WWE.com and Pat McAfee Show contributor Mark Kaboly breaks down SmackDown and Raw with 10 thoughts.
Raw
1. SOLO DOLO: Yet another giant step forward for Solo Sikoa happened this Monday on Raw, and it happened long before the main event tag match with LA Knight against The Usos. The opening moments of Raw showcased Solo’s personality and humor yet again. Once again, Solo came up with a doozy pretending to be Neo from The Matrix and dodging Jey Uso’s warning shot. And, honestly, paired with LA Knight, one funny dude in his own right, everything continues to get better and better. There have been duos in the past, such as Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss, who came together and didn’t seem to make much sense at first, but then ended up working really well. So why not Knight and Solo? And then they switched off the funny and delivered the action by working so well in the tag team main event. Yes! I was skeptical at first of these two together, but not anymore and not after Monday night.
2. GOOD OL’ BAIT AND SWITCH: Bron Breakker's mic skills have gotten so good lately, and dare I say are becoming as effective speaking as his in-ring ability. I look at at the matter in which The Unpredictable Badass delivered his message to Oba Femi on Monday, even more than the words that were said. If you went strictly off his words, he may have come across as an insecure Superstar giving excuses. Now, maybe that’s the point, and we just don’t fully understand yet. Maybe that’s where Paul Heyman comes into the picture. Personally, I don't buy that Breakker is sore at Heyman over him positioning to attach himself to whomever the future of WWE turns out to be, as it seemed to be laid out on Monday. Heyman is deliberate with everything he does, and him gushing over Oba Femi like a proud papa is perfect cover for what may just be revealed at Sunday Night’s Main Event.
3. ROYCE’S RETURN: Royce Keys returned for the first time in three weeks and destroyed the main event pitting Sikoa & Knight against The Usos. Keys, alongside the intimidating pair of Lucien Price and Bronco Nima, dismantled everybody involved in the match. The reaction that the dangerous trio created was huge. The ruthlessness, the intent to harm, the "I’m mad and somebody is going to pay" tone of the whole thing was very effective. It was chaos personified and and will create momentum moving forward against both Knight and Solo as well as the entire Bloodline.
4. BETTER THAN ADVERTISED: You knew that AAA Cruiserweight Champion Rey Fenix and Dragon Lee were going to put on a show in the semifinals of the World Heavyweight Title No. 1 Contender’s Tournament, but no one predicted that it would be as good as it actually turned out to be. In what was easily the best match of the night, maybe even the month, Fenix overcame Lee to advance to the final to take on his brother Penta for the right to face Roman Reigns in Mexico City. Fenix and Lee have some amazing in-ring chemistry, and that was evident. If WWE and AAA General Manager Rey Mysterio's goal is to showcase luchadores competitors on their main brand to pique some interest from the casual fan, then Fenix and Lee accomplished that, as has the tournament as a whole. I can’t even imagine what we might see when Fenix battles his brother Penta next week.
5. UNNOTICED: Can we be in the early stages of another explosive father vs. son match? Rey Mysterio’s seemingly innocent well wishes towards Rey Fenix during his tournament match were interrupted by Dominik Mysterio and his Judgment Day cohort JD McDonagh. Dirty Dom voiced his unhappiness that the AAA General Manager left the AAA Mega Champion out of the tournament. Dom’s typical insults toward his father of being an "old man" and a "deadbeat dad" were cut short, however, by Je’Von Evans. Could we see a match in the near future pairing Evans and Rey against Dominik and JD? Whatever happens, I would not be surprised if another showdown pitting Rey against Dom was not that far down the road.
SmackDown
6. ON A HEATER: SmackDown put on yet another virtuoso performance this week. As they say in the football world, WWE's Friday Night show continues to stack wins. Whether that has anything to do with the switch back to two hours, we may never know, but you can’t deny the fact that SmackDown is bringing it, both in the overall presentation and and what the Superstars are bringing to the table. Think about it: Cody Rhodes' wording teasing a partnership with Paul Heyman. Randy Orton seeking out World Title number 15. Sami Zayn feeling disrespected. Kevin Owens and CM Punk's pure hatred of each other. Haku and the MFTs intensity. Gunther’s badass role and Finn Bálor's fight to get back to the top.
7. NOT BUYING IT: Some fans have been talking about the possibility of a Rhodes’ "bad guy" transformation for years, and yet it hasn’t happened. And why would it? Rhodes straddling the line of being QB1 and a low-key rule-bender to impose is will is unprecedented. This week, he seemed to drop a not-so-subtle-hint that a Heyman partnership could be on the horizon by including The Oracle’s famous line, “It’s not a prediction, it’s a spoiler” in his war of words with Randy Orton. Sorry, that phrasing was no accident.
8. THEY DELIVERED: As Heyman indicated on Raw before when Breakker and Femi were about to square off, you have to save it for the big show, meaning the money-making PLEs. That very idea is what made SmackDown’s main event between Kevin Owens and MC Punk so unique and refreshing. Take that in a second. We were treated to a PLE-caliber matchup on television between two of SmackDown's biggest stars. It was one of the better matches you are going to see, with the lead-up opening the path for a top-tier performance from Punk and KO. In a way, controversial finish with Sami Zayn was inevitable, but that didn’t take away from what was on display.
9. BIG YACHTY: Lil’ Yachty against Baron Corbin on Sunday Night’s Main Event sure doesn’t seem like it makes a lot of sense ... until it does. Even though it is a strange match to put on an already stacked card, I tend to believe that when the match is over, it will all make sense. What that might be is hard to tell, but a stipulation match has chicanery written all over it. Anything can happen in a five-minute match, so I get it ... until I don’t.
10. SAMI HAS A POINT: It's safe to say that Sami Zayn is definitely not happy with Nick Aldis over the General Manager not giving him a rematch after he lost his WWE Championship. And you know what, he has a point. Aldis is doing Zayn wrong, but the way Sami is going about it is distracting everybody from the real story here. Zayn interfered with the main event of Punk and KO, which surely isn’t something that Aldis will appreciate. Aldis never said he’s done competing after SummerSlam. See what I am laying down here? Either way, Sami is right. He deserves a rematch,
