9 Ups & 5 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (29 Nov)
5. Good Wrestling™
WWE.com
Drew Gulak and Mustafa Ali assembled an aggressively basic three minute television match to fill a bit of time and restart the latter's singles push after months of working alongside bigger stars in bigger matches.
This was well-worked for what little time it was afforded, but it'd be generous even to call it outright interesting. It existed, and didn't offend, but it hardly felt like the "impressive victory" Michael Cole was barely at pains to put over to try and help the nearly-man make his way back to the promised land of title contention.
Eh, consider this a beneficiary of the format than a glowing recommendation. It'd be cruel to mark this down, not least because Ali got something rather than nothing after his homecoming weekend in Chicago amounted to so little. That positive may look like a desert rose now, but if he finds full bloom by WrestleMania season this can at least look like the formal commencement.
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
