10 Things We Learned From WWE SmackDown (June 6)
8. Rematch
WWE's 50/50 of the week (patent pending) was given to AJ Styles, who brushed by Dolph Ziggler to atone for his Atlanta defeat last week.
The lack of imagination from the perpetually burnt out creative team is understandable, but it was horribly disheartening to see management decide that the only way to rapidly rectify any lasting damage done to Styles last week was to flip the script this week.
Dolph's clean victory was met with some surprise last week, but in the comedown from AJ's defeat, most were acceptant that he needed the steam far more as the two prepared for their Money In The Bank ladder match next Sunday.
Why then, now one week closer to the event, did WWE feel the need to completely undo that?
Though easy defeats shouldn't be hurled at him from all sides, AJ Styles is just about the most bulletproof performer the company currently has, and if anybody could have sustained last week's loss without having it hamper their own build to a major show, it was 'The Phenomenal One'.
Ziggler was becoming a passing fancy in the shadow of his middling affair with Nakamura, but a return to main event conversations and the Styles victory last week had done wonders for his flagging aura. Sunken, yet again.