5 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE SmackDown Live! In Newcastle (May 17)
2. Second Half Squash
WWE.com
An pre-intermission salvo from some of the show's heavy-hitters made it briefly appear as though WWE were going to skip their usual mid-show break after Daniel Bryan and The Miz delivered a far superior effort shortly before the pause for the cause.
The card is always 'subject to change', but doubled down on adjustments to the planned line-up when Women's Title combatants Carmella and Charlotte were squashed into an eight-woman contest with the blue brand's best of the rest (more on that later) whilst The Bar were Shinsuke Nakamura run-in buddies against a reunited Club in an impromptu six-man tag that parked a heated brawl between 'The Artist' and 'The Phenomenal One' at an annoyingly early stage.
The rushed nature of the latter portion of the card (on a show that still topped out at just over three hours), seemed both unnecessary and unfair.
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
