WWE Fans Debate Whether Aliyah Forgot Her Lines During Talking Smack Promo

Was the recent SmackDown draft pick visibly reading from a script on this week's Talking Smack?

by Andrew Pollard
Aliyah Kayla Braxton WWE Talking Smack
WWE.com

Having recently been drafted to WWE SmackDown, some fans on Reddit are speculating that Aliyah was reading notes for a backstage promo she did on the most recent episode of Talking Smack.

Interviewed by Kayla Braxton, the former NXT talent can be seen glancing to the side at several points, which some have taken as an indicator that she was reading her lines from a script just out of shot.

One other way of looking at it, is that Aliyah wasn't too sure where to look. In addition to her line of sight returning to the same spot at several points, she also looks in several other directions as she fields questions from Braxton. If anything, this could be more maybe nerves tied to not knowing where to look during such a segment. After all, in situations like this, we know how WWE often doesn't like stars to look directly into the camera, and likewise those stars usually don't look directly at the person posing the questions.

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This Talking Smack spot was part of the fallout of Aliyah being booted from the blue brand's Survivor Series team, with Sonya Deville removing her from that line-up as punishment for Aliyah being friends with Naomi.

As for Aliyah's Talking Smack promo, you can find that at around the 1:40 mark of the below video:

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.