After CM Punk banters a John Cena DVD trailer off the face of the earth, we get an Old West tee-up for 'The Champ's final words later in the show, as if the gunslinger really did have no choice but to leave town.
Lay-Cool can't get into the building next because they're not welcome on Raw since losing the Divas Championship to Natalya the prior night. The point here is that they can't just float between shows as they're purely SmackDown superstars. The door's slammed in their faces, they're livid, the crowd pop and your writer needs a minute to soak up a comedy segment with more continuity than WrestleMania 36's Universal Championship match.
Onto Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov next and the intentionally hilarious sight gag of Tamina strumming a ukulele in the room with them to further a romance angle that goes down brilliantly with the live audience. To Randy Orton briefly who puts over John Cena's hustle, loyalty and respect before The Miz no-shows a King Of The Ring qualifier (due to an “anxiety attack”) against Ezekiel Jackson, allowing protege Alex Riley to take a profoundly satisfying sh*tkicking instead. WWE underplayed Miz simply blowing this opportunity off, but we all knew enough of his cowardice to work out a real reason by ourselves. Or so we all thought.
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
