4 Ups & 4 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (Oct 31)
2. Rusev Day (Redux)
WWE.com
September 26th 2017 is already circled in wrestling fan calendars as the second annual Rusev Day following the 'Bulgarian Brute's admirable efforts to drag comedy out of his dispiriting feud with Randy Orton, but WWE finally appeared to go all-in with his deluded new veneer as he got up to no good on this week's show.
Ru-Ru and English were both sidesplitting this week, proving yet again that the former United States Champion is infiniately better when he has somebody else parroting his rhetoric to bounce off. It remains confusing why WWE persist with separating him off from these seconds, but after Lana and Jinder Mahal were both cast aside, hopefully his third time alongside the former Vaudevillain will be the charm.
Defeating Big E (yes, he actually won the match), Rusev confidently bounded into Shane McMahon's office and managed to score himself a Survivor Series qualification match against AJ Styles next week. With the 'Phenomenal One's current problems with 'The Modern Day Maharaja', he might even win that too!
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
