It was just hours ahead of Night One of NXT's take on The Great American Bash in July that a picture did the rounds of an old WWE Bash banner with the NXT logo crudely slapped atop it. It spoke volumes about how little time and effort had been put into the show, serving as a reminder of why the two-week event was even happening to begin with.
Reeking of desperation when the brand was already taking deserved pelters for showing it's a*se by counter-booking some excellent summer episodes of AEW Dynamite, the event undermined a wicked mini-arc between The Golden Role Models and Io Shirai that birthed the aforementioned legit dream match between 'The Genius Of The Sky' and Sasha Banks.
Ultimately, for all the good the shows did - both evening's main events were excellent and NXT managed to defeat AEW's own specials in the viewership battles - they were reflective of a problem that had infested the black-and-gold brand. Chaos had been the theme of the world outside Full Sail's walls, but it had broken in...
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation for nearly 10 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 65,000,000 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 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. 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.
