For years, many fans and wrestlers themselves looked down on celebrities stepping into the ring as it often resulted in subpar performances. Thanks to the in-ring work of Grammy-award winning music artist Bad Bunny and social media sensation Logan Paul, however, those same fans and wrestlers are now warming up to the trend. According to "WWE Raw" star Grayson Waller, Paul may actually be too good in the wrestling ring.
"I think Logan Paul ruined celebrity wrestling because he was so good at it and put in so much effort that any celebrity coming in after we compare them to [him]," Waller told the "Battleground Podcast". "It's more with the NIL program, you get these some of these college athletes who are social media celebrities. They want to come in, they want to go straight to the main roster. They want to straight away do big matches at WrestleMania. It's like no, no, no, you have to understand Logan did that because he's a special breed; He's a special athlete.
"Everything I've heard about Jelly Roll from the NXT guys who worked with him, he was there every day. He was there for hours," Waller continued."He was doing everything that we do. So if someone's willing to put themselves through what we went through, I got no problem with them being in the business, but if they just want to come in and get a cheap payday, they're going to disappear real quick."
In the lead-up to his professional wrestling debut at WWE WrestleMania 38, Paul trained extensively with WWE producer Shane "Hurricane" Helms, with WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels later helping Paul ahead of his first world title match as well. Nowadays, Paul is positioned as a top star in WWE, already with one reign as WWE United States Champion and WWE WrestleMania victories over veterans AJ Styles, Randy Orton, and Kevin Owens to his name.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Battleground Podcast" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
