Hello and welcome to the WrestleTalk Super News - I’m Oli Davis.
We’ve got a packed show for you today, including the real reason Goldberg vs The Undertaker
was botched at Super Showdown, how many matches and angles were changed last minute at Super
Showdown, and backstage claims that Super Showdown was a disaster. The big takeaway
here, folks, is that Super Showdown was no good.
Click the timestamps in the video description below to jump to any of those stories right
now! And make sure to have a Super Click party
and give us a subscribe, click the thumbs up button and answer our question of the day
down below: What did you think of Super Showdown? Because
I’ll be replying to people in the comments FROM OUTTA NOWHERE.
But first… ...we announced on Friday’s livestream reactions
for Super Showdown that all the money from your super chats for the event would be donated
to Sami Zayn’s Sami For Syria campaign to raise money for the Syrian American Medical
Society - a foundation that provides medical care to refugees created by the war in Syria.
In 2018 alone, the money raised by Sami was able to pay for a mobile clinic for a full
year, “that provided 11,000 medical services - and in some cases, those were life saving.”
With the humanitarian crisis worsening once again, Sami relaunched the campaign this month
to raise $50,000, which will help them “procure a vehicle, convert it into a mobile medical
unit and keep all the necessary medications on hand for it.” It’s a cause close to
Zayn’s heart, as despite being born in Canada, he is of Syrian descent, and he’s raised
$8,700 at the time of recording towards it. And now, thanks to all of your generous pledges
on Friday’s livestream, WrestleTalk can proudly add a whopping $1,514.15 to that total
for the Sami For Syria campaign! Thank you all so much for your generosity, and let’s
continue WrestleTalk’s mission of not just supporting independent wrestling and up-and-coming
wrestlers, but also a larger mission of the wrestling industry and its performers giving
back to the world. If you missed out on pledging during Friday’s
livestream, you can still donate directly to Sami For Syria by clicking the link in
the video description below. But Sami isn’t the only WWE star who’s
been raising money for charity this week... ...as Ali has announced on Twitter that all
the money he earned at Super Showdown would also go to a good cause:
“Earnings received today will be donated to @charitywater. Thank you.”
Charity Water’s mission is to bring “clean and safe drinking water to people in need
around the world.” Ali and Sami’s charitable causes and donations
just so happen to come around the same time as WWE’s latest event in their hugely controversial
relationship with Saudi Arabia - a 10 year deal for the company to put on two shows a
year in the country, which reportedly makes WWE more money than WrestleMania. But it comes
at a PR cost, with the Saudi regime being widely condemned for its record on human rights.
Zayn has reportedly not been used on any of the three Saudi shows so far because of his
Syrian heritage. The relationship has reportedly made many
backstage in WWE uncomfortable, and has even led to major stars like John Cena, Daniel
Bryan and Kevin Owens allegedly refusing to appear at the shows.
And Ali and Sami weren’t the only WWE wrestler making an indirect statement about the deal,
as Intercontinental Champion Finn Balor also tweeted after the show, possibly in reference
to homosexuality being illegal in the country: “Love is love. Happy Pride Month from Saudi
Arabia! 🌈❤️🧡💛💚💙 #BalorClubForEveryone” with a picture of him doing the Balor pose
in front of the Super Showdown set. And to add to the Saudi controversy, despite
WWE’s best intentions, they won’t let women wrestle either - causing the company
to scrap its potentially milestone plans last minute.
In the days before Super Showdown, PWInsider, Fightful and Pro Wrestling Sheet reported
that WWE were flying Natalya and Alexa Bliss to Saudi Arabia with the hope they’d be
able to put on a women’s wrestling match in the country - a huge PR coup for the company
to counteract the negative public perception of the deal. Apparently conversations between
WWE and the Saudi Sports Authority went back months about the women’s match, but company
officials were still waiting on the green light - give me the green light! - on the
day of the show. Dave Meltzer has since added on Wrestling
Observer Radio that WWE “were told that it was gonna be ok”, but they decided not
to advertise the women’s match just in case “somehow there was a snag.” Luckily for
them that they didn’t, as that’s exactly what happened when the Saudi government changed
their mind - to the extent where not only were Natalya and Bliss not allowed to wrestle,
“but there were not allowed to be on the show, say that they’re someday gonna be
allowed to wrestle - anything.” Natalya remained hopeful for a future opportunity,
though, tweeting: “Every step matters black heart emoji”
and “Here’s to a multitude of tomorrows. 🖤”
There was no overriding socio-political reason for changing the finish to Lars Sullivan vs
the Lucha House Party, though. You might think that booking the debut match
for a large meaty man against three small high-flyers would very much be within Vince
McMahon’s wheelhouse. But, somehow, in arguably the worst piece of fundamental booking on
the whole Super Showdown, Lars only won via DQ when the three luchadors ganged up on him
during the match and beat him up, for Sullivan to then lay them all out afterwards. Which
begs the question, why not just have Lars win dominantly in the actual match?
For whatever reason, Meltzer is reporting this was also a last-minute change, with the
original finish being Sullivan picking up a dominant victory.
And as if the women’s match being scrapped, the last minute Lars finish change and various
controversies surrounding the event weren’t enough to get across Super Showdown was a
bit of a mess backstage, WWE also botched counting to 50.
Listing the full line-up of participants in the 50-Man Battle Royal on the show, PWInsider
has revealed the match was even more the biggest Battle Royal in WWE history, as it actually
contained 51 wrestlers. Scott Steiner backstage WWE agent confirmed.
And that wasn’t the only issue with the Battle Royal because, surprise, surprise,
flying loads of your roster all the way to Saudi Arabia to wrestle in a match that means
nothing for an event many don’t agree with has made some of the talent unhappy backstage.
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer revealed that people he knew within
WWE told him they were very down on the whole experience - particularly those flown out
to make up numbers in the 50 man Battle Royal: “For the guys in the Battle Royal it was
like pretty much going through the motions because the whole thing was thrown together
and there was no showcase spots or anything like that, so people there weren’t in a
great mood because you’re flying there for this match that can’t be good because no
thought’s been put into it and you’re just kind of there as a piece of meat.”
Apparently “Most didn’t think they should go” in the first place, but they lacked
the backstage name value of Bryan, Cena or Owens to speak up, and “one person told
[Meltzer] that if it was up to him, they would never go back again,” while “Others were
just, like, it sucked.” But nowhere did it suck more than the embarrassing
and depressing main event… The very reliable WrestleVotes on Twitter
corroborated Meltzer’s reports, tweeting: “Thought you guys might like this: texting
with 2 different sources who were on the Saudi trip. Asked how everything went. One said
it was a “disaster” & the other described it as a “train wreck”. So that’s that.”
And many are pointing to Goldberg vs Undertaker as the most obvious in-ring ‘train wreck’
example… In the night’s main event, 54 year old up-and-comer
the Undertaker took on 52 year old rookie Goldberg for Super Showdown’s… well, super
Letdown. The match actually started really well, with
both men’s typically fantastic entrances, and then two minutes of big moves and sit-up
spots. But then just a few minutes in, Goldberg collided
hard with the turnbuckle after missing a spear, busting his head open and seemingly throwing
him off course for the rest of the match, where he botched a Jackhammer, a tombstone
piledriver reversal and a chokeslam. Goldberg himself confirmed as much on Twitter
shortly after the match: “Knocked myself out and thought I could
finish.... love my fans.....but let u down. Everyone else that found “pleasure” ..... hope
ur happy” In addition to the turnbuckle spot, it seemed
as though Goldberg spiked his head when taking another Tombstone Piledriver from the Undertaker.
Wrestling Observer Radio later confirmed that Goldberg was diagnosed with a concussion backstage
after the match. In a very uncomfortable moment, Goldberg can
be seen collapsing in the ring after the match in fan footage uploaded by WrestlingAttitude.com
- further adding to the event’s controversy, where the match arguably should’ve been
stopped by WWE on realising Goldberg’s concussion. Using part-timer legends against each other
has been a fundamental part of WWE’s pay-per-view business for almost a decade now, beginning
with the huge WrestleMania buyrates for Rock ‘The Dwayne’ Johnson vs John Cena, and
culminating in hugely billed one-offs over the last year with Triple H vs Undertaker,
DX vs the Brothers of Destruction and now Goldberg vs Taker. But with the last two of
those seeing serious injuries of Hunter tearing his pectoral muscle and now Goldberg suffering
a concussion, the idea of sending aging legends out to work with each other in long main events
must surely be getting reassessed backstage. And maybe The Deadman agrees as Pro Wrestling
Sheet has reported Taker has liked this comment about him on Instagram:
“Can you please stop bringing Undertaker back now? Jesus Christ after everything he’s
done for the company just let him retire in peace. Litterally, the match was terrible
because those two guys are in their 50s, they can’t compete at Main Event level anymore.
You saw how Undertaker was struggling to stand after just 5 minutes, and Goldberg was too
weak to even pull off a jackhammer. Just let them live out the rest of their days in peace,
or they’ll end up getting seriously hurt.” Undertaker looked visibly annoyed following
the Super Showdown finish, and he was actually considered retired at the start of this year,
but when he started to get booking appearances outside WWE for conventions - most notably
for AEW’s partner convention Starrcast - Vince McMahon reportedly convinced him to return.
The new Xbox has been officially revealed, but did Microsoft screw up the announcement?
Find out all the details by clicking the video on the right! And subscribe to our video game
and movie channel ScreenStalker to stay up to date with all the biggest gaming news coming
out of E3 this week! I’ve been Oli Davis, and that was wrestling.