For the final match, it was time for Punk to step up to the plate. Of course, Punk was the only one who stood any credible chance of winning, because as it would turn out, he was the one booked to win.

Almost as if aware that the match had been boring from the beginning, gears were shifted to take it into plainly stupid territory as the bout drew to a close. With Punk about to defeat Breakker, Reed re-emerged and elbow-dropped Punk in full view of the referee, prompting much confusion as gauntlet matches usually carry disqualifications.

Well, until Michael Cole decided there had to be a ret-con, and suddenly this was a No Disqualifications Gauntlet Match. I have so many questions. Then Uso returned to clear Reed from the picture, disappeared, Punk got the win, then got beaten up some more by Reed and Breakker, then Uso reappeared to make the save again. And then, and only then, did Reigns make his return to stop them from getting beaten down some more.

If this was a No DQ Gauntlet match, why didn’t Reed just help him with the rest of the match and work it like a handicap? Why did Reigns only decide to turn up when all the damage had been done? Why didn’t he return to help his cousin win the match? Why didn’t he enter the match himself? Why didn’t he use the ample opportunity he had to attack Paul Heyman when he was stood there for 40 minutes? Why didn’t any of the guys use weapons? How come the babyfaces didn’t just mob Breakker from the beginning? Why did the referee look like a deer in headlights, like he should be calling for a DQ but knows that’s not the finish? And this is an important one, why did it take until the dying moments of the match for the stipulation to be announced?

Cole literally waited until the moment someone should be disqualified to say that they weren’t an issue. Why is he – kayfabe, of course – so bad at his job?

Don’t let WWE’s gaslighting and revisionist history get in the way of the fact that within numerous gauntlet matches booked over the years, disqualifications have been commonplace to eliminate a heel without them losing their shine; wouldn’t that have been helpful on a night where Punk needed to beat the guy the company clearly wants us to see as infallible? Not to mention the fact that Punk is now supposed to be taken seriously as a challenger for Gunther, who just retired Goldberg, when he struggled to beat a Breakker that had gone through three separate challengers with a headstart.

This is the issue with, as Paul Levesque himself puts it, just entering the destination in the GPS and seeing where the route goes. You forget rudimentary rules that you yourself put in place to stop things from getting out of control.

Written by Max Everett