Veteran NFL writer and Pat McAfee Show correspondent Mark Kaboly breaks down Friday Night SmackDown and Monday Night Raw with 10 takeaways.
10
The meeting: The long-awaited face-to-face meeting between Jey Uso and Roman Reigns will happen on SmackDown Friday night and what was gathered from Raw on Monday, Uso is still skeptical about the family working out their differences because of the lack of trust he has of Reigns. With Reigns being a little unsure as well based on his facial reaction a few days earlier on SmackDown, you can see it ultimately coming down to family as the reason why Jey Uso will partner with Jimmy and Reigns. Before any of this, Jey wants to set boundaries and that came across during the opening segment of Raw. It’s not going to be Reigns as the OTC and the Usos as the “side pieces.” Surely, Reigns will agree to that stipulation just to get a chance at Solo Sikoa and Co., but the real question is how long will that last before they all go their separate ways?
9
Revenge of the Yeet: Jey Uso holding the Intercontinental Title for 28 days after waiting 14 years to finally get a singles champion sure felt wrong when Bron Breakker took it from him last week. Even though the final 15 minutes of SmackDown was action-packed and all over the place, it was the Revenge of the Yeet that put things back in line for Jey. Uso cost the Bloodline their WWE Tag Team Championship Title with a ninja-like attack that included a super kick to Tonga Loa outside the ring and a spear and a steel chair to the back of Tama Tonga inside it. To me, Uso needed to respond like he did. He is a Main Eventer now and it needs to stay that way. It turned out to be a precursor of what happened on Raw.
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Will Seth be able to make it?: You can put down a Death Valley Driver off a tractor-trailer in the parking lot as something I’ve never seen before until this Monday. If “Big” Bronson Reed’s destruction of Seth ‘Freakin’ Rollins in the parking lot of the Giant Center in Hershey at Raw didn’t bring into question whether or not Rollins will be able to take part in Crown Jewel, Joe Tessitore and Wade Barrett made it well known that it is indeed a possibility. Tessitore said that Rollins was taken to a local medical center with a back injury and revisited it a little later in the show. Rollins’ promo before the mayhem suggested that Reed woke something up in his soul and reminded him what he was capable of. It all came together like a nice little package in the end. In my opinion, that match will happen but it stacks the odds against a Rollins win.
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What’s Sami up to?: Sami Zayn trying to convince Jey Uso not to reunite with his family just to get shut down with, “You wouldn’t understand because you aren’t family” was one of the most poignant moments of Raw in recent memory. Zayn then turning his attention to Solo Sikoa made it all the more interesting to guess what he could possibly be talking to him about? A nugget or two here might not mean much but when it comes together down the road, it will all make sense. Right now, Zayn comes across to me as a lost soul with no real direction. That type of attitude usually isn’t beneficial to anybody but himself.
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Comic relief: You can always rely on R-Truth to bring a little levity to the show. Nobody does it better than him and that was proven again on Raw. Referring to Chad Gable as the “short ugly guy” to the Alpha Academy and then telling the Miz, “Good luck with the Wyatts, you’re gonna die” after slapping him, to walking past Pete Dunne and calling him Butch and asking him if he saw Pete was gold. As for Truth, him seemingly parting ways with The Miz for good could mean he could join up with Alpha Academy. Truth and Otis — yeah, sign me up for that.
5
Lost in the commotion: The main event of Raw pitted Damian Priest against “Dirty” Dom Mysterio and the match went down just like you would expect: Priest dominated the undersized Mysterio just to have Dom sneak his way to a victory. What was lost in all of this – or at least to me – was that Mysterio now will get a World Title opportunity before Priest and potentially against Gunther. Remember, Priest approached Gunther last week and told him he was coming for the title that he never lost but now Mysterio will seemingly get that shot first even though Priest thoroughly beat down Dom during and after the match. I see Mysterio as a lot of things … a lot of important things. But can he be a legitimate contender for the World Heavyweight Title isn’t one of them.
4
Solo Reigns?: Watching the expression of Reigns when Jimmy and Jey finally pushed aside their differences and hugged it out in the middle of the ring during SmackDown was just good enough to make you wonder what was going through his head. Surely, many people see it as the gang’s back together again and it’s a matter of time before Paul Heyman returns. I saw it differently. I viewed it as Reigns realizing that he is no longer the Tribal Chief and it is approaching the point (maybe not right now) where he makes a solo run to regain the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship he held for more than 1,300 days.
3
RKO a promo: SmackDown starting with Randy Orton saying something to Triple H from the Gorilla Position then calling him down to the ring was a nice opening twist. Now, I don’t think anybody but Orton could use that maneuver but it worked knowing the history these two have had. The entire premise was that Orton thought Triple H was protecting Kevin Owens by not making a match with him, but it turned out to be the other way around. Orton ended up getting his wish at Crown Jewel with Triple H warning him to watch his back, but I have three big takeaways from this: 1) It was a unique way to make a match; 2) Orton has the crowd in the palms of his hands; 3) RKO may have delivered one of his best promos ever and he’s been in the company for 24 years.
2
Game 7: You can have Andrade and Carmelo Hayes wrestling every week for the next year and it won’t get old. The two have shown that they have been able to keep it fresh through their first six matches so what would make you think ‘Game 7’ as it was billed would be any different? It had the makings of another good match but LA Knight being the special guest referee, at least to me, pretty much indicated that this was going to be some kind of wonky finish, and sure enough, it was. Knight interfered and called for the bell resulting in a no-contest that then set up a Triple Threat match at Crown Jewel for the United States Championship. This is just me, but if special guest referees were banned from ever happening again, I wouldn’t complain.
1
Odds and ends: Those who weren’t familiar with the works of The Motor City Machine Guns got a quick indoctrination of why they hit the WWE with vigor. Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley are polished (of course) and they are talented and that came across with both of the quick matches on SmackDown. But how long can they use the “we’ve been overlooked for 20 years” argument before it gets old? Hmm, might be an interesting path the MCMG goes down. … Getting a title shot immediately after beating #DIY was a nice plot twist that few saw coming. … So, Cody Rhodes got all riled up for Gunther calling him a “gutless champion” and if he “stops being a servant of everything, your little story is over?” Seems like an over-the-top reaction to me, but is it? Sounds like there is more to the story that we aren’t aware of. … This slow burn of teasing Xavier Woods turning on Kofi Kingston has reached a point where something significant must be on the horizon. … Adam Pearce continued to be an important piece in storytelling. … If the WWE is trying to inject new blood into their tag team division, it’s sure working. We can have both the Motor City Machine Guns and The War Raiders as tag champs very soon.
