5 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE SmackDown (11 Sept - Results & Review)
2. Top Targeting Of The Respective Injuries
Cast your minds back to CM Punk's title defence vs. Kevin Owens on the 21 August episode of SmackDown. There, the-then WWE Champ Punk sold a sore knee like his rent was due. Go back even further than that, and a knackered Punk was struggling to stay in the game against Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 42. Selling has become such a crucial component of CM's game in 2026.
On Friday, he was at it again. Punk re-injured his knee early in the WWE Title match vs. Sami Zayn, so the challenger targeted it. Later, Punk gave as good as he was getting by going after Sami’s already injured hand. Walking wounded vs. walking wounded was a good way to go with this main event. It gave each man a focal point throughout, and actually sold prior matches/injuries instead of just pressing the reset button on health like this was an exhibition in WWE 2K26.
Anyone watching these men do their thing should feel the weight of the road and hard fought matches coming back to haunt them. That's the whole point. These WWE stars are doing things most mortals simply couldn't, and that needs to come across each and every time they're inside the ring. Kudos to Punk and Zayn for making sure to sell how worn down they are by everything that's been going on this year.
Arguably, SmackDown's ad interruptions didn't let these injuries breathe as much as hardcore fans would like, but the pair did work around that before the fiery finish.