This week’s main event saw Sami Zayn facing Carmelo Hayes in a rematch of last week’s title bout, threatening a reverse result that would have all but spelled Zayn out of WrestleMania.

As nice as it would have been for Hayes to get a spot on the card, it would have been ever the more egregious to hand Zayn his spot and then rip it away just a week later. But the very idea of Hayes and Zayn wrestling on its own is a guarantee of a great match, there was an inventive way to keep Hayes’ claim to the title alive and ensure he didn’t look terrible in back-to-back defeats, while also avoiding the tried-and-tired trope of someone interfering.

Hayes tweaked his knee quite early on an outside dive, becoming the central theme of the match as he couldn’t execute much of his aerial offense without aggravating it. Naturally, he did go for aerial offense and did aggravate the injury, tweaking the knee once again as the referee got between the competitors to check on him.

This is where things got a little interesting on the road to WrestleMania, with Zayn using that opportunity to deliver a Helluva Kick and win the match. Now, rumors had been circulating that Zayn and Williams could be on their way to a double-turn, considering the immense popularity of the latter with the crowd – as well as the fact Zayn has all the justification to turn to the dark side.

Taking advantage of Williams’ inadvertent assist last week was one thing, there was a plausible deniability to all of it. But to take advantage of a very clear injury while the referee is checking on his opponent — that starts to cross deeper into the morally gray territory. Whether or not it does lead to a turn either way is besides the point, it’s the very adding of this wrinkle in the plot that struck me as interesting. There are plenty of good wrestling matches going around these days, and so rarely is there legitimate storytelling within the match that serves to build towards the future.

It was just cool to feel as though there was something more to come, something substantially enjoyable and compelling. I am interested to see what occurs next between the three of them; Hayes is not going to accept the defeat, as he shouldn’t; Zayn is starting to move a little more selfish pursuant to that very question he posed to Randy Orton a few weeks back; and Williams is aura-farming until he gets a well-deserved title run for his popularity. Good stuff all around.

Written by Max Everett