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Weird booking in the tag division. I'm kind of happy that Heath Slater & Rhyno got a moment, but it's certainly...weird. It doesn't have much base. I imagine that The Usos will win the belts from them very soon. The crowd seem to love Slater, and I guess giving the people feel-good moments will keep them coming back. I was listening to Dutch Mantel talking about booking Puerto Rico, and he said he'd usually just put the babyfaces over in big matches, because people like to see it. You can't really feel too bad about Heath Slater & Rhyno's sentimental title win; nor Becky Lynch's.
SmackDown didn't really "get cute" too often on this show. Orton giving Wyatt the RKO was a bit fucking annoying, but again, the crowd popped, and it might lead to Wyatt beating Orton at No Mercy, since Orton got some sort of moment here. The Kane mark in me wants to find joy in him still winning PPV matches in 2016.
It was surreal as hell hearing "Let's go Miz" chants during his match with Dolph Ziggler. They really need to do something to freshen Ziggler up. I know the general consensus is that he is going to turn heel in coming weeks, but it's been fairly telegraphed and I wonder if it is going to have the impact it needs to in order to get Dolph back on the grid in a meaningful way. All the possibilities for Dolph are starting to feel like they are drying up. I'm tempted to suggest he heads down to NXT and has a heel run with the NXT Title down there so Shinsuke Nakamura can come up and be a breath of fresh air.
AJ Styles winning the WWE World Title is surreal in itself too. I'm really happy for the guy, and he seems a good fit for the belt. It really feels like he has "earned" it. There's this wonderful feeling when the best wrestler in the world holds the World Title, and it happens surprisingly rarely. I would have loved to have seen more Shawn Michaels runs during his comeback years, because I think it would have made wrestling healthier overall. Styles feels like a shoe-in for PWI's #1 next listing.
The crowd was fairly anti-Ambrose, which is weird, because they've never been that way before. This was definitely the time and the place to take the belt off Ambrose. If he had retained, the crowd reactions would steepen from here. It just feels right to move it over to Styles though, so good on Ambrose for graciously going down.
I'm not as...excited for AJ Styles vs. John Cena III as I could be. I think they've set it up well, but there's a part of me that worries it is a vehicle for Cena to win the belt from Styles, which would fit the narrative, but is kind of pedestrian. I'd like a shock in their third encounter -- whether that be Styles forcing John Cena to submit or them doing some sort of double-turn, where Cena cheats to win the belt from Styles, leading to Styles winning the 2017 Royal Rumble and beating Cena at WrestleMania.
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