10 Must-See WWE Matches, Moments, And Segments This Week (Oct 7)

Selling a pay-per-view main-event is actually quite simple when you break it down to its most basic tenets. The first thing that must be done is to pit two or more characters against each other that have a believable, interesting conflict and the second is to add a sprinkle of escalatory physical confrontation to the mix. What is said and what is done; simple as that.

Tuesday's closing segment for Smackdown's No Mercy go-home show was a textbook example.

AJ Styles presented himself as the clear antagonist, playing the role of the cocky jerk heel; Dean Ambrose followed with the kind of superlative off-the-cuff verbal tirade for which he has become known in recent months; John Cena was never able to get his trash-talking game off the blocks, cut off at each opportunity to speak (not a bad thing considering there is nothing he can say that we have not already heard a million times). Then, the tease of the battle to come on Sunday began, with Cena initiating first contact and the other two following suit.

With the surplus of triple threat matches dotting the calendar year 2016, it was especially important for Ambrose, Cena, and Styles to create a compelling blend of character dynamics heading into No Mercy; the main-event on Smackdown was a microcosm of a job well done in the last month.