The name on every wrestling fan’s lips at the moment is Kit Wilson. And the British star has an infectious new entrance theme and gimmick to thank for his newfound popularity.
Wilson debuted his new look on the first SmackDown episode of the year, bringing in 2026 with an unexpected bang. Crusading against the locker room’s supposed “toxic masculinity” problem, Wilson has adopted a “tweener” approach to his new persona, which has unanimously won over the WWE fanbase.
Wilson’s new gimmick was enforced by an injury to his long-time tag team partner, Elton Prince, who sustained a career-threatening neck injury last summer. Shortly after Wilson debuted his new look, it was revealed that Prince had undergone neck fusion surgery, putting Pretty Deadly on indefinite hiatus.
Prince’s injury put Pretty Deadly’s WWE future at risk. The pair have worked together since 2015, rising from the British independent scene up to NXT. They eventually debuted on SmackDown in 2023. Before the injury, few would’ve backed Wilson to make a splash as a singles competitor. But contrary to widespread opinion, he has been one of the surprise packages of 2026.
Kit Wilson Discusses the Pop Stars that Influenced “Man Up”
Comedic timing has driven Kit Wilson’s wave of popularity, making the most of promos with Damian Priest, Trick Williams, Matt Cardona, and even Jacob Fatu. But the viral quality of his character is no doubt being driven by his catchy new theme song, “Man Up”.
Now that that's taken care of…
KIT WILSON! 🗣️@KitWilson_PD pic.twitter.com/pK4NHsSgWb
— WWE (@WWE) January 17, 2026
Appearing on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet, Wilson revealed that he was heavily involved in the creative process for “Man Up”.
“So I ended up having a fair amount of input. I was pushing for new music when I kind of found out what the situation was going to be, and maybe I was going to go solo,” detailed Wilson. “I started writing this email, just with all my references, with all the songs I like, with all the ideas I had, lyrics, kind of the theme of it, the vibe of it. So I had so much.”
“Girly Pop” is all over the DNA of Wilson’s viral theme
“There’s a Charli xcx and Billie Eilish song called ‘Guess’, and that opens with a phone call. Actually, there’s no phone call, but it opens and it goes, Hey, ‘Billie, are you there?’ That I loved. I really wanted that. So that was my first thing. I wanted a phone call, I wanted to ring, I wanted to pick up. I wanted a ‘Hey Kit, are you there?’
“Then there was just so many other influences. There’s another Charli xcx song called ‘Speed Drive’, which I really liked. JENNIE from BLACKPINK has a song called ‘like JENNIE’ that is very poppy. There’s a lot of girly pop music at the moment that has come out, which is just very catchy. It’s very iconic. It’s very chorus, chorus, chorus. Chappell Roan, ‘Femininomenon’, very good song. That was a big one I pushed for.
“There’s also some Harry Styles influence. 1975 was a big band that I liked, and Pretty Deadly actually used their song on the indies for a theme, ‘Love Me’. There’s kind of a guitar riff in that we used to really like, and I feel like I can kind of hear that in this song. Jade, who’s a UK artist, she used to be in the band Little Mix.
“So there’s just so many references there. I sent them all. I timestamped the bits that I like, the choruses. I’m always trying to give as much as I can, so as much of me is there. And then they came back. Gave me the first draft. It sounded great. Few tweaks, few tweaks, few tweaks, and I felt like we hit it.”
If you went about things the right way maybe we could have been friends…
Too bad you’re salty and toxic 😘 https://t.co/qxlayovQKy
— KIT💪WIL💪SON💪 (@KitWilson_PD) January 24, 2026
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