The biggest pop of the show's second half, John Cena's old 'Doctor Of Thuganomics' making a surprise appearance to verbally annihilate Elias was the type of WWE surprise the company have barely experimented with yet - the Ruthless Aggression nostalgia trip.
It's tricky - WWE will have Triple H appearing on tanks until 'The Game's too old to straddle one thanks to the relentless adoration for the Attitude Era, but it took until Cena's turn as his old self to test the waters for the lost generation that followed.
A series of programmes on the post-2002 period in 2020 seemed to formally kick that period of nostalgia off for the organisation, but Cena's magnificent salvo on the 'Show Of Shows' proved to be something of a successful soft launch.
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
