way Match

Winner joined the WWE United States Championship match on the main card.

John Morrison def. Elias, Mustafa Ali (with Mace, T-Bar, and Slapjack), and Ricochet

Elimination Chamber Match for an immediate WWE Universal Championship Match

Daniel Bryan def. Cesaro, Jey Uso, Kevin Owens, King Corbin, and Sami Zayn

SmackDown Elimination Chamber Match

Eliminated	Wrestler	Entered	Eliminated by	Method	Time
1	King Corbin	3	Cesaro	Submission	17:45
2	Sami Zayn	4	Kevin Owens	Pinfall	25:30
3	Kevin Owens	5	Jey Uso	Pinfall	26:50
4	Cesaro	2	Jey Uso	Pinfall	32:50
5	Jey Uso	6	Daniel Bryan	Pinfall	34:20
Winner	Daniel Bryan	1

Going into this match, I was all for Cesaro getting the win here and challenging Roman Reigns if he was going to get a proper title match later into the show. In hindsight, now that I have seen how they were going to lay all of this out, especially how they sent Roman out there to lay Daniel Bryan to waste after he survived the SmackDown Chamber match, then I was absolutely fine with Cesaro not getting the win. Anyone paying attention to my live tweets during the show last night could tell you that I was royally pissed off when he was eliminated though. 

Cesaro and Daniel Bryan were killing it since they were the two men to start this match. I had absolutely NO problems with Baron Corbin being eliminated first and rightfully so. Sami Zayn's cowardly heel antics, while occasionally funny, are getting stale at this point. I thought he was going to lure Kevin Owens to his side of thinking (again) after he has failed repeatedly to put down the Tribal Chief. 

A heel turn for Kevin Owens would be a logical course of action but at the same time, he's ran the well dry on that over the past few years. Alternatively, they could put him and Sami Zayn into a program for WrestleMania to rekindle that feud again since it's been a while since they have been at odds end. 

My heart sank like a brick to see Cesaro get eliminated by Jey Uso, who has been doing great work as one of Roman Reigns' cronies over the past year. This singles push for him in the wake of his brother being injured was the breath of fresh air that his career needed. I understand that they are simultaneously building credibility for him as a singles competitor and adding drama to the end of this match with the heels possibly getting the upper hand, but I didn't think it should have been done to Cesaro's detriment. The dude is already getting scraps as is with this current push or sorts - something that is highly unlikely that would be happening if Daniel Bryan didn't have creative influence on the SmackDown! brand. That being said, I wasn't mad with Cesaro's loss here in hindsight from how they followed up Daniel Bryan's narrow victory.

Singles Match for the WWE Universal Championship

Roman Reigns (c) (with Paul Heyman) def. Daniel Bryan by technical submission

Roman Reigns came out to defend his title immediately following the end result of the previous match, offering no breathing room for Daniel Bryan. Bryan managed to catch Roman out of the Spear with the Yes Lock, but there wasn't no moment of that hold where I thought he was actually going to make Roman submit. In my honest opinion, Roman Reigns shouldn't be losing that title until Summerslam - at the minimum. 

So yeah that means Edge (who came out there to lay out Roman with a Spear following his successful title defense) should go to WrestleMania and lose. That should serve as a grim reminder that none of these Rumble winners are guaranteed to win the big one at WrestleMania while at the same time, continue the show of force of Roman Reigns' monumental title reign.  

Triple Threat Match for the WWE United States Championship

Riddle def. Bobby Lashley (c) (with MVP) and Keith Lee John Morrison

As originally pictured above, Keith Lee was originally scheduled to be the third man in this match before John Morrison was added to this match after winning the Fatal 4-Way Match on the Kick-Off show. 

The first half of this match was simply a display of sheer force from "The Almighty" until Riddle and Morrison made the wise decision to work together in some capacity. I haven't seen Lashley look this dominant since his BDC (Beatdown Clan) run in IMPACT Wrestling when he was aligned with MVP in a similar manner as the Hurt Business there. The finish would come after Riddle took MVP's crutch and used it on Lashley, only to hit Morrison with his finish and steal the win from right underneath his nose. 

After that result, it was made painfully clear that Morrison was in there to eat the pin for Lashley could lose the title without getting pinned. Believe what you want from the dirtsheets and rumors floating around online, but it seems like WWE has enough stock invested into Keith Lee that they didn't throw him into this match merely to get pinned for another loss that he doesn't need right now, especially after joining the roster not too long ago. I would like to believe that they have plans for Keith Lee to challenge for the US title at WrestleMania in some capacity since he's clearly not in the conversation for the WWE Championship.   

This wasn't a bad match, but it merely felt like something that would be filling up time on your typical run of the mill episode of Monday Night Raw. I had to feel sorry for Morrison being regulated to mere filler here. Seeing him perform in this match makes me hope and wish that they have plans for him to have a singles run sooner more than later if the rumors of WWE signing his wife, Taya Valkyrie, to the company. Put those two together and let them paint the town red. I'm sure it would make for some good vignettes and segments. Hell... it can't get any worse, can it? Wait, wait, wait... lemme take that one back before someone on WWE Creative says, "Hold my beer..."

Tag Team Match for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship

Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler (c) def. Bianca Belair and Sasha Banks

During this entire match, I was hoping and praying that we didn't have to endure another Sasha Banks Women's Tag title reign just to give Bianca and Sasha something to fall out over for their inevitable WrestleMania feud to start. They would be merely recycling or rather rehashing the same storyline where Bayley turned on Sasha Banks to spark her own turn to babyface. I don't know what they are going to do to kickstart that feud as both women are at their best heel in my honest opinion, but Bianca is the one who has the babyface momentum behind her, so Sasha SHOULD be the heel going into their WrestleMania feud. If any hint/clue from her interview with Stone Cold Steve Austin should be taken away from that sitdown session, it's that Sasha Banks firmly believes that she's the best all-round athlete, performer, and wrestler in the entire WWE - whether it's male or female. That's no gimmick either - she really believes that. I'm not going to knock the woman for having confidence in herself and knowing her own worth, but I can't help thinking that I'm sure her colleagues are looking at this interview and thinking she's coming off extremely arrogant. 

As for this match, it was what it was - an absolutely nothing filler of a match. Naomi and Lana have won the #1 contender spot over on Raw. Then you have the winners of the Women's Dusty Tag Team Classic, Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzales, over on NXT who have a future title shot waiting for them too. I just couldn't fathom seeing Nia and Shayna lose to Sasha and Bianca here when they had such a great face-to-face encounter with Dakota and Raquel over on NXT last week. 

As of this posting, Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzales are set to challenge Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler for the titles on NXT next week (3/3/21), so we could see that title change then. 

The ladies tried to make this match work, but ultimately, it just wasn't clicking - at least for me as a spectator. Then the finish was all kinds of stupid. If Reginald was going to cost Bianca and Sasha the match, then why didn't he just offer to manage them to the ring then just casually throw the champagne bottle in there as planned? That would have made a lot more sense than him just randomly showing up at the end of the match for the same spot. 

Elimination Chamber Match for the WWE Championship

Drew McIntyre (c) def. AJ Styles (with Omos), Jeff Hardy, Kofi Kingston, Randy Orton, and Sheamus

Raw Elimination Chamber Match

Eliminated	Wrestler	Entered	Eliminated by	Method	Time
1	Randy Orton	2	Kofi Kingston	Pinfall	8:55
2	Kofi Kingston	4	Sheamus	Pinfall	23:35
3	Jeff Hardy	1	Drew McIntyre	Pinfall	25:15
4	Sheamus	6	AJ Styles	Pinfall	30:15
5	AJ Styles	5	Drew McIntyre	Pinfall	31:10
Winner	Drew McIntyre	3

Now the second Elimination Chamber match I can't say that I was overly crazy about. 

They definitely missed the boat on having Mustafa Ali (along with the rest of Retribution) attack Kofi Kingston during this match and take his spot. The story was RIGHT THERE and they failed to capitalized on it. I couldn't help but laugh at Kofi looking over his shoulder during his entrance like Edge was going to attack him and take his spot like a few years ago. Color me shocked as all hell that Kofi managed to eliminate Orton (out of nowhere) without any interference from Alexa Bliss nor The Fiend. 

Kofi didn't even get a chance to pat himself on the back before Sheamus gave him a Brogue Kick so hard that Kofi had that Jamaican accent wrestling on ECW again. 

I honestly don't even see why Jeff Hardy was even in this match. He was just THERE wasting a spot for this array of former World Champions. They could have given his spot to Ali if they wanted. When was the last time Jeff Hardy has done anything of merit in this company? At this stage of his career, he's just biding his time until his next court case and/or waiting until that contract expires for he can join his brother in AEW. 

I have to admit that AJ Styles' entry into this match was a stroke of genius though. Omos tore off the plexiglass for he could exit the pod early following Orton's elimination and took advantage of the situation following Orton's barrage of RKOs on his way out. Unfortunately, it didn't result in any eliminations on AJ Styles behalf though. 

Styles had a few rare botches on his behalf towards the end of this match though. He was trying to do the Springboard 450 Splash he occasionally alternates from doing with the Phenomenal Forearm from that position, but it seemed like he misjudged the distance from where Drew McIntyre and landed on him awkwardly. Styles would coarse-correct that maneuver with another attempt a few moves later, but it still wasn't that much better when he eliminated Sheamus. 

Drew would retain the title after connecting with a simply beautiful Claymore Kick during Styles' Phenomenal Forearm and covering him for the 3-count. The Hurt Business' former United States Champion, Bobby Lashley, came out and made short work of Drew shortly thereafter, making way for the match that came up in an impromptu manner to close out this show.  

Singles Match for the WWE Championship

This was Miz's Money in the Bank cash-in match.

The Miz def. Drew McIntyre (c)

The Miz races out with the Money in the Bank briefcase and cashes it in on a helpless Drew McIntyre. (Laughing hysterically) And now... The Miz is the WWE Champion... I can't even type that with a straight face. 

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Closing Thoughts:

(Still laughing) I can't believe that this is the image that WWE wanted to leave people with when this show came to a close...

At least Drew McIntyre kicked out of the first pin attempt until falling to the second to lose the title to The Miz (who has be booked like a complete loser for the better half of the past year), but shit man, this was the best idea that think tank at WWE HQ had in mind? "Oh let's put the title on The Miz for more buzz going into WrestleMania season!" Vince should be shot out of his chair just like Gorilla Grodd was in the video below. 

To be fair though, The Miz is a company man, has multiple television projects outside of WWE and still somehow has maintained his mainstream appeal from his time on MTV's The Real World (It blows my mind that the Pluto TV app even reruns the episodes of Fear Factor that he was on while affiliated with that reality show prior to coming into wrestling...). So I could KINDA understand why they want to elevate him in a sense, especially if the endgame plan for him is a tag team match between himself and John Morrison against Bad Bunny and Damian Priest. I honestly would NOT put it past WWE to book a Bad Bunny versus The Miz match for the WWE Championship either in the meantime.

My problem is that Drew McIntyre was the guy who ultimately got robbed of his crowning achievement of winning the WWE Championship last year from Brock Lesnar was without a crowd of cheering fans, but instead in an empty warehouse. You would think that WWE would stay on the course of making him the guy to beat, much like Roman Reigns over on SmackDown, and keep him undefeated until they were able to get fans back into arenas in some capacity. First Drew got pinned by Randy Orton in a nothing match as part of their feud last year, only to win it right back a week later. Now The Miz beats him in another nothing match. I don't understand what they are doing with Drew McIntyre at this stage of the game. They had a great thing going between him and Roman Reigns last year in their build to Survivor Series, making you think that they were planting the seeds for Drew to take the title from the Tribal Chief at some point - preferably at WrestleMania. Edge's return nixed those plans (despite going for Roman Reigns after tonight's turn of events) and now, Drew is without a dancing partner. They had a promising contender in the making with Keith Lee when he got called up, but he's had so many starts and stops to his pushes in this company over the past few months that I have absolutely no idea if he's in their WrestleMania plans at all. Don't forget that WWE already already blew their loads on what could have been a WrestleMania worthy feud with Sheamus turning on Drew and challenging for the title on free television. After tonight, the obvious course of action should be Drew against Lashley at WrestleMania, but if either one of those guys wins the title back from The Miz at Fastlane or any show prior to that, then it's going to be a complete wash. Lashley hasn't been a World Champion in this company in like forever - and that's even if you want to even consider his ECW World title win in that conversation at all. One would think that he would be deserving of a lengthy title reign, but it seems like WWE wants to do some course correction and have Drew get his crowning moment again at this year's WrestleMania with the limited fans in attendance. From as highly protected and strongly booked that the Hurt Business, especially Bobby Lashley himself, have been portrayed on WWE programming that might be a costly mistake and Drew could wind up with the opposite reaction with fans back in the arena. I'm optimistic for that match-up, but at the same time, I want WWE to be mindful that they may not get that fairy tale ending of Drew being showered with cheers either. 

One match that was left off of tonight's card was Asuka defending the RAW Women's Championship against Lacey Evans. That match was written off due to Lacey Evans' unexpected real life news of her pending pregnancy. As of this posting, WWE has completely ended the storyline between her, Ric Flair, and Charlotte Flair to boot. We were denied of how that match would have turned out. I would not have been surprised if by some fluke or miscommunication, Asuka would have lost the title to Lacey Evans, due to Charlotte Flair's interference and that would have caused the rift to dissolve their current partnership. Charlotte could have easily ended this filler feud with Lacey Evans at Fastlane, only to have her WrestleMania rematch with Asuka a month later.

Then there's something else to think about. Rhea Ripley has been confirmed to be joining the RAW brand, so I have to guess that Asuka's days as RAW Women's Champion are numbered. I'm guessing that she will drop the title to Charlotte Flair at Fastlane, only for Rhea Ripley to dethrone the Queen at WrestleMania in a rematch of their NXT Women's title match from last year. Alternatively, I think it would make for a fun match if they wanted to get a triple threat between Asuka, Charlotte Flair, and Rhea Ripley too. In Charlotte's case, there's a lot of ways they could go with this.

On the other end of the pond, I know Roman Reigns is breathing a sigh of relief now that Edge has selected him (as he SHOULD have to begin with) to face at WrestleMania for the Universal Championship. I will repeat myself too and say that Edge should be going to WrestleMania and losing that match too. I firmly believe that Roman Reigns shouldn't be losing to anyone - at least not until roughly Summerslam to the right opponent. At this point, let Goldberg fight Riddle or Big E at WrestleMania if he wants a payday for that show. He sure as hell doesn't need to be challenging for any World titles in 2021. 

WWE Survivor Series (Nov. 22, 2020) -- Results & Afterthoughts

Survivor Series (2020) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view and WWE Network event, produced by WWE for their Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. It took place on November 22, 2020 at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida, and featured WWE's virtual fan viewing experience called ThunderDome—it was WWE's final pay-per-view presented from the Amway Center during the COVID-19 pandemic before the ThunderDome relocates to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida due to the start of the 2020–21 NBA season. Like the previous years, the theme of the event was brand supremacy and pitted wrestlers from the brands against each other. It was the 34th event under the Survivor Series chronology, and celebrated the 30th anniversary of The Undertaker's WWE debut—his retirement ceremony closed the show.

Seven matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. The card was highlighted by two traditional Survivor Series elimination matches: Raw's men's and women's teams were victorious over SmackDown's. In the main event match, SmackDown's Universal Champion Roman Reigns defeated Raw's WWE Champion Drew McIntyre. Also on the card, SmackDown Women's Champion Sasha Banks defeated Raw Women's Champion Asuka, and SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) defeated Raw Tag Team Champions The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods). Raw won brand supremacy by winning four of the seven matches.

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Results:

18-Man Dual Brand Battle Royal

The Miz won by last eliminating Dominik Mysterio

When it got down to Jeff Hardy, Chad Gable, Dominik, and The Miz, I was thinking, "Hmmm, maybe we might have a chance to give Gable and Dominik a bit of shine with a win here..." only to see Jeff and Gable get tossed out and it be down to Dominik and The Miz. That's when I went "Oh shit..." and knew that they were going with Dominik winning this for the babyface pop since The Miz was probably cashing in Money in the Bank later this evening. Boy, was I wrong in both avenues of that assumption. This match did absolutely NOTHING for me to care about anyone involved in this battle royal. 

5-on-5 men's Survivor Series elimination match

Team Raw (AJ Styles, Keith Lee, Sheamus, Braun Strowman, and Riddle) (with Omos) def. Team SmackDown (Kevin Owens, Jey Uso, King Corbin, Seth Rollins, and Otis)

I was utterly shocked that Team Raw completely swept Team SmackDown under the rug. Thanks for comin', boys. Your checks are in the mail. I couldn't understand why this couldn't have been competitive with SmackDown getting a bit of offense in and an elimination or two. I did enjoy seeing Otis and Jey Uso having a few moments to shine in this match, but it was ultimately all for nothing. 

I couldn't help but laugh at all of the screenshots of Rollins refusing to even look at Matt Riddle when he was in this match, showing that Rollins had his eyes closed on the ring apron. That's a whole new level of petty (or rather unprofessionalism...) right there. As for the Messiah "sacrificing himself for the 'greater good'", that was complete kayfabe bullshit for he can go on leave for Becky Lynch's upcoming birth of their first child. I'm sure he'll be back in time for the Royal Rumble at the start of the New Year. 

For the rest of this match, there's not really much else to talk about. Team Raw won in dominating fashion and this match did little else to hold anyone's interest. 

Moving on...

Champions vs. Champions Tag Team Match
The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) (SmackDown Tag Team Champions) def. The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) (with Big E) (Raw Tag Team Champions)

I have said it time and time again, but I'm not a big fan of the New Day - never was, never will be. Double can be said for the Street Profits AKA Great Value brand "Cryme Tyme". That being said, I thought both teams came out here and worked their asses off to make this match entertaining. This was fine as a tag team match, but these two sets of tag team belts desperately need to be unified. Neither brand has enough depth to justify keeping these two tag team divisions separated at this point. It's foolish to even think otherwise. 

The right team went over too with the Street Profits picking up the win here. The New Day doesn't need the rub from anyone at this point in the tag team division(s). They should be at the point of putting over everyone else from how many title reigns that they have under their belts. 

Champion vs. Champion singles match

Bobby Lashley (Raw's United States Champion) (with MVP, Cedric Alexander, and Shelton Benjamin) def. Sami Zayn (SmackDown's Intercontinental Champion) by submission

This was an absolutely huge piece of nothing in the middle of this show. Sami tried to heel it up, but with the rest of the Hurt Business at ringside to cock block his antics, they weren't going to let any of that shit fly that works over there on SmackDown for him, thus resulting in Sami thoroughly getting his ass kicked. He even tried to bring back up that "shortness of breath/vertigo" angle that he had going for a while before in their previous feud, but that didn't work either. 

Champion vs. Champion singles match

Sasha Banks (SmackDown Women's Champion) def. Asuka (Raw Women's Champion)

This would have been my personal favorite match of the night if Roman Reigns and Drew McIntyre didn't headline this show in stellar fashion. That being said, the resident reigning Women's Champions from Raw and SmackDown represented their brands well. I personally wanted Asuka to win, but I am not going to complain about Sasha Banks going over when it felt like Asuka was beating her left and right over the summer over on Raw following WrestleMania. Sasha is the one who needed the boost to her stock value. 

5-on-5 women's Survivor Series elimination match

Team Raw (Nia Jax, Shayna Baszler, Lana, Lacey Evans, and Peyton Royce) defeated Team SmackDown (Bianca Belair, Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan, Bayley, and Natalya)

I don't know what was a bigger waste of time, this match or the men's Survivor Series 5-on-5 match. It was bad enough that WWE had to scramble at the last minute to assemble the teams. Mandy Rose and Dana Brooke were originally going to fill the team with Shayna Baszler, Nia Jax, and Lana, but Mandy Rose suffered a legit shoulder injury, so their team was written off out of the match, only to be replaced with the lackluster pairing of Lacey Evans and Peyton Royce at the last minute. I wasn't a fan of the IIconics (outside of their entrance music) but they split those two up for this mess? Ugh. Bayley (the former SmackDown Women's Champion who held the title for well over a year no less) and Natalya (who lost almost every opportunity to get a spot on this team until she got a pity vote onto the team because SmackDown! really didn't have anyone else) were added merely two days prior. 

I did like that Bianca Belair attempted to hold down the fort for her team, but the finish was absolutely moronic, especially for a Survivor Series match no less. Lana, Nia Jax, and Bianca were all the remaining members of their corresponding teams until Bianca and Nia were counted out, thus naming Lana the winner who did absolutely NOTHING but stand on the steel steps at ringside and cry for majority of this match. I get they are trying to make her a sympathetic babyface after going through the commentary tables nine weeks in a row, but if people were in the buildings, people would have shat all over this finish and WWE knows it. It would have done the same effectiveness to get Lana over as a babyface if she turned on Nia in this match and helped Bianca get the win instead of going with that god-awful finish that they went with. 

Champion vs. Champion singles match

Roman Reigns (SmackDown's Universal Champion) (with Paul Heyman) defeated Drew McIntyre (Raw's WWE Champion) by technical submission

Before you watch this match, you should take the time to watch the contract signing between these two on SmackDown. This was great stuff from both men involved. 

If this was a sample of what we may be possibly getting at WrestleMania next year between these two Superstars, then I'm all for it. This was easily the best match of the entire night with Sasha vs. Asuka as the close second. They took their time with this and slowly built this match up to a proper crescendo, hitting their biggest and hardest hitting maneuvers, neither man refusing to stay down. The tale of the tape was that Drew McIntyre could take anything Roman Reigns AKA "The Tribal Chief" could dish out and come back for more - that is until Jey Uso came out and gave the assist for Roman could pick up the victory. 

This is your WrestleMania main event, folks, without a shadow of a doubt in my mind. I definitely want to see this rematch. That's saying a lot when I didn't give a damn about their match at WrestleMania a year or two ago.

The Undertaker's Final Farewell

This video packaged aired after WWE gathered all of The Undertaker's closest friends and rivals into the ring, including Kane/Glenn Jacobs who was the only one in his entire ring gear/gimmick. I guess someone told him come dressed to work as a rib. 

Apparently, Kane didn't get the memo.

The only jarring thing about this is that they were all gone when the cameras switched back to the ring. What was the point of dragging all of those old guys out here during a pandemic (without wearing masks no less) if they weren't going to at least hang out at ringside and pay respects as a mock audience instead of having the Thunderdome screens there with awkward silence?

I'm legitimately worried about Vince McMahon's health at this stage.

Vince McMahon making a rare appearance was another shocker, with him actually saying "WWF" in his speech about The Undertaker's fabled career, but seeing Vince like this makes me worried about his health at this age of what, 70+ years, and still hands on with everything top to bottom in this company? He looks like he doesn't even know what a good night's sleep even is. Dude, go home and get some rest before you die at the gorilla position. I'm not even saying that jokingly either. The guy looks like he's in rough shape. He keeps this up and he might not be with us much longer. 


This was really depressing that he didn't get to do this final farewell/send-off in front of a full crowd of fans. The silver lining is that he will get his Hall of Fame induction sooner more than later and he will get the praise and proper send-off that he deserves. I wish they did this with the other legends at ringside for the crowd and just take in the silence as I'm sure the fans would have done that out of respect for his final appearance here. The fake/piped-in crowd noise was goddamn distracting and didn't add anything at all.

The Undertaker bows to Paul Bearer watching down from the heavens for one final time.

That hologram of Paul Bearer/Percy Pringle was a nice touch, even though it was a little corny there.

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Afterthoughts:

In my honest opinion, this was a two-match show at best. Outside of The Undertaker's Final Farewell, this is an EASILY forgettable show, hence why I didn't go out of my way to get this write-up done after the fact. It's a darn shame too that little thought and effort went into this show when it was billed around showcasing The Undertaker's Final Farewell. You would think that WWE would want to have an amazing card to compliment that, especially for older fans that may be tuning in just to see Taker's send-off that walked away from the product ages ago. Like many people have been saying for several years now, it's hard to get invested into this event (much like Bragging Rights before it) when there's nothing on the line outside of the boasts of "brand supremacy" for the next year or so when in reality everyone knows which brand is the "best" in terms of ratings and booking. In retrospect, I'm glad that NXT wasn't involved with Survivor Series this year, despite their dominating performance last year, as that brand has been a hot bed of COVID-19 outbreaks as of late and there's no need to be infecting the main roster with that too. 

WWE Super Showdown (Feb. 27, 2020) -- Are You Not Entertained... LOL? (Quickie Results & Afterthoughts)

Super ShowDown (2020) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and WWE Network event, produced by WWE for their Raw and SmackDown brands. It took place on February 27, 2020 at the Mohammed Abdu Arena on the Boulevard in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It was the third event promoted under the Super ShowDown chronology and the fifth event under WWE's 10-year partnership supporting Saudi Vision 2030.

Ten matches were contested at the event including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, Goldberg defeated "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt to win his second Universal Championship, giving The Fiend its first loss. Goldberg also became the first wrestler to win a world championship after being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. Other prominent matches saw Brock Lesnar retain the WWE Championship against Ricochet, Bayley defeated Naomi to retain the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship and Roman Reigns defeated King Corbin in a Steel Cage match. The Undertaker also made a surprise return as an unannounced entrant in the gauntlet match and lastly eliminated AJ Styles to win the Tuwaiq Trophy.

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Quickie Results:

The O.C. (Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson) def. The Viking Raiders (Erik and Ivar)

Gauntlet match for the Tuwaiq Trophy
The Undertaker def. AJ Styles, Andrade, Bobby Lashley, Erick Rowan, and R-Truth

Tag team match for the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship
The Miz and John Morrison def. The New Day (Big E and Kofi Kingston) (c)

Angel Garza def. Humberto Carrillo

Tag team match for the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship
Seth Rollins and Murphy (c) def. The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford)

Mansoor def. Dolph Ziggler

Singles match for the WWE Championship
Brock Lesnar (with Paul Heyman) (c) def. Ricochet

Steel Cage match
Roman Reigns def. King Corbin

Singles match for the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship
Bayley (c) defeated Naomi

Singles match for the WWE Universal Championship
Goldberg defeated "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt (c)

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Afterthoughts:

I have listened to a wealth of podcasters seething with rage and read a lot of angry tweets and reactions online following this show after it aired live while I was at work yesterday, but I'm honestly not as outraged and flipping over desks like most people it seems. I think it's comical at this point to invest this much emotion in WWE's current product, especially with the main roster when they have a documented track record of disappointing modern fans time and time again with anything and everything (not named Roman Reigns) that doesn't have to deal with NXT.

I had a few friends message me with the results when I got off from work and I literally busted out laughing when I read them. I got home and only watched the WWE Championship and Universal Championship matches out of morbid curiosity. I have to ask, what did people really want from this show going into it?

AJ Styles getting laid out by the Undertaker didn't bother me much, especially if that means that's a lock for a match between the two at WrestleMania, even though I would have preferred Aleister Black versus The Undertaker for 'Mania just for the entrances alone. (Laughs) Taker didn't even take his hat and coat off though. From as stiff as he looked walking down to the ring, I hope Taker finally hangs it up at Survivor Series this year. That would bring his career around full circle at this point. He's got nothing else left to prove in my eyes. Let this man finally rest before he's so beaten down and immobile like Kurt Angle in retirement.

If the bodysuits weren't enough, the ladies had to wear t-shirts over their outfits too.

Was it really worth it to have the WWE SmackDown! Women's Championship defended in Saudi Arabia when they were forced to have the women dressed like nuns just to perform there? I get it though. It's the first SmackDown! Women's Title match there and a big deal for those women getting to inspire change in that country whether we liked the match or not. I'll give them props for the creative finish, even though the match itself was a little hit or miss.

People laughed at me when I said who in their right mind actually believed that Ricochet stood a chance at dethroning Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship. Even the damn promotion package they put together even made a joke of it with Ricochet asking, "What if?" as a poorly made graphic of him against Drew McIntyre for WrestleMania flashed on the screen for a few seconds. This ended EXACTLY how I figured it would. One F-5 got the job done after Brock cut him off immediately. Ricochet could at least say that he lasted longer than Kofi Kingston did though. Maybe Ricochet should've opened with that nutshot that he gave Brock during the Rumble that assisted Drew McIntyre in eliminating the Beast during that match, but I'm sure that would have made Brock even more pissed off.

(Laughs) Now I see why a lot of people I was talking to online were butt hurt about short/squash matches. When everyone sung the praises of WWE picking up Ricochet and saying that he's going to be such a big star in this company I was dreading it. It was painfully aware when this match started that Ricochet isn't even remotely in Brock Lesnar's weight class in terms of size nor presence. That bell rung and it looked like Brock was about to fight a kid fresh out of high school. Boy was I deceived about his size and height from watching him in New Japan and Lucha Underground. I was always under the impression that Ricochet was a bigger lightweight than most out of there. I thought Ricochet would've benefited in the long haul from a longer tenure in NXT instead of the short stay he had on the yellow brand and it's showing that he would have had a better chance to make a name for himself there instead of being another minor footnote in Brock's road to WrestleMania. Sure, he'll bounce back from this like 90% of the guys who Brock tossed out of the Rumble match within seconds, but damn, WWE doesn't have the slightest clue how to make new stars anymore. I'm starting to think their decision to have Drew McIntyre win the Rumble was a fluke accident at this point.

One of my friends sent me a clip of Goldberg's confrontation with the Fiend from SmackDown a week or two ago and it didn't look like they were setting him up to lose. He wasn't cowering in fear and crying like a complete wuss like Seth Rollins was last year. Goldberg stood his ground and speared Bray out of his shoes, only for the Fiend to leave unceremoniously without any comeuppance. It was the EXACT same thing here. The Fiend took four spears and a half-assed Jackhammer only to lose the Universal Championship in less than 3-5 minutes and left without any sort of rebuttal to Goldberg as he posed on the top rope. I really don't get it. Was WWE that against the Fiend gimmick at this point to completely bury it in one fell swoop? I mean, damn, at least let Bray drop it at WrestleMania instead of one of these throwaway shows before then. This is the same treatment that WWE gave to Asuka during the build to WrestleMania last year. I guess we should be grateful that Bray didn't lose it on free TV at least, but damn, it sucks to see the Fiend go down that easily. They could easily rehab him in a new program - namely with Cena later tonight during his appearance tonight on Friday Night SmackDown!, but it's just sad that WWE thinks this lightly of their treatment of their talents in the modern era.

Willy G has been watching his Broserweight tapes. PS Sweet BroHammer for the win 👌 pic.twitter.com/7hA2JwQq9y

— matthew riddle (@SuperKingofBros) February 27, 2020

It looks like the rumors are true though with the plans set for Goldberg defending the Universal Championship against Roman Reigns after he beats everyone else in his way in the Elimination Chamber next month. On paper that would be the bigger match, but c'mon, it wouldn't have killed WWE to do Roman vs. the Fiend. The character has been on top as this unstoppable monster for this long, only to get squashed like every other geek on the main roster was disappointing. At the end of the day, I didn't put any stock into WWE booking for what I wanted to see nor do I invest any interest into going out of my way to check out these Saudi shows, but I can understand why people are royally pissed.

Sad but true, despite the fact that people got #CancelWWENetwork trending yesterday.

WWE Royal Rumble (Jan. 27, 2019) -- Results & Afterthoughts

Royal Rumble (2019) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their Raw, SmackDown, and 205 Live brands. It took place on January 27, 2019, at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona. It was the thirty-second event promoted under the Royal Rumble chronology.

Ten matches were contested at the event, including three on the pre-show. In the main event, Seth Rollins won the men's Royal Rumble match, while Becky Lynch won the women's Royal Rumble match after losing her SmackDown Women's Championship match against Asuka in the opening match. Other prominent matches included Brock Lesnar retaining the Universal Championship against Finn Bálor, Daniel Bryan defeating AJ Styles to retain the WWE Championship, and Ronda Rousey defeating Sasha Banks to retain the Raw Women's Championship.

Pre-Show/Kick-Off Matches:

As usual, I didn't watch the first three matches on the pre-show, but here's the results for them.

Raw Tag Team Champions Bobby Roode and Chad Gable def. the team of Scott Dawson (of The Revival) and Rezar (of AOP)

United States Championship Match - Shinsuke Nakamura def. Rusev (w/ Lana)

WWE Cruiserweight Championship Buddy Murphy def. Akira Tozawa, Hideo Itami, and Kalisto.

SmackDown! Women's Championship Match - Asuka (c) def. Becky Lynch

I thought this was a strong outing for both of these women, even though it was a losing effort for The Man. Given all of this attention going towards the potential WrestleMania main event between Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, and Ronda Rousey, I hope Asuka doesn't get lost in the shuffle. Her and Charlotte Flair had one of the best matches on last year's lackluster WrestleMania card and Asuka deserves to have some shine after being regulated as an afterthought for the bulk of 2018. I have my fingers crossed that WWE has something big in store for her in terms of potential challengers at WrestleMania.

I LOVED the finishing sequence between them in terms of reversals and counters to each others holds and submissions. I think I'll never get tired of seeing Asuka's "catch" variation of the Asuka Lock either.

Whoever told Asuka to trash talk in Japanese deserves a medal. I was loving every second of that while Becky Lynch was staring at her like she wanted to say, "Subtitles, bitch!"

SmackDown! Tag Team Championship Match - The Miz & Shane McMahon def. The Bar (c)

Man, this match almost put me to sleep. The Bar tried to keep this interesting, but this was mostly Shane bumping around until Miz was able to make the save that got them the win at the end. As much as I grew tired with the hundreds of Usos and New Day vs. The Bar match-ups, this was a piss poor replacement in the void and high standard that those tag team matches brought to the table.

I'll admit that I got a kick out of Shane praying before hitting that Shooting Star Press and Miz's dad celebrating with them afterwards, even though Shane had to show the man how to hold the title properly. Why isn't shit like this on the preshow or at least in that dead spot on the card where AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan ended up?

RAW Women's Championship Match - Ronda Rousey (c) def. Sasha Banks

Going into this match, I didn't see Sasha Banks walking away as the winner, despite her strong promos and trash talk on social media. Speaking of promos, there was so much that was cringe-worthy at that I think it's a no brainer at this stage that Sasha and Bayley are going to be the first two women crowned as the "first" title holders of the newly revived Women's Tag Team titles at Elimination Chamber next month.

This match wasn't bad at all, just not as impressive as the opener. It seemed like Sasha was trolling her (in-character) for the first part of this until she got a rude awakening about who she was really in the ring with. Besides after Ronda does her "Festus transformation" once the bell rings, you'd think most of these girls would be ready to run by now.

Becky Lynch wins the 2019 Women's Royal Rumble Match

Noteworthy spots that I was amused by:

• Liv Morgan was eliminated instantly
• Naomi eliminates Mandy Rose as soon as she enters this match, only for Mandy to return the favor after Naomi "Kofi's" her way back into the match
• Kairi Sane's "splat" at ringside, thanks to the Riott Squad, only for Io Shirai to make the save and rescue her best friend from harm
• Seeing Lacey Evans and Charlotte Flair stare down and throw down - REALLY wouldn't mind a program between them down the road
• Rhea Ripley, Io Shirai, Zelina Vega (dressed as Street Fighter's Vega), Xia Li and most of the NXT women showing up in this match getting little to no reaction upon arrival. Not really their faults when WWE's core casual audience aren't even aware of the NXT product as a whole.
• Zelina Vega hiding underneath the ring until Hornswoggle chased her in and out of the ring and out of this match
• Maria Kanellis "teaming up" with Alicia Fox until they had a falling out, causing Foxy to throw a tantrum in the middle of the ring
• Kacy Catanzaro climbing back into the ring like a spider monkey after being tossed out only to get eliminated by Rhea Ripley
• Bayley and Carmella working together briefly, an obvious throwback to their relationship on WWE Breaking Ground
• Natalya breaking the record at 55 minutes as the woman lasting the longest in a Women's Royal Rumble match, shattering Sasha Banks' previous record from last year.

The narrative towards the end of the Women's Rumble was that commentary was selling the fact that Lana was so brave to make the effort to compete tonight even though she twisted her ankle during the preshow/kickoff when she was knocked off the ring apron during the United States Championship Match. Nia Jax came out and attacked her, effectively making her unable to compete. Becky Lynch races out and demands that Fit Finlay call an audible and put her in for SmackDown! Live. Of course he caves and Becky Lynch is able to enter this match. Funny that she was added in at the last second too because this crowd was clearly ready to shit all over the rest of this show if Becky wasn't the winner of this match. When the Becky chants started up in the twenties, that's when I was saying to myself, "Please don't do anything stupid, WWE..." and then they got quiet after Carmella came out, I was like, "Oh boy..." Fortunately for them, they made the right move and added Becky into this match as one of the bottom four.

I want to note that Charlotte Flair looked borderline insane at one point towards the end. That should be her character instead of attempting to be a cheap imitation/rehash of her father. I loved how Charlotte and Becky worked together to eliminate Nia Jax and Becky shouting throughout this when she had a mock injury at the hands of a salty Nia Jax that "You've (Charlotte) stolen enough from me! You're not taking this from me!" That was great storytelling there, showing that it's not all peaches and cream between Charlotte and Becky at all. Their bitter rivalry from 2018 is still painfully apparent with those wounds still fresh. Obviously, Becky Lynch is going to get that match against Ronda Rousey that she was denied previously, but at this stage of the game, I cannot fathom them leaving Charlotte Flair out of the equation if it's going to be WrestleMania main event. At this point, I wouldn't put it past them not to make it a fatal four way with Nia Jax thrown in there too.

I know people nit-picked about this in retrospect, but I applaud WWE for using the talent on the active rosters instead of relying on a ton of returns and one-off appearances for this second Women's Royal Rumble match. It made for a less exciting match in terms of nostalgia, but I still rate this Rumble match better than the Men's one this year.

WWE Championship Match - Daniel Bryan (c) def. AJ Styles

I haven't been following too much of Daniel Bryan's current heel run as the evil Captain Planet, but any reason to give us more AJ Styles vs. Daniel Bryan matches, I am all for. This match started off slow and picked up over the time that they were given, even though we were past the four hour mark on this card and that's asking a lot from people in terms of their attention spans at this point. That decision, coupled with putting this match in the dead slot on the card following the Women's Rumble match, had Bryan and Styles wrestling to the sound of crickets for the most part. I reiterate - this wasn't a bad match. It was just poor placement on the agenda for tonight to say that this slower paced match was placed this late into the card on a nearly five plus hour card.

I can't speak for anyone else but I uttered, "Meh..." out loud when Erick Rowen came out and chokeslammed Styles for the finish. I guess they are going to give Bryan the returning Bludgeon Bros. as his henchmen in this role as a subtle nod back to their time together in the Wyatt Family.

WWE Universal Championship Match - Brock Lesnar (c) def. Finn Balor

This was exactly what it needed to be. Finn surprising everyone by getting a bit of offense on Brock and managing to "wound" the Beast with those attacks at ringside that rammed him into the corner of the commentary table, giving Brock a literal gut-check. I'm surprised that commentary didn't say anything about his history of having a pretty nasty abdominal infection (i.e. Diverticulitis) that hampered the tail end of his initial UFC and nearly killed him. As a result, Finn was able to get a pretty sweet looking near-fall following a Tornado DDT to counter the F-5 followed by Coup de Grace before going for the cover. Ultimately, Finn fell victim to the Kimura Lock that Brock locked in from this position and retained the title. I don't know why people were surprised at the result as it's the same thing everyone thought what was going to happen when the match was first announced. Sure, it wasn't as fun to watch as AJ Styles versus Brock Lesnar back in 2017 but it was much better than I was expecting on paper. I hope Brock gets more "smaller" guys to toss around like ragdolls. That's more entertaining than him and another "powerhouse" lumbering around slowly for 10-15 minutes only to have Brock kill their aura of invincibility in one fell swoop.

Nothing tickled me more after this match were the two following things: 1) Commentary going on and on, with Michael Cole and Corey Graves shouting, "FINN BALOR MADE BROCK LESNAR BELIEVE!!" as he's beating the piss out of Balor post-match. 2) Paul Heyman tweeting on social media that Brock Lesnar has rewrote the Bible tonight. I thought I was going to die laughing at those two moments.

Seth Rollins wins the 2019 Royal Rumble

Noteworthy spots that I was mildly amused by:

• Jeff Jarrett returns and confronts Elias, only for Elias to eliminate him from this match and stopping him from selling a single portion of that Global Force Gold nonsense... I'll get heat for saying this, but at this point, Double J was better off joining the E machine. Global Force Wrestling was holding on by a whim and a prayer in 2018 and it was going to die within the widespread influence of all of these promotions vying for talent with AEW in the equation now.
• Kurt Angle running out into this match and moving around as if he was in slow motion. Let's just all admit that Kurt's best years are behind him back in TNA/Impact Wrestling. No offense to Kurt in the slightest, but he needs to just call it quits and stop embarrassing himself in this last WWE run. I wouldn't be surprised if he has like one more great match left in him, but all of these jobs he's been doing aren't doing him any favors.
• Mustafa Ali representing 205 Live strong in this match. I don't follow that show at all but I read the results here and there, but I'm glad that WWE finally gave him a solid spot and push on the SmackDown! Live roster.
• NXT being well-represented in this match with Johnny Gargano and Aleister Black making their main roster debuts in this match. I seriously doubt that these were call-ups but merely testing the waters at them on the main roster.
• The biggest surprise was Nia Jax laying out R-Truth and taking the #30 spot. I didn't understand the tweets and reactions by people on social media, acting like it was so revolutionary for a woman to be in the Men's Royal Rumble match when it's actually the FOURTH time it's happened - Chyna first, then Kharma/Awesome Kong, Beth Phoenix (I'm probably mixing those two up...), and now Nia Jax. The argument online was talking about the next part of the women's "evolution" in professional wrestling is to allow intergender matches in WWE as the norm. I don't mind them in Lucha Underground, but seeing it here in WWE just came off as damn odd. Watching live, I could tell the crowd couldn't tell what to make of it either - at least until that pop when Nia got hit with that Super Kick from Dolph Ziggler, followed by the 619 by Rey Mysterio and finally the RKO from Randy Orton in rapid succession.
• Much like the Women's Rumble Match, I'm glad that they didn't bank on a ton of returns/nostalgia to plague this Rumble Match. WWE has more than enough talent signed to their roster(s) and there's no excuse to not use it for filling up big matches like this. 

You could tell that they were rushing people out at random intervals by this point in the card as they were just trying to wrap up this show since they were nearing the SEVEN hour mark if you've been watching since the start of the preshow/kick-off. You would think by now that WWE would have learned that doing these marathon length live broadcasts are simultaneously burning out their talent and the audiences - watching live in the venue and at home. Seriously, Vince, most adults have work in the morning and kids have school the next day. I can't be staying up past midnight for this shit regularly.

That being said, this wasn't a bad Rumble match - it's just a consequence of this show dragging on 5-7+ hours at this point. I thought Strowman was going to pick up the win here for sure, but I'm glad that Rollins sneaked out that win with the Curb Stomp on the ring apron of all places. As of this writing (2/1/19), RAW already happened and Brock F-5'd Rollins into oblivion, so we know we're getting the most sensible match for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania and that's Brock vs. Rollins since Rollins has been ducking that one-on-one match since his first World Championship win.