Okay, I know I’m probably on an island with this one (certainly my co-workers largely disagree with me) but I really enjoyed the finish of the Intercontinental Championship No. 1 contender’s match. For one thing, the whole match was really good, and I find myself suddenly in on Inexplicably Babyface Miz, whose thing appears to be “I’m a face now so I can come out here and do amazing wrestling because it’s okay if people cheer for me,” which … awesome? Like, that actually rules and I’m so much more excited about Miz vs. GUNTHER now.

Secondly, I thought the finish was really creative, especially as someone who has watched a lot of wrestling and knows all the tropes. It was exceptionally clear when Ivar and Bronson Reed both went to the top rope that they were going to come down on Ricochet and Miz, respectively, at the same time and then pin them at the same time, thus necessitating a match between the two of them. At least that seemed obvious to me. What actually happened, though, was a spot I don’t think I’ve ever seen before: Ivar hits Ricochet, but Miz dodges Reed and then rolls him up, so it’s actually Ivar and Miz getting the simultaneous count. But Ricochet kicks out and Reed doesn’t, making Miz the winner — though it strangely took a few minutes to confirm the result by going to the tape.

I think what I like about this is that it felt like sports in a way pro wrestling rarely achieves with any degree of success. After all, this kind of thing happens all the time in sports, especially football. “Well, this is what we think happened, but there was a lot going on, so let’s look at a replay and figure out who actually won.” It makes the winner seem legitimate while also protecting the other participants, which is really hard to do. It also casts some doubt, in a very pro wrestling way, as to whether or not Ricochet was supposed to kick out, because there were a few seconds there where everyone seemed pretty confused. But was that confusion real, or feigned? It’s hard to know, and that’s one of the things people love about wrestling.

Whether it was planned or they just lucked into it, I loved the envelope-pushing going on with this finish. It’s the kind of the thing that wrestling shows aren’t usually creative enough to pull off, but in this case, they either did a great job or circumstances worked out in their favor. Probably a bit of both.