10 Things We Learned From The Secret Diary Of A WWE Superstar

6. No Strangling, No Cursing, No...Severed Heads?!

Aleister Black silhouette
WWE.com

Receiving instructions that Daniel Bryan clearly didn't 15 years later, Shinzaki's heel instincts were tempered somewhat following a match with Bob Holly that also brought to the front various other standards that were expected in WWE in at the time.

As he put it;

"March 26, 1995 in Cleveland, Ohio against Bob Holly. I attacked my opponent by strangling his neck. After the match, my agent told me "I don't want you to do that ever again, because it's not good for children to see something like that." In the United States, certain violent acts and bad words like F*CK YOU are not allowed to be expressed on TV."

This tone was revisited later that year, with Hakushi himself questioning the value of a particularly infamous segment. He said;

"May 15, 1995 in Binghamton, New York...Today, Bret's "severed head" was put out in the ring for the first time, but perhaps it was bad to bring it out as the audience reacted poorly".
 
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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 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. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, 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