3 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE SmackDown (Jan 14)

Ups...

3. At Least It’s Something

Aliyah WWE Guinness World Record
WWE.com

Aliyah is officially a WWE record breaker. She toppled Trish Stratus longstanding record of 3.8 seconds by beating Natalya in just "3.17 seconds" on this week's SmackDown. Will that lead to anything meaningful for the bubbly newcomer? Probably not, but at least it's something she can shout about.

That's a win for the ex-NXT villainess.

WWE rarely deserve fan patience (look at some of the 'Downs' to see that patience is rarely rewarded long-term), but yours truly is choosing to stay positive on the Aliyah thing for now. Maybe this could be a springboard to bigger and better things for her?

SmackDown's writers badly need to start building stars in this division again. It was decimated in the Draft late-last year, and young hopefuls have either disappeared (Toni Storm) or been ignored for too long (Aliyah). It's surely time to change that.

Advertisement
Contributor

Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.