5 Ups & 6 Downs From WWE Super Show-Down

4. Home & Away From Home

The IIconics
WWE.com

There's the temptation to be kind to this match because at least Australian returnees Peyton Royce and Billie Kay were permitted to win the match and at least 'The Empress Of Tomorrow' wasn't the pinned party in the battle. But it spoke to the rank awfulness of the Naomi/Asuka pairing that the former SmackDown Women's Champion was more over for her work in a pie commercial than she was in the actual match.

The encounter had a ghost-like presence on the show, transparently added as a cool-down contest following John Cena's latest hello/goodbye but completely without the body of a storyline to bolster it. Booked in the first place just to give the Aussie pair something to do, the exterior of the match mattered more than the barren interior anyway.

Peyton and Billie didn't have to heel on the audience at least, and looked the part too in their custom-made flag-bearing attire. It would have been a winning night for the duo if they weren't put over two of the biggest losers in the entire company.

There's absolutely a window for women's tag team titles if the talent on show in this year's Mae Young Classic represent the future of the league, but WWE must do better in the construction of these makeshift pairs if they want the belts to mean half as much as the respective singles straps.

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Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett