SmackDown: Shut Your Mouth Career Mode

**SmackDown: Shut Your Mouth Career Mode** is a series on Gore and Perkins' channel, where the duo take turns playing through the game's two year season mode. For this series, G&P decided to take control of Kurt Angle and are currently assigned to the SmackDown brand, being taken third overall in the draft.

## WWE Draft Results

At the beginning of Shut Your Mouth's season mode, players have the option to draft wrestlers to a show of their choosing (Raw or SmackDown), or can choose to skip the draft and have the game automatically make selections on the player's behalf. As Gore recorded the footage, he opted to draft the roster for SmackDown, with the AI drafting for Raw. The table below shows the top 10 selections for both brands, with the rest of the roster being filled out at random.

1Rob Van Dam was drafted with the WWE Intercontinental Championship, making it exclusive to Raw.

2Christian was with Lance Storm, as they are the WWE Tag Team Champions by default in the game's season mode. The tag titles are shared across Raw and SmackDown.

3William Regal was drafted with the WWE European Championship, making it exclusive to Raw

4The Hurricane was drafted with the WWE Cruiserweight Championship, making it exclusive to SmackDown.

As noted by Linda McMahon at the beginning, and Gore halfway through the draft, neither Undertaker nor Stone Cold can be selected in the draft. Certain wrestlers also couldn't be selected due to them being unlocked by progressing through the story.

## Career

### April

To begin Kurt Angle's career on SmackDown, Vince McMahon told Angle that if he stays in line, he would be considered for an Undisputed Championship match in the future. Angle then talked to Billy Gunn, but nothing really happened with that interaction. Angle then went on to defeat Goldust with ease, making him tap out to a sleeper hold. Angle then laid out a challenge to Undertaker, the Undisputed Champion, for a title match at Backlash.

The following week, Jim Ross informed Angle that a challenger was already chosen to face Undertaker, but that he would be taking part in a fatal four-way against Eddie Guerrero, Bradshaw and Jeff Hardy to determine the next number one contender. Angle then attempted to speak to Jazz, but she ignored him and nothing happened there either. Seemingly fueled by either the chance to challenge for the Undisputed Championship or Jazz straight up ignoring him, Angle quickly dispatched of The Hurricane, making him tap out to the Ankle Lock.

After seeing Eddie Guerrero flirt with Ivory and fail to pick her up, Angle faced Bradshaw in a fairly competitive match and got the win after making him submit to the Ankle Lock. Both G&P were confused, as they were of the belief that the fatal four-way was taking place, though they deduced it may be taking place at the pay-per-view or on another episode of SmackDown.

On the go-home SmackDown, a freaky looking Michael Cole congratulated Angle on earning a spot in the number one contender's match, with the lads saying that he'd fit in with Wallace and Gromit. Angle then teamed with Eddie Guerrero to take on Jeff Hardy and Bradshaw in a chaotic tag match, where Gore didn't know how to get on the apron for half the match and spent most of it attacking the illegal man. After figuring out how to get on the apron, Gore then led Angle and Guerrero to victory, then knocked out Jeff Hardy with one punch after the match.

At Backlash, however, Angle lost the number one contender's match in an extremely strange fashion. Jeff Hardy pulled a ladder out from under the ring, set it up outside and hit a 450 Splash on Kurt Angle, who was lying supine in the ring. Gore and Perkins both stated that while they would've liked to have won, they couldn't really be mad after the match ended on such a great spot.

### May

To begin the month of May, Jim Ross approached Kurt Angle in the backstage area, asking whether he'd like to participate in the UK tour. Angle accepted the offer. He was then thrusted into a random feud with The Hurricane after he apparently spoke to a kid that wanted Angle's autograph. While exploring backstage, Angle had a conversation with Eddie Guerrero that was the exact same as the one he had with Billy Gunn earlier. Following these confusing events, Angle absolutely destroyed Hurricane in their match, though Hurricane flattened him in a post-match cutscene.

At Insurrextion, the UK pay-per-view, Angle teamed with William Regal to face Bradshaw and RVD. Before this though, Angle approached Regal after they briefly spoke before the free roam kicked in. He asked Regal for some brass knuckles, which he responded to by hitting him with a Power of the Punch, though it wasn't shown in the video after Gore accidentally skipped it when he thought the game crashed. In the tag match itself, Regal picked up the win after hitting Bradshaw with a few knee strikes.

After returning to the United States, Angle joined Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler at the commentary table on SmackDown during Hurricane's match. As retribution for attacking him after the squash match two weeks ago, Angle damn near killed Hurricane in a pre-match beatdown, punching him in the back of the head multiple times. Angle then wrestled Goldust again, who put up a bit more of a fight compared to the last time they faced off, though he still ended up losing. Following their match, Hurricane challenged Angle to a "suspension match" at Judgment Day, where the loser is suspended from WWE for an undisclosed amount of time. G&P both quipped that they needed to win, or it'd end up being worse than their RVD career mode on Here Comes the Pain.

## Impact of the coronavirus pandemic

As the United Kingdom is in lockdown to slow the spread of coronavirus, G&P decided to record their Shut Your Mouth series in a similar fashion to the final episodes of Here Comes the Pain and the majority of their 2K20 Universe Mode. Gore would film the gameplay, then record commentary over Skype with Perkins, who wouldn't know the outcomes of matches or storylines.