Did WWE Bury Royce Keys Against Gunther?!

WWE SmackDown delivered one of the biggest talking points of the week when Royce Keys stepped into the ring with Gunther — but did WWE pull the trigger on a loss way too early? In this SmackDown review and hot takes episode, we break down the full Gunther vs Royce Keys match, the booking decision, crowd reaction, match psychology, and whether this helped build Royce Keys into a future star or completely slowed his momentum down before he could truly break out.

We also talk about how dominant Gunther has become in WWE, why losing to Gunther is different than losing to most superstars, and whether WWE is setting Royce Keys up for a bigger long-term story. Was this smart WWE storytelling, or did SmackDown make a major mistake? This is a full WWE reaction, wrestling analysis, and SmackDown discussion covering the biggest moments from the show, WWE creative decisions, and what could happen next for both Royce Keys and Gunther moving forward on SmackDown.

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Transcript

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The low-key big news from SmackDown yesterday is the fact that Royce Keys, well, he was defeated last night for the first time by Gunther. No shade in losing to Guther, but should he have lost? Should he have lost? Thick Nick says feeding Royce Keys to Gutther does nothing to help his character, and Gunther didn't need the win. That's fair, that's fair. Gunther definitely didn't need to win. I would say though that there is a flip side. Cool to see Royce getting some work with the top stars, says just call me D. Don't expect him to win a title anytime soon, but it was a nice change of pace. And I do agree with that. It was nice to see someone totally unfamiliar with the main event scene in the main event. I did appreciate that Royce Keys was like, you know what? I'm gonna call my shot. For the last couple weeks, he's like, Jacob, if you see an opportunity, take it. Well, Royce Keys was in the back, he saw an opportunity, a blank contract. And yes, yes, in the real world, contracts don't work like that, but we're in Kfabe and they do in WWE, apparently. So he went, he called his shot. He tried to take it. But the but the question remains should Royce Keys had lost last night? Because honestly, it does kind of squander a potential PLE match that would have been cool between Oba Femi and Royce Keys, whereas non-pro cyclist says they ruined the Royce streak versus Oba. That's actually probably the worst victim in all this. If we wanted Royce to lose in the first month or two, why not just have him lose to Oba Femi? Like that I believe is a valid argument. Again, no shade in losing to Gunther, but was it the right time? Honestly, if I would have been the booker, I would have had Royce Keys be a monster heel for one entire year and then have Oba Femi go on his babyface run. And then in one year from now, after Oba won the championship, I would have had Royce Keys show up and blindside Oba Femi. And then Royce Keys would have suffered his first loss to the ruler after a one-year heel run. And then maybe turn him babyface and reveal his backstory. But what do I know? Actually, I do know something. I know that you can win this belt right here. All you gotta do is comment below. I am giving away this belt on my shoulder at 30,000 subscribers on my quest to quit my day job. All you gotta do to win it is comment below and subscribe to the channel. You can win said belt. It's not a toy, it's a replica. All right, let's do another hot take. Joe Litton says, why my OTC is always betrayed. He was just trying to help. Silly Royce didn't get it. I love you solo. When Solo gave Royce the chair, Royce then attacked Solo Sokoa. But but Solo was only being helpful. He was trying to help him. We should have done something where Royce said, no, thank you, put the chair down and said, I'm not gonna cheat. And then Solo could have attacked Royce Keys because of him turning down the help. Instead, Royce just attacked. So I think we if we would have tweaked it just a little, it would have been better. I love AEW Wrestling says, I really think the Miz was on the money about last week's episode with the gingerbread man and Trick Williams and how it felt like Sesame Street episode. I just can't take him serious anymore. You know, I'm actually very surprised how much how much people hated the gingerbread man segment. I thought it was hilarious, and I don't even really view it as a comedy angle. I view it as how The Rock used to do things that were funny. He was in serious angles, and yet he would do these really silly, absurd things. I thought it was like Trick Williams just going to such an extreme absurd lengths in order to get under the skin of Sami Zayn. And it just so happened to have comedic elements to it. But like a ton of people hated it. I'm just not one of them. So I love AEW wrestling. We're just gonna have to agree to disagree on this one. Roman Reigns Acknowledge Me says Sammy is too funny. I absolutely agree. I am I am now currently a ride or die with Sami Zayn. When he's a heel, when he's a heel, when he's a baby face, die. Let me die. But when he is a heel, I'm riding until the wheels fall off. Sami Zayn is so good in this role of the victim. Just what why don't why are people booing me? I don't understand. He's so funny. Love, love Sami Zayn right now. And then people will call me fickle because, like six months ago, I was like, I do not like this Sami Zayn character. And it's it's just crazy to me. People think that you have to like a wrestler no matter what their character is, otherwise, you're a fickle fan. No, I like the Sami Zayn ride or die character, not the Sami Zayn underdog character. Raphael Adair says it would have been low-key funny if Royce had actually signed and took Guther spot. Actually, I'm not gonna lie, it kind of would have been. I would have minded if it would have been Royce Keys versus Cody Rhodes at Clash in Italy. Because hey, you know what? They could have just main evented with Roman Reigns and Jacob Fat II and opened with Cody and Royce. That way, Royce gets PLE exposure in a main event. Then we could have had a feud after this matchup with Gunther because Guther would have been mad that Royce stole his spot. And then after Guthrie and Royce feuded for a little bit, Guther could then go and fight Cody Rhodes. You see, there's ways to prolong storylines and still get to where you need to go without just taking people off TV. Right, it's a cool, complex storyline, and Guther could have been mad for an entire month about this whole thing. In fact, he could have got involved in the he could have got involved in the match and cost Royce the the title. Heck, we could have even got a triple threat out of it before Gunther and Cody went and had their proper one-on-one. Ken CMLL says, Well, Royce is officially a flop if he's going to feud with Solo. Oh, that sucks. You're right. I I love Solo Soko, I really do, but yeah, you know, this person's not saying that Royce is a flop because he lost to Gunther. He's saying he's a flop because he's about to go into wrestling feud purgatory. Like, it seems like anybody that that enters into the MFT sphere of influence is just there forever. Like, how long has the tag team division been kind of sort of feuding with solo sequoa? How long did the Wyatt's feud with Solo Sokoa? How long has Tomatonga been trying to break away from Solo Sokoa? How long has Shinsuke been trying to get Tama? It's just like like you get into something with Solo and it's just drawn out to the point that people just don't care. That I love you solo. I love you solo, and I'm sorry, but that's that that's the hard truth. I don't know why solo Sokoa keeps getting the short end of the stick. And not just losses, but just like bland, long, drawn out storylines. Jimbo Slice says Trick Williams is absolutely main event bound when he drops the US title. They should make this reign count and have Trick beat Dean Ambrose's record reign. Ooh, that's uh yeah, you know, the moment they take that US title off him, yeah, he has to, has to go into the main event. It kind of feels like he's a main event guy right this second. They gotta pull a Gunther on him, where Gunther was a main event guy, but they just kept that IC title on him because they didn't have any storylines for main event Gunther. So, like, that's the only thing. This US title is the only thing that's gonna keep Trick Williams out of the world title pitcher. So yeah, better make a count. Own D. Straight says WWE stopped being watchable in 2004. No, I think 2000. I think 2009 was decent, if I do recall. Bruce Ree says Giant Hausen will beat Oba Femi. So Dan Hausen, he looks like he's like creating a Frankenstein or something last night and Giant Housen. So now, like they cloned Minihausen, so the next logical step is a giant housen. What if it's Omos? You know, the lightning hits and Omos appears with the face paint, and then Omos goes crazy and then shows up on Raw. That would actually, I probably wouldn't like that. I mean, it I would like it like in the sense of in the moment, it would be funny and everything, but I wouldn't want to ruin Omas's character. That said, that said, somebody commented the one take one shot video that it had the familiar markings or the feet were gingerbread costume shaped. And last week, last week on a like internet exclusive video, Danhausen pulled the gingerbread costume out of the trash. So if you were one of the people that did not like the gingerbread segments, I got bad news for you. I think Danhausen's about to about to reanimate the gingerbread. Martin says, Alexa is getting the Finn Balor treatment, a previous main inventor who could still be a main eventer buried beyond recognition. I think Finn Balor is a little bit in a worst, worst state, but you've got a valid argument there. Andre Bryant says Triple H and his writing team need to be preparing to give Trick Williams the big push in 2027. Rather he wins the money in the bank or the Royal Rumble, he needs to be walking in as WWE champion at WrestleMania 43. I don't want him to win the money in the bank because, like I said, Trick is just undeniable. I don't think he needs the money in the bank. Royal Rumble victory, I'd be okay with that because that's a big deal. But like I would rather the money in the bank go to somebody who is like on the outskirts, someone like Carmelo Hayes, somebody who is having trouble getting into the main event. To me, Trick's a main adventure right now. WWE is just stalling the inevitable. Speaking of Mello, it's OTW. My boy Mello is back with a big win. All is good again. Also, Trick is licensed to print money. Can't wait for those two to actually start feuding. I hope Carmelo Hayes is the guy to beat Trick Williams for the US title when Trick is ready to get into the main event proper. And they need to stop taking Mello off TV. He needs to get into a storyline. Kid Wilkes says Julia and Kiana James staring at each other will go on as long as Randy's staring at Cody's WWE title. And then worse of all, their blow-off, the big blow-off to this storyline that they got going on will probably be in the middle of the Royal Rumble where Kiana throws Julia out. She brags about how she just won, and then and then Keanu will get instantly eliminated. And then they'll be like, well, I guess that storyline is done. Elvis Ramiro says, Hey Chop, did you notice the crowd was dead silent during Danhausen's segment? I think he noticed it too. All his little movements and jokes fell flat. Well, honestly, I think that was a pre-taped segment. So I don't know if Danhausen could react to the audience not reacting. That said, a couple things. One, Danhausen is an awkward character and he likes awkward humor. So I don't think Danhausen would care even if the fans weren't getting his jokes. And I'm not, I'm not coming at you or anything like that. I hope you don't think that. I'm just trying to like, you know, try dissect what you said because maybe it is valid. Maybe everybody is over the whole Dan Housen, uh, the Danhausen character. I just don't think they are. Because why would the crowd get so silent? Maybe, maybe it's because Danhausen kind of talks a little silent. You really have to pay attention to Danhausen to get a lot of his jokes. Almost everything he says is a joke. And if you're not quiet and paying attention, it will fly over your head. So the audience might have just got quiet because they were listening. It would probably have been a different reaction if Danhausen was actually outside in the ring itself. So I don't think the WWE universe is over yet because if you look at the match at Backlash, people really enjoyed it. So I doubt this week we would have suddenly lost all that interest. I think Dan Housen still has a good three or four months of just pure goodwill from all the things he's done so far. I've seen very little pushback on Dan Hausen. There is some out there, though. There is some out there, but very little as of right now. Russell Don says, I was sports entertained by the Miz segment. Everyone in the ring worked great together. But at what point does the copy and paste formula of jobbing Miz to everyone not mean anything anymore? Yeah, you know, if we could just let the Miz win here and there, it would make the presentation so much better. I get it. Miz is an all-timer, he can work any program, super serious or comedy. He is one promo away from a main event when they unleash him. Problem is they never unleash him anymore. There's only so many times we could tell people that he won WrestleMania about 14 to 15 years ago. It's like, what have you done for me lately? Miz is great at making people look good. But just imagine how good those people would look if the Miz got a victory every once in a while. Maybe had him have a match against Little Yachty at least, could even at least pin the little Yachty, and then next week lose to Trick Williams. Like, just do something with the guy. Juice X says, Didn't we already see Tomatunga vs Priest before a couple weeks ago? Or am I just tripping? You know, honestly, I couldn't even answer you right now. You're talking to a guy who remembers Bobby the Brain Heaton versus the Red Rooster from when I was like in fourth grade. I have no recollection if Damian Priest fought Tomatunga a week ago, a month ago, a year ago, because it's like it's just so much repetitiveness with no stakes, no nothing. They just do stuff to kill TV time. I have no doubt that it happened, but I have no recollection of it. I remember the Rockers versus the Orient Express, but I couldn't tell you a Damian Priest match from the last year that didn't involve Alistair Black. All right, boys, all right, girls. Those are your hot takes for Friday Night SmackDown. See you tomorrow. Bye.