About a week ago, it felt like the entire world was watching two megastars, Jake Paul and Mike Tyson, in one of the least exciting boxing matches of all time. Naturally, WWE superstar and brother of Jake, Logan Paul, was on hand to celebrate and, of course, threaten Mike Tyson himself.
Both Mike Tyson and the former United States champion have a WWE pedigree, so the conversation online turned to celebrities in wrestling once again. Wrestling has ebbed and flowed in the popular mainstream entertainment landscape.
Periods when the form is in high cultural prominence are usually the times when good or great celebrity collaborations happen. The other times are marked by Jeremy Piven forgetting the name of WWE’s second-largest show.
@aew #BigBoomAJ is ready to bring the BOOM! #aew #aewfullgear #allelitewrestling #prowrestling #prowrestlingtiktok #costcoguys #bigjustice
In either case, fans tune in. They showed up in droves for Jake and Iron Mike and will do so again if Logan gets a turn. They followed Ronda Rousey in WWE and tolerated Cain Velasquez when he tried to replicate her successes.
Sexxy Red is a certified NXT star despite not being a wrestler, and Travis Scott could very well join Bad Bunny in the musical wing of WWE icons.
AEW, the “wrestlers” show, has featured Shaquille O’Neal, Action Bronson, and recently Big Justice & AJ, who made a big splash. No promoter in the fight game, scripted or otherwise, can resist the celebrity because it always works. The question is, why?
You Can Hate Your Favorite Wrestlers
Only some wrestling appearances are good. Some of them are pretty bad, including every guest host of Raw, maybe ever.
For every memorable Bad Bunny moment or Cyndi Lauper collaboration, you have to wade through Hoda and Kathie Lee or the Weekend Update crew. All four of these moments, though, stand out because a lot of people watched them.
It seems that the good and the bad can draw equally well, which is something that only combat sports and entertainment can boast. You can absolutely hate your favorite wrestler. Logan Paul has made a career off that hate.
Gotta say this. F*CK @LoganPaul
👊☠️🇲🇽— SANTOS ESCOBAR💀🇲🇽 (@EscobarWWE) October 21, 2023
Celebrities are often the target of scorn, some intentionally and others unintentionally, and usually with devastating results. When a celebrity makes a cameo on a typical TV show, they play the best version of themselves more often than not.
This archetype works fine when you are typically well-regarded. If you are not, people tune out.
In wrestling, like boxing, you don’t need to cheer for the celebrity guest. Fans are equally entitled to hope somebody meets the ring post head first or grabs a quick nap with the mat after a heavy blow.
Seeing people we like win or dislike get beat down is the point of wrestling. When it comes to people who are not typically in those situations, the allure is even stronger.
The Curiosity Factor is Very Strong
As hinted at before, celebrities in wrestling are something of a novelty. There is a reason that Logan Paul is only around some of the time, apart from a busy schedule.
If he carried a full slate, then he would maybe have earned some respect from the wrestling purists, but more casual fans of his or the product would not be happy.
If people see something enough times, they become accustomed to it. That is why the big outside stars get to keep some space from the product.
Guys like Bad Bunny or Stephen Amell impressed without being “incredible” by staying away and making their limited ring time feel fresh. Even Snooki had some athletic moves to get the people talking the next day.
Snooki exemplifies the opposite side of the debate but is still a reason for the attraction. Some of the celebrities are bad at it, and we can never know which one. There is an idea that people will always watch a car crash because they can’t look away. Part of the fun in watching the celebrity matches is that you never know which it will be. Bad Bunny was surprisingly good, and Cain Velasquez was awful. Both felt like must-sees because it was an open question and possibly a one-off appearance to witness something like that.
These Fights Get a Boost in “Earned Media”
Another reason that celebrities in wrestling will always draw attention, often regardless of their quality, is earned media. The phrase gets kicked around a ton in various delicate topics, but all it really means is organic media interest.
Celebrity matches do better because the sites and shows that tell people what to watch and what is happening are more likely to cover those fights.
This same theory applies to people like The Rock or John Cena. Although they are also wrestlers, they have captured the intrigue of the broader media, who now decide to cover everything they do, including wrestle. It can take more time, but it has the benefit of being primarily cost-free.
WWE, like any brand, can and has paid to spread its message. It is easy to ignore ads on television or online. Viewers are not watching for the ads, so the best way to reach people is to be part of the content they consume.
Sometimes, you can pay for that, but often, you need to get creators talking about you organically.
A lot of time, the talent featured on shows can’t do that, apart from coverage on sites like this or the countless wrestling YouTube channels.
Celebrity involvement like that of Snoop Dogg and Jason Kelce or matches involving Floyd Mayweather Jr and Lawrence Taylor all get picked up on the hot properties of the day both before and after the appearance.
This series becomes advertising, in a format people are forced to engage with, from celebrities and hosts that they trust and will possibly follow.
The Celebrity as The Average Fan
Celebrities are usually seen as extraordinary by their fans.
There are numerous occasions in which that belief is misplaced. Most fans, though, do not see their favorite musician or comedian and think, “I would love to see them in a fight.” This one area is the place where most celebrities are less capable, allowing viewers to connect and relate with them a little bit more.
Like Johnny Knoxville, for example, in his WrestleMania match. The amount of off-the-wall antics was funny, but also, it’s essentially how an ordinary fan would wrestle. Drew Carey is another example.
His run in the Royal Rumble ended in a showdown with Kane. Of course, he ran; Kane is huge. The result was funny and also, in a way, relatable to the fans who know that’s how they would end up in a similar situation.
We don’t often get a chance to empathize or relate to the rich and the famous. Watching them tackle a challenge in exactly the same way we might, and often with the same results, is straightforward entertainment.
Of course, fans like to see two uber-talented wrestlers go toe to toe. The superhero mythology and cartoonish history of pro wrestling are well documented. Furthermore, celebrities like Ronda Rousey or Rob Gronkowski are expected to be good at matches, sometimes to their detriment.
Still, most celebrities clearly look out of their depth in a wrestling ring, which provides us with an everyman, much like ourselves, to root for. When a celebrity fights valiantly and shows out, that too is impressive because it underlines the more frequent role we cast upon celebrities—the folks who are good at everything and who everyone wants to be.
They Have an Underlying “Fonzi Factor”
What is a celebrity? Not just the celebrities in wrestling but, broadly speaking, what makes a person famous? Usually, they have done something that people find cool or interesting.
Sometimes, they are just really attractive or wealthy. Even in those cases, there is a mass of people who see those attributes as cool or interesting. In the Happy Days show, the character of Fonzie was the epitome of cool. He was what everyone else wanted to be, and he did it effortlessly.
hat magnetism not only drew in characters on screen but changed the way fans acted off-screen. Influencers today are the new celebrities. That is why new celebrities, unlike those emergent in a bygone era, have rapidly developed social media skills.
Others have paid a ton for teams that focus on social engagement. Influencers, as with Fonzie before them, are just the new A-list tastemakers within the global culture.
That, more specifically, means they are cool characters for entertainment and content that permeate the culture. When those influencers, like Pat McAfee, get involved with wrestling, wrestling becomes cooler.
His work with Adam Cole wasn’t much different than Andy Kauffman’s feud with Jerry “The King” Lawler. They did something they wanted to try, and they are cool.
Therefore, this thing they wanted to try was cool. It may seem basic, but it is accurate, and it explains why people who want to be in the center of the cultural zeitgeist tune in to see these spectacles unfold.
Celebrities in Wrestling are Possibly on The Rise
The entertainment landscape is absolutely unpredictable. Podcasters were a deciding factor in the American elections, according to some experts. An eight-year-old from New Jersey was able to get a gigantic pop that several AEW wrestlers should probably feel bad about (and WWE superstars, too, if they were watching).
As times change, so do the celebrity power rankings. It seems at least plausible that the folks who will be more highly soft after, from The Pauls to the Kelces, will skew more toward the wrestling industry. A lot of athletes and fitness influencers are ruling the roost; many of them are young men.
Like most of us fans, they probably always dreamed of a WrestleMania moment. Unlike us, they have enough social media followers to get it. It is this combination that makes for good celebrity appearances.
In any event, quality usually doesn’t matter; Jake and Mike can attest to that, as well as the rise of shows like The Masked Singer. However, it is certainly more fun when it happens to be phenomenal.
More From LWOS Pro Wrestling
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