3 AEW/WWE angles/segments worth rewatching (Aug. 14-20)

Another week has passed, which means it’s time to look back on what happened on WWE and All Elite Wrestling programming. Both promotions produced some quality episodes of their respective shows, thus giving us plenty of moments to talk about.

AEW: Dynamite and AEW: Rampage continued the company’s progression toward its fourth annual All Out pay-per-view while WWE used Raw and SmackDown to build more interest for the Clash at the Castle show that will take place the same day as AEW’s signature supercard.

We’ve already discussed some of the great matches we saw this week, so let’s now turn our attention to some of the best non-wrestling things from the two major federations.

These angles/segments from WWE and AEW programming are worth a rewatch.

Sami Zayn meets with Roman Reigns

After weeks of attempting to butter up to The Bloodline, Sami Zayn finally received an audience with Universal Champion Roman Reigns on the Aug. 19 episode of SmackDown. Reigns invited Zayn into his locker room and asked the former Intercontinental Champion how things were going, which led to Zayn expressing his frustration with Jey Uso telling him to “level up”.

Surprisingly, and much to the delight of Zayn, Reigns took Zayn’s side, telling Zayn that he should’ve sought out Reigns, to begin with. Eventually, we reached the real reason for “The Tribal Chief’s” newfound acknowledgment of Zayn: He told Zayn to tell Kevin Owens — who proclaimed his desire to challenge for the world title — that Reigns doesn’t owe Owens anything.

In the short term, this set up Zayn taking a Claymore Kick for Reigns at the end of the episode, but this segment also re-established Zayn and Owens’ relationship (which could lead to them reuniting) while planting the seeds for several matches involving Reigns, Owens, Zayn, and the Usos.

Reigns and Zayn also exhibited great chemistry with one another in this segment, particularly when Zayn looked nervous after thinking he went too far griping about Jey and his relief when Reigns agreed with him.

Kevin Owens and Drew McIntyre argue about their authenticity

On the Aug. 15 episode of WWE Raw, Drew McIntyre made a rare appearance on the show to help sell his Clash at the Castle match with Roman Reigns. Not long after McIntyre came out, Kevin Owens interrupted him and criticized McIntyre for the wackier aspects of his gimmick (wearing a kilt to the ring and carrying a sword around, for example).

This apparently struck a nerve with McIntyre, who barked back about how he worked his tail off on the indy scene (which he did) to get to the spot he’s in, even referencing how he got fired despite WWE earmarking him as “The Chosen One”

McIntyre would punctuate this by noting that he and Owens are “wrestlers in a wrestling ring” which is an obvious statement before you remember how taboo the words “wrestling” and “wrestler” were in WWE under Vince McMahon’s stewardship, so hearing McIntyre say both cemented how much of a tonal shift the company has undergone with Triple H in charge of creative.

This segment (and the proceeding match) solidified Owens and McIntyre and Reigns’ primary challengers (alongside Karrion Kross). Both men exhibited great intensity and passion in their promos.

CM Punk and Jon Moxley brawl to start Dynamite

Following up on CM Punk’s big return to AEW, the lineal AEW World Champion opened the Aug. 17 episode of AEW: Dynamite, and boy, did Punk get folks talking with this promo. Punk opened his oration hot by offering to face “Hangman” Adam Page in a rematch of the AEW World Title “right now” and called him a coward when Page didn’t answer (because he wasn’t scripted to appear). This kickstarted the news about the issues many of AEW’s top stars have had with each other.

Punk kept the temperature up when he turned his attention to interim world champion Jon Moxley, saying that Mox is the third-best member of the Blackpool Combat Club (and The Shield) and that he’ll be the second-best “Jon/John” that he beats for a world title in Chicago. He also snuck in a swipe about Eddie Kingston being the third-best “Eddie” and second-best “Kingston” he worked with.

This brought out Moxley, who questioned Punk’s lack of passion before starting a decent enough pull-apart brawl that filled up two segments of the show, effectively heating up Punk vs. Moxley for next week(!) and for All Out.