9 Ups & 5 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (29 Nov)
3. Bliss Doesn't Miss
WWE.com
"This got over, question mark exclamation mark" feels like the theme of this week's SmackDown, but hot crowds warm cold angles and good on them for making television shows better.
Everybody that featured in this segment was good-to-great in it too - Mandy Rose was a nasty piece of work in her promo again. Nikki Cross and Sonya Deville had the Ali/Gulak issue of doing as much as they could with no time at all but stayed over in spite of it. The Fire & Desire beatdown of Cross got the desired boos before Alexa Bliss' surprise return drew equally welcome cheers.
Bliss could be a difficult long-term pitch as a babyface, but perhaps that's part of the fun of her pairing with the ever-innocent Cross. Waiting for the turn will only highlight the magic and infinite sadness of it actually occurring.
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
