A polar opposite to the sort of celebrity brilliance that everybody's been accustomed to over the past several years, the IShow Speed Royal Rumble cameo was better for its brevity than Speed going out there and looking like he truly belonged.
Taking the place of Akira Tozawa due to being in the right place at the right time, the influencer did well to pivot from deer-in-the-headlights to chancer-in-the-Royal Rumble over the course of his entrance, and this was an important bit of the work - the likes of Speed divide audiences, but he very effectively illustrated who he was before Bron Breakker appeared to almost end his existence.
Falling victim to one of the best spears ever by maybe one of the best to administer it, Speed went full tackling dummy and was left for dead by the future Vision man. His night wasn't even over - having eliminated Otis before Breakker trucked him, he was fed to the Alpha Academy man who promptly launched him backwards through the announce table. This gashed his leg up, which made for great additional content when it came to the inevitable detailed documentation of the moment.
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
