5 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE SmackDown (18 Sept - Results & Review)

1. The Main Event Action Pre-Finish

There can be no issues with the interference during that headliner, because it’s in keeping with the chaos in the WWE Title picture. It must be said though: It’s clearly impossible for Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens to have a bad match at this point. They were on fire here before Johnny Gargano, Candice LeRae then CM Punk ran in. Their main event was a slow burner, but in a good way.

At times, it was veering on ‘Attitude Era’ mayhem.

That’s a compliment, by the way. It also made sense for Punk to crack Owens like he did after last week's drama. On the whole, confusing non-kick out aside that was ripped to shreds in the 'Downs', this was really good and is well worth going out of your way to watch. The way KO and Sami lace their matches with little love letters towards ROH, PWG and NXT battles of old is incredibly endearing, and they've got an almost telepathic amount of chemistry in 2026.

That's actually what makes one think that the ref has to be at fault for that screwy 2 count following Punk's belt shot. There's surely no way Owens and Zayn would mess things up that badly at this stage in their "Fight Forever" saga, right? Clean finishes be damned. This SmackDown match needed all of the bells and whistles Gargano, LeRae and Punk brought to the dance, because they're all trying to weave a cool story here.

Mission accomplished, in that sense. What a great, great showing from old friends turned enemies.

What did you think of this week's WWE SmackDown? For more wrestling, check out 11 Legendarily BAD Wrestling Runs (With One ICONIC Moment) and 7 Weirdest Times WWE Accidentally Predicted The Future!