He got it wrong again when he misunderstood the cheers for the cool-as-f*ck Kevin Nash in 1994. Diesel was a breakout star in the Royal Rumble for the manner he which he drove through several foes before the field (and then-friend Shawn Michaels) conspired to oust him. He overachieved for the remainder of the year, and his imposing height and electric charisma was enough to convince McMahon to run his organisation on Diesel Power.
It ran out fuel the very second he made the bad*ss a grinning geek.
Sound familiar?
The Shield is WWE's greatest ground-up in-house creation of the decade, but Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose have -at one time or another - all been mowed by the mind that created a smiling Diesel Truck and red, white and blue bus.
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
