7 Ups & 2 Downs From WWE SmackDown (Nov 27)

2. Explain Yourself, Roman!

It looked for a while like Daniel Bryan would be the one to wrestle Roman Reigns for that Universal Title come TLC. Now, Bryan has been cycled out and seemingly replaced by Kevin Owens. As far as substitutes go, that's not too shabby. Better yet, KO did some stellar character work of his own.

He focused on the family angle, and it worked.

After trading beatdowns with Jey Uso, Owens yelled at Reigns to come out and save his cousin. After all, he added, Roman is the "head of the table" and claims he's all about family. Of course, Reigns didn't move a muscle. Well, other than the ones in his face when he dropped his eyebrows, gritted his teeth and clenched his jaw watching on the monitor backstage.

KO managed to sell this fresh Universal Title feud with just one promo. Hopefully, WWE will recognise the good work he did here and revitalise his main event chops of old. Owens may never be the guy around this place, but he can be an important support act for the man who is.