The 2020 Super ShowDown was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by the American company WWE, held for wrestlers from the promotion's main roster brands, Raw and SmackDown. It was the third annual and final Super ShowDown and took place on Thursday, February 27, 2020, at the Mohammed Abdu Arena on the Boulevard in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The main card aired live at 8:00 p.m. Arabia Standard Time (12:00 p.m. Eastern Time).
This was the fifth event that WWE held in Saudi Arabia under a 10-year partnership in support of Saudi Vision 2030. This would also be the company's last event held outside the United States until the next Saudi Arabian event, Crown Jewel in October 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic that began taking effect shortly after Elimination Chamber in mid-March, with WWE holding all subsequent events behind closed doors at venues in the U.S. state of Florida until mid-July 2021 when the company resemued live touring.
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 SmackDown's Universal Championship for a second time, giving Wyatt's Fiend character his 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 Raw's WWE Championship against Ricochet, Bayley defeated Naomi to retain the SmackDown Women's Championship in the penultimate match, which was the first women's championship match contested in the country, and Roman Reigns defeated King Corbin in a Steel Cage match. In the final live in-ring match of his career, The Undertaker made a surprise return as an unannounced entrant in the gauntlet match and lastly eliminated AJ Styles to win the Tuwaiq Mountain Trophy in the opening bout.
The event received negative reviews, with the Universal Championship and WWE Championship matches, the gauntlet match, and Reigns vs. Corbin being largely criticized, and the decision to have Goldberg defeat Wyatt being universally singled out as one of the worst booking decisions in history. However, the two tag team championship matches received some praise, with The New Day (Big E and Kofi Kingston) vs. The Miz and John Morrison for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship being singled out as the best match of the night by most critics. Several media outlets noted the hostile fan reaction to the event, in particular to Goldberg's win over Wyatt.
Production
Background
In early 2018, the American professional wrestling promotion WWE began a 10-year strategic multiplatform partnership with the General Sports Authority in support of Saudi Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia's social and economic reform program. After the first Super Show-Down was held in Australia in 2018, Super ShowDown (restylized without the dash) became one of the recurring pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming events for the Saudi Arabian partnership in 2019. A third Super ShowDown, and the fifth overall event in the Saudi Arabian partnership, was officially announced during the 2020 Royal Rumble. It was scheduled to be held at the Mohammed Abdu Arena on the Boulevard in Riyadh on Thursday, February 27, 2020, and feature wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The main card aired at 8:00 p.m. Arabia Standard Time (12:00 p.m. Eastern Time) on traditional PPV worldwide and was available to livestream on the WWE Network.
On January 30, 2020, wrestling journalist Mike Johnson of PWInsider reported that WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan would make an appearance at the event. Prior to the event, The Undertaker, who was not announced for the event, was seen arriving with other WWE personnel at the airport in Riyadh.
Storylines The event comprised 10 matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.
On the February 7 episode of SmackDown, WWE Hall of Famer Goldberg was interviewed from his home via satellite. He stated that after watching the Royal Rumble, it made him want to get back in the ring—his last match was at SummerSlam in August 2019. With his old rival Brock Lesnar tied up with Ricochet and Drew McIntyre over Raw's WWE Championship, Goldberg turned his attention to SmackDown's Universal Championship, as he never received a rematch for the title after losing it to Lesnar back at WrestleMania 33 in April 2017. After Universal Champion Bray Wyatt interrupted Goldberg with a special news version of the Firefly Fun House, Goldberg challenged Wyatt's alter-ego "The Fiend" for the Universal Championship. Wyatt then stated that "The Fiend" accepted. The match was then scheduled for Super ShowDown.
After WWE announced that John Morrison—who last wrestled in WWE in November 2011—had re-signed with the company, Morrison made his first appearance on the January 3 episode of SmackDown in a brief backstage interview, coming out of The Miz's locker room. The two formally reunited the following week during a segment of "Miz TV", in which Morrison criticized the fans for turning on Miz the previous week after he attacked Kofi Kingston following his match. Miz and Morrison then began a rivalry with SmackDown Tag Team Champions The New Day (Big E and Kofi Kingston) in which Morrison defeated Kingston and Big E on the next two episodes, respectively. On the January 31 episode, Miz and Morrison won a fatal four-way tag team match to earn a championship match against The New Day at Super ShowDown.
On the January 6 episode of Raw, WWE Champion Brock Lesnar declared himself as the first entrant in the men's Royal Rumble match as he felt that no one was worthy of challenging him for the title. A few weeks later on the January 20 episode, Ricochet interrupted a promo by Paul Heyman and declared that he was not afraid to fight Lesnar and asked if Lesnar was scared to fight him. In response, Lesnar attacked Ricochet with a low blow and stated he was not scared. At the Royal Rumble, Lesnar dominated the first half of the Royal Rumble match until Ricochet entered as the 15th entrant. In response to what Lesnar did to him on Raw, Ricochet attacked Lesnar from behind with a low blow, which allowed eventual winner Drew McIntyre to eliminate him with a Claymore Kick. On the February 3 episode of Raw, Ricochet won a triple threat match to earn a WWE Championship opportunity against Lesnar at Super ShowDown.
At the Royal Rumble, Roman Reigns defeated King Corbin in a falls count anywhere match; both also unsuccessfully competed in the Royal Rumble match. Reigns and The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) then defeated Corbin, Dolph Ziggler, and Robert Roode on the following episode of SmackDown in a six-man tag team match, in which the losers ate dog food. The following week, Corbin stated that he should have won all of those matches and that he would have won the ones against Reigns had it not been for The Usos's interference. He then demanded one more match with Reigns, who came out and attacked Corbin, who managed to escape. Afterwards, Reigns accepted the challenge as a Steel Cage match, which was scheduled for Super ShowDown.
On the February 10 episode of Raw, a gauntlet match for the first-ever Tuwaiq Trophy was scheduled for Super ShowDown. AJ Styles, United States Champion Andrade, Bobby Lashley, Erick Rowan, R-Truth, and Rusev were announced for the match. Rusev, however, was removed from the match and replaced by Rey Mysterio on the February 24 episode of Raw.
At the Royal Rumble during the women's Royal Rumble match, Naomi made a surprise return following a six-month hiatus, while later on the show, Bayley successfully retained the SmackDown Women's Championship. On the following SmackDown, Bayley claimed that she had defeated every woman on the roster. Naomi interrupted, taking exception to the claim as Bayley had never defeated her. The following week, Naomi participated in a fatal four-way match to determine Bayley's next opponent, which was won by Carmella, who faced Bayley for the title on the February 14 episode; however, Bayley retained after using the ropes as leverage to pin Carmella. After the match, both Carmella and Naomi attacked Bayley. A match between Carmella and Naomi was then scheduled for the following week that Naomi won, thus earning her a title match against Bayley at Super ShowDown, marking the second women's match to be held in Saudi Arabia, but the first to be contested for a championship.
On the February 17 episode of Raw, after Kevin Owens and The Viking Raiders (Erik and Ivar) defeated Murphy and AOP (Akam and Rezar) via disqualification due to Seth Rollins's interference, The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) came out and aided Owens and The Viking Raiders by attacking Murphy, Akam, and Rezar while Rollins retreated. Later, Rollins and Murphy were scheduled to defend the Raw Tag Team Championship against The Street Profits at Super ShowDown.
On the February 26 episode of The Bump, three further matches were announced for Super ShowDown. Saudi's own and NXT wrestler Mansoor was scheduled to face Dolph Ziggler, Humberto Carrillo was scheduled to face NXT's Angel Garza in a rematch from the February 24 episode of Raw, and The Viking Raiders (Erik and Ivar) were scheduled to face The O.C. (Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson) on the Super ShowDown Kickoff pre-show.
Event + Other on-screen personnelRole:Name:English commentatorsMichael ColeCorey GravesByron SaxtonArabic commentatorsFaisal AlmughaisibJude AldajaniRing announcerMike RomeRefereesShawn BennettJohn ConeDarrick MooreEddie OrengoChad PattonInterviewerByron SaxtonPre-show panelCharly CarusoScott StanfordDavid Otunga
Pre-show During the Super ShowDown Kickoff pre-show, The Viking Raiders (Erik and Ivar) faced The O.C. (Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson). In the end, as Ivar attempted a moonsault on Anderson, the latter moved out of the way and tagged in Gallows. The O.C. then performed the Magic Killer on Ivar to win the match.
Preliminary matches The actual pay-per-view opened with the Tuwaiq Mountain Trophy Gauntlet Match. The match began with R-Truth and Bobby Lashley (accompanied by Lana) as the first two participants. Truth eliminated Lashley with a roll up. After his elimination, Lashley attacked Truth. The third participant was United States Champion Andrade, who was eliminated after exchanging headbutts with Truth, after which, Truth landed onto Andrade for the pin. The fourth participant was Erick Rowan. During the match, Rowan threw Truth into the ring steps which knocked over Rowan's cage which was on top of the steps. An irate Rowan then attacked Truth with the steel steps, thus being eliminated by disqualification. The penultimate participant was AJ Styles, who eliminated Truth by submitting him with the Calf Crusher. The final participant was originally Rey Mysterio, however, Mysterio was attacked backstage by The O.C (Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson). Styles then claimed himself the winner by forfeit, however, the referee declared that Styles would only win by forfeit if Mysterio did not make it to the ring by the count of ten. As the referee counted, the camera cut backstage and showed that The O.C. were attacked by The Undertaker, who then made his entrance, taking Mysterio's place. Undertaker then performed a Chokeslam on a surprised Styles to win the match and the Tuwaiq Mountain Trophy.