Wrestling Roundup: February 22, 2020

The Wrestling Roundup is here to bring you all the news and rumors you need to know in one place.

WWE SmackDown Results

With the show being on Thursday next week, this is the SmackDown go-home show for Super ShowDown. Once that show is over, WWE will be able to focus on the somewhat important task of building towards Wrestlemania. Let’s look at the results:

• New Day & Usos def. Robert Roode & Dolph Ziggler and Miz & Morrison
• Braun Strowman & Elias def. Shinsuke Nakamura & Cesaro in a Symphony of Destruction match
• Daniel Bryan def. Heath Slater
• Naomi def. Carmella to become #1 Contender for the SmackDown Women’s Championship

WWE SmackDown Takeaways

The show closed with an appearance from one William Goldberg. Instead of appearing via satellite, Goldberg showed up to have an encounter with The Fiend. Goldberg was shown to be a big threat to Wyatt, spearing him and causing The Fiend to scurry away into darkness. It is still incredibly unlikely that Goldberg dethrones the current Universal Champion, but the match could be an interesting spectacle.

Also on the Super ShowDown card will be a SmackDown Women’s Championship match. Naomi beat Carmella and will challenge Bayley in Saudi Arabia. Again this is a development that is both positive and a time for pause. It is great that women will get to perform in Saudi Arabia. While it is a positive, it is valuable to recognize that Saudi Arabia has been using spots like this to promote positive developments for human rights in their country while still committing human rights violations against their own citizens.

Last week Mandy Rose broke Otis’ heart. He still hasn’t been able to get his date, and wasn’t even able to get out of the hotel this week. It also looks more and more like Sonya Deville might have been part of what pushed Mandy towards Dolph Ziggler. This is a relationship angle that is actually fin to get invested in.

Progress Chapter 103 Preview

This weekend Progress will present Beer Snake City on Sunday. The card is absolutely stacked, so keep an eye posted for when it comes to Progress Demand. Some familiar WWE & NXT UK names are on the show, so check it out.

• Ilja Dragunov vs. Malik
• Chakara vs. Gisele Shaw
• Anti-Fun Police (Chief Deputy Dunne & Los Federales Santos, Jr.) & ??? vs. More Than Hype (Darren Kearney, LJ Cleary, & Nathan Martin)
• Jinny & Toni Storm vs. Medusa Complex (Charli Evans & Millie McKenzie)
• Kyle Fletcher vs. Paul Robinson (c) – Progress Proteus Championship
• Jordan Devlin & Scotty Davis (c) vs. WorkHorsemen (Anthony Henry & JD Drake) – Progress World Tag Team Championship
• Cara Noir (c) vs. Mark Andrews – Progress Unified World Championship

WWE Japanese Performance Center Coming Soon?

The long-rumored Japanese WWE Performance Center could be coming this year. According to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, WWE have been reaching out to Antonio Inoki and Senator Hiroshi Hase for political help to get the center opened (h/t r/SquaredCircle). WWE has long been attempting to make in-roads into the Japanese market, and this could be a major step.

One for the Road:

It is now confirmed, so congratulations to the Bella Twins on becoming WWE Hall of Famers.

BREAKING NEWS:
The latest inductees into the 2020 WWE Hall Of Fame will be the @BellaTwins! #SmackDown pic.twitter.com/62WdHl1cTc

— WWE on FOX (@WWEonFOX) February 22, 2020