WWE SmackDown Top 5 Segments: Big Night For Sami Zayn

3. A.J. Styles, Kevin Owens, and Sami Zayn exchange words

Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn have been the most consistent acts on SmackDown over the past couple of months. That trend continued on Tuesday, as Zayn, Owens, and their Royal Rumble opponent, WWE Champion A.J. Styles, set a nice tone for the rest of the night. When the three men weren’t reciting E-40 lyrics, they effectively established the contrast in their characters: Styles as the no-nonsense fighting champion, and Zayn and Owens as the cunning, manipulative foils.

The way Zayn and Owens twisted Styles’ words out of context to goad him into wrestling twice in one night was brilliant. Even though Styles accepted the terms, he didn’t look dumb in doing so. For one thing, Daniel Bryan made his way out, continuing build to his possible heel turn. Styles cut him off and proclaimed that he would face both men in consecutive singles matches. While this usually makes most protagonists look like a dunce, Styles merely accepted the bouts because he thought that Bryan would book him in the matches anyway (Bryan later claimed he wasn’t going to). Styles came across as valiant without looking like a complete numbskull.

While I don’t like the in-storyline, off-the-cuff booking of matches (what would the main event have been if Zayn and Owens didn’t challenge Syles to two matches?), that’s just how WWE does things. Overall, this was a good opening segment that set up two potentially good matches for later in the show.