10 Reasons Why You Need To Respect Kevin Nash

9. Early Career Resilience

CM Punk, Kevin Nash SummerSlam 2011
WWE.com

When arguing how 'underserving' Nash may have been of his time under wrestling's brightest lights, many ignore the fact that 'Big Sexy' paid his dues to get there, surviving some of the more horrific ideas from the bargain basement of wrestling's creatively damaged early-90's.

Naturally afforded advantages due to his impressive size, WCW signed Nash having spotted his domineering presence working security in the Atlanta strip joint scene.

However, upon his television debut, he was given an orange mohawk, christened 'Steel', and placed in useless sub-Road Warriors tag team 'The Master Blasters'.

Having lost his first partner 'Iron' within a month then 'Blade' three months later after the team's momentum rapidly collapsed, Nash quickly moved on to portraying 'Oz', a silver-haired pillock in a green cape somehow based on the film's Wonderful Wizard.

When that predictably flopped, he took on the cartoon casino mobster persona of Vinnie Vegas, which would inadvertently finally be his ticket out of a promotion consistently saddling him with these abysmal gimmicks.

Bringing his organic charisma to the role, Nash performed with such comedic gusto that he'd catch the eye of Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels, leading to the formation of a friendship that would change his life and career forever.

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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