Jonathan Coachman saw Sami Zayn turning on Kevin Owens from a mile away, and that’s exactly his problem with WWE right now. After watching SmackDown’s Toronto main event play out, the former WWE personality called out Triple H and the creative team for becoming far too “predictable.”
Coachman took to Twitter following the August 21 episode and immediately questioned the decision to make Kevin Owens’ Undisputed WWE Championship match against CM Punk a one-off. With Owens returning after more than a year away and getting the opportunity in front of his Canadian home crowd, Coachman felt WWE was clearly rushing toward something bigger.
“The word ‘predictable’ is something that Triple H and the WWE creative team have become very much known for. When you hear that the Kevin Owens vs. CM Punk match is gonna be a one-off, I’m like, why?”
“Last night they had the energy. I understand it was in Toronto and they wanted him in front of his home crowd, but you could feel that the crowd knew that if it was a one-off, and if he got it by winning a #1 Contender’s Match after being gone for over a year, that they were fast-forwarding this thing so that they could do it in front of the Canadian crowd.”
Then Sami showed up, and Coachman felt WWE went exactly where everyone expected. Zayn interfered while Owens was challenging Punk, eventually smashing his longtime friend with the WWE Championship and leaving him open for another GTS. For Coachman, another Sami-Kevin betrayal was hardly the surprise WWE may have wanted it to be.
“So you knew that Sami Zayn was going to come out. You knew that Zayn was going to turn on Kevin Owens for the millionth time in their careers, which is now set up… a Triple Threat probably at Saturday Night’s Main Event in two weeks.”
Coachman wasn’t arguing that the segment failed with the live crowd. Toronto reacted, the moment had energy and Sami’s turn got the response WWE wanted. His issue was being able to see the entire thing coming before it happened.
“That, in a word, is predictable. Was it a good moment? Okay. Was it a good vibe? Okay. Was the crowd into it? There’s no doubt. But when you see it a mile away… do something different!”
He even questioned why WWE couldn’t have gone considerably further and actually put the championship on Owens. Coachman argued that an unexpected title change wouldn’t have hurt anything and could have finally given viewers something they weren’t already anticipating.
“Would it have changed anything to make Kevin Owens the WWE Champion? I mean, anything? The answer is no!”
That frustration went beyond one finish. Coachman wants WWE to stop following the road viewers already expect and start taking chances capable of making its stories feel less predetermined.
“You gotta start doing things differently than what we all can predict because we’ve seen it every single step of the way. We gotta start thinking outside the box. Give me stories. Make me feel something.”
Sami betraying Owens certainly gave Toronto a big closing angle, but Coachman wasn’t buying the shock. WWE went back to one of the oldest fractures in the Sami-Kevin relationship, and for him, another betrayal between the two was exactly the kind of ending everyone could already see coming.
Do you agree with Jonathan Coachman that WWE’s booking under Triple H has become too predictable? Let us know in the comments below.
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