Kai and SKY were given this second chance as a result of a “controversial” outcome in their last encounter in the tag team title tournament finals, in which Aliyah pinned Kai despite Kai’s ineligibility to compete.
This time, there was no denying the heels. The challengers made things right by giving Aliyah one Kai-chiropractor in exchange for the gold. Of course, you have to question why Kai and SKY were chosen over her. Why weren’t Dakota Kai and IYO SKY given the championships during the tournament finals?
If WWE wanted to win over Rodriguez and Aliyah with a shocking title victory, they should have scheduled them to easily defeat Kai and SKY in the tournament finals. Instead, it provided them with a sham victory to “defend” the squad with more illustrious players (which ultimately does nothing for anybody). Additionally, instead of this little period of time where they competed in forgettable fights against patchwork teams and kept the belts for only a few weeks.
In other words, other than entertaining the crowd with finishes, WWE achieved nothing with the surprise victory. WWE now needs to work much harder to regain the momentum Kai and SKY lost with their shock defeat because Aliyah and Rodriguez have no more credibility with the crowd than they did before they won the championships.
WWE could have given the weeks it spent trying to legitimize the babyface champions to a pair of heels who are similarly looking to establish themselves as dependable upper midcarders, wrestlers who have just recently been seen by main roster fans.
But to be fair to WWE, it does. Nobody can criticize it for wanting to showcase as much new talent as possible, and teaching fans to support uncertain outcomes isn’t always a terrible concept. Additionally, no one will remember this setback on Kai and SKY’s route to restoring those belts if they hold the titles for a year and perform, as Sheamus would say, “banger after banger after banger” (especially whenever Sasha Banks and Naomi return to feud with them).
But this felt like a pretty wasteful bet to make for a business that is still attempting to persuade stray followers to come back with the promise of shrewder, more effective scheduling.
