A comically overthought and patronisingly undramatic mess, One Final Beat was a troubling exhibition of the brand's increasing penchant for booking for minuscule audiences rather than the one that was merely shrinking.
Triple H, Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa presumably loved it. It's easy to imagine them high fiving as they remember yet another detail from the lengthy feud that can be easily inserted into a match that was already being held together with the used chewing gum on the shoes of other past moments.
It's likely the match and stipulation would have gone over magnificently in front of a Tampa Bay ticket-buying public, but that suddenly wasn't the setup. They can be blamed for either failing to pivot, or pivoting to this. It did give us the gift of the Garganos heel turn, but it'd be easy to give that back under threat of sitting through this stinker again.
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.
