WWE No Mercy 2016: WWE feared the debate, other observations
WWE No Mercy had its peaks and valleys, but overall Smackdown Live's second pay-per-view offering since the brand extension was a good show that featured a pair of very memorable matches.
The only problem was that neither of those matches closed the show. Blame Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
I'll get more into that in a moment, but first, here are the full match results from the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, Calif.:
Kickoff match: American Alpha & The Hype Bros def. The Ascension & The Vaudevillains
WWE World championship: AJ Styles def. John Cena & Dean Ambrose
Nikki Bella def. Carmella
WWE Smackdown Tag Team championship: Heath Slater & Rhyno def. The Usos
Baron Corbin def. Jack Swagger
WWE Intercontinental championship (Career vs. Title): Dolph Ziggler def. The Miz
Naomi def. Alexa Bliss
Bray Wyatt def. Randy Orton
Presidential debate dictated placement of matches
Many people texted me at the beginning of the show and wondered why in the world No Mercy opened with the main event, which was a triple threat match for the WWE World championship between Styles, Cena, and Ambrose.
Since WWE did not disclose the reason on television, I had to explain to more than one of my friends that WWE was afraid of the debate.
The first presidential debate between Clinton and Trump drew nearly 100 million viewers back on Sept. 26 and put a historic dent in Raw's viewership.
Although No Mercy was not on television or even cable, WWE was not trying to have its most important match take place during or at the tail end of the debate, so it decided to put the WWE World title match on first.
No Mercy began at 8 p.m. EST. The debate didn't being until 9 p.m., which meant WWE had a full hour without having to worry about the debate. It also meant WWE was courteous enough to give fans what they wanted upfront and allowed them to change the channel to the debate at 9 p.m. sharp. I mean that jokingly.
While the decision doesn't say much about WWE's faith in its own product to generate viewers, it was the smart thing to do.
However, the placement of the other matches was not all that wise.
It didn't take a genius to know that the second-most anticipated match on the card Sunday night was the Intercontinental championship match between Ziggler and The Miz.
Not only was it for a prestigious title but it also had a great story, as Ziggler's career was on the line. A man's entire livelihood was at stake, but WWE did not put this match in the main event.
Instead, in what I could only categorize as a massive miscalculation, WWE put Orton and Wyatt in the night's final match.
So the show went exactly as expected. Ziggler and The Miz put on an amazing match that featured drama, emotion and a triumphant ending. Meanwhile, Orton and Wyatt, who had what I thought was a terribly cheesy story going in, nearly put people to sleep with their match, which was only salvaged by the return of Luke Harper at the end of the match.
Even with Harper returning, it was clear that WWE should have put Ziggler and The Miz in the main event. Ziggler even said as much on Talkin' Smack after the show.
However, WWE miscalculated and No Mercy went of the air in lukewarm fashion.
Styles retains, but after tapping out
People may or may not have agreed with the WWE World title match opening the show, but I would hope everyone agreed that Styles, Cena and Ambrose put on a fantastic performance.
These guys were pulling out most, if not all of the stops in order to make this match memorable and they succeeded.
Styles pinned Cena for the third time this year to retain his championship, but not before he tapped to both Cena and Ambrose.
I am not making that up. He really did tap out to both of his opponents. However, it was while the two men had him locked in two different submission moves at the same time.
Ambrose had used Styles' own calf crusher against him, but then Cena walked up, grabbed Styles' other leg and locked in the STF. Styles promptly tapped out.
This same exact scenario played out in NXT earlier this year when Samoa Joe, Sami Zayn and Baron Corbin were vying to become No. 1 contender to the NXT championship.
Joe and Zayn both had Corbin in a submission and Corbin tapped out. It was then decided that since Corbin tapped out, he was eliminated from the equation and Joe and Zayn would move on to determine an undisputed No. 1 contender.
That seemed logical, but that wasn't what happened here. Instead, the official waved off the finish and restarted the match with Styles still involved. Styles eventually used a steel chair to help him retain the title.
The match was great and the right man won, but WWE probably could have done a better job of keeping Ambrose and Cena in the title picture than this.
Ziggler lives to fight another day
The other great match on this card was Ziggler's triumphant victory over The Miz to win the Intercontinental championship and keep his career alive.
This match had everything that makes professional wrestling so much fun to watch. I know some people think wrestling is all about the action and while action is a necessary component, the emotion is what really grips you.
This match had the obvious emotion of Ziggler fighting for his livelihood as a WWE superstar and the fans in Sacramento bought in. That is because WWE, Ziggler and The Miz did such a good job of telling that story heading into the match.
WWE also did a great job of showcasing the classic cliche of the thrille of victory and the agony of defeat.
That's not to say Ziggler and The Miz didn't put on an exciting match because they did. We had another Spirit Squad sighting and Ziggler hit multiple super kicks with only one shoe on.
But the ending was what I will remember the most because it was classic professional wrestling.
After the Spirit Squad and Miz's wife Maryse interfered in the match, the referee had enough and ejected all three of them, but he didn't do it in a subtle way. He did it in the most dramatic way possible, milking that crucial moment for everything that it was worth and sending the fans into a frenzy, as a result.
With the fans in a state of euphoria, Ziggler hit one more shoeless super kick to put The Miz away and win the match.
Kudos to everyone involved for making this a match to remember, including the referee.
Harper rescues us all from boredom
As I mentioned earlier, Orton and Wyatt had a mostly forgettable match in the main event, which was a fitting given how cheesy their feud has been.
Speaking of cheesy and quite dumb, WWE decided to bust the whole mirror gimmick before the match.
Orton was standing in his locker room minding his own business, not realizing a camera was right in front him when he looked in the mirror. All of a sudden, his face began to morph into a weird shape.
Orton shook his as if he was seeing things. The only problem was that we all saw it because a cameraman was filming him the whole time!
Firstly, how would we see his face shifting if this is happening inside Orton's head? Secondly, what purpose did this serve? Thirdly, I don't even know. My head hurts just thinking about how bad this was. At least Harper was a real person and not a hologram.
Women's title mayhem
Pro Wrestling Sheet was the first to report that current WWE Smackdown Women's champion Becky Lynch was going to miss No Mercy due to an undisclosed injury.
Well, that became official Sunday night when Smackdown Live commissioner Shane McMahon informed Bliss of this during the show.
Smackdown Live general manager Daniel Bryan then informed Bliss that she will still receive a title match, but not until Nov. 8 in Glasgow, Scotland.
That was a sensible way of handling things. What occurred next wasn't so much.
Bryan then told Bliss that although she was not going to face Lynch as scheduled, she was still going to have a match, but didn't tell her who her opponent was going to be.
Bliss' opponent turned out to be Naomi. This seemed good. That was until Bliss and Naomi a rather subpar performance followed up by the questionable decision on WWE's part to have Naomi defeat Bliss.
Why? To put her in the title picture, that's why. Naomi being in the Women's title picture is fine by me, but did it have to come at the expense of the current No. 1 contender?
Couldn't Naomi have won a match against Natalya to earn some consideration for a title shot in the future? Instead, WWE may have booked itself into yet another triple threat match.