WWE: More “downs” than “smacks” for Feb. 28, 2020

Down: how is something so predictable so illogical?

The Reigns vs. Goldberg and The Fiend vs. Cena for WrestleMania were speculated, but made fairly obvious by the results of Super ShowDown. When Goldberg asked, “Who’s next?,” everyone knew whose music was going to hit and who was going to confront Goldberg.

It was also predictable that it took Reigns five minutes to walk to the ring and another 20 staring at Goldberg before he uttered two words (time estimates may be wrong).

We also knew Cena wasn’t retiring or “saying goodbye for now” if only by the fact he was laying it on so thick. The Fiend dropping the Universal Championship also freed up any constraints for either character, but particularly Cena as the entire build would have been focused on Cena’s attempt to break the “record” 16 reigns by Ric Flair.

The other obvious point to highlight is most everyone knew the Bayley vs. Naomi match would have interference and be turned into a tag match; at least the interference happened fairly quickly.

This predictable booking is further weighed down by how illogical what is colloquially known as “WWE logic” truly is.

Naomi pins the champ so she should get a title shot. In what other combat sport (as pro wrestling is simulated to be) does a champ fight a non-title fight outside of a failed weight cut by the challenger (like tonight’s UFC event)? I understand pro wrestlers are much more active than pro mixed martial artists, but there also isn’t a need to have wrestlers on television every week (the roster is deep enough). If anything, for pinning the champ, Naomi should be champ.

This applies to new Tag Team Champions The Miz and Morrison as well. Not only do they lose to The Usos in a non-title match, but this somehow thrusts them into defending their titles at Elimination Chamber against five other teams.

Maybe it’s just me, but similar to a cage match, the EC match should be saved when you want to have heel champions who have used every trick in the book to retain their titles trapped, unable to escape and weasel their way out of another match.

Again, since they pinned the champs (just like the champs did The New Day the night before), the tag champs should be The Usos.

I already discussed the roundabout, carnage-filled path to the IC Championship handicap match, and this sudden change in disposition for The Fiend. What these highlight is the lack of consistency in character as opposed to just angles.

Evans and The Fiend are the biggest examples, but a quick look at NXT shows The Forgotten Sons “turned” face because they were upset at the NXT UK tag team Grizzled Young Veterans using “Veterans” in their name and calling out Americans. This makes me want to forget them even more.

This illogical thinking will probably be exacerbated by what should be a fantastic AEW Revolution card tonight, where logical storytelling and character development take a front seat instead of a backseat.