10 Best WWE Network Shows Of 2018

9. Ride Along

Matt Hardy
WWE.com

Ride Along is lie.

The only moments of struggle in AJ Styles' '365' special provided the nuggets of truth Ride Along obscures - a travelling salesmen's life is a tough one, not least when the flogged product in question is their own beaten body. 'The Phenomenal One' was relishing the opportunity to be company figurehead, but openly wore the emotional and physical wounds of the grind as the cameras rolled.

Ride Along effectively forces wrestlers to work a split shift between their time between the ropes and their trip to the next hotel. It is not a definitive and truthful travelogue, but it is - as with so many WWE Network vehicles - yet another method of presenting talent in more relatable fashion that the weekly churn.

Amongst other things, professional wrestlers are work colleagues too - intimate ones at that. Time in cramped spaces is something they're good at making the best of, and they almost always do on these carefully edited road trips. Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows once brilliantly bantered off their own WWE runs in the show, noting that they'd probably appeared more times on it than they'd won matches. For Gallows at least, it was the rare case of the company exploiting his most positive attribute.

 
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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