5 Things WWE Secretly Told Us at WWE Starrcade 2018

#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.