5 Ups & 4 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (Dec 26)
3. Trouble At The Top
WWE.com
Though hardly the most subtle performer to ever grace his father's stage, Shane McMahon's acting was sensational as SmackDown Live! went off the air for the final time this year.
His intervention had again backfired to the tune of a victory for his fiercest foes. Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens got one over on 'The Money' yet again in sneaking bpast AJ Styles just as they did Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura in the Clash Of Champions match orchestrated by the Commissioner to oust them from the company altogether.
Less enraged at their glory, McMahon bore the expression of a boss frustrated that things in general weren't going his way. Exactly as he had done in a sh*t-itchingly awkward chinwag with General Manager Daniel Bryan earlier in the night.
The pair simply can't agree on anything anymore, so it seems. And yet, through a desperate attempt to save a clearly doomed relationship, the pair continue to compromise. Bryan was right to question McMahon's tunnel-vision approach to man management, but 'Shane-O-Mac's exasperated middle distance stare suggested contrition was no longer part of his own manifesto.
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
