4 Ups & 4 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (Oct 31)

Tricks And Treats

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WWE.com

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?

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Contributor
Contributor

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