Maybe Saraya's promo might have scanned differently if the bulk of it had taken place after Toni Storm and Serena Deeb finished beating the sh*t out of each other?
What a fantastic wrestling match this was. Fought initially in the face of indifference from the crowd and against the needlessly busy backdrop of a lumberjack stipulation, the two - like Bryan Danielson and Matt Menard - were tasked with more than they should have been. Unlike the opening match, they got the crowd back huge by the end.
Deeb's one of the best wrestlers in the world and continues to be crucial to whatever success can be made of this division. Meanwhile, Toni Storm grows in self-confidence every week, and it's being reflected in how hard she goes to get herself, her opponent, and the interim Championship over. The elevated piledriver was a heart-in-mouth conclusion after Deeb survived the first brutal one, with audible gasps surely as prevalent in front of all screens as they were in the building.
Whole thing ruled in spite of accidental efforts to impede it.
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.
