5 Things WWE subtly told us on SmackDown: Wrong superstar chosen for MITB match, Unexpected face turn after 7 years?
This week's episode of SmackDown was the penultimate one of the ThunderDome era. For more than a year now, we've seen RAW, SmackDown, and pay-per-views apart from WrestleMania 37 take place behind closed doors.
This week's SmackDown was enjoyable. The pace of the episode was great and there was a lot of progress in the build to Money in the Bank 2021. Let's start with one of the Money in the Bank qualifying matches.
#5 Kevin Owens survives another brutal match on SmackDown, but is MITB his for the taking?
Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn had the match of the night on SmackDown. Recently, following a loss to Sami Zayn, KO had decided to take a break for a while.
This made sense since many fans felt that he needed a hiatus. He has been a mainstay on WWE TV for a while now without getting too far. However, his feud with Sami Zayn has produced some great matches.
The "hiatus" was short-lived as Owens returned to take on Zayn in a "Last Man Standing" Money in the Bank qualifying match, which turned out to be quite intense.
There was one particular spot in the match where Kevin Owens stacked two tables outside the ring with the intent of sending Sami Zayn through it. If you've observed some of Kevin Owens' big stipulation matches in recent years, the outcome was somewhat predictable.
SmackDown wasn't the first time that Kevin Owens stacked up tables or objects on top of each other. In the 2017 Royal Rumble, he made an entire structure of steel chairs, only to go through it painfully himself. A year prior, he had challenged Dean Ambrose in a Last Man Standing Intercontinental title match at the Royal Rumble. On that occasion, Owens went through a similar table structure, but he didn't get up.
This time though, he didn't just get up; he also survived numerous scares to win and qualify for the Money in the Bank ladder match.
But was it a mistake to let Owens win when Sami Zayn arguably has more momentum? Did WWE choose the wrong superstar for the Money in the Bank ladder match?