18 Ups & 12 Downs From The WWE SmackDown Live Era

By Michael Hamflett / October 2, 2019

5. "Kami"

WWE

More than just a bad nickname and lame portmanteau, AJ Styles' self-popping "Kami" reflected a writing team absolutely drunk on the instruction to bury Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens during a rotten run for the two between 2017 and 2018.

Sent home from tours and frozen out of major pay-per-views, the unfocused quasi-push of the pair as heels did far more damage to the friends that designed.

The "Kami" nickname didn't help, but it spoke volumes of how funny Styles was scripted to find it (or simply just did, he seems the type) - revealing an insecure undercurrent below a knackered writers room, the stupid moniker was the evil that emerged.

Authored by Michael Hamflett

Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 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 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, 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

Posted On: 2nd Oct 2019

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