8 Booking Steps For WWE Super Show-Down

7. Steer Clear Of The ‘House Show’ Feel

This is difficult one to quantify as the exact mechanics of the “house show feel” remain rather imprecise. For me, it’s just a lack of stakes in the match combined with a phoned-in performance from those in the ring. Admittedly you see plenty of that on Raw and SmackDown at the moment.

Anyway, a quick scan of the card is quite reassuring on this matter. Triple H vs The Undertaker is too monuments to feel disposable, Bryan vs Miz, Joe vs Styles and Becky vs Charlotte all carry plenty of weight, and even the Cruiserweight title match will have that hometown heat on it.

While the assorted tag matches are something of a worry, nothing quite smacks of “WWE Live!” quite like John Cena and Bobby Lashley vs Elias and Kevin Owens. There’s no reason for it, there’s nothing really connecting the competitors, and if it goes longer than 7 minutes I’ll eat my cork hat.

It’s maybe to be expected, but the more this show has the feel of a genuinely important event the easier it’s going to be to sell future ones to both attendees and network subscribers. If these high-profile overseas events get a reputation for being “glorified house shows” they won’t have a prayer of selling out venues of this size.