5 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE SmackDown (10 Oct - Results & Review)

by Jamie Kennedy

1. A Fiery Last Man Standing Finish

Aleister Black Damian Priest Fireball
WWE

Fireball spots like this one can look utterly crap. If the worker lighting that flash paper fails to do it at the right time, then fans are met with a lame visual of somebody selling fireworks that clearly didn't come close to hitting their face. It's embarrassing when that happens, so plaudits go to Aleister Black for making sure this spot went off without a hitch.

Damian Priest looked set to finish Black off atop some production crates in the crowd during their main event 'Last Man Standing' match, but then Zelina Vega squeezed in to protect her man. Aleister told her to get down before launching a fireball in Priest’s face and hitting a Black Mass kick off the crates that sent Damian tumbling through a table. Again, thankfully, the fire spot worked.

Wrestling has a spotty history with that. Just watch some old Hulk Hogan stuff with Warrior in WCW for proof. Thanks chiefly to Aleister's adept use of the flash paper, this proved to be a really fun finish. He executed that to perfection. As most reading this know, Black and Vega have been together for years off-screen, so it’ll be cool to see what they can do in front of the cameras.

Zelina was excellent alongside Andrade on NXT, so maybe this will be a return to form for her too. She kinda needs that, and a more gothic look could feed into her natural creativity with outfits and style as a neat bonus on the side.

On top of all of that, it felt like the right call to give Aleister this win over someone the standing of Priest.

What did you think of this week's WWE SmackDown? For more like this, check out 10 WWE Fates Worse Than Death and 5 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE SmackDown (3 Oct - Results & Review)!

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Contributor

Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.