7 Ups & 8 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (11 Oct)

The WWE Draft kicks off with a bang. Or was that just the sound of a Bayley Buddy getting axed?

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A show that probably should have been the climax of WWE's Premiere Week considering the state of Sunday's WWE Hell In A Cell, the first edition of SmackDown on Fox was a beautiful and brilliant festival of WWE's best bullsh*t.

The set was stunning, the booking was shocking and The Rock was talking - it was all the best ingredients for a superb two-hour shift of Sports Entertainment. The company were even smart enough to tee up a gimmick for the second episode too, if only to prove that the near-four million viewing figure wasn't a total fluke.

It's Draft season!

A staple event for WWE any time the rosters are split, Drafts, Superstar Shake-ups et al have always found drama in the fundamentally undramatic. Never once have we the audience been given a storyline reason as to why red is better than blue or Monday better than Tuesday/Thursday/Friday, but that very question would unpick too many loose threads. Instead, let's make like the "war rooms" and celebrate/commiserate as appropriate!

In the immediate aftermath of the broadcast, it felt as though the latter dominated the discussion.

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Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 7 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 30 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz", Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 50,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett