The show-not-tell organisation went against its core principle a big way in the big post-match angle.
Chris Jericho's return felt partially botched. Generating a big pop from Daily's Place at least, the Inner Circle leader came out swinging, but didn't bother doing so during the long and protracted build to Santana taking a shot to the head with the ring bell. Was he aping old pal Vampiro and waiting for "his f*cking music" or something?
Fortunately, Eddie Kingston had no time for the obvious posturing, but the announce team questioned what his problem was with the returning hero.
That was obvious to the viewer, forced narrative be damned. 'The Mad King' was beloved enough to make half the crowd boo CM Punk last month. The company's internal value system must be held to account if they consider bloated egomaniacal gazillionaire Jericho the hero of this specific story. Not least when he feels like a winnet latching onto Kingston's momentum as it is.
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
