3 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE SmackDown (21 Aug - Results & Review)

Sami Zayn made his mark on one of the best SmackDown matches in years by thumping both old pal/enemy Kevin Owens and WWE Title conquerer CM Punk with that strap to close this week's show. The title scene on Friday nights is cooking, and it's one of the best things about the product overall right now. Punk is champ, Sami is outraged by it, KO wants gold, Cody Rhodes plans to reclaim his spot on top, Randy Orton is craving his 15th prize, Gunther believes he should lead the brand, and Finn Bálor wants to reignite his own career.

It's wonderfully competitive and compelling.

Also, Cody just teased going heel for the millionth time. The fresh wrinkle? He used a rather familiar catchphrase someone else has been spouting over on the other channel for a while now, and it looks like WWE's creative team (and Rhodes himself) could be readying for a dream villainous streak for the ages. That'd only shake things up further on SmackDown, assuming Cody sticks around and doesn't jump to Raw of course.

Sadly, not everything was 100% rosy in the garden this week. There was spotty logic for Chelsea Green, Blake Monroe's main roster run just cannot get going, management believes that Lil Yachty is some super-sympathetic underdog babyface, and the tag-team scene is still pretty uninspired. Shinsuke Nakamura briefly introducing Kyoki (former New Japan star Hiromu Takahashi) as his new partner could warm things up on that front, to be fair.

Here's all the good and bad from Toronto.