Alyse Ashton Resumes Backstage Interviewer Role At WWE Payback 2020

SmackDown reporter makes Pay-Per-View debut.

by Michael Hamflett
Alyse Ashton
WWE

WWE presenter Alyse Ashton made her main roster pay-per-view debut at Sunday’s Payback.

Ashton interviewed Matt Riddle backstage ahead of his singles match with King Corbin, and appeared again to speak to the 'Original Bro' after the match before the King assaulted him from behind.

Hired back in October 2019, Ashton (real name Alyse Zwick) joined the company in October 2019 and debuted on the January 17th edition of SmackDown during a backstage segment with Sheamus and Shorty G. Away from television, she's already popped up in various WWE Network and online presentations, including working with Scott Stanford on weekly wrap-up show This Week In WWE.

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It's presumed (though not confirmed) that Ashton will return to SmackDown following the Payback shift. She was one of four broadcasters to appear across the evening - Charly Caruso helmed the Kickoff Panel in her new position as permanent host of the main roster roundtable following the departure of Renee Young. Kayla Braxton found herself on the wrong end of Paul Heyman's barbs throughout the night in a quest to figure out the status of Roman Reigns, and Sarah Schreiber was present for post-show/WWE.com interviews.

 
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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