2000 was a year so utterly f*cking fabulous for WWE that they too succumbed to the marketing strategy du jour and hoyed the number on the end of the event title. Far from just panicking those that prefer a neater sequence, this promised futuristic flights of fancy something such as Sports Entertainment can almost always deliver. Not least this version of Sports Entertainment. Sports Entertainment - pro wrestling via Vince McMahon - at its commercial and critical peak.
The company continued to crush WCW in something that could barely be considered a "war" anymore, whilst January's Royal Rumble and February's No Way Out kicked off a year that would comprehensively go down as the company's best ever on pay-per-view.
There wasn't a shred of cynicism implied in the opening line of this intro. It was the best of times. This was not the best of WrestleManias.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation for 10 years. Alongside the production of daily written, audio and video content covering WWE and AEW, he 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 on the UK's wrestling podcast charts with over 10,000 episodes and 70,000,000 total downloads. He also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House!, Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast, and has guested on long-running Sunderland AFC podcast Wise Men Say.
With WhatCulture, he has provided in-person coverage of some of the biggest pay-per-views and Premium Live Events in wrestling history, including WrestleMania, Survivor Series, All In & Double Or Nothing in destinations such as New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. He has also been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana, 411Mania and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling.
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 music and culture magazines The Crack, Pilot as well as Sunderland AFC's premiere fanzine A Love Supreme. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it every other Saturday at the Stadium Of Light, and at Cribs gigs nationwide.
