Miz praises Bad Bunny, says he wanted to learn lock-ups and headlocks in WWE training
Bad Bunny showed an incredible work ethic while training for his WWE debut.
One of the biggest music stars in the world, Bad Bunny wrestled his first WWE match when he teamed with Damian Priest to defeat The Miz & John Morrison at WrestleMania 37 in 2021. Miz looked back on that match on the latest episode of Six Feet Under and had a lot of good things to say about Bad Bunny.
“I remember Bad Bunny training, and this was during COVID times where we were at the baseball field in Tampa. And every time I would come to the show, he was there early in the ring,” Miz said. “He would be practicing, then he would go sing at the Grammys. He’d be right back in the ring. He’d go to SNL and he would have the title, the 24/7 title, that as much as it’s a prestigious title [or] whatever, it was like a fun title, right? It was a ‘ha ha’ title. But he would have it and hold it and sing on SNL with that title in his arm. And I was like, ‘Man, this dude just loves what we do and gets it.’ And he wanted to do something special. He wanted to do something great.”
When Bad Bunny was preparing for his debut, he wanted to learn the basics like lock-ups and headlocks. And he was so committed to the storyline that he even came up with the idea for Miz and Morrison to spray paint his expensive car.
“I remember they were teaching him, he wanted to learn lock-ups and headlocks and I was like, ‘Dude, I’m not doing any of that.’ And so when he was doing all that, I was like, ‘You know what? Everyone out of the ring.’ I just gave him heat for like 15 minutes,” Miz said. “And I go, ‘Sell this, because this is what you’re going to be doing a lot of.’
“I feel like a lot of times [with] celebrities, we hide them. You know, we hide their flaws, whatever. I was like, ‘We’re not hiding you.’ You are literally going to be doing the entire intro, you’re going to be involved in every aspect of this match, because no one will expect it and everyone will expect you to just come and hit a clothesline and hit this and hit this — it’s boring. They want to see you… He let us spray paint his $500,000 car. Real spray paint, and it was his idea. I was like, ‘Bunny, man, dude, I’m a little nervous.’ And he goes, ‘No, no, you spray paint it.’ He goes, ‘We’ll have someone wash it afterwards.’ I go, ‘It might not come off.’ He goes, ‘It’ll be all right.’ Oh my god, this guy is in. So me and Morrison spray-painted this $500,000, I think it was like a Bugatti.”
Bad Bunny has gained even more cultural relevance through headlining the Super Bowl halftime show last weekend. A big wrestling fan, he has worked three matches for WWE in total, most recently defeating Priest in his native Puerto Rico in 2023. It’s rumored that Bad Bunny could be back in WWE again soon, though there is no date for when that will happen.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.