9 Ups & 4 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (18 Oct)
Ups...
9. Worker's Title
WWE.com
With the vim and vigour of Mr Perfect, Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, Roman Reigns and Shinsuke Nakamura went to war in a brilliant blue brand opener marred only by the aforementioned atrocious finish.
With Sami Zayn on and off commentary like the wonderfully insufferable little tw*t he is and the status of the secondary strap convincingly put over by the announcers, the entire presentation managed to craft a universe in which 'The Big Dog' was willing to go to extra lengths to take the prize. A prize the 'King Of Strong Style' looked extremely keen to protect.
With a finish, this was one of the best television matches of the year. With what it had, it didn't make the grade. But it wasn't for the want of effort - a rerun of this wouldn't look out of place on pay-per-view.
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
