When Roman Reigns survived the last-minute onslaught of loathed fossils The Big Show and Kane and evil foreign menace Rusev to win the 2015 Royal Rumble, he was booed so mercilessly for it that most assumed this would actually be the end of his Road To WrestleMania rather than the beginning.
Conventional wrestling wisdom had it that this response (and f*cking loads others like it) would necessitate a change. But WWE hasn't mimicked conventional television wrestling company in any capacity for over two decades. Pushed so hard down everybody's throat that everybody got sick quicker than ever before, this wasn't the "mixed reactions" of the John Cena years or even a Shawn Michaels or Hulk Hogan getting booed in a heel town. The man was a figure of such disdain that reactions were still tempered when he returned from battling leukaemia in 2019. Audiences - in defiance of his outstanding range and quality work - dreaded him being atop the pile.
The person in that spot is supposed to be the one people want to see the most. WWE had gotten the basics backwards, and were so proficient at that that it became the norm.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 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. 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 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
