10! 10! 10! 10 Things You Didn't Know About Tye Dillinger

1. He Tagged With Cody Rhodes

Tye Dillinger Shinsuke Nakamura
WWE

The most prolific tag team partner of his many teammates during his slog through WWE's unforgiving proving grounds, Cody Rhodes (then going by his real surname Runnels) and Spears worked for months together against some of the top teams in Ohio Valley Wrestling, eventually scooping the territory's tag team titles with a victory over Deuce & Domino.

The duo lost the titles several months later against Charles Evans and Justin LaRoche (later known as Bam Neely), beginning a feud with each other that would see them battle for months over the OVW Television title after Spears cost Runnels a shot at the Heavyweight Championship to destroy their unit.

They traded the title on OVW Television until Spears won the belt and feud outright as Cody prepared to make his main roster debut alongside Hardcore Holly just weeks later.

Spears would move on to form the aforementioned units with Dolph Ziggler and Colt Cabana, but neither team achieved the heights of his first developmental double act.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but 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 in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. 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 sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett