[2018-01-23-WWE-Smackdown] A.J. Styles vs Sami Zayn

[ShittyLittleBoots]

Really good stuff. Very weird seeing Zayn work as a heel after watching him become an all-time great babyface wrestler before this heel turn, but goddamn he killed it. Thought that him working the heat on AJ was super enjoyable - he showed a nice mean streak & all of his offense looked very good. AJ was obviously great bumping & selling for him - and so was Sami when it was his turn to do that; him bumping for AJ's big moves was super fun. After Zayn works over AJ for a while, AJ gets back into things w/ his awesome strike combination thing & the match becomes more 50/50 w/ very good action. These 2 have a really good chemistry with each other. Great TV match. ***3/4

[RingoPlaysDrums]

I liked this match a lot. I haven't been watching Smackdown lately and had little interest in the handicap match at the PPV, likely due to the predictable outcome and the seemingly odd decision to do a handicap WWE title match on PPV. This did a lot to change that though so in that sense it's a perfect go-home TV main event. I liked them playing up the idea that Owens and Zayn have got into AJ's head, which was clear as AJ kept getting distracted by Owens on the outside. Big win for Sami and suddenly AJ's title reign looks a little more vulnerable than before.