10 Live Observations From Attending WWE SmackDown Live In Manchester

Wait, The Fiend was on the show?!?! Not for the live crowd, he wasn't.

by Andrew Pollard
Tyson Fury Braun Strowman
WWE.com

This past Friday was one of those times where WWE was over in the UK for a SmackDown show. But not only did WWE tape SmackDown earlier on Friday, they then followed that up by taping next Monday's edition of Raw.

To say it was a long night would be an understatement - largely down to a handful of awful segments - but WWE fans certainly got their money's worth in terms of the amount of content they were given. Still, regardless of nearly five hours of WWE TV product on display, it was a mixed bag (at best!) of a night when it comes to actual quality.

SmackDown, of course, would air a few hours after said taping, yet there are obviously things that the live crowd gets to see that maybe doesn't translate to the TV audience. And as it would happen, yours truly was in attendance to see both the SmackDown and Raw tapings - with more spoiler-ific Raw observations available here.

Want to know what was noticed in the live setting of the Manchester Arena during this Friday's SmackDown taping? Let's find out...

10. The Collective Shock At That Corbin Promo

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WhatCulture

However it came across on the TV broadcast of SmackDown, that King Corbin promo was a thousand times more brutal in person.

Corbin talking about Roman Reigns' testicles and making puppy dog barks? This is the sort of sh*t that you'd have to question whether Vince Russo would even do! Then again, that's Vince Russo, so of course he'd go with this sort of idea. Anyways, point being, this was a jaw-droppingly bad segment.

To be fair to Corbin, he can't particularly help what material he's given to work with, and he did the best that he could do with such garbage, but the reaction to his testicle talk had people across the arena looking at each other in shocked disbelief that somebody in WWE thought this was ever a good idea. And not just somebody thinking it was a good idea, but that nobody didn't immediately question the sanity of whoever green-lit this promo.

This didn't exactly generate heat for King Corbin, per se. Instead, it just made the audience question the sheer stupidity and creative decision of WWE to do any of this in the first place.

Senior Writer
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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.