Jelly Roll loses WWE in-ring debut at SummerSlam

Jelly Roll put in a strong effort and had the fans on his side, but he ultimately came up short in his WWE in-ring debut.

The 40-year-old country music star teamed with Randy Orton at SummerSlam night one, losing to Logan Paul & Drew McIntyre. It was Paul who got the victory for the heels, pinning Jelly Roll after the two celebrities were the only two left in the ring.

Jelly Roll got off to a good start before Paul took him out with a frog splash through the announce table. WWE teased that Jelly Roll wouldn’t be able to continue, but he refused to abandon his tag partner. Jelly Roll returned to the match, delivering a chokeslam to Paul and a Bossman slam to McIntyre. He then hit a powerslam on Paul, but McIntyre broke up the pin before the referee could count to three.

The closing stretch saw McIntyre hit a Claymore on Jelly Roll before Orton laid out McIntyre with an RKO. Paul then threw Orton into the ring post and hit another frog splash on Jelly Roll for the victory.

Jelly Roll, who has lost approximately 200 pounds since his highest weight, did reach a huge milestone by weighing in at 299 pounds for tonight’s match. It’s the first time he’s been under 300 pounds since grade school.

A longtime WWE fan, Jelly Roll earned respect from wrestlers and fans for how hard he worked to prepare for this match. He was training at the WWE Performance Center “every day” for weeks leading into SummerSlam. In the first week of that training, he suffered a broken pinky finger.

“He’s working as hard as anyone — if not harder — than anyone that I’ve ever seen come into our world,” Orton told ESPN’s Get Up prior to SummerSlam.

Paul “Triple H” Levesque tweeted out a video of him and Jelly Roll sharing a moment backstage after the match.

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