6 Ups & 4 Downs From Last Night's WWE Backstage (Jan 28)
4. The Queen(s) City
WWE
Charlotte Flair's Royal Rumble win drew a mixed and humorous response from the live crowd stationed behind the panel (in answer to to "Who should she challenge?" a reveller, with strong tones of Teddy Long, replied "THE UNDERTAKER"), but Renee, Booker and Christian took time to give kudos to Shayna Baszler and Bianca Belair in a pleasing diversion from the typical main roster mentions.
Belair's 33-minute stint saw her set an elimination record and throw out some major names in what felt like a main roster soft-launch for the character after one last shot at the NXT Championship at TakeOver: Portland, whilst heavy favourite Baszler did the same amount of damage in less than a quarter of the time.
The future is bright for both, not least with this bonus Fox exposure.
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
