FOR 15 minutes before the show I sat listening to a man in his 40s deliver a spirited argument for why AJ Styles was a more deserving champion than Braun Strowman.

I paraphrase. "AJ Styles wrestles every night, while Braun Strowman wrestles when the .... he wants".

The rather heated and intense discussion was the same as you might expect from someone comparing Alan Shearer to Harry Kane or Anthony Joshua to Lennox Lewis.

In short, he was affording WWE the kind of respect that's usually reserved for so-called 'genuine' athletes.

Having watched the stars of this three-hour spectacular smash, chop and pin each other into submission, flexing every muscle and sinew along the way, it's hard to argue that these men and women are not genuine sports stars.

Sure there's pomp, ceremony and a huge dollop of theatre added into the mix, but at the heart of this enduring phenomena is true sporting prowess.

On Thursday night, we witnessed the likes of Jeff Hardy - now 40 - fly through the air, Daniel Bryan execute multiple closelines and AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura perform moves more commonly the preserve of acrobats.

Unlike on the TV shows, there was no trash-talk, no heavily scripted monologues and no over-the-top commentary, just pure smackdown action.

Sure, the crowd, displayed some typical English reserve at times, but once the more vocal among them started to chant they soon joined in to provide a deafening chorus of approval.

So whether Styles or Strowman are the best is open to discussion, but there is no debate over the merits of WWE - it's a knockout every time.