5 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE SmackDown (4 Oct - Results & Review)

2. A Stoppage That WORKED!

Remarkably, so did a referee stoppage.

You certainly don't get to say that very often, eh?! Praising a match stoppage can be hard to justify, but there's a bigger story at play. Namely, AJ's body giving up on him when he still needs it to function as it did before. Commentary talking about Styles' TNA days must be part of this narrative too. Good. It should be.

Hmm, maybe AJ needs a surprise TNA run to get him going again? That'd be tasty if Triple H can work if out with the folks down at Impact. Back on WWE's side, the match between Styles and Carmelo Hayes was fine before Charles Robinson triggered the story-based finish. There's loads of potential for more to come between these two.

Here's hoping WWE don't have LA Knight and AJ Styles team up though. That wouldn't fit either man's character, and it'd spit right in the face of a heated rivalry they worked earlier in the year. Keep 'em separate, and keep deep diving on AJ's physical struggles after decades of toil.