10 People You Had No Idea Worked For WWE

1. Dave Meltzer

Dave Meltzer Triple H
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A lightning rod in the contemporary online wrestling landscape, Dave Meltzer's legacy of detailed insider reporting effectively created the community he's considered by some to be the bane of.

And speaking of banes of the community, to Vince McMahon, who Meltzer discussed working for during a 2016 Wrestling Observer Radio recording. Batting back accusations of bias from Bruce Prichard, the Observer gaffer was a little more specific about what he actually did whilst under McMahon's employ.

He said (h/t to Reddit user SAVE_US.S3TH):

So, I mean, I did consulting work, and...so this is the funny thing: [Bruce Prichard]'s acting like it was this "he was on the payroll to say bad things" and it's like nobody would ever suggest that I would say anything, and it had nothing to do with the Observer to begin with. It was all about the Japanese market and it was in 1987 and it was for a very brief period of time. So, that was the story. That's not a secret. I wrote about it in 1991 and people have asked me about many times and that's the deal. I wouldn't do it now, and I probably shouldn't have done it then, but that's 29 years ago.

Though he'll remain in the DNA (if not quite the pocket, as many believe) of All Elite Wrestling thanks to his famous pre-ALL IN wager with Cody Rhodes, he was also a small part of WWE decades before the landscape-shifting bet.

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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