5 Things WWE Secretly Told Us at WWE Starrcade 2018

Starrcade 2018 was held on November 24, 2018, WWE Network event produced by WWE for their Raw and SmackDown brands.

The event was scheduled to host many great matches, making it no less than a pay-per-view event in terms of matches booked and the wrestlers involved, but slowly the matches were forced to change.

At the end of the day, the match card wasn’t too impressive and saw largely predictable outcomes which made one think whether the interest in the event was reduced due to some injuries and superstars pulling out of the event.

One of the biggest surprises for the event was the return of a hugely successful and popular wrestler from RAW which was probably the highlight of the show along with the match between Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose.

Since the event is now done and dusted, let’s take a look at 5 things WWE secretly told us at WWE Starrcade 2018.

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#5 WWE will always throw in women tag team matches

Eight women fought in the first match of the night

The women of the WWE are said to be going through a revolution, where their division is supposed to slowly come at par with the men’s division. The WWE recently held the Evolution PPV which was the cornerstone of the revolution and saw a highly successful all-women event take place.

However, most of the time it seems like the creative are completely unsure of what to do with the women’s roster. This is evident from the fact that they have repeatedly thrown numerous women tag team matches at us.

On Raw, we have seen Sasha Banks, Natalya, and Bayley take on The Riott Squad a number of times, while SmackDown has also hosted a mixture of tag team matches to fill in the mid-card.

Starrcade had something almost similar as the opening segment of the event saw a tag team match being set up between the teams of Nia Jax, Tamina, Mickie James & Alicia Fox and Sasha Banks, Bayley, Ember Moon & Dana Brooke.

To protect the other developing heels on Raw, Alicia Fox was the woman who tapped out to Sasha Banks to hand the win over to the faces.

#4 The Revival is at the bottom of the Tag Team ladder

The Revival

need

to be revived

Remember a time when The Revival was the best team in the NXT? And remember the time when the two-time NXT Tag Team Champions took on the best competition on RAW? Well, that’s all behind us now.

The Revival is arguably the best technical tag team in the WWE. But ever since making their debut on the main roster, they haven't done anything noteworthy.

Unlike the team of Heath Slater and Rhyno who were built for such a task, The Revival should have been Tag Team champions on the main roster some time ago. They should have beaten The B-Team on Raw to win the titles rather than being ambushed by Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre.

Starrcade saw The Revival lose to B-Team and once again walk out of the arena with a loss. It’s sad to see where the two men started from and where they are now, and it seems like they’ve found themselves in a place which was once occupied by Heath Slater and Rhyno.

#3 Returns don’t always have to be grand

Is that Wyatt's new look?

Superstar returns are some of the most exciting and interesting points in the WWE Universe’s books. Fans wait and anticipate the return of their favourite superstars for months and even years just for the perfect moment.

WWE usually books top wrestlers to return either on a televised show of their top three brands or even at big pay-per-view events to increase the impact and the viewership of the event.

However, this wasn’t the case at Starrcade which is a live event and saw the return of one of WWE’s biggest stars of the decade.

Bray Wyatt unexpectedly returned to answer Baron Corbin’s open challenge and defeated the Acting General Manager convincingly. Now it’s uncertain where Bray Wyatt will be associated with Braun Strowman in any way or not since Corbin is Strowman’s main target at the moment but the big man is facing an injury to come out and compete currently.

Regardless of that, Bray Wyatt’s return was sort of ruined by the WWE as his return was not at a live televised event and sort of killed the hype created by him for the fans.

#2 Asuka isn’t winning the Championship anytime soon

Asuka lost to Charlotte once again

Asuka was one of the hottest prospects of the company. Coming out of NXT undefeated, she remained undefeated on the main roster for a long time and even won the Women’s Royal Rumble.

After facing Charlotte at WrestleMania and tasting her first ever defeat, she has completely been derailed and sidelined by the creatives.

She’s lost many singles and tag team matches since, with her most notable, loses coming against Carmella and The IIconics when she teamed up with Naomi. This shows that the creatives are not interested in building her up anymore.

Asuka faced Charlotte as a replacement for the injured Becky Lynch who was originally scheduled to defend her Championship against Charlotte at the event which also hosted Ric Flair.

She once again tasted defeat at the hands of Charlotte at Starrcade, and since Charlotte was the SmackDown Champion and is still in contention for the title, Asuka’s loss signifies that she will not be in contention for the Women’s Championship any time soon.

#1 No major championships need to be defended

The bout was confirmed when Styles was the champion

One of the biggest problems with Starrcade was that no major single’s title was defended at the event. Except for Seth Rollins who put his title on the line against Dean Ambrose in a Steel Cage Match, no other single’s title was up for grabs.

This is not too good for such an event which also saw only one Tag Team title being defended which was by The Bar from SmackDown against The New Day.

AJ Styles was booked to defend his WWE Championship against Samoa Joe once again, this time in a steel cage match. Styles lost the championship to Daniel Bryan just a couple of weeks back but still participated in the Starrcade match.

The SmackDown women’s title was also scheduled to be defended by Becky Lynch against Charlotte, but Lynch’s injury forced her to sit back for the event while Asuka took her place in the match in another non-title match.

Roman Reign’s illness also caused Brock Lesnar to win the Universal Championship and therefore that title was also not defended for the event, while the RAW Women’s Championship held by Ronda Rousey was never scheduled to be defended.

The United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura teamed up with The Miz to take on the team of Rey Mysterio and Rusev, changing the original championship match which was supposed to be a single’s match between Nakamura and Mysterio for the title.

None of the two titles defended at the event changed hands during the event, while it was unfortunate to see the WWE not book any more title matches for Starrcade which is a bigger deal than house shows where some titles are usually defended.