6 Ups & 6 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (25 Oct)
3. Just Say Yes
WWE.com
This was brilliant.
SmackDown MVP Sami Zayn yet again sunk his teeth into potentially questionable material, and yet again struck gold in the process. In aiming to work out just who the "real" Daniel Bryan was, the 'Underdog From The Underground' unearthed the footage of him being a total sh*tbag in his most recent run. By no means a deep dive, but at very least a logical step for him to take with Bryan seemingly focussed on taking Shinsuke Nakamura's Intercontinental Title amidst a sea of new support.
Even the set-up to all of this was tantalising. Michael Cole asked Bryan if his recent attitude change might trigger the return of the beloved Yes Movement - a development the audience were clearly in support of. The former WWE Champion wasn't given a chance to answer before the aforementioned interruption, allowing him to keep his cards close to his cardigan for another week at least.
Enormous credit is due to Daniel Bryan for how he's performed over the past few months, not least with the scripting finally catching up to his effort - emerging from the dumpster fire of the Roman Reigns whodunnit angle, Bryan hasn't dropped a certain sinister air despite the winds blowing back in a babyface direction.
Without cast-iron confirmation of his intent, the nervousness remains, and WWE did well here to keep that resolution/reversion hanging in the balance.
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 65,000,000 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 provided in-person coverage of some of the biggest pay-per-views and Premium Live Events in wrestling history, including WrestleMania, Survivor Series, All In & Double Or Nothing in destinations such as New York, New Jersey, Chicago, 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.
