Kevin Owens is a legitimate good guy and I have no idea what to do about it.
On one hand, I’m 100% invested in Kofi Kingston at this point. I want him to with the WWE Championship at WrestleMania and anything else would be a letdown, at least in the short term. But with that said...guys, there’s much, much worse than you could do than getting behind Owens.
For one, he’s an incredible performer and we’ve never really gotten to root for him as a good guy. He can stand up so well against Daniel Bryan on the microphone and the two were pushing and pulling the audience in the opening segment to get the exact reactions they wanted. They’re both brilliant.
And here’s the thing – Bryan’s verbal attack on Kingston to open the show was saying that Kingston’s where he “deserves to be.” He deserves to be a supporting member of the show, and he certainly doesn’t deserve a shot at his championship. And the funny thing about that claim is that you could probably use it in your argument for both why or why not Kingston will be our next WWE Champion. It could have either been intended as a rallying cry or a soft way to break the news.
With that said, I’m pretty damn certain it’s the former. With how much time commentary spent talking about how the New Day were sent to India and how Byron Saxton called out the timing of that...Kingston’s gonna get his shot. Like I said: I’m pretty damn certain.
But that brings us back to the loveable, family-friendly Owens. Owens made it clear that he never wanted to take Kofi’s spot, but he definitely wanted to return to shut Bryan up. He also featured a resounding “Yep!” in his promo which was an awesome callback.
Owens was booked in a match with Rowan that never really got off the ground since Bryan and Rowan tried to put KO through a table – and my god, here’s another wrinkle surrounding this WWE Championship feud: Mustafa Ali. Ali came to make the save and protected Owens from getting shelved just like he was before Elimination Chamber. I have no idea how all this is going to shake out and I have to commend WWE for showing much more finesse with this story than with the Lynch/Charlotte/Rousey stuff.
All I know? KofiMania isn’t over.
Samoa Joe wins the United States Championship
You know, I’m going to look back on R-Truth’s brief United States Championship reign with a significant amount of fondness.
He gave us comedy with the schtick about idolizing his childhood hero John Cena. He gave several different wrestlers storyline progression. And most importantly, he gave us some really fun matches. This show’s fatal four way was probably the best of the bunch, too.
R-Truth gave another open challenge that was answered by Samoa Joe, Rey Mysterio, and Andrade. The latter two obviously had a score to settle from how the match played out last week. Joe, however? He’s always been known for his plots and schemes; did you really expect him to pass up an opportunity at a championship?
Honestly, Joe’s built for these multi-man matches. Ever since he signed with WWE, I’ve enjoyed his multi-man matches more than his singles matches and he’s such a perfect addition to what Mysterio and Andrade already have going on. He also had a fantastic run in this match trading offense with R-Truth. And in the end, Joe finally got his first championship on the main roster.
Joe also had an interview backstage that was notable for a few reasons. Firstly, he said he doesn’t “pander to the unexceptional” which is just a dope line. To piggy back on his line, Joe’s absolutely exceptional when it comes to the trash talk and, well, talk in general.
Secondly? He started throwing some shade Cena’s way. Hmm...I wonder where that might go?
The Rest
Becky Lynch stands up to Charlotte – I didn’t really feel like this deserved featured billing in the review because nothing reeeeally got progressed here. Charlotte’s a smug troll and Becky socked her for it and dropped an uncensored F-bomb on live television. That last part was actually quite fun, though.
The Miz def. Jey Uso – The World’s Greatest Tag Team needed a bit of a momentum rebound after losing the titles so it makes sense that they’d pick up a win here. With that said, the Usos really shined here with one particular line. They were mocking Miz and Shane and said a line about Shane thinking he had a better shoe game than them. And when Jimmy tried to give Shane credit on that point, Jey cut him off with, “THAT AIN’T THE POINT!”
That got an actual laugh from me. Might wanna run with that, Usos; it had a “It doesn’t matter what you think!” vibe.
New Day visits India – I actually like how they made a PR trip seem so vile and underhanded. The New Day promised that they’ll be at Fastlane, so I’m excited to see where these three factor into the show.
Ricochet and Aleister Black def. The Bar – The NXT dudes put in a tough spot having to wrestle after the United States Championship match, but they did just fine against the likes of Sheamus and Cesaro. In fact, both Black and Ricochet hit their finishers to secure the victory. Unfortunately, jealousy in the locker room isn’t limited to Raw; after the match, Rusev and Shinsuke Nakamura appeared to beat the babyfaces down. The bad guys had the upper hand until the Hardy Boyz showed up to even the score.
Man, the tag team division on SmackDown is deep as hell.
Mandy Rose def. Naomi – If SmackDown Live has one significant shortcoming, it’s the lack of women’s wrestling on the show. And yes, I get it. They essentially moved the top two people in the division to Raw and SDL has an incredible men’s mid card. But I would like to see more than a silly little squash and Asuka showing up after the fact. This Rose/Asuka feud is ice cold.
This was a solid show! I wasn’t really blown away by anything other than the United States Championship match, but everything else made some sense and flowed smoothly. The SDL women’s division is a complete mess at the moment, but the mid card scene is so stacked that I’m really not noticing it until after the show is over, do you know what I mean?
Grade: B
But yeah. They definitely need to get Asuka back up where she belongs. What did you think, Cageside?