Building carefully towards Week Two as the trappings of the Wednesday Night War took hold, a first-hour promo built a Drew Gulak/Lio Rush Cruiserweight Championship match as if it were one of the most important TakeOver clashes of the year.
For the combatants, it might be.
Rush's return a fortnight ago saw the '24-year-old Piece Of Gold' return to the dynamic form that got him hired and - briefly - got him over on Monday Night Raw as Bobby Lashley's stunt-mate.
Whilst 'The Almighty' came back to television as part of the red brand's second cucking angle of 2019, Rush's only motivation was to take Gulak's treasured title. Gulak's dominance with the belt has been confined to pay-per-view Kickoffs like every other champion thus far, but this may yet prove another benefit of NXT's unexpected move to USA. In three weeks, they've crafted easily the most-anticipated 205-and-under battle since WrestleMania.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 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. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, 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
