6 Ups & 6 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (25 Oct)
4. It's A Friday, Yes It Is
WWE.com
Speaking of lost, there was much to admire about Kofi Kingston's pancake-crushing antics last week, even if it was a moment more for fans looking for things to grab onto following his humbling loss to Brock several weeks ago.
Don't be bullied by curmudgeons that flatly refuse to trust anything about WWE's process - this may lead down a dead end like so many of their angles, but it's more fun to latch on to the things you enjoy than beat them half to death on day one.
But.
Be prepared to be armed with nothing to defend yourself with a week later when the company go 50/50 on the act yet again. Even if the end result is Kofi losing his sh*t after losing all these matches, the company have to get better with how they book things along the way. The New Day were announced as Number One contenders for The Revival on next week's show (despite doing nothing that we were informed about to get the shot), then lost to Dolph Ziggler and Bobby Roode in a failed attempt to keep as many teams as possible hot for a Tag Team Turmoil match at Crown Jewel. A contest we now know won't have major stakes because The New Day are getting a shot 24 hours later regardless.
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.
