Le Ryan Satin
FOX Sports WWE Inspector
Edge put his grit to the test this week in his first game on SmackDown in more than a decade, and “The Rated-R Superstar” did not disappoint against a new opponent.
The winner of the 2021 Royal Rumble men’s game defeated Jey Uso in the main event for the right to be the rapist in Sunday’s Universal Title match at Fastlane between champion Roman Reigns and Daniel Bryan.
Since his return, Edge has fought in three games against Randy Orton (someone with a history) and has appeared in two Royal Rumble games, but this was his first chance to be tuning a singles game against a new opponent in WWE.
What stood out to me in his battle with Jey is the fact that Edge seems to be working softer than ever.
His inner approach to crime is clearly more polite than these days, almost as if he wants to show that he studied the game while he was away and knows that -now how to access people’s weaknesses even better than before, and make him look like a grizzled veteran. .
No, not like James Drake and Zack Gibson. I’m talking the Harley Race type of grizzled vet.
Edge sales were also very good this week.
The art of selling for your opponent is something that Edge would talk about on his now-dead podcast and it seems to me, that he wants to show the current generation of stars what which can add to maids when done to perfection.
I honestly think it’s great how the 47-year-old keeper, who returned from what were thought to be end-of-career injuries, is using our knowledge of that to causing every minute of impact on his body to squint time away from his inner post before our eyes.
It almost feels like we see that one of those health gases is above it, like the kind in video games, and it uses every last bit of its red energy bar to effect to earn.
His whole beast just feels very old-school now, in a good way, which helps to bring out the gritty aura he’s looking to exude.
As for this weekend’s Fastlane, I still think Edge is scratching Daniel out of influence forcing Bryan to fight for a chance to add to the Universal Title game at WrestleMania.
In my article last week about SmackDown, I mentioned the idea that Daniel might be wrestling someone on night one of WrestleMania for that opportunity, in a similar way to WM30, and that theory has started to gain steam on social media among other fans.
This debate has led some people to throw out Daniel’s idea on night one, with the winner taking on Roman on the second night for the World Cup. To me, however, this option seems less likely as it would practically take the Royal Rumble without a point if Daniel wins.
On the other hand, if Daniel loses in that position and Edge is still in Mania’s Universal title game (which I expect it to be), wrestle the night before he drops the pop he gets he is from WWE ‘s first live audience in over a year for his game against Roman.
Jey Uso seemed like a better option for Daniel to go through with me, as he deserves a big game at WrestleMania for the work he has submitted in the last few months, but readers very quickly reveals last week that Daniel already had to do that to get his title at Fastlane… so this same thing would happen at Mania feeling repetitive.
Either way, I think Daniel should go through someone other than Edge to get that WrestleMania opportunity. I also think the Universal title game of “The Show of Shows” is eventually becoming a Triple Threat game.
More comments for this week’s SmackDown:
– Whatever you might think of changing the character of Apollo, one thing you can’t deny is that the man owns every second he takes on the screen and takes on the new gimmick this to feel important.
This week ‘s sitting interviews section between Big E and Apollo, as well as the ensuing brawl, was a good example of that.
The same can be said for E, too, which shows the angry side of his personality that everyone said again that they wanted to see out of it and make his character feel real. The IC camp ‘s passion and anger is running through the microphone in a way we haven’t seen from the 35 – year – old before and it feels like the beginning of a new era for the keeper.
Apollo and Big E have helped build this sex in a way that makes their upcoming game Sunday one to keep an eye on. Since they both have something to prove, it feels like this could be a memorable connection.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Crews beat Fastlane’s E for the Inter-Division Tournament to set the stage for a replay at WrestleMania.
– Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn also seem to be setting up a potential singles game at WrestleMania, and I couldn’t be too excited about the abilities that the two can do – because we all know they make a strong effort to steal the show.
If Owens jumps off the pirate ship at Raymond James Stadium, as he has promised to try, it is only appropriate for Sami to be at the end of that momentous moment because of their sex / non-stop friendship.
Plus, the two actors are at the top of their game right now and it would be a shame if they weren’t in singles matches every night. KO has had a strong program with Roman Reigns over the past few months and Sami Zayn ‘s conspiracy theory character is a weekly mainstay of SmackDown.
For me, the only other SmackDown star doing character work on the Sami Zayn level is Roman Reigns.
Hopefully this week ‘s Helluva Kick to Owens on SmackDown leads to what we all want, a game between Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn at WrestleMania.
– My only real criticism for SmackDown this week was the decision that Dominik Mysterio would lose a game immediately just minutes after getting a surprise for his team over The Street Profits.
I understand that Dominik is still growing as an actor, but I do not understand who will benefit from a situation like this.
Street Profits is one of the strongest tag teams in all of WWE.
Winning over Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford in that way should be treated as a big deal to help the Mysterios look like a stronger team, Dominik in particular.
Instead, Mysterio ‘s big win felt completely pointless to me before the end of the next game because of what he lost to Otis and no competitor seemed to be better off than he was before when it over.
Ryan Satin is a WWE analyst for FOX Sports. Satin previously appeared on “WWE Backstage” at FS1 and founded Pro Wrestling Sheet, where he broke countless news stories as an editor.
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