WWE SmackDown Live Review // 23rd January 2018 // AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens then Sami Zayn

This week's SmackDown Live came to us from Washington, D.C., the same city that bought us Battleground 2016 and Backlash 2000! It was also the go-home edition before one of WWE's biggest shows of the year, the Royal Rumble, so it had to be good? Right? 

At a Glimpse 

- WWE Champion AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens then Sami Zayn 
- Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Baron Corbin 
- Appearances from: Randy Orton, Daniel Bryan, The New Day, Shelton Benjamin and Natalya

AJ Styles def. Kevin Owens // Submission 

then...

Sami Zayn def. AJ Styles // Pinfall

Lets with some positivity here, because I'm aware I can be a grumpy fucker at times. The match between AJ Styles and Sami Zayn was a bloody good television contest, featuring some world-class exchanges between two of the smoothest wrestlers around today. Driven by Zayn having to attack Styles to break up a Calf Crusher on Kevin Owens, the bout had energy, especially in the final third. The gear change bought a series of exciting exchanges, with seemingly flowing like water at points, as the two went back and forth at pace in action that wouldn't have looked out of place on a PPV. The two also deserve commendation for their selling throughout the match, whether that be of the effect of the physical action and big moves, the frustration of not being able to put their opponent away and the dislike they shared for each other, it all came across clearly and gave depth to what could have been another throwaway clash.  

So onto some negativity, because there were a couple of things to moan about here. The main thing is that it is very difficult to work out who is supposed to be the villain within this storyline. Styles holding onto the Calf Crusher after squashing Owens made sense, the Phenomenal One looking to gain some kind of advantage for Sunday's Handicap match, whilst also offering up a potential get out of jail card for Owens when his team takes a loss at the PPV. Yet, having Styles repeatedly assault KO when he was being seen to by medical staff, including pushing him off a stretcher, seemed out of character and almost uncomfortable to watch. This being added to Styles initially asking for the handicap match and then asking to face Zayn and Owens back to back, only to try and get out of both matches, creates even more of a grey area. Surely, a top babyface is supposed to be a man of his words and certainly shouldn't be one to backpedal on a challenge? Add Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan's ambiguous storyline into the mix and you've got even more of a mess of a storyline, where I've got no idea who I'm supposed to be getting behind.

The segment that set up the main event was the weakest part of the whole affair. Kicking off the show, this was bloated, sluggish and unnecessarily long for what should have been an easy set-up. There really was no need for this segment to go on for almost fifteen minutes and it only served to put on spotlight on the distinct lack of chemistry between AJ Styles and his two current rivals. If it wasn't clear in the summer of 2017 that Owens and Styles have no connection as rivals, either on the mic or in the ring, then it's become blindingly obvious at the start of 2018. I'm not sure what it is, but things weren't helped by a number of long pauses where it appeared as it someone had forgotten their line. All three men are talented performers but are being under-served by the creative right now. To end on some positivity, I am loving the relationship between Owens and Zayn at the moment and the attention to detail that the pair have been putting into their characters and body language.

Shinsuke Nakamura def. Baron Corbin // Disqualification

A good semi-main event match here, that I was close to calling one of Baron Corbin's best until the Disqualification finish. Corbin wanting to walk out so early in the match was a little lame, but once we got past that, Corbin and Shinsuke Nakamura put together some strong quality action. There were a couple of lovely sequences here with The Lone Wolf blocking a Kinshasa with Deep Six and Nakker's beautiful counter of End of Days into a rolling cross-armbreaker particularly standing out. The attack from Randy Orton just as the match was heating up could have been a little dissapointing, but seeing Orton fly from one side of the screen to the other and nailing an RKO on Nakamura was a great piece of television that I didn't see coming. The follow up RKO to Corbin was a nice little piece of set-up for the Rumble. The fact that Orton and Nakamura have been teaming up a lot recently got over the every man for himself element of the upcoming bout and it will be interesting to see if we get any further interaction between the two on the road to WrestleMania. 

Kofi Kingston & Bobby Roode & Xavier Woods def. Rusev & Jinder Mahal & Aiden English // Pinfall 

A fun six man tag match here, which felt mostly like it was about mixing the signature characteristics of New Day and Bobby Roode. The promo before the match was a good example of this, with the New Day trio combining with the new United States Champion for a humorous few minutes, including a cute build-up to Roode's "Glorious" catch-phrase. This continued into the match as after a Kingston face-in-peril run, it was straight into a fiery Roode hot tag and breakdown stretch, that concluded with a quad-ripping spinebuster of doooooomahhh and Wood's Home Run to English for the win. It was a shame that Rusev, Jinder Mahal and Aiden English felt a little like afterthoughts here, as they had a lot more to offer than being here to put over Kingston, Roode and Woods and with a little more time or tighter blocking could've offered up a match that would've remained a little longer in the memory.

Chad Gable def. Jey Uso // Pinfall 

I like Chad Gable and I like Jey Uso, but this one way exceeded my expectations. Often these singles matches featuring two members of tag teams that are facing each other at the next PPV are relatively pointless exercises featuring some interference and a mild stare down, but this was actually a really good TV opener. During the break we were treated to some split-screen action that was mostly Gable working over Uso's arm and shoulder with different holds and strikes, which was followed up on after the break with Uso selling the injury for all the it was worth. Whilst it didn't play into the match here, it would make a lot of sense to carry the injury over to the 2/3 Falls match at the Rumble and base the story of that bout around the injury. The rest of the bout included some lovely tease and build to an Uso suicide dive and a sublime closing sequence with both men going back and forth before Gable was able to hit Chaos Theory to pick up only his second TV singles match victory.

Naomi def. Liv Morgan // Pinfall 

Because Women's wrestling is so important to WWE and not at all just a way of making Stephanie McMahon look good anytime she makes a major announcement, the only women's segment on the show received the least amount of time. The match itself featured very little of note, but had a good physicality behind it and featured a cool variation on the double stomp from Morgan. After Naomi picked up her first singles win since dropped the SmackDown Women's title at SummerSlam (yes her first win since AUGUST!) with a Sunset flip, things descended into general Royal Rumble build with the rest of the division (Natalya, Lana, Tamina, Carmella, Sarah Logan and Ruby Riott) taking turns to hit moves and throw each other over the top rope. The only interesting moment came when Becky Lynch attempted to chuck her pal Naomi over the top rope, only for Naomi to land on the apron, before they looked at each other awkwardly. Charlotte Flair headed out to close the segment with a promo about how it didn't matter who won the Rumble, because she'd beat the shit out of them at WrestleMania anyway or something like that. The build to the Women's Royal Rumble has been dire.

Also

A highlight pack of RAW 25, set to Fall Out Boy's My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark, makes the show looks much more exciting that it actually was...Tye Dillinger discussed his entry in the Royal Rumble...

Finally...

Overall, I found a lot to enjoy on this week's SmackDown, especially when it came to the in-ring action. I still can't get my head around the main storyline, but the wrestling portion of Sami Zayn vs. AJ Styles was very good, whilst Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Baron Corbin, the six man tag and Jey Uso vs. Chad Gable all featured some stellar wrestling at points and didn't outstay their welcome. The development for the Women's division is something desperately needs to improve as I still couldn't tell you what the Riott Squad are supposed to be or why WWE thought they'd put enough time and effort into the division to warrant holding a Women's Royal Rumble. 

SmackDown 952 Review // RAW launches counter-siege on SmackDown

As the last major stop before Survivor Series 2017, the 952nd episode of SmackDown had a big job to do. The Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina was treated to an invasion from The Shield, Kurt Angle, Braun Strowman and multiple members of the RAW brand during the main event between Big E & Xavier Woods from The New Day and Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn, as well as the return of Daniel Bryan in a segment with new WWE Champion AJ Styles, but was it any good? 

RAW launched a counter-siege on SmackDown // 16:16

The show opened with Shane McMahon rallying his team in a weird curtain area, saying various things about SmackDown and B-Shows. Becky Lynch, Baron Corbin and The New Day all got a little mic time and lads like Mike Kanellis and The Colons were there in the background, seemingly because they have literally nothing else to do. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn talked in the lockeroom, moaning about not being on Survivor Series, running down the A Show, B Show argument and generally looking like they''d both rather be anywhere else. In the ring, The New Day (Kofi Kingston, Big E & Xavier Woods) cut a wonderfully entertaining promo on The Shield (Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose), comparing the animals that represent the two teams and referencing cuffing season and Gloria Gaynor. 

Everyone knew it was coming, but that didn't stop The Shield turning up during The New Day's match with Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn being any less fun to watch. Let's start by discussing the match that lead into the invasion, because it was significantly lengthy to warrant it's own discussion. Going about seven or eight minutes, the match was your regular cookie cutter tag bout, an easy watch, highlighted by Big E's belly-to-belly fest of a hot tag. We didn't get a whole of Owens & Zayn in control, with an extended face shine and a straight-forward face in peril sequence, which is perhaps notable after the two were sent home from the European tour last week, although considering The New Day were the only team on the Survivor Series PPV on Sunday, I'm not sure whether it would've been any different otherwise. The crowd seemed to be readying for the arrival of The Shield as soon as Owens & Zayn took control, angling towards the area of the arena The Shield usually arrive from. When the match ended was unclear as The Shield's music hit, moments after a tope con giro from Woods to Owens, before Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose hit the ring.

The scrap that followed was wild and rowdy, as The Shield and The New Day (Owens & Zayn bailed before the fight began) were joined first by The Usos and Cesaro & Sheamus and then Samoa Joe, Titus Worldwide, Finn Balor, Shane McMahon, Baron Corbin, The Hype Bros, Bobby Roode, Dolph Ziggler, Shinsuke Nakamura and then finally Kurt Angle and Braun Strowman. In the middle of all this there was Alexa Bliss, Sasha Banks, Asuka, Bayley, Alicia Fox and Nia Jax stormed the SmackDown women's locker room taking down Charlotte Flair, Naomi, Becky Lynch, Carmella, Tamina and Lana, creating a real sense of chaos as the show cut back between the backstage and the arena. The staggered introduction of talent made it feel like something was always happening and the situation escalating, leading to the introduction Strowman by Angle to a big pop. The crescendo where Shane McMahon took a beating at the hands of The Shield, Angle and Strowman set the stage perfectly for Survivor Series bringing the story that's been rumbling for a month to a head and increasing the animosity between the two sides. I found it interesting who was not involved in this with RAW missing Triple H, Brock Lesnar and The Miz, whilst John Cena, Randy Orton and AJ Styles were all absent from the SmackDown side. 

Daniel Bryan returned and welcomed new WWE Champion AJ Styles // 10:23 

This segment was brilliant, for the pure fact that you could see how much Daniel Bryan and AJ Styles were enjoying their time on the microphone. Once Styles was introduced and we moved past the lame "SmackDown is the best" rhetoric, the work on the mic by Bryan and then Styles was exemplary as they pushed Styles' match with Brock Lesnar on Sunday. Bryan offering to be Styles' "advocate" and then mimicking Paul Heyman, referencing his soliloquy from RAW was a masterstroke, with Bryan visibly having a great time in actively getting to promote a match. The crowd was massively into it, as Bryan talked about Lesnar having a tendency to quit, which made me wonder if Bryan had this promo in mind when he was rumoured to be facing Lesnar at SummerSlam 2014. Bryan put over Styles as "the greatest in-ring talent of this generation", a title which many would attribute to Bryan himself and I couldn't help but wonder how great a match between the two on a big stage would be. Styles put an exclamation point on things, discussing his underdog status and concluding on his "House that Styles built" catchphrase to send us into Survivor Series.

Jinder Mahal spoke to AJ Styles backstage and completely murdered a promo. Daniel Bryan later talked to Shane McMahon, suggesting they would need to have discussion following Survivor Series. 

SmackDown Women's Championship // Charlotte Flair def. Natalya (C) via submission // 7:26 

A hometown crowd made Charlotte Flair's first SmackDown Women's title win. The crowd was hot for Flair from the beginning, with the emotional Queen replying with a fiery start, going after Natalya and sending her into the barricade. Even when in wear downs, the crowd was right behind Flair, with the two doing a good job of taking note of the audience, lifting them up and bringing them down at the right points. A couple of well-worked back and forths, like Flair laying in some chops before Natalya rallied with a discus clothesline, as well as a big spot on the outside where Flair went for a moonsault off the barricade and ended up getting powerbombed into the ring-post gave the match some substance, although it was Flair reaching for the ropes whilst in the Sharpshooter that got the best reaction from the crowd. At times, the contest was a little clunky, like an exploder suplex into the corner from Flair where Natalya was shown on camera with a massive smile on her face afterwards and there could have been a lot more work done of the pairs signature submission holds to ramp up the drama and take the contest to the next level. However, for its spot on television this was a good match, that created a brilliant hometown moment that WWE often shies away from. We also have a much more interesting match for Survivor Series with Flair now scheduled to face RAW Women's Champion Alexa Bliss.

After the match, Flair cut a quick promo on her match with Alexa Bliss at Survivor Series, before dedicating the win to her father, Ric Flair, mentioning that he was at home watching. Ric would then make a surprise appearance joining his daughter on the ramp, in a well-done emotional moment.

Jimmy Uso def. Chad Gable via pinfall // 3:22

On the way to the ring, The Usos (Jey Uso & Jimmy Uso) cut a fire promo on The Bar (Cesaro & Sheamus).

A strong bout that made the most of it's time, creating a good story that called by to 951 and gave The Usos some momentum heading into Survivor Series, whilst keeping the possibility of a future Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin SmackDown Tag Team Championship rematch in the future. With Gable focusing on Uso's knee, leading into Uso doing the same with a superkick, it was a shame that the match didn't have enough time to really tell that story and build upon it, although both would sell their injuries well, before Jey Uso and Benjamin's antics on the outside lead to Jimmy getting the win with a superkick.

United States Championship // Baron Corbin (C) def. Sin Cara via pinfall // 3:53

A short bout that improved as it went along, beginning with some rubbish punches by Baron Corbin and some clunky back and forth, but finding it's feet later on with a nice sequence into Corbin's Deep Six as well as an Asai Moonsault from Sin Cara. Corbin needed a little programme to give him something to do before Survivor Series and this did it's job, although no one anywhere felt like Cara was a potential threat to Corbin's United States title.

Also...

Despite the rumours that the gimmick had been dropped, The Bludgeon Brothers (Luke Harper & Erick Rowan) had another vignette, where it was revealed that they'd be returning to SmackDown next week.

After RAW had simply done it's job on Monday, this was a much better effort from SmackDown at selling the Survivor Series PPV. The siege aspect was done well, upping the ante from the original confrontation a few weeks ago on RAW, setting up the various RAW vs. SmackDown well, whilst the segment with Daniel Bryan and AJ Styles complimented Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar's appearance on RAW the previous night. Match-wise things were acceptable, with Charlotte Flair's Women's Championship win in her home town standing out, especially because of the appearance of Ric Flair (which was marginally spoiled the night before when commentary mentioned Ric being backstage). I was pretty hyped for Survivor Series with WWE putting together a great looking card, but this show gave me a little extra buzz for the event, whilst remaining entertaining. Good job Blue brand.

Review by James Marston

TV Review - WWE NXT #205 - Nia Jax v Bayley

After two weeks of very good - superb television, NXT presented a show with three big matches on it, in hopes of continuing it's fine run of form. With Nia Jax facing Bayley, American Alpha finally getting a match with The Authors of Pain and NXT Champion Samoa Joe in action against Rhyno, would this week's episode continue the show's strong run of form? 

A real shining moment for the women's division here, getting to main event such a strong card, as Bayley defeated Nia Jax in a match that built and built into a very good television bout. Having said that, the first portion of the match didn't do much for me at all, and it seemed like it took the wind out of the live crowd also. It was weirdly based around Jax being over-confident and putting on cocky pin-covers, whilst also constantly throwing Bayley outside of the ring. Jax would control the opening portion, until Bayley was able to throw her to the outside. I can kind of see where they were going story-wise, but it was just a little bit lame. It was a disappointment not to see Bayley's supposedly injured knee, the knee that Jax had injured herself, play into the story of the match. There wasn't even a hint of this and it felt like a missed opportunity. 

Okay, James, you said this was a good match, but all you've done is moaned so far. Well, erm, yes, but here's some positives. Following Jax being sent to the outside, the match kicked up a gear, shifting to an idea of Bayley attempting to knock Jax off her feet. This lead to the former Women's Champion getting to show a whole lot of babyface fire, as he layed it on thick with a series of knees on the apron and lovely crossbody that would finally take her opponent down. The crowd would finally come to life when Jax had a nearfall off a Jaxhammer and the expression of anger on her face was spot on, instantly igniting the crowd as they began to push for a Bayley win. The final moments would bring back the themes from the beginning with Jax deciding against hitting a normal leg drop for a diving one, confident she'd have enough time to move Bayley and hit the move, only to get hit with middle rope Bayley-to-Belly and lose the match. With Jax moving onto RAW from Monday, it certainly makes sense to have her put over Bayley clean on the way out, but it's a real shame that it's not Bayley getting the leg up to the main roster. 

The Authors of Pain (Gzim Selmani & Sunny Dhisa) would pick up an impressive victory over American Alpha (Chad Gable & Jason Jordan) in a match that was surprisingly well-worked. I say surprisingly because no one really had any idea what Selmani and Dhisa could do in the ring, beyond a squash match from #200, but they looked more than competent in the ring, whilst Gable & Jordan allowed them to look like world beaters. A pre-match attack on the ramp fueled the match, as American Alpha were always fighting from underneath after fighting through the initial attack. Both of Authors of Pain took Gable and Jordan's series of suplexes very well, bumping crisply for their opponents, making them American Alpha look brilliant in the process. The finish was put together nicely with The A.O.P. able to take control on the outside, Jordan running into the steel steps, leaving Gable to fall to his rivals. I'm not a fan of the A.O.P's leg sweep, clothesline finish, as although it's done with a physicality it doesn't look as a devastating a move as the teams finish should be. With American Alpha drafted to Smackdown Live from next Tuesday, this may have been their last match for NXT, which would explain them doing such a convincing job here. 

The weakest of the heavily promoted contests was NXT Champion Samoa Joe beating Rhyno via submission, in a plodding bout. The crowd never seemed to pick up as Rhyno had only recently returned to the brand, and suddenly become a babyface and therefore didn't have a whole lot of supports from the fans in attention. That meant that the pedestrian pace was shown up even more, because the crowd had little to get excited about at all. It was however a strong and dominant match for Joe against a performer who will not be hurt by a loss but will provide extra legitimacy to "The Samoan Submission Machine" as Champion, in a similar way to how NXT bought Eric Young into job for Joe a few months a go. This was a good match for Joe's title reign, but not a good match to watch. 

Austin Aries' feud with No Way Jose would continue to gather steam as Jose would attack "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" after the former had squashed Patrick Clark. I'm interested to see where this feud is heading as we got a different side of Jose here, that I'd be interested to see how it could be worked into his fun loving, dancing gimmick situation he's got going on. The idea of Aries escaping through the crowd sold the beating nicely, as well as putting Aries over as a cowardly heel, which is a role he happens to excel in. This rivalry could end up helping both men in NXT, but only if it's done correctly and plays true to the two characters! 

Results 

Singles Match: NXT Champion Samoa Joe def. Rhyno in 6 minutes, 20 seconds 

Tag Team Match: The Authors of Pain - Gzim Selmani & Sunny Dhisa (with Paul Ellering) def. American Alpha - Chad Gable & Jason Jordan in 6 minutes, 34 seconds

Singles Match: Austin Aries def. Patrick Clark in 1 minute, 54 seconds 

Singles Match: Bayley def. Nia Jax in 13 minutes, 35 seconds

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 5.3/10

Certainly this episode didn't have anything as strong as American Alpha v The Revival or Shinsuke Nakamura v Finn Balor, but this was still a solid hour of wrestling with a lot of different things to be enjoyed throughout the card. The mixture of focus of NXT's three distinct division was done rather nicely and gave each match it's own feel. This was helped by wonderful performances from the likes of Bayley and American Alpha, who both showed their capable of taking on any opponent and making a good match, and in the case of Bayley facing the same opponent on multiple occasions and producing different ways of approaching each match. There was also the added bonus of no random squash matches this week, as whilst Aries smashed through Clark it was all a set up for the Jose angle. Therefore everything meant something and everything had a reason for the viewer to stick around, whilst simultaneously keeping a solid range of action.

A case of it not being the most memorable episode, but a number of competitors will have benefited from it existing and for the most part it was an easy watch. With WWE snapping up Finn Balor, Nia Jaxx, American Alpha, Alexa Bliss, Carmella and Mojo Rawley for it's separate brands drawing the draft on Tuesday, we could be seeing some big changes to the NXT landscape over the next few weeks and months.

Article by James Marston

TV Review: WWE NXT #203 - American Alpha v The Revival - 2/3 Falls (James Marston)

The first of two weeks of NXT with Takeover quality main events, kicked off with American Alpha challenging The Revival for the Tag Team Championships in a Two out of Three Falls match. It's been noted that I'm a big mark for Two out of Three Falls contests, so could Chad Gable, Jason Jordan, Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson, live up to my expectations? 

The Revival retaining their Tag Team Championships, coming from behind to win their Two out of Three Falls match with American Alpha, 2-1, was a superb main event, being a real example of what tag team wrestling can be when given the time and effort. What I enjoyed most about the contest was that the original fall felt like a regular match between the two teams. There was no flash pinfall early on or another gimmick that's been used time and time again in these types of matches, the contest just played out like a regular tag team match. The pacing of this first portion saw both teams jostling for control, with a American Alpha once again receiving an extended face shine, which played nicely into The Revival's period of control. 

This was the match that had me completely sold on The Revival as a duo. That isn't to say that I hadn't enjoyed the team previously, but this was the clash that made me see Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson as a special tag team. The pair worked so well together throughout the fight, cutting the ring and initially focusing on Jordan's leg (which would come back later in the match), before using every trick in the book to keep Gable in their corner. Both guys attitudes makes them easy to get wound up by, as they give very little away and go about their business in a fairly nonchalant manner, whilst at the same time making sure that whoever is waiting for the hot tag can up their game and get the crowd behind them. It's helped by the fact that pretty much everything The Revival do in the ring is crisp and tightly done, with very little wasted movement. 

The final stretch of the bout featured a lot of ideas that had been seen earlier in the contest, as well as all three falls. Everything revolved around Jordan's hot tag, as while a tremendous sequence of action would see Wilder tap to an Ankle Lock, it was Jordan's previously injured leg that would lead to him tapping to an Inverted Figure 4. Corey Graves did a world class job on commentary keep that story ticking over, although I wish Jordan had sold his injury a little bit more on his comeback. Lots of false finishes, Gable having to save Jordan from another Inverted Figure 4 and both teams just dodging their opponents double team finisher kept building the match's excitement levels as the crowd was whipped into a frenzy by the time The Revival nailed a Shatter Machine onto the apron on Gable for the win. The first must-see match on regular NXT TV for quite some time. 

The other notable match on the card was Bayley's victory over Alexa Bliss in a quality opener. A great piece of booking here, as after Bliss' victory over Carmella last week, this felt like the logical step up as the brand looks for a Number 1 Contender to Asuka's Women's Championship. The two character slotted together nicely, with both bringing something different to their game here. Bliss looked comfortable wrestling with the more accomplished Bayley, managing to keep up with the former Women's Champion, whilst Bayley unleashed a fiery comeback that showed her character frustration well. My only real complaint with the action was that Bliss wasn't going for her Twisted Bliss finisher when Bayley got her knees up to block en route to hitting Bayley to Belly, as this would have upped the drama of the contest. After the match, Bayley appeared to challenge Nia Jaxx to a future re-match. 

Elsewhere, Rhyno made his return to NXT as he interrupted a tag match between The Hype Bros and Blake & Murphy (yeah, they're back as a team, apparently) by managing to Gore three out of the four competitors. 

Finally

ATPW Scale Rating - 7.88/10 

The Two out of Three Falls match taking up a large portion of the show means that this week's NXT scores just under a "Superb" rating on the ATPW Scale. That's an amazing rating for a television show. This was indeed a great outing for the brand, with the main event being complemented by a strong women's opener between Bayley & Alexa Bliss. This is arguably the best edition of the show since Samoa Joe and Sami Zayn's Two out of Three Falls match took up the entire hour. 

With Finn Balor v Shinsuke Nakamura coming up next week, it looks like the good times may continue to roll for the yellow brand.