8 Ups & 5 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (10 Sept)
2. Re-Living The Dream
WWE.com
This segment - and the wood-smashing payoff - was always the one saving grace of the Kofi Kingston/Randy Orton feud continuing on past the dreadfully dull SummerSlam match.
Before The New Day changed the lives of all three members, Kingston's 2009 Madison Square Garden attack on 'The Viper' looked for many years like it would be the high point of his career. Orton's "the two things you've done in the last ten years" line was a killer set-up to his character assassination of Kingston that played on this. The WWE Champion heading out to face Orton head-on in an enjoyable retread of their famous former brawl was the only natural outcome.
Fair play to the pair for not panicking when the table appeared to break early in the pre-bump brawl, too. Using the second without worrying for the fallen first, the duo pulled off the planned spot perfectly as a last visual before their Clash Of Champions contest.
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
