11. Damian Priest Vs The Miz, WrestleMania Backlash
WWE.com
In 2016, Natalya cut a promo on Monday Night Raw about staying in shape that instantly revealed itself to be product placement spot for Subway.
The branding was visible in the background, before the conversation brought it right to the front anyway. It was also just 30 seconds in the middle of a three hour show, but it felt egregious in the extreme nonetheless.
Nostalgic for "simpler" times of 2016 - that's the impact of this specific sh*tshow. A singles match derived from one of the bigger moments at WrestleMania, The Miz Vs Damian Priest was supposed to conclude a feud that had featured a Bad Bunny Canadian Destroyer at the 'Show Of Shows'. Instead, it was an out-of-nowhere 6:57 commercial for Army Of The Dead, as if all of Raw isn't that most weeks anyway.
This, ironically, would have worked just fine during the boneheaded cinematic nadir of 2020. Presented one year on and after WrestleMania itself had shown that reality was just around the corner, it was yet more sacrificial audience alienation in the chase of some desperate dirty dollars.
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.
