Seth Rollins appeared the best case scenario for a fairly barren babyface roster when he won the 2019 Royal Rumble and prepared to finally return the Universal Championship to a state of prominence. He ended the year as Raw's top heel, forced into a turn from just how badly it went.
Often a victim of his own sh*t Twitter craic, Rollins also lost supporters over the month thanks to horrendous booking, rancid promos and programmes that never once positioned him as a talismanic leader. That very problem informed his turn in fact, in the moment WWE finally married the man up with the manner in which he's been received.
Ultimately, he fell afoul of exactly the same problem Roman Reigns and John Cena had before him, but didn't appear in possession of shoulders broad enough to absorb it. He lost much of his online fanbase, which rapidly extended to arenas as silence morphed into boos and boos into open disdain.
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
