Hmm, no-one has started abusing me (yet) for restarting these, so, live from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia! It’s Super ShowDown! This is On The Streeter! And these are 10 Thoughts!
And, again I missed the pre-show, and am still struggling to get screen caps when watching live TV, so, like last time, sorry in advance for both of those things.
This report is brought to you by Red Bull®™.
1. Rollins with the DDP taped ribs/back/stomach/whatever, Corbin with his lack of variation, and yet the match was a fine opener which Rollins won in about 10 minutes with a roll-up after the first referee in WWE history grew a set and argued back with Corbin. Nothing brilliant, but not terrible. But the Lesnar non-cash-in was stupid and I felt he was going to re-appear and kill Kofi later (despite 12 chair shots and a curb stomp onto the briefcase).
2. Finn Balor (as The Demon) defeated Andrade to retain the Intercontinental Title in about 10 minutes with a top rope DDT and double stomp to the chest. The match, again, was a fine one, just maybe a little slower than I was expecting. I’m still yet to be sold on Andrade, I’m afraid.
3. Shane McMahon defeated Roman Reigns in less than 10 minutes, in what was essentially a 2-on-1 handicap match with Drew McIntyre helping Shane out. McIntyre’s Claymore Kick gave McMahon the win. McMahon beat Reigns. Yes. That is a thing that happened. Not a good match anyway. Red Bull, thank you.
4. Lars Sullivan won by DQ after the Lucha House Party triple teamed him. Yeah. That’s the way you build up a monster – a DQ win. Then he does monsterish things after the win? Well, I can tell you that that was 5 minutes.
5. After 25 minutes of tedium, Randy Orton defeated HHH. Look, it was not terrible. It was just so… very… long… and… dull… I am not a fan of Orton at the best of times, and this was not the best of times. He won with a – surprise! – RKO out of nowhere. Red Bull time again! And again!
6. Braun Strowman defeated Bobby Lashley in a – ready for this? – dull match that was not terrible. Only just not terrible, but still… not terrible. I see a theme tonight. Thank Flying Spaghetti Monster it was less than 10 minutes long; any longer and I think I would have needed to overdose on Red Bull to stay alive. The ending came after 3 slams (top rope, regular and then power), which was the most excitement in the match.
7. Kofi and Ziggler put on an entertaining but subdued match. I enjoyed it, but it felt like they never got into top gear. And the ending was retarded, the perfect way to either (a) make Kofi look like a loser, or (b) start to turn him heel. What? What happened? Do I have to? Xavier Woods hit Ziggler, so Kofi’s Trouble In Paradise won it for him after 10 minutes. However, Ziggles the Dolph wants Kofi in a steel cage for nthe rematch in quite a decent little promo, and that has the potential to be awesome. Potential.
8. The 50 man largest battle royal ever ™ was won by Mansoor after 20 minutes. Surprise! Home town hero wins! And the last person he eliminated was Elias, who had insulted everything and everyone during his entrance song. Called it the minute Elias came to the ring. Battle royals tend to be complete clusterf*cks. This was no different, made worse by the sheer amount of humanity in the ring. Bleh. What a f*cking mess. My last Red Bull is now gone. Mansoor’s post-match speech is not too bad at all, crowd-pandering at its finest.
9. The main event was the only match I was looking forward to, despite not being a fan of Undertaker since, well, SurSer90. But I am a Goldberg mark. So sue me. And after an insanely long entrance by Undertaker, the match started really well. But then Goldberg posted himself, busting his head open (it looked hardway) and it was nasty. And then Undertaker dropped him on the head with a tombstone, bending the neck back and… f*ck. That wasn’t Goldberg taking it wrong; Undertaker struggled to do the move. Shit, dude. After that, Goldberg was knocked for a six. He looked out of it on his feet. He botched a jackhammer (it became a brainbuster… or maybe it was payback?), and they seemed to bring it home quick, less than 10 minutes in total for the Undertaker win. Shame. It started really well.
Knocked myself out and thought I could finish…. love my fans…..but let u down. Everyone else that found “pleasure” ….. hope ur happy
— Bill Goldberg (@Goldberg) June 7, 2019
10. Well, it was a Wrestlemania-like show, in that it was insanely long and a lot of the matches underwhelmed. Look, I know it was hot, but I’m from Australia – you just get on with it. At least 95% of the Saudi wildlife aren’t trying to kill you. Wimps. Not sure if I’ll bother rewatching this one…
That’s another 10 Thoughts in the bag.
Comments, thoughts, etc. are always welcome! Come on! Let’s get a conversation going here at the Pulse, like in the old days! (Well, maybe not exactly like the old days; let’s be at least a little civil.)
