WWE SmackDown: 10 Things You Might Have Missed (Oct 18)

2. Mauro Ranallo Comparing James Ellsworth To Leicester City

Alexa Bliss
WWE.com

Scan the announcer's Twitter page and it becomes fairly clear that Mauro Ranallo is a fan of football. For American readers, this refers to his fondness for soccer, specifically the English Premier League. As unlikely as it would have been to predict AJ Styles vs. James Ellsworth being a SmackDown main event, it was just as implausible that Leicester City would be mentioned on WWE programming one year ago.

Remarkably, that's exactly what happened in the midst of the show's main event this week. As Ellsworth was humorously tossed out of the ring repeatedly by AJ Styles (only for Dean Ambrose to keep throwing the challenger in again), Ranallo stated that James had to "channel his inner-Leicester City".

One of football's biggest ever shocks, Leicester were of course the team who conquered the likes of Man City, Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal in last season's Premier League. It was a nice moment for Ranallo to add such context, comparing James Ellsworth to Leicester's shock troops of the 2015/2016 season.

Leicester fans can rejoice, their team is now good enough to be mentioned on SmackDown.

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.