A vintage Vince McMahon ratings paranoia edict brought forth to a 2019 in which he was panicked enough to hire both of his business rivals at the same time to run his two biggest shows, the Chairman's sudden belief that matches shouldn't happen during commercials resulted in one of the strangest periods in Raw history.
Each week, writers weren't tasked with coming up with storylines for wrestlers, but excuses for why matches suddenly came to a stop or reset point right before commercials. For the first time since Michael Cole started smashing us to pieces with it a decade earlier, Raw actually stopped "rolling on".
The lifting of the ban actually made Raw better, presumably so McMahon could lie and say it was the plan all along.
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
