10 Wrestlers That Seriously Took The Piss

9. Shawn Michaels

Chris Jericho Bubbly
WWE

One of the greatest piss takers of a generation rolled back the years when faced with a man determined to only play the hits, and got everything he could have hoped from his sh*thousery.

Shawn Michaels' excellent one-feud heel turn in 2005 was engineered entirely to inform a weird clash-of-eras dream match with Hulk Hogan at that year's SummerSlam, and 'HBK' wasn't messing about in the build-up. He went in hard on 'The Hulkster' for his age, his known machiavellian moments and just about anything else he could land on the legend.

Real egos were at play here - Michaels was 11 years Hogan's junior but they'd both advanced to that category where legacies were timeless. Ages weren't of importance to audiences wanting to watch two icons of the industry square off, but when Hogan allegedly nixed a series of contests and wanted an easy one-and-done squash victory in the programme, Michaels used his relative youth to claim tacit victory in defeat.

This was Hulk stealing the spotlight from the Ultimate Warrior literally flipped and used against him 15 years later. Body defeated mind for one of the only time in Hogan's career.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 7 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 30 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz", Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 50,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, 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