9 Ups & 1 Down From Last Night's WWE Backstage (Jan 21)
3. Royal Ramble
WWE
CM Punk was a touch high on waffle during his first Backstage appearance of 2020, and took an age to get around to making his point, but he kicked off a fun "Pay It Off" segment by predicting Keith Lee as this year's men's Royal Rumble. "I assume Sasha Banks is in it?" was a rather damning indictment from 'The Voice Of The Voiceless' on the current state of the division, but his pick was logical all the same.
Paige's subverted the seriousness by going with Otis and his "tongue tornado" for the men's match before picking Kairi Sane for the women's match, whilst Christian went big with Brock Lesnar and Shayna Baszler for both battle royals.
It speaks to the power of the Rumble that predictions patter such as this can still carry some weight - for a company obsessed by short-termism, WWE should be credited for preserving the centrepiece of the show in the manner they have done for over 30 years.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 7 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 almost 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 60,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL 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
