3 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Unreal Season 2 (Review)

DOWNS

5. Michael Hayes

Michael Hayes is the ultimate company guy. Asking him to be fair and critical of WWE is like asking Burger King to give you an honest review of a Whopper. Hayes would break his back to justify any decision made by WWE, and that blind loyalty is on full display throughout WWE Unreal.

Naomi and Sasha Banks were two of hundreds of performers to suffer creative disrespect at the whims of Vince McMahon. Rather than carry out his latest ridiculous booking decisions, the pair took matters into their own hands in May 2022 by handing in their Tag Team Championships and leaving Monday Night Raw on the day of the show. The pair were presented with a plan that Naomi would pin her tag team partner in a Six Pack Challenge, only for both her and Banks to lose their upcoming PLE matches to Bianca Belair and Ronda Rousey, respectively, and so the pair unanimously decided that enough was enough.

Most fans sympathized with the champions in the moment, and continue to retrospectively, but when Naomi recounted the story for Unreal, Hayes was shown defending WWE. It has seen a massive online backlash for justified reasons. Add to this that Hayes is seen gleefully dribbling over the controversial return of Brock Lesnar at the end of Episode 5, suggesting that fans loved being surprised by that, when most were actually disgusted by the reemergence of The Beast for his alleged part in the Vince McMahon and Janel Grant case, and you have a terrible overall look for The Freebird.