That hug was everything

I already went into this quite a bit in the recap for Friday Night SmackDown this week, which means I would normally use this space to talk about something else on the show. But I just can’t, because I keep going back to watching that hug.

That damn hug was everything.

Claire, who does the live blog, and I were talking in the Cageside Slack channel about how we were already getting emotional at Kevin Owens mentioning Sami Zayn not even wanting to be his friend to start the show. And then the waterworks getting going just a bit when Sami ran after him and, with that quiver in his voice, telling him that he loves him.

I’ll be damned if they didn’t end the night with the absolute best emotional payoff.

Zayn was, of course, getting jumped by The Usos and he needed help. So it was then that Owens made the choice to do just that, come to his aid and fight for him.

For his friend.

For his brother.

Then, the hug.

When Owens looks to Zayn while still holding the ropes, Sami looks so defeated. When Owens makes a beeline for him, Sami takes three tentative steps back, like he’s scared of what might happen next but he’s not going to back down from it. He’s just going to accept whatever comes.

And then Owens embraces him, the crowd roars, and the world feels right again.

Even Cody’s smile and nod of the head was perfect.

This right here is every reason we still watch professional wrestling. When it’s good, it’s just so damn good.

Anyway, here are all the videos from SmackDown this week: