5 Ups & 4 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (Dec 26)
3. Damaged Goods
WWE.com
Jinder Mahal moved an inch closer to yet another title belt this week after defeating Tye Dillinger in a United States Championship Tournament match, but he unsurprisingly failed to take even a baby step forward as a performer in the process.
'The Modern Day Maharaja' has impossibly boring bouts for a man given more opportunities than most to sparkle. Reminding fans and officials alike why he was such a rotten choice for the bone-headed task assigned to him in 2017, Jinder's progress has been glacial at best and more often inverse to the spot he commands.
'The Perfect 10's main roster year peaked in January of course, when WWE showed rare contrition in giving him the eponymous spot in the Royal Rumble ahead of a post-WrestleMania full time arrival. Perhaps one of the biggest victims of putting the WWE Title on Jinder Mahal back in May, Dillinger's newcomer heat was dwarfed by his foe's rapid ascent, especially when he was used as one of the few to convincingly fall to the undeserving king.
Their final battle of 2017 was subsequently a microcosm of their respective years. Jinder won, Tye lost, and hardly anybody cared.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 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. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, 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
