10 Live Observations From Attending WWE SmackDown Live In Manchester

7. The Crowd Went Nuts For Imperium

Tyson Fury Braun Strowman
WhatCulture

While the recent happenings on Raw, SmackDown, and NXT had fans going into Friday night's SmackDown and Raw taping with high hopes of seeing some NXT names turning up to shake things up on the blue brand, the arrival of some NXT UK talent was a major surprise.

That NXT talent, of course, was WALTER and his Imperium stable, and they'd make their presence felt by laying out The New Day just moments after Big E and Kofi Kingston had defeated The Revival to become the new SmackDown Tag Team Champions.

The watching audience lapped up the arrival of Imperium, and just the simple fact of seeing current NXT United Kingdom Champion WALTER in the Manchester Arena was one way to get the fans on-side with SmackDown.

A logical school of thought seems to suggest that Imperium may end up battling The New Day and Heavy Machinery at Survivor Series, but that's merely guess work after Imperium were only to be seen during that one segment on SmackDown.

As for those expecting a slew of NXT stars running roughshod, Shayna Baszler was great, yet the fact that she was the only NXT name on SmackDown was a bit of a letdown for those in attendance.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

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.