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It was a New York Knicks party at Saturday Night’s Main Event from Madison Square Garden, as WWE and Roman Reigns focused on celebrating the NBA champions in New York City. Across Saturday’s latest WWE offering, Seth Rollins tried to spoil Reigns’ celebration with Knicks guard Jalen Brunson, Nick Aldis raised the stakes with Gunther, new women’s tag-team champions were crowned, Knicks forward Karl-Anthony Towns and Danhausen rolled on, and Lyra Valkyria beat down her former mentor, Bayley.
In our final major stop before SummerSlam, here are five big takeaways from New York.
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1. The Career Killer’s next victim?
Are we finally getting Nick Aldis in a WWE ring?
In a match that had heavy SummerSlam implications, the “Smackdown” general manager was directly responsible for Gunther getting screwed out of a world title shot, slamming the belt into the contender’s head to serve him a loss at the hands of CM Punk and Cody Rhodes. The loss means Gunther and an outraged Sami Zayn won’t compete in a Fatal 4-Way for the Undisputed WWE Championship at SummerSlam, instead opening the door for a direct one-on-one match between Punk and Rhodes.
I love it for Aldis, who has had numerous openings in recent years for a storyline to bring him back into the ring (see: Randy Orton and Drew McIntyre’s treatment of the “Smackdown” GM). But if this is Aldis’ return, it’s better late than never. I’d imagine WWE gets back to Gunther’s career killer moniker by retiring Aldis in two weeks at SummerSlam.
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As for Zayn, he’s on track to get left off the card entirely despite winning the organization’s top prize less than a month ago. The same can’t be said for Punk and Rhodes, who haven’t needed much of a story to pit the two faces of WWE against one another. I’m intrigued to see how they begin to build a story from here.
2. The Mecca crowns its champ
The main event served as a sports and entertainment crossover as Roman Reigns provided space for New York to acknowledge Jalen Brunson, awarding the King of New York a custom world title. Fellow NBA star Tyrese Haliburton and SummerSlam world title challenger Seth Rollins eventually made their presences felt, but it was Reigns and Brunson who ultimately stood tall with the Larry O’Brien trophy.
WWE clearly knows what it’s doing in opening every opportunity to connect the product to other sports and stars, especially at Madison Square Garden. More than a month since the Knicks were crowned champions, though, the moment felt stale and like something we’d see at a house show rather than the main event of a promoted show.
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3. Title Influence
A night after Jacy Jayne missed out on wrestling for the interim Women’s World Championship at SummerSlam, Laney Reid and Fallon Henley brought home gold to Fatal Influence anyway. Jayne, despite not being in Saturday’s tag title match, played a pivotal role in running interference throughout the action and opened the door for a rollup that meant a pinfall loss for Paige and the titles changing hands.
The win for Fatal Influence comes at the perfect time, as the group could use some gold to establish themselves as serious contenders. It also serves to freshen up a tag-team division that could use a jolt of energy. Paige and Brie Bella’s partnership essentially had run its course since coming out of WrestleMania, and this feels like a great opportunity to now reintroduce Nikki Bella as one half of the Bella Twins.
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In the immediate, it feels like we’re on a collision course to a six-woman tag at some point in the near future, if not at SummerSlam’s two-day extravaganza. At a minimum, Paige appears to have enough left in the tank for a program with Jayne and a decent singles run on her own.
4. KAThausen
Danhausen continues to be one of the most entertaining parts of WWE, and his match with JD McDonagh was the perfect balance of absurdness and pure wrestling ability. Danhausen can go in the ring, and McDonagh has been trusted over and again with some of these key moments that require an element of comedy.
Things devolved swiftly Saturday, with Dominik Mysterio, the mini-Hausens, and eventually Karl-Anthony Towns each making their presence felt. KAT’s emergence from the clone box at the top of the ramp was fantastic in its own right, but McDonagh’s chokeslam bump was one of the gnarliest spots this year. KAT tossed Mysterio through a table, cursed McDonagh and opened the door for the Danhausen Deathdrop for the win.
Danhausen continues to roll and there should be a genuine question how far he can ride the gimmick. Is his ceiling comedy spots with celebrities, or does he have a Santino Marella type of runway into some of WWE’s mainstream programs … and potentially even gold?
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5. Lyra Valkyria’s dark side
Anytime Bayley mixes it up in the ring, it’s a match to watch. But this one faced an uphill climb from the onset — with Lyra Valkyria sporting a dark new gimmick and Bayley seemingly determined to show an aggressive side from the opening bell, the two traded precision for a bit of a jumbled start. An errant Bayley forearm busted Valkyria’s nose wide open and the duo really struggled to find their footing.
Eventually Valkyria choked Bayley out to force a referee stoppage with the Nightwing. She wrapped her night by then slamming Bayley onto the steel steps before walking back up the ramp.
I’m really not sure where the story goes from here. I’d imagine Bayley gets a shot at redemption, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Valkyria go on a bit of a mean streak across the WWE roster, and perhaps take apart some “local talent” along the way.
