Match Ratings For WWE Super Show-Down, Podcast Notes From Sean Ross Sapp

WWE Smackdown Tag Team Championships
New Day (c) (w/ Big E) defeated The Bar
5.75/10

• Imagine being the member of New Day that made the trip to not wrestle. That would be Big E. 
• Kofi Kingston is caught on his tope con hilo by the Bar. 
• That’s a “you’re a wanker” chant about 13 minutes in at Cesaro. He and Sheamus get a nice double backbreaker on Kofi. 
• Xavier Woods hot tags are fun, but I’d imagine Sheamus launching him into a European Uppercut wasn’t as fun.
• Kofi hits a body scissors on Sheamus over the ropes, then Xavier and Kofi do a Backstabber/Coup De Grace combo to get the win. 
• This was a good opener, and the crowd seemed to enjoy it. 

WWE Smackdown Women’s Championship
Charlotte Flair defeated Becky Lynch (c) via DQ. No title change
6/10

• The video packages are shown while the Champion is on the way to the ring, so that’s interesting. 
• Becky yanks Charlotte Flair out of the ring by her arm. Back inside, Becky lands an outstanding tilt-a-whirl armbar. 
• Charlotte hangs Becky’s leg on the second rope and knee drops it. She connects with a nice boot as well. She seems on tonight.
• There are some really smooth transitions out of an armbar and an Figure Four to set up a big spear and missed moonsault by Charlotte.
• That moonsault was NOWHERE NEAR BERLIN.
• I don’t understand the mentality of having Becky Lynch trying to take a hike. Charlotte spears Becky and applies the Figure 8. 
• Becky hits Charlotte’s leg with the belt for the DQ.
• Really counter productive booking. Becky Lynch beats down Charlotte. So….why didn’t Becky just win?Odd.

John Cena & Bobby Lashley defeated Elias & Kevin Owens
4.75/10

• Elias is super over in Australia. Not many people can overshadow Kevin Owens from that perspective. 
• Elias made that Collingwood joke to get heat, the thing is Melbourne hates Collingwood- Aaron Romano.
• John Cena looking like JBL lite. He’ll be set up for the hot tag.
• The banter between Cena and Owens is fantastic. 
• Elias and Kevin Owens work like a tag team who haven’t worked together a ton. Isolating Lashley in their corner over and over. 
• Lashley crashes and burns when Elias moves away from the ropes. They weren’t on the same page to start the match.
• Cena, super animated in the corner, gets the tag and goes through his spots on Elias.
• He hits an Attitude Adjustment and his little punch for the win. Wow. The air was taken out of the crowd with that. 
• Sentimental John Cena is becoming Ric Flair crying.

The IIconics defeated Naomi & Asuka
4.75/10

• We don’t get to hear the IIconics enough. They babyface the crowd. Usually they heel it up, even in Australia.
• This is the cutesy match. Billie pulls Naomi into the splits. Naomi does the same, but Billie isn’t as flexible.
• After an Asuka taunt and a babyface in-stereo dropkick, we’ve gone into Asuka being worked over in the corner.
• Asuka does one of the saddest German suplexes ever. Fortunately Naomi comes in and gets great offense with her corner bulldog and split legged moonsault and slingshot body press.
• Naomi smacks Peyton Royce’s ass and eats canvas. Wheelbarrow Knee wins it for IIconics.
• Thought for sure they’d have IIconics heel the crowd, because that’s just what they do. I’m glad they went the other way. This was not good, though.

WWE Championship
No DQ, No Countout
AJ Styles (c) defeated Samoa Joe
8/10

• They meet on the ramp and they’re SPOILIN’ FOR A FIGHT.
• AJ Styles has some great kicks, but is sent outside in a nice spot.
• This is incredibly hard hitting.
• I’ll never stop being amazed when AJ Styles hits that moonsault reverse DDT as well as he does.
• Joe’s setup to a clothesline was great. Timing was perfect, impact was excellent. He also does an Emerald Flowsion. There are a lot of elements of their old matches here. 
• Joe grabs a chair, but it’s dropkicked into his face. His woes don’t last long, he uranages Styles through the chair. 
• AJ Styles hits an Electric Chair through the table, and they land purposely a little sideways so Joe can sell the knee. The ref steps in, but Styles is on the attack.
• Calf Crusher gets countered into a Coquina Clutch, but outside the ring Styles gets the Phenomenal Forearm from the guard rail. He goes back to the well inside, and is locked in the Clutch.
• Joe did a Jesus Christing Coquina Clutch suplex, and teases a Muscle Buster. He gets put in the Calf Crusher and has to tap.

Ronda Rousey & The Bella Twins defeated The Riott Squad
5.5/10

• Ronda Rousey, in Melbourne, was knocked out by Holly Holm just a few years ago. A nice return for her tonight.
• Nikki and Ronda discuss who will start off. Nikki tags out to Brie, who looks good through the early going. She’s gonna be under a microscope.
• A nice pop for Liv kicking Brie in the face. Brie grabs Liv’s tongue — kind of. It looked really lame. You can’t just grab them. 
• Liv’s panic to get out of the ring when she almost ate a Rack Attack 2.0 was good. 
• Liv has gotten more good offense in this match than she has on TV in a while. Logan with a running knee, and Liv with a second rope facecrusher. Liv is really taunting Brie.
• The story of this match is the Bellas (specifically Nikki) getting worked over before the hot tag to Ronda.
• Rousey comes in and goes through some great throws, including a rolling Samoan drop on Ruby.
• The Bellas and Riott Squad battle outside, but Liv breaks away and stops a Rousey armbar on Logan. 
• Instead, Rousey puts both Liv and Sarah Logan in the armbar and wins. Both are the weird WWE version. She crossed their arms, though.
• Brie Bella had the kind of performance she needed to after last week. She was going to be under a microscope, and did really well with all the variables.

WWE Cruiserweight Championship
Buddy Murphy defeated Cedric Alexander (c) to become champion
8/10

• You think Buddy Murphy is amped up? His tope con hilo is more like a top con 450. He follows up with Meteora.
• There’s a fantastic run-up Michinoku Driver, followed by a swinging Flatliner.
• This is a really great sprint. Cedric cracks a superkick, but eats a running powerbomb.
• Buddy Murphy is a really nice example of taking your career into your own hands, even within the walls of WWE. They didn’t want him on 205 Live. He forced it.
• Buddy Murphy kicks out of a standing Spanish Fly and Lumbar Check and the crowd is going nuts.
• Murphy’s Law for the win!! The place goes crazy.
• 205 Live is gonna have a few new viewers this week.

The Shield defeated Dogs of War
6.5/10

• Shield’s entrance lasted so long, they had to restart the theme. They have a version of their paintball masks.
• A brawl at ringside leaves Dogs of War in charge as the match starts.
• Ziggler is still going through his “do something” spot. I don’t know why he thinks nobody saw it the first time. Rollins is being worked over, including a nice shoulder block from Braun.
• Strowman takes forever to get to the top rope, as one would expect. He eats canvas on a splash attempt.
• Ambrose gets in and scores a Glam Slam. The crowd seems a little tired.
• THE BIG DOG gets the tag.
• Reigns accidentally Superman Punches Ambrose, and Strowman gets posted, as is tradition.
• Reigns and Rollins are in the ring, and are surrounded by Dogs of War, and a recovering Ambrose. Dean is playing the consideration up so much. 
• Instead, Ambrose goes after Braun and suicide dives him. Strowman breaks up a Shield Powerbomb on McIntyre. 
• Strowman mows down Reigns at ringside, then Rollins. Ambrose kicks out of a Zig Zag, and the crowd doesn’t care. 
• Braun goes after Ambrose, but Reigns intercepts him with a spear through the barricade! Strowman takes it on his FACE. BLUE CHEW SEGUE DONE!
• Rollins saves Dean and Ambrose hits Dirty Deeds for the win on Ziggler. 
• Neat story of Reigns accidentally punching Ambrose, then both Shield members saving him. 

Top Contender Match For WWE Championship
Daniel Bryan defeated The Miz
N/A

• Miz lands a big knee, then gets pinned with a small package.
• That’s it.
• Australian fans got hosed. They aren’t happy. 
• I’m all for unpredictability in wrestling, so I’m okay with the finish. I feel for the fans there though. 
• Bryan vs. Styles at Crown Jewel. 
• So if AJ Styles wants to hit the one-year mark for the WWE Championship on November 7, he’ll have to get past Daniel Bryan.

Triple H (w/ Shawn Michaels) defeated The Undertaker (w/ Kane)
4.75/10

• They have a hard end of show time about 40 minutes from now. 9 AM EST. WWE also changed the canvas for this match.
• HHH is very cocky early on, and gets caught trying to do Old School. Undertaker returns the favor. 
• Triple H counters the Snake Eyes-big boot combo with a running knee.
• Michaels gets on the apron and is choked by Taker. HBK posts Taker after Triple H bails him out. Shawn Michaels acting like a user-controlled manager on a WWE 2K game. He grabs a table, too.
• Taker sends HHH into the guardrail, then into the audience. 
• Undertaker strangling Triple H with a wire, and Business Hat Hunter is like “nah, don’t do that.”
• They have a pointless brawl that leads to Undertaker hitting Triple H with a chair. HBK eats a boot when he tries to get involved.
• Michaels superkicks Kane onto the table, and Triple H elbow drops him off the apron, though it. 
• Taker teased flying over the top rope, and Triple H teased a top rope chair shot to the head. Instead, we get a chokeslam and a Tombstone. Triple H kicks out. 
• Taker hauls off and punches Mike Chioda. It was pretty funny. He then taunts Michaels at ringside, while hitting Triple H with a chair. He enters and is rewarded with a big shot again.
• Triple H still has a nice spinebuster, but a sad Pedigree lands. 
• Undertaker was really late kicking out of the Pedigree. Should have been three. Made the ref look bad. 
• Triple H stomps on a chair around Taker’s head, but Kane pulls the referee out. 
• HBK gets Triple H a sledgehammer and HHH hits a chair Taker is holding. No ref, so Undertaker follows with Hell’s Gate, using the sledgehammer. We get a smattering of applause for this. 
• Shawn Michaels is calling a lot of the spots in the match, very loudly. Then he kicks Undertaker in the balls and is thrown out. 
• A chokeslam hits, but Undertaker gets superkicked by Michaels. Triple H hits Taker with a sledgehammer, another superkick, Pedigree. Win. Undertaker fed his arms on this.
• Undertaker was not good in this match. This was overbooked. 
• This type of match is a really good example of why you need to develop the next generation of wrestlers that are larger than the brand is. Taker can’t headline Australia and Saudi Arabia in 10-20 years.
• Triple H shows Taker respect and helps him up. Taker says “We’ve been through enough, haven’t we?” and they hug. They all raise each other’s hands. 
• Kane and Undertaker attack Triple H and Kane. Shawn Michaels is chokeslammed through an announce table at ringside, with HHH is Tombstoned.

Ratings Guide:

10- Perfect, 9- MOTY Territory, 8- Excellent, 7- Great, 6- Good, 5- Average to above average, 4- Slightly below average, 3 or below: Poor
Each match starts at a 5 and slides up and down based on entertainment, execution, time, environment, reaction and stakes. The ratings are in no way an indication of a “star rating,” which is a completely different system. A standard, non-offensive “TV match” lands at a 5.