5 Ups & 4 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (Dec 26)
Ups...
5. Rumblings
WWE.com
Strong storyline development wasn't in short supply this week, as SmackDown Live! used the new year and specifically the Royal Rumble as a booking crutch for most of the key issues on the show.
Best buds Shinsuke Nakamura and Randy Orton were over their Clash Of Champions defeat to Kevin Owens because of course they were, but popped up long enough to enter themselves into the 2018 incarnation of the 30-man war alongside first Raw name Elias.
Natalya's return from a self-imposed nine day exile wasn't really touched upon on television, but her post-show 'I don't feel like answering their questions anymore' explanation sounded like a diversionary whitewash of the entire thing. Regardless, it freed her up for the historic women's equivalent, joining Naomi, Ruby Riott and Asuka thus far.
Elsewhere, Dolph Ziggler's abdication was dealt with by Daniel Bryan at the top of the show in a rare acknowledgment of the importance of both the title and the (ex-) titleholder.
For many years, WWE cruelly robbed their own prizes of prestige by neglecting such tropes whenever a belt lost an owner, instead electing to abandon the word 'belt' entirely as ludicrous preservation device. Recent returns to simpler solutions have been satisfying to say the least.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation for nearly 10 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
