Last week's NXT was some achievement, in hindsight.
"In hindsight", because your writer gave the show four downs despite it still being a thoroughly enjoyable broadcast. One that was absolutely lightyears in front of the usual Monday Night Raw/SmackDown churn, but perhaps didn't entirely hold up against prior recent editions in the USA Network, or the competition on the other side.
Away from those metrics and measures, it did a fabulous job juggling the difficult mix of wrestlers fighting alongside each other on the main roster whilst trying to kill each other ahead of "War" on home turf. And Full Sail University was defended with the fire and fury of exactly that - Tommaso Ciampa confirmed once and for all that there was no "main roster" anymore other than the hallowed space they all stood in.
It was all very good, all very gripping, and a noble effort to keep ideas fundamentally at odds from completely fracturing. The ratings spoke to it too; AEW's lead was reduced to a paltry 9,000 as NXT posted 813,000 against Dynamite's 822,000
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation for 10 years. Alongside the production of daily written, audio and video content covering WWE and AEW, he 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 on the UK's wrestling podcast charts with over 10,000 episodes and 70,000,000 total downloads. He also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House!, Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast, and has guested on long-running Sunderland AFC podcast Wise Men Say.
With WhatCulture, he has provided in-person coverage of some of the biggest pay-per-views and Premium Live Events in wrestling history, including WrestleMania, Survivor Series, All In & Double Or Nothing in destinations such as New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. He has also been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana, 411Mania and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling.
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 music and culture magazines The Crack, Pilot as well as Sunderland AFC's premiere fanzine A Love Supreme. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it every other Saturday at the Stadium Of Light, and at Cribs gigs nationwide.
