Watching WWE in 2021 doesn't really permit you to engage with a wrestling product the way you're supposed to, instead creating an entity so detached from the real world that relating to it all is seemingly impossible.
It's why so many facets of John Cena's divisive old persona now permeate the entire show. Multiple wrestlers that are neither heel, nor babyface, nor espouse shades of grey. Countless matches that simply happen in front of all our eyes, regardless of the silence they generate in the building. Promos that exist for the people in them rather than those at home or in the seats. Stuff plays out, or it doesn't, and almost none of it feels like it matters.
And it's in this miasma that we go peering, desperately, for anything we love. Big E is categorically that, and the WWE Championship in spite of everything is confirmation of him being validated at long last in his chosen profession. It's your friend getting a promotion or a loved one getting some good news rather than the Superstar Wrestler Winning The Big Match, but this earnest and earned high is just about all that remains.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation for 10 years. Alongside the production of daily written, audio and video content covering WWE and AEW, he 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 on the UK's wrestling podcast charts with over 10,000 episodes and 70,000,000 total downloads. He also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House!, Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast, and has guested on long-running Sunderland AFC podcast Wise Men Say.
With WhatCulture, he has provided in-person coverage of some of the biggest pay-per-views and Premium Live Events in wrestling history, including WrestleMania, Survivor Series, All In & Double Or Nothing in destinations such as New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. He has also been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana, 411Mania and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling.
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 music and culture magazines The Crack, Pilot as well as Sunderland AFC's premiere fanzine A Love Supreme. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it every other Saturday at the Stadium Of Light, and at Cribs gigs nationwide.
