In 2017, Roman Reigns had only to utter five words to get booed out of the building following a WrestleMania victory over The Undertaker. In 2019, it took just four to blow the roof off.
"I'm in remission y'all" was as sobering as the moment he told the world he was battling leukemia six months earlier, but had the ending the entire world wanted to see. Bad booking, Michael Cole screaming about 'The Big Dog' and years and boos were parked to one side as a real life human shared wonderful real life news.
Wrestling's complicated post-kayfabe battle with reality hasn't always been to the credit of a predetermined product. This was a potent and powerful alamgation of those conflicting philosophies.
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
