Paul Heyman makes his shocking return, announcing that CM Punk will be the fifth member for The OG Bloodline's team. Catch WWE action on Peacock, WWE Network, USA Network, CW Network, Sony India and more. #SmackDown
Veteran NFL writer and Pat McAfee Show contributor Mark Kaboly breaks down SmackDown and Raw with 10 takeaways.
The Return of The Wiseman: It’s difficult to believe that there was a person who thought that Paul Heyman wouldn’t make his return before, or at the latest, during Survivor Series: WarGames. Yet there we were acting like a toddler on Christmas morning when we heard the words, “Ladies and Gentlemen.” That’s because we knew he wasn’t alone. Missing for nearly five months, Heyman showing up in the nick of time during SmackDown with CM Punk right behind him as the fifth member of The OG Bloodline, cleared up a lot of things and made for a memorable return. But it also left a whole lot of question marks as well. Questions aside, Heyman’s look of devious intentions is something that was hard to take your eyes off of… actually, the entire time he was out there. He’s a WWE Hall of Famer for a reason.
Plenty of questions remain: Just off the top of my head and in no particular order, there are a lot that need to be answered that go beyond Heyman bringing Punk onboard because of what The Bloodline did to The Wiseman in June. Why Punk? Does Reigns want really want Punk around especially after saying earlier during SmackDown that The OG Bloodline should just go with four guys at WarGames? What is Heyman’s motivation? Does it go beyond retribution? Is there a specific reason he wearing the same suit that Solo Sikoa wore before? What happened to Sami Zayn’s phone toss? Why didn’t Heyman contact Reigns about Punk first? Does he not have his contacts backed up? Why was Heyman’s phone disconnected in the first place? Why did Reigns appear to be the only one of The OG Bloodline not particularly happy? Safe to say that a lot of ground needs to be covered during this already announced meeting between Reigns and Punk on Friday, where you would have to believe that Heyman will be present.
KO turns the tables: First, if there is anybody currently on the roster that is more effective on the microphone than Kevin Owens, you can count them on two fingers. KO is that good and delivered yet another masterpiece directed at Cody Rhodes during SmackDown. For months, Owens has been sore at Rhodes, and it seemed more as jealously than anything else now. Well, with Saturday Night Main Event set for a little over two weeks, we finally got to the brass tacks of this all. Is KO a little paranoid and self-centered? Sure. But focusing on how his friend turned his back on him to help out foe Reigns hit a nerve with him, especially what KO had to go through with The Bloodline for years. Owens feels betrayed. The interesting part of this back-and-forth is that Rhodes feels the same way. And apparently, according to Carmelo Hayes, the boys in the back have been saying the same stuff that KO said, which adds another layer to this feud. In a matter of 10 minutes, everything became crystal clear. Good job by all.
Coming to a head: To put it mildly, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods haven’t been seeing eye-to-eye for some time and it finally boiled over on Raw in what just happened to be the appropriate time. The New Day will celebrate its 10-year anniversary next week. After a quick ‘we good’ moment followed by a just-as-quick squash by the Alpha Academy because of in-ring bickering, however, Kofi and Woods had it out backstage. It turned into the best segment of the night with nothing being off limits during the argument. We saw a pissed-off version of Kofi (which was refreshing) throwing haymakers about the lack of success Woods has because of his recklessness in terms of chasing a title while Woods returning the shots with his partner pissing away KofiMania in six seconds. The best part of it all was both were spot-on with their criticism. With Big E returning next week for the celebration, this should bring it all to a head. Here’s hoping for a dark and disturbed Kofi to come out of all this.
Kaiser’s big opportunity: Sheamus is no doubt WWE Hall of Famer. Bron Breakker is a young, tough, powerful Superstar and a proven champion. And Ludwig Kaiser is … well, that’s the point. Kaiser has yet to distinguish himself as a singles competitor, but will have a golden chance at Survivor Series: WarGames in a Triple Threat Match against the two for the Intercontinental Championship. The three adversaries beat the hell out of each other after Sheamus attacked Kaiser during his match with Breakker in an uncontrollable brawl. Surely, the Triple Threat Match for the IC Title is going to be brutal when you have Sheamus and Breakker taking part in it.. More then that, though, this is Kaiser’s opportunity to distinguish himself and take back control of his career. How this goes at Survivor Series, where I would assume Kaiser taking some massive punishment, will go a long way in determining if it will be his only opportunity.
Has to be more to it: Damian Priest getting into Gunther’s head like he has, as he did to open Raw on Monday, continues to add to the intrigue of their World Heavyweight Championship Match at Survivor Series: WarGames. Not matter how intense the rivalry between the two Superstars have been, however, I still can’t wrap my head around it. Gunther couldn’t even speak as Priest crawled further into his head on Raw. Still, the idea of Gunther’s disturbed confidence is based off losing a very close and very well-done match against the Undisputed WWE Champion Rhodes at WWE Crown Jewel last month and, at one point, you actually felt bad for Gunther and wished he would get an attack in on Priest, which he did. Still, there has to be more to this than what we think, right? Also, don’t count out Finn Bálor’s hatred for Priest as he noted earlier in the show.
Bayley backstabbing? Bayley was one of the first ones at the scene of the aftermath of the brutal backstage attack of Jade Cargill that left her sidelined indefinitely. The Role Model then helped out Bianca Belair during the Women’s WarGames Advantage Match against Nia Jax that allowed her to take Cargill’s place. Usually, when it is that obvious, it’s not that obvious. Surely, we will find out more at Survivor Series, if Bayley turns on her team or somebody else shows up and lays claim to the attack on Cargill. This could be an interesting development born out of an unfortunate incident.
Big men rule: First, we had ‘Big’ Bronson Reed joining The Bloodline and now we have Jacob Fatu set to take part in his first-ever televised singles match since joining the WWE in June when he faces Jey Uso on this coming SmackDown in the WarGames Advantage Match. Reed joining The Bloodline will do nothing more than enhance his visibility in some big-time matches, and just maybe, be a replacement if/when Fatu ultimately leaves the faction. That might be sooner rather than later. Let’s just hope this isn’t a short-term thing for Reed in The Bloodline.
Don’t judge them: When Joe Tessitore pointed out that The Judgment Day defended their WWE Tag Team Championship just once in five months before facing The War Raiders during Raw, I started to think about the future of The Judgment Day. Bálor and JD McDonough defeated Erik and Ivar to retain the title, but with Bálor trying to rule The Judgment Day, it makes me think that The Judgment Day is going to look different sooner rather than later. Honestly, it would be better if Bálor went out on his own and Mysterio and Liv/Raquel Rodriguez go about their business as usual. Mysterio seems to be lost in the shuffle inside the faction and ‘Dirty’ Dom may be the most hated entity on the roster.
Odds and ends: The cinematic presentation of Sikoa’s response to Reigns adding Heyman and Punk to WarGames, not the words that came out of Sikoa’s mouth, painted a picture of a unified group that has one distinct leader all while being revealed in a way that made them out be five bad dudes. … Tessitore announcing that the recap of Heyman’s return has 72 million social media views is not only crazy, but shows the intrigue people have with Heyman and that social and digital media is a huge part of this business now. … Shinsuke Nakamura dark messages done with subtitles rather than having his message relayed adds to Nakamura’s disturbed and loner look. … Montez Ford had a solid match against Tommaso Ciampa on SmackDown that furthers the notion that Ford needs to step out on his more and get away from the tag team scene. … With the card for Survivor Series: WarGames set, it’s strange not to have Rhodes, Owens and Seth Rollins not involved.