3 Ups & 7 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (8 Nov)

Roman Reigns is poopy.

Daniel Bryan Bray Wyatt
WWE.com
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

That eerie laugh from Bray Wyatt's alter ego echoed through the halls on this week's SmackDown after the 'Fiend' attacked Daniel Bryan. This offers up two possibilities: Bryan vs. Bray for the WWE Title, or that Daniel will side with Sami Zayn and pals after all in some sort of bid to escape the same reaction-sapping hell Seth Rollins experienced.

Following last week's goldmine of unlikely NXT goodness (Bryan vs. Adam Cole, Shayna Baszler announcing herself and more), WWE reverted to type on Friday night. If it's true that Vince McMahon was behind a last-minute TakeOver brought on by Saudi travel troubles, then there were no signs of the boss serving up another course in Manchester.

Nope, fans in the UK were instead treated to the most bland of episodes that acted as more of a house show with cameras than another blistering step towards Survivor Series. Forget the hype if this is the kind of fare WWE pedal before the next pay-per-view, because it was ultra tame stuff.

Positives were there if one looked hard enough, but the show was overrun with malaise and wasted opportunities...

Advertisement
Contributor

Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.