Look, I know this gingerbread man thing is stupid, but I’m gonna let you in on a little secret: Pro wrestling is stupid. It’s stupid and weird and often hilariously funny, and the running joke of the gingerbread man’s funeral throughout this episode was all those things. It turns out Sami Zayn (much like his forever frenemy, Kevin Owens) plays a tremendous straight man, especially when the straight man’s job is to react in ever-increasing horror and disbelief to a ridiculous situation that everyone else accepts without question. Zayn walking around the gingerbread man’s wake, interacting with the likes of R-Truth and the comatose Johnny Gargano, was absolute gold, but it was nothing compared to what awaited us in the main event segment.

Trick Williams, it must be said, really made this segment work, literally pouring one out for the gingerbread man and singing along with a terrible choir. Zayn came out to further express his disbelief (and call out the choir for being off-key) and did an amazing job of tying the whole thing back to their upcoming match at Backlash. And then, in the best possible pay-off to this entire angle, the gingerbread man rose from the dead like a freshly-baked messiah, revealing himself as Lil Yachty and revenging himself upon Zayn with deadly red-and-white-striped strikes! 

It was absolute nonsense, and I loved every minute of it. Five-star classics are all well and good, but as far as I’m concerned, this is professional wrestling.

Written by Miles Schneiderman