6 Ups And 9 Downs From WWE No Mercy 2016

5. He’s Got Kids!

heath slater
WWE.com

Even though this column questioned the booking earlier, it’s hard not to feel for Heath Slater with his plight during this summer, and not root for him (and Rhyno) as SmackDown Tag Team champs.

Slater and Rhyno’s Cinderella story is a fun one – although Vince McMahon’s redneck overtones weigh it down a bit – so seeing them win a couple PPV matches is a nice change of pace. And it throws a curveball to the conventional wisdom that said that the Usos should have run over them Sunday night. So while it was strange booking, it also was interesting at the same time.

And give Beauty and the Man-Beast credit: They’ve connected with the crowd and had them behind them. Slater has earned it, so if that means a bit longer with his victory lap, we won’t condemn it.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.