Ever since the WWE brand split, both Mick Foley and Daniel Bryan have taken the time to insult each other’s brands every chance that they get. It happened again this week when the main event of SmackDown Live saw a battle royal for the number one contender position end up with both AJ Styles and Luke Harper hitting the floor at the same time.
Mick Foley, the general manager of Monday Night Raw , was critical of the ending and went to Twitter to say that he or Stephanie McMahon would have done things differently than they did on SmackDown Live . He mentioned instant replay.
Isn’t that what instant replay is for? @StephMcMahon or I would have come to a different conclusion. #SDLive
— Mick Foley (@foleyispod) February 22, 2017
It is an interesting statement from Mick Foley because the night before on Monday Night Raw , Bayley was asked to give up her women’s title for winning it through outside interference but nothing could be done – despite the fact that there was instant replay into the situation.
Of course, it was two different situations where the management would not overturn a referee’s final decision on Monday Night Raw while SmackDown Live saw two referees confused at the outcome. Despite the criticism, it isn’t the first time that the WWE has used a tie in a battle royal to further the storyline.
In the case of SmackDown Live , Daniel Bryan went on Talking Smack after the show ended and announced that AJ Styles and Luke Harper would wrestle next week to determine the new number one contender to Bray Wyatt and the WWE world title. That should be an amazing main event for SmackDown Live since Luke Harper is finally showing what he can do.
Before SmackDown Live and it’s ending this week, the most famous instance of a battle royal ending in a tie came at the Royal Rumble in 1994. Lex Luger had come over from WCW, and Vince McMahon was pushing him to the top. The end came when Luger and Bret “The Hitman” Hart went over the top and to the floor at the same time.
The WWE chose to allow both Lex Luger and Bret Hart to get title matches at WrestleMania X against Yokozuna as long as both men also wrestled a second match on the show as well. That was the show where Owen Hart beat Bret Hart and then Bret won the world title from Yokozuna, who had already beaten Lex Luger on the show.
It looks like this SmackDown Live controversy will also lead to an interesting WrestleMania event. Randy Orton won the Royal Rumble this year but then came out on SmackDown Live last week and said he refused to fight Bray Wyatt for the title. That resulted in the battle royal that aired on SmackDown Live .
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The winner of the AJ Styles vs. Luke Harper match on SmackDown Live next week will determine who replaces Orton at WrestleMania against Bray Wyatt. The rumor here is that Luke Harper and Randy Orton will both end up in the match and it will be a three-way. However, AJ Styles has no match on the show, and it could end up a four-way match for the SmackDown Live world title.
There is still over a month before WrestleMania takes place, so Mick Foley making fun of SmackDown Live and the battle royal seems silly. With so many weeks to fill between now and the big WWE event, there is a lot of story that needs to be told between now and then. SmackDown Live airs on Tuesday nights live on USA Network.
[Featured Image by WWE]