5 Most Insane Things Happening In Wrestling Right Now (Sept 21)

3. "For The Hundreds In Attendance..."

Jinder Mahal
Twitter (@soldierofthewwe)

Look at the state of those empty seats. The entire hard camera side of the Oracle Arena in Oakland was as empty as a Brexit promise - and you don't need the power of prescience to determine why.

SmackDown has suffered so badly in 2017 that Vince McMahon parachuted himself onto the show last week and risked a concussion for the cause. The answer, ironically, lies within that mental head of his, which certainly doesn't need to take more of a battering: stop pretending it is the 1980s. It's confusing, given that 'Stranger Things' and countless remakes mean we're virtually reliving that decade, but it's not as if Vince has a clue about that.

The daftest thing about this Jinder Mahal trainwreck is that - other than the fact WWE pay-per-views are broadcast on free TV in India, a country in which streaming services aren't part of the culture and can't be, given abysmal broadband speeds - WrestleMania VII, the house that cheap geopolitical heat built, had to move house because so few people cared about it. It is also the year of Great Wrestling. Mahal isn't a great wrestler. As a lower card act, he is passable. As a nominal headliner, he's the sh*ts.

The saddest element of this is that the pictured tweet was posted by a person with the username 'soldierofthewwe' - a 'Nathaniel' whose apparent purpose in life is to blindly follow WWE orders - questioning Road Dogg about why his dismal TV show isn't drawing flies to a flea market.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!