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Bad Bunny is a godsend to WWE. The fact that one of the most famous artists in the world just so happens to be a WWE fanboy and is willing to have matches is incredible for them.

not only just have matches, but be fucking great at it, too.

And he takes some crazy bumps in the process. He really does risk it all. One move gone wrong and his entire career could be over. You truly have to respect his dedication.

He strikes me as someone who realizes just how lucky and fortunate he is to be in the position he’s in, regardless of how much work it also took to get there; he’s going to give his all for something because he’s lucky to be doing it

He does He has his platform for voting, women's rights, and bunch PR issues they are facing.

I thought he died right after that table spot 🫣

Never mind Adam Pearce and Other WWE officials rushing to check on him, I wouldn’t have been surprised to see Bunny’s agents/managers running out to check on their boy after that spot. Insane. He’s been beyond great. WWE have hit an absolute goldmine with Bunny and Logan Paul.

A match between the two of them would be great. Unless, for the time being, they need to be guided by a veteran opponent.

Me to. I really thought wwe was risking a riot by letting priest win. Great match, priest still looks strong, judgment day got their ass beat to cheers. I was very sports entertained

That's the real key. Not only have matches, but have actually GOOD matches where he sells and doesn't just bury everyone he touches.

Both Bad Bunny and Logan Paul being involved is pretty ridiculous. (I kind of lump in McAfee with them, too.) But where do they rank in terms of celebrities in WWE? Trump, Tyson, Mr. T, Cyndi Lauper, Kevin Federline, Lawrence Taylor, Cain Velasquez... edit: Mayweather, too

Bunny bigger than everyone except tyson

Mr T and Cyndi Lauper were huge celebrities at the time of Wrestlemania not far off Bad Bunny at the moment

I love Cyndi Lauper and especially love Mr. T but it would have taken someone like Madonna or E.T. (lol) to be as big a star as Bad Bunny for their time.

"Hey Mike, first time long time. Do you think Mr. T and E.T. ever get together and have dinner or something? I'll hang up and listen."

Trump is the most significant celebrity by far, due to where he ended up long term. Tyson is easily the most important of the 90s and is real fan. Would've love to see 90's Mike actually have wrestling match. Loved his interview with undertaker. Tyson knew quite a bit of 70's, 80's, 90's wrestling history.

But Trump wasn't as big as the time..(still a huge name)

Wasn't Wrestlemania 23, at the time, the biggest drawing Wrestlemania in history? Trump definitely had an effect on that. He was everywhere at that time.

He definitely helped

I mean, did Tyson ever take the Omega/SG Stadium Stampede bumps?

How about the former president? I still can't believe a US president, whether you like him or not, is in the WWE HOF!

At the time nobody knew him outside of America while bunny is a global superstar.

I realized decades later that Trump was on home alone 2

Trump only ok the the shoot at his hotel if he had a cameo. No one wanted him in it becuase he still was like a d list celebrity.

Ah you're right! I stand corrected. He was only The Apprentice guy at the time. Though I remember Raw's ratings went up when he hosted and said that he's giving away money or something lol.

I think that was Vince was it not

I googled, he didn't give away money but instead said he bought Raw which I guess became a buzz at the time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qB7Ta6fdow

Trump was relatively well known as "the rich business guy" in the 80's and 90's when he wrote his book "The Art of the Deal". He was also heavily associated with New York as he built his fame on the real estate deals in NYC combined with his lifelong predilection for self-aggrandizing. It's that fame that he used to get The Apprentice tv show which rocketed him up even further. Funny enough, even though he didn't become active in politics until the late 00's, he always gave off the impression of someone who talks like a politician. So much so that the comic strip Bloom County that ran from 1980-1989 had a year long storyline in '89 where their character Bill the Cat gets his brain replaced by Donald Trump and the Trump cat ends up becoming president at the end of the strip. ...that's right, a comic strip in 1989 predicted president Trump, only he inhabited the body of an alcoholic and drug abusing cat. Life is weird.

Trump will always carry that z-list, only known for the apprentice, stench with him anywhere outside of America. His presidency was a meme fever dream and is more of a statement about how fucked America is more than it says anything about trump's celeb status.

Tbh I could see Bunny and Logan Paul going into the HOF as competitors rather than celebrities.

Bunny just headlined Coachella and stole the show at the Met Gala. He's an absolute mega star.

Two nights at Coachella. Did Cole or Graves say he's the only person to do that?

The fact that they can actually wrestle is a huge deal. Lawrence Taylor's WM11 match was way better than a celebrity match should have been at the time (thanks to Bam Bam), but BB and LP are legit good at pro wrestling. And I think Bad Bunny is up there with prime Cindy Lauper in terms of star power in the Spanish-speaking world?

His star power goes beyond the Spanish-speaking world.

All three have been top tier IMO as far as outsiders that come in and participate in pro wrestling. So many celebrities just show up and either treat it like a joke or act like they would rather be anywhere else and it's refreshing to see people that don't need the job come in and try (and do so well)

You forgot Muhammad Ali.

Ali was before "modern TV" but true

Sorry but I had never heard of him so he’s not a big star. /s

Or, as Dave called him, an "ethnic celebrity."

In fairness, Dave’s latino “friend” claims to have not heard of Bad Bunny, so his popularity is obviously overblown. Fool-proof logic from the top journalist in his field. If you’d like to hear/read more riveting pop-culture analysis, you can do so by subscribing to the Observer for a cool $120/year!

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He did it publicly during Bunny’s feud with the Miz and Morrison. Where he suggested that Miz and Morrison shouldn’t have vandalised Bunny’s car but should’ve been the other way round since Bunny is Puerto Rican. Also, he suggested Bunny should’ve stolen their cars’ hubcaps.

Source? That's crazy.

https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/mlswyd/wor_meltzer_on_the_bad_bunnydamien_priestmiz_and/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1 It’s been a while so I got the context wrong. He wanted the hubcaps of Bunny’s car to be loose, still the implication that they are stolen.

Your context is still wrong, he didn't "want" that to happen, he thought that's something WWE would do. Which is silly because even WWE isn't that far behind nowadays, but it was never him saying that you should portray Puerto Ricans that way, it was a thought he had based on WWE's history of racial stereotyping.

Appreciate that. Wow. That is...wow.

Or his commentary on Sable and her appearance in the 90s.

Or his commentary on Charlotte and her appearance 2-3 years ago.

Oof

A lot of the shit Dave gets ragged on for is overblown...but hoooooooooly shit was that one a big ol' miss. Really, really bad.

Oh Christ. Here's social media is doing what it's best at: Generating outrage by taking a not brilliant 10 second quote out of someone who produces a hundred hours of content per year, and saying he never produce content again for it. Bad Bunny *is* more popular with some audiences than others. I didn't hear about him either when he arrived in WWE. Most of my family haven't heard of him. WWE just responded to it by ... putting him in front of his home audience and creating an environment that was the coolest thing I've seen since ECW One Night Stand. Dave's was mostly wrong with what he implied, that celebrity popularity outside the English world isn't as useful for WWE. And even there, that hadn't been disproven yet when he said it. WWE rarely has events outside the English-speaking world, and never made them into a must-see PPV event. Instead of cancelling Dave people in the IWC should look, for once in their miserable lives, at a positive. Backlash was a genius piece of booking by WWE, and what is normally a B-tier PPV might be PPV of the year. It might even be a historic turning point, where WWE finds the confidence to hit up every corner of the planet with these events.

No one is calling to cancel Dave. But please, tell me how I'm "outraging" in yet anther multiparagraph essay. Dave said something dumb because he's inside his little bubble. That's it.

I don't think it was a given WWE was going to capitalize on Bad Bunny as well as they did. It involved a creative risk they hadn't taken before. I didn't know who he was when he debuted either. Even if Dave's phrasing was stupid, I don't particularly like it when people pounce on short clips from long media careers because then nobody says anything interesting or honest. I had to use multiple paragraphs to make sure I'm precise about what I'm saying or people think I'm toting around some red hat during elections like an idiot. I'm sorry I said you wanted to cancel Dave. That was a dumb overreaction on my part. Several people are dragging him, some worse than you, you just wound up with the response. Edit: Also, I should probably be upset at more important things. So sorry for that too.

Maybe it’s not my place to say this, but you apologize well.

All good! You don't owe me an apology :)

He is very famous among latinos and the youth, one of the most listenedin the world too. I am sure his music isnt your type so which is why you never heard of him. If you have been paying attention to wrestling the past years, he made his debut with Booker T couple years ago, and he also has Stone Cold appear in one of his music video, whether you like his song doesn't matter but the video is awesome.

I’ll be totally honest. Prior to him working with WWE I had actually never heard of Bad Bunny mainly because never listen to the radio. But I’m not arrogant enough to say that means he isn’t a big star. His music isn’t really for me but dudes talented as hell.

I think we’re seeing a new breed of celebrity who understand the value of “eyeballs” over maintaining some kind of mystique or persona. In the old days movie stars didn’t even want to be associated with Television shows because that was a step down. In an age where every stream (music, video, podcast, etc) adds to your overall fortune, people like Logan Paul and Bad Bunny have no problem drawing fresh eyeballs to their content. And obviously a massive bonus of living our childhood fantasies while doing it. If you can do whatever you want without damaging “your brand” and in fact increasing your brand…hell yeah that’s a win

To your point, it used to be that well known Hollywood/entertainment industry celebs would never go backwards and do commercials. Now, that seems like all most commercials are.

>Bad Bunny is a godsend to WWE. Logan Paul is in shambles

I don't much about his music, but I keep reading that he's the biggest pop star in the world and sells out Wembley-sized stadiums on the regular. To take a break from that profession, to spend a few months to train wrestling and pull off that type of match is just beyond amazing.

What’s crazy is that he probably considers the opportunity to wrestle with WWE a godsend.

Lol I mean they were fine before him. But this is certainly a rich gets richer scenario for the WWE.

A lot of the the young top celebrities grew up big wrestling fans … so I could See more top end Stars coming into WWE for matches but very few of them are going to on the athletical level of Pat or Logan Paul But the Knoxville match showed that you don’t need to be athletically gifted to have a good match if it makes thematically sense

Just for an analogy it is like if BIllie Eilish decided she wanted to wrestle in the wine’s division. It’s huge deal having Bad Bunny

I wouldn’t say godsend. He is very good at helping wwe we are building a good relationship with celebrities recently anybody could look good with the best wrestlers in the world and two matches a year. Let’s keep on the good track

BB's a godsend since he is one of the most popular artists in the world, so he brings a lot of non-wrestling eyes to the product.

Has to be one of the most on point “username checks out” moments there.

Bringing lower tier to outside of the State might actually be a good idea

might? Hell I dont see an issue with giving summerslam to mexico

The Aztec inspired logo, set, etc. Would go so fucking hard....

Hosted by Kirk Fogg

Damn you don't fuck around

Australia in a Rugby stadium with Rhea Ripley vs Indi Hartwell headlining, Bronson Reed on the card.

But Puerto Rico is an american territory.

The Puerto Rican fans in that arena should be getting residual checks.

They should have all expense covered seats for every future Carlito appearance

Nick Kahn not getting the credit for his expansion plan getting these huge pop culture figures will get more eyes on the product even if momentary. Possibly gain some new fans and got somebody like Damian Priest the ultimate spotlight.

I was about to say the same thing. He should be given credit for expanding PLE and going to these countries. Its all him. I gotta give respect to that.

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NXT UK is HHH but hasn't been a total success.

History shows that a rising tide lifts all shifts. WWE can ride the post-pandemic wave for the next decade if the attitude era is any indication of how things will play out. WWE was already promoting the attitude era talent nostalgia acts as early as 2006 - with the first of many DX reunions that would last until 2019.

\*rising tide lifts all SHIPS

This is what happens when you treat every PLE like a spectacle and don't treat them like glorified Raws as they have for the past 20 years Thank God for Nick Khan who is spearheading this movement You can have 10 or so PLEs a year and make them feel must watch. They just showed they could make an event feel must see without Roman or a world title match

They are also putting these PLEs up for bid and local tourism departments are using WWE for the advertising. WWE gets to tap into different markets and get paid for it along the way. They aren't just putting the show in the next city that comes along their yearly road trip across America anymore.

Yeah, Meltzer said a few days ago that they were going to run in Wembley, but Wales offered them money to be there and promote the area for tourism. We’ll just have to hope they’ve somewhat learned their lesson from Saudi Arabia and we don’t wind up with Michael Cole reading ad copy about how open and progressive China is.

Michael Cole will absolutely be reading a ad about how Xi Jinping is the most transformative leader in Chinese history. It will only cost China a smooth $200M.

This will probably force WWE to put on better shows because having boring shows will put a bad taste in people's mouths which can ruin someone's entire opinion on their vacation and by extension the city that is paying wwe to come there

> Thank God for Nick Khan who is spearheading this movement Imagine reading this 18 months ago and agreeing with it...

I never thought I’d hear it at all lol

Imagine reading this the Tuesday following this year's Wrestlemania weekend

Your first point is one of the reasons why brand exclusive PLE’s would be a bad decision right now. I’m really hoping they don’t go that route. They’re on an amazing streak of great events this year (Rumble, Chamber, WM and Backlash have all been amazing) and I don’t want them to start changing things again.

Flashback to the 2016/2017 brand-split era when PPVs were sometimes only two (but more often three) weeks apart from each other. I don't remember a single thing from the vast majority of those.

>Thank God for Nick Khan who is spearheading this movement Single Handedly changed WWE's business model and seen great gains from it.

I still have to like pinch myself to see if I’m dreaming, it’s incredible how much better WWE has gotten.

That’s why it was so distressing when Vince showed up to run RAW a few weeks ago lol

Putting the Premium in PLE

Normally saying something is the most social backlash event in history would be a bad thing but this is wrestling, baybee.

Push Priest as a main eventer now please

I think he's gonna be one to benefit a lot with the new WHC. I don't know if he'll win it, but I'm sure he will get a title shot.

Even if he doesn't, the title being there opens up the IC title for more people. Raw suffered cause the US title was the only singles title around for a full year.

Im glad this got made into a singles match rather than a tag because it felt like Priest was getting lost in the shuffle a bit with Judgement Day. He was the only one not to have a Wrestlemania match

It was probably agreed on before hand that he’d get no Wrestlemania match but would be in a massive spot at backlash infront of his hometown crowd.

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Totally forgot Ronda Rousey is in WWE.

That crowd was hot

This was my fav event in a while, unpopular opinion but I enjoyed it much more than wrestlemania, It was good from start to finish.

Bringing Bad Bunny, Logan Paul, and Pat McAfee to WWE might be Vince's last big accomplishment in terms of creative. I'm curious how that all materialized. I recall former talent saying things like how Vince kept up with pop culture trends, but who knows.

It's fucking wild that all three of them have been genuinely good at wrestling, too.

Bad Bunny is big money, bay bay. It's so refreshing to see megastars like Bad Bunny and Logan Paul who aren't there for clout and money but are genuine fanboys who want to take part in the crazy shit that wrestlers do.

Meltzer in shambles

With wwe these days, most of the times he is.

Why?

Don’t remember exactly what he said, but it was something about Bad Bunny not being a household name, but an ethnic celebrity.

Oh gosh....

he said it 2 years ago and it was pretty dumb at the time, but it's become significantly dumber with benefit of hindsight

Didnt he also make a supposed racist comment regarding the car segment between miz/morrisson/bunny/priest?

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To copy /u/AJwithStyles, Meltzer suggested that Miz and Morrison shouldn’t have vandalised Bunny’s car but should’ve been the other way round since Bunny is Puerto Rican. Also, he suggested Bunny should’ve stolen their cars’ hubcaps. It was pretty racist lol

Yo they deleted my comment?

yeah i was wrong, that's pretty bad

I mean there is some truth to that. Over the last few weeks, I've seen an insane amount of people on different social medias not really knowing who he is, even with him being the most popular artist right now. Outside of Spanish speaking communities and the hyper-obsessed popculture communities, he really isn't a household name or even known at all. The last two shows and the match with Damien wouldn't have been as big if it was basically anywhere else other than PR and maybe a few cities in the US. His appearances at RR 2022 and WM37 had generic face reactions from the crowd.

Maybe your social media is tailored to your taste and viewpoints…

No, it's the Spanish people who are wrong...

HHH is best for business

This is all probably because of the focus on the venue and the use of Puerto Rican talent, but this is really good for WWE. Perhaps you should make it at least somewhat about the town you’re in to make it feel unique.

Gonna be honest, chief: Bunny or not, the fact we got a PPV ....it was gonna sell out and be loud regardless. I do agree that Bunny is driving all of the social media traffic, though

This is really insane when you think about it. They forgot to mention the crowed was GOAT!

Feels great to be a wrestling fan right now!

The Bad Bunny entrance is one of the most epic entrances of all time. Without context, it’s okay, but with context of who he is, it’s easily top 100 of all time.

I was watching with my wife and parents who hate wrestling but love Bad Bunny. We were thoroughly entertained and I marked TF out when Carlito came out

Having events like this in different countries and making them feel like a big deal has been awesome. Different sets, different cultures, different wrestlers on the card. SummerSlam even feels bigger this year with how they’re catering it to Detroit. If they were able to do a non-Saudi international PLE once a quarter or once every four months, that would be really engaging. Use what they did here as a framework and build on it or tailor it as appropriate. They’re also kind of doing it with what they did in Montreal and with what they’re doing with MitB. This has been a lot of fun!

But I got clowned for saying how popular wrestling in general is rn. Lmao

Only AEW surpasses these numbers. /s

I’m just so excited that carlito got some Limelight and with the rumors that people backstage were impressed with his maturity, it’s actually a real possibility of a carlito return for atleast a small run.

Bad bunny looked great, but Priest did such a good job of selling and being a heel. He played to the crowd so good and kept the pace of the match from turning into a spot fest. I love when the performers let a hot crowd marinate.

Endeavor is pleased

Good. Fans outside of America are dying fur PPV's and they make the event so much more memorable

*led **by** 40 million views or the bad Bunny v Damien Priest match. Fuck grammar I guess.

So are they saying 40 million people watched it on Peacock? Or 40 million views across all social media?

Social media, not the PLE on Peacock or any of their network outlets.

40 million!?!?!?!

This post right here is why dumb ass bickering about TV ratings should be banned from this sub. Everyone who participates is irreparably stupid.

When is WWE gonna stop not taking Puerto Rico seriously? Most of my friends who love this shit are boricua.

Each match we're closer to Bunny vs Paul

International PLEs are always great in countries not named Saudi Arabia

This was a fantastic use of a non-WWE star. A case where wrestlers on the roster shouldn’t complain about a celeb taking a spot on the card. Well done to all involved.

Thank god Vince really isn’t getting into the weeds. That week he booked raw was really scary for fans lol. Guess he wanted one last hurrah

Still blows my mind they didn’t let Bad Bunny and Damian main event

Brock wasn’t busting open hardway on match #5. Plus, if Brock busts open hardway in match #5, and Bad Bunny and Priest are going on AFTER it, in a weapons filled grudge match, they have to do something that is akin to Brock being a bloody freaking mess. And Bunny ain’t bleeding. The expectations were managed much better through Bunny-Priest going on where it did and Cody-Brock going on last

I think it was a bit of a "damned if they do, damned if they don't" situation. There's no way they didn't know Bad Bunny vs Priest wasn't the star of the show, but I imagine Cody was the main in order to keep his momentum going after the mania loss (and also Brock is obviously Brock)

Also you don’t want all your clips of one of the biggest stars in the world having blood on the mat.

They would replace the mat. Doubt that was a concern. But Brock and Cody wanted blood for their match I’m sure and if Brock is bleeding he’s doing it in the main event and it wouldn’t help the expectations for Bunny and Priest to have to go top Brock gushing all over himself in a match that in the past in WWE would have blood.

They would just replace the canvas before the match.

For real, people keep parroting that point and it's so goddamn stupid.

Blows my mind so many fans have done the u turn to think itsa foregone conclusion to have a celeb in the main event if they're good enough. I'm glad actually, but it shocks me because for all this while the criticism was that you never disrespect full timers by having celebs be the main stars of the show.

Canelo was fighting. It made sense for not being the ME.

They've definitely had events with more social backlash.

I love double double E

BuT rOmAn Is OuR bIgGeSt DrAw

He is.

Vince. Fuck off. We don’t need you anymore.

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“

And there were people who were arguing that this SHOULDN'T have gone last. Just don't understand the logic, the man is the biggest artist in the world. He doesn't need the main event spot, but it would've worked so well. Such a shame.

I actually watched it on Peacock instead of the high seas, because I forgot to cancel my subscription after WM.

It helps a lot when you have guys who are legitimately popular and over, who also show up to do pro wrestling.

No, it was way more about how they marketed the event It felt big. They made it feel important. They went to an international market and wrapped the identity of the show around it.

Yes. That’s my point. They went to a place that like professional wrestling and gave them professional wrestling in a way that didn’t insult them. They gave the people what they wanted to see. It was great. And it doesn’t hurt that Bad Bunny is legitimately good at the professional wrestling aspect of things. He’s not Ricky Steamboat, but the guy knows how to work and that’s the key.

WWE hears you, more celebrities and midcard nostalgia acts coming your way! (The show was great, just a joke)

Wrestlemania 1 was built around celebrities though

With all that success they better put a freeze on hiring and lay bunches of people off.

> most social backlash Hol up

Wait till they book the paul brothers for the Japanese PLE.

Bad Bunny and international ppvs are two of the greatest things to happen to WWE lately

BEEEE I P BEEE I P HAY SOMETHING SOMETHING O BEE I P

Backlash has been a waste for years. It's not hard to improve on garbage

I mean, last year's Backlash was up 49% from the year before's (albeit thanks significantly to Peacock) and was arguably the first piece of clear evidence that WM 38 actually had marked the overall momentum of the product shifting to the positive for the first time in quite a few years.

In all fairness, you could say that about a bunch of their yearly PPVs for years.

WWE absolutely deserves its kudos for putting on a great show with Backlash, and cashing in on an absolutely fantastic and rabid crowd. Really made PR look like a destination for pro wrestling. I hope AEW visits them too, eventually. However, let's not overlook the fact that the 28% viewership increase is at least partially due to the fact that Backlash 2022 was an absolute shit stain of a PPV that wouldn't have even passed for a decent episode of Raw. Like the matches themselves mostly turned out okay, but there was suuuuuuuuuuuper little to actually sell that show. One (1) title match (which involved Ronda), two completely meaningless singles matches (Omos vs. Lashley, and Corbin vs. Moss lol), and a completely nothing main event (Bloodline vs. Three Random Guys). It has Seth/Cody and AJ/Edge on it, so there wasn't NOTHING to tune in for, but it was hardly a show to get hyped about. Edit: I mixed up the viewership and YOY sponsorship numbers in the original version of this post. I think the above statement regarding Backlash 2022 is still accurate as a contributing factor to why this year's had so much better viewership (although again, I don't say that to take away from the fact they put together an actually good card this year), but I've corrected the numbers.

The 98% increase in sponsorship had little to nothing to do with the card. They got paid $1.5M to have the show this year and then had three different major product placements on it and all of that was secured months ago.

Whoops, my bad, I misread that line. I dyslexia'd the viewership bit and the sponsorship bit. First day back to work after a week of moving got my brain a little frazzled and my reading comprehension needing a reboot. Appreciate the correction!

I blame them for me saying "chambea, jala!!" in my head every 15mins

Please keep doing PLE´s on a Saturday and the whole of Europe is able to View it. Sunday US Time isnt possible anymore since i left Uni ;).