After weeks and weeks of anticipation, LA Knight and The Miz were afforded one final chance to address the WWE Universe on SmackDown before they go to war at Payback.

Finally, after plenty of talking, fans were going to see some action, but not before just a little bit more talking for good measure, something the fans in Hershey, Pennsylvania, absolutely ate up.

After listening to LA Knight run through his origin story, noting how he lived in roach-filled apartments, slept in his car, and used payday loan places to cash his checks, The Miz took his fellow Superstar's sincerity for weakness and pounced on it, noting that people in attendance, like the “Megastar,” are failures.

“See, these people all love you; they relate to you. Because people are failures,” The Miz said as the fans in Hershey booed him out of the Giant Center. “They try, they fail, they settle for mediocrity but don't get me wrong, you are different; you have had losses, you have had your hopes and dreams crushed, you've had setbacks but you never gave up. And that gives you a chance to do what they'll never be able to do, and that is succeed. Unfortunately for you, you're going up against a Superstar and trust me, I am the wrong Superstar for you, because I crush hopes and dreams of Superstars all the time, don't believe me? Look at my past. And this Saturday? Oh, this Saturday I'm not only your opponent, I'm a human time traveler, so when you lose your match, you lose your confidence,  you lose your popularity, you lose your job, you'll go back to that roach-infested apartment staring at your mirror, holding a hairbrush curring promos like you're a WWE Superstar just like it's 2003.”

“Of every stupid thing you just said, the ont thing you said that's right is that I didn't quit because I don't know how. I never learned that. I don't know to quit,” LA Knight responded. “But you want to love in the past constantly; you whine about it, you cry about it, h*ll, you even glorify it, so while you live in the past, I'm living me. So go ahead and get in your little time machine, go as far away as you can, because your present is trash, your future's about to get worse, because tomorrow at Payback, you will get stomped out and you will learn in the present and in the future whose game this is, with everybody saying L-A-Knight, yeah!”

After an attempted cheap shot from the “A-Lister,” LA Knight and The Miz brawled back and forth until Maryse's husband dropped the “Megastar” with a Skull Crushing Finale for the “win.” Standing over his fallen soon-to-be foe, The Miz left LA Knight with the final televised words of their feud before taking the ring in Pittsburgh this Sunday.

“You wanna talk about the future?” The Miz asked. “That's your future.”

Is that LA Knight's future? Or will the “Megastar” rally back and secure his second-straight win on a Premium Live Event? Fans will have to tune into Payback to find out.

LA Knight accuses The Miz of being a glorified cosplayer.

Well, well, well, how the tables have turned; after weeks of calling LA Knight a glorified Attitude Era cosplayer for his style, delivery, and even wrestling attire, the “A-Lister” decided to don his best Yeah! shirt, round glasses, Timberlands, and round sunglasses to try to get himself over on RAW.

This decision, unsurprisingly, didn't go unnoticed by the “Megastar,” as he let it be known in an interview with Claibs Online that it's not lost on him that the biggest pop of the “A-Lister's” career came wearing his gear.

“Well, I mean if you look at what Michael Cole said on SmackDown a couple weeks ago, he said The Miz is jealous, which is a double down on what you just said and I’d have to agree. I think I showed up on Raw a couple nights after winning the Slim Jim Battle Royale, had to go in and do a couple photo shoots and stuff like that, and here he is getting upset about it. I don’t know, this past Monday, he dressed up like me and that makes sense doesn’t it? He is jealous of me, and you know why? Because he’s always wanted to be me. I’m not saying he knew who LA Knight was years ago, what I mean is that he wanted the level of success that I’ve come across. He wanted the adulation that I’ve come across, he’s wanted the reactions that I’ve gotten, people chanting his name, quoting him. Instead, the best reaction he’s ever got in his entire career was walking out as me a couple nights ago on RAW,” The Miz said via Fightful.

“He was talking about me doing cosplay, here is he actually literally doing cosplay and he’s doing cosplay of three guys that are all on a completely different level from him if you notice. He’s putting me on that same level with them, and putting himself on another level which is below all of us.”

Cosplay, noun: the practice of dressing up as a character from a movie, book, or video game. Is The Miz, in year 19 of his run with WWE, nothing but a cosplayer? In the words of LA Knight, yeah!