10 Wrestlers Who Saw WWE As A Vacation

2. Hawk

Shinsuke Nakamura
WWE

1992's bizarre summer of discontent is now available to view in the best possible quality thanks to WWE Network's bulk Superstars upload, but one of the saddest recurring theme throughout is the faux-rise and terminal fall of the Legion Of Doom. Though not as pronounced as his horrific 1998-99 run as dinosauric drug-addled buffoon, Hawk's negligible alienation due to their cartoonish reimagining is quite the slog.

The lions of late-1990 were lambs two years on, having been chewed up and spat out by the McMahon machine as gimmicks over personas. Sh*t-kicking giants no more, the prideful pair were robbed of the Tag Team Titles and gifted a ventriloquist's dummy as makegood. Hawk, feeling particularly bantered off by the whole thing, decided to work down to the new expectations.

A body on the beach and a head in the clouds, Hawk was a walking worst case scenario, often spotted chilling on turnbuckles before hot tags or simply sleepwalking through matches that were lost without the trademark physical intensity. Dogging it in jobber matches and allegedly spending much of the year in a willingly altered state before his post-SummerSlam 1992 departure, even his relationship with Animal was partially severed by his near-the-knuckle behaviour and temperament.

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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