When Sami Zayn defeated Solo Sikoa to win the United States Championship on August 29th, a lot of complete idiots saddled him with the "Sami Hogan" tag, which was the first clue that the booking was good and destined for success.
Seven days later, Zayn was able to return a favour John Cena extended to him a decade earlier in a wonderfully cute bit of continuity booking, but strapping up former 'Honorary Uce' was done for more than just challenging 'The Champ' one last time. SmackDown was in need of a number of upgrades, and a guaranteed high quality match each week was one such change. Taking a title and some opponents that weren't exactly ultra-popular and bringing the atmosphere to a fever pitch was an example of the artform at its best, with matches that took on a different tone and flavour all through to his shock loss to surprise returnee Ilya Dragunov.
Dragunov's job was just as important, but he understood the assignment and the slot on Friday nights remained - the 'Mad Dragon's early defences mirrored Zayn's for peaking late on and establishing raison d'êtres for much of the rank-and-file.
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
