9 Ups & 4 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (18 Oct)
3. Same Again
WWE.com
When WWE used to play the trick of having a hot Raw opener bleed into an unannounced Raw main event during the Attitude Era, the shenanigans and sh*thousery were somewhat justified because a) the people involved were huge, huge stars and b) the roster was so thin that the company just didn't have a choice.
With respect to all four men in the hastily-arranged main event tag, neither could really be applied here.
Do WWE (or Fox?) have so little faith in the bulk of the roster that they want the same guys at the start of the night as at the end? It was made worse by just how hard Roman Reigns and Shinsuke Nakamura worked in the opener. The duo weren't saving themselves for the main, which in turn stood to compromise its quality too. The company must do better by the underneath guys - otherwise they'll never be anything else.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 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. 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 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
