Street Profits, Paige, Real Winners and Losers of WWE Saturday Night's Main Event Match Card

WWE returned to Peacock on Saturday night with its latest Saturday Night's Main Event, a show featuring four championship defenses and headlined by an Intercontinental Championship showdown between Penta and Ethan Page.

One may have left with his arm raised in victory, but was either Superstar among the biggest winners or losers of the primetime broadcast?

Find out in this recap of the May 23 broadcast.

Winner: Storyline Continuity

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WWE women's champion Rhea Ripley and Charlotte Flair have a rich history as rivals dating back to 2020 and encompassing two WrestleMania battles, so it would make sense that the tension and dislike that still exists between them would be omnipresent, even if they are supposed to be teammates.

Leading up to and including Saturday's six-man tag match, pitting them and Alexa Bliss against Jade Cargill, Michin, and B-Fab, it was.

Ripley and Flair mocked each other before the bell. The Eradicator resisted tagging The Queen into the match, instead yielding to Bliss. The two were never on the same page entering the show, even when it behooved them, and the result was a match in which the heels controlled the majority.

The tension presented itself later, when Flair and Ripley nearly collided, and Michin capitalized with a Styles Clash that nearly won the match for her team.

When it appeared as though the babyfaces had the match in hand, Ripley and Flair let down their guard. It cost them the match, as Cargill leveled Mami with Jaded to win and build momentum toward their WrestleMania rematch at Clash in Italy.

The question now is whether that outcome will adversely affect the future Hall of Famers' attempt to forge a friendship and potentially set up a much-anticipated next contest between them, or whether it will survive beyond that.

Winner: Michin

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Often overlooked because of her spot on the card, Michin has shown up and showed out in the opportunities she has had to highlight her abilities over the years, and Saturday was no different.

She held what was a very good six-woman tag team match together on the heel side of things. She was the glue, the veteran presence who knew where things needed to go, exercised great timing, and took some big bumps to put over the babyfaces' offense.

She was not the focal point, but one would be hard-pressed to watch the match and not applaud her for jumping off the screen and stealing a little of the spotlight reserved for the hype around the Ripley vs. Cargill rematch.

Winner: Storyline Continuity, Part Deux

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Becky Lynch has a long and well-documented history with referee Jessika Carr, and it reared its head in yet another of The Man's Women's Intercontinental Championship defenses Saturday night.

Pushed to the limit just minutes into her match with Sol Ruca, Lynch grabbed hold of Carr and shoved her the way of a Sol Snatcher, drawing a disqualification.

Not only did that finish allow Ruca to win while Big Time Becks proved her cowardice in the face of a challenge from a game Ruca, but it kept the overarching storyline involving Carr alive.

So often, Carr has played a role in Lynch's IC title matches that one has to believe the endgame is for the trained wrestler to trade in her referee's shirt for her ring gear and battle the Greatest of All Time in an actual match.

When that happens remains to be seen, but this was an effective way to deliver a short match that keeps the crowd hungry for more between Lynch and Ruca, while also reminding them of an ongoing story with a rich history.

Winner/Loser: Ethan Page

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In the biggest match of his WWE career to this point, "All Ego" Ethan Page stole Saturday Night's Main Event with a stellar performance in his Intercontinental Championship Match against Penta.

The focus of the creative and commentary team, he controlled the match, flashed the facial expressions and body language that reflected the mounting frustration surrounding his inability to put his opponent away, and he had the crowd in the palm of his hand as he desperately attempted to cheat via exposed turnbuckle, only to have it turned against him.

The former NXT and North American champion lived up to the hype and left no questions as to why WWE officials have believed in him and positioned him where they have this early in his main roster run.

The only problem? He has been so good that this really should have been his coronation. Yes, there is a potential for a win on a bigger stage, but sometimes, it really is OK to make the call and book the big win sooner than expected.

This should have been it.

While Page will continue to be the scene-stealer that he has been at numerous points in his career, and he will get over whatever it is WWE officials have planned for him next, he earns partial "loser" status, only because the time was Saturday in Fort Wayne.

Loser: Clash in Italy

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WWE proved that it can still present a five-match card that delivers when all of the pomp, circumstances, ad reads, and overbooking are cast aside.

Saturday Night's Main Event, with a card that looked less-than-stellar on paper, overdelivered a fun, energetic, entertaining show with some great in-ring action that set the stage for Clash in Italy.

In the process, it also set the bar for the upcoming premium live event. Perhaps too high.

While next week's show will have far greater star power than Saturday's presentation on Peacock did, it almost certainly will not have the benefit of the ring time that its predecessor did.

It will not benefit from the barrage of ads that are certain to pollute the run time, either.

Saturday Night's Main Event was a perfect presentation for WWE. It focused on in-ring action while still building to the next big event, allowing the wrestlers to get themselves and their narratives over with the audience.

It provided the Chief Content Officer, Triple H, and the rest of the creative team with the formula for a show that does everything it needs to without sacrificing the actual wrestling content of the broadcast.

Winners: Brie Bella and Paige

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It was not always pretty, but women's tag team champions Brie Bella and Paige emerged victoriously from their defense against Nia Jax and Lash Legend Saturday night, weathering the size and strength disadvantage to do so.

Bella and Paige are still working out their chemistry as partners, but on this night, they were booked to be underdogs, ragdolls for the Irresistible Forces to throw around and threaten to dethrone.

Showing guts and the in-ring experience from years of championship competition, though, they gutted out what can best be considered a contested victory after Bella gave Paige some added leverage during a rollup.

If the win and the match itself were not enough, the pre-match promo was. Brie Bella recounted the story to this point, including that Paige was never intended to be the champion. That was supposed to be Nikki.

The second-generation competitor, appearing somewhat tired of hearing that particular part, interjected and vowed to win tonight.

Keep an eye on Paige and potential mounting frustration with the insinuation that she is only the champion because Nikki was not available. That could be the emphasis for a betrayal, if that is the direction WWE wishes to explore.

Losers: The Street Profits

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Yes, there is an argument to be made that Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins came out of Saturday's main event match-up better off than they were before because the audience was red-hot and ready to see them win the gold, only for the dastardly heels to steal the win from them.

In theory, that means the audience will be even more ready to see them get revenge and win the title. That has been proven to work, most notably in Cody Rhodes' march to the WWE title that culminated in 2024.

Like Page earlier in the show, sometimes, the best time to pull that proverbial trigger is the here and now. That was absolutely the case for The Street Profits, who recently returned from a lengthy absence, are as meaningful as they have been in years, and would have benefited exponentially from winning the gold here.

That it would have made sense within the confines of the story, with Ford claiming they do not need Seth Rollins' help to battle The Vision, only enhances the missed opportunity Saturday night.

Of course, the other side of that is that Ford was proven wrong and now he will have to settle up with Rollins in order to combat the top heel faction. Or...the immensely talented star, long anticipated for a singles run, will have to break fee and go on his own.

That potential notwithstanding, it would have been a huge moment for the Street Profits, and a perfect capper to a near perfect show, for the babyfaces to go over and take the gold.