WWE embraced a Halloween aesthetic a little too liberally on Monday Night, with an episode of Raw that not only wasn't a treat but felt far too real to be a trick. Stephanie McMahon's re-emergence kicked off a night of returns, but hers was by far the scariest.
And not only for the audience. Becoming a downtrodden authority figure like all the rest, Kurt Angle spent the evening appropriately terrified after the Commissioner informed him that he'd be out of work if Monday Night Raw lost the Survivor Series main event. It did attach some stakes to the match at least, but in doing so reduced the Olympic Gold Medalist and 'Wrestling Machine' to a frightened state just eight days removed from him smashing some of his own roster members through tables as a substitute for Roman Reigns.
Angle's place on the team was one of Raw's headline stories as they attempted to rebuild in the wake of the painfully over-branded '#UnderSiege' attack a week prior. A lone voice of reason in amongst the utterly pointless, Daniel Bryan was seemingly written out of the angle altogether following an attack from Kane during his visit to the flagship show, leaving aggro Shane free to run the rule over the rampant blue brand.
How would he, and more specifically, his pavlovian roster, respond to the red brand's first strike back?
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.
