Seth Rollins thinks WWE celebrity involvement is best ‘in small doses’
Seth Rollins thinks celebrity involvement benefits WWE — as long as the company doesn’t go too far in overexposing the stars it’s featuring.
Ahead of Backlash, Rollins made an appearance on ESPN’s UnSportsmanlike and gave his thoughts on celebrities crossing over into pro wrestling. He praised Bad Bunny and IShowSpeed for how hard they’ve worked to prepare themselves for WWE matches. Featuring outside stars brings a new audience to WWE, but Rollins believes it’s best in small doses. He compared it to his own sports media pursuits. Rollins is comfortable giving his opinion on sports, but he wouldn’t fare well if he had to commentate an entire game.
“I don’t mind it. I think there’s a balance in our industry. Like, you don’t want me doing too much,” Rollins said. “You don’t want me in the booth doing too much. Like, I can’t be [sports broadcaster] Kevin Harlan. I’m not like that. I’m not Tom Brady. I don’t have that expertise, but a little bit here and there.
“And I think that’s the same for wrestling. There was a big pushback against Pat McAfee when he came in. And it’s like, yeah, he’s inserted in this WrestleMania main event storyline that already had 20 years of history with Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton. Our audience is like, ‘Ehh, maybe not.’ But when Pat was on commentary for us, he did a great job. He did a couple of matches here and there. He did one in NXT that was awesome. He worked with Gunther, they had a great match.
“And so it’s not like — it’s just in small doses. So Speed, Bad Bunny, small doses, great for our industry. And it allows us to kind of branch out and for different people and different audiences to see what we do.”
McAfee’s addition to the Rhodes vs. Orton WrestleMania 42 storyline drew significant criticism from fans, to the point that McAfee made the decision to opt out of the angle after WrestleMania instead of continuing on.
Rollins had especially high praise for Bad Bunny, comparing his star power to that of Michael Jackson’s.
“You don’t understand how big it is that Bad Bunny is wrestling in WWE. Bad Bunny is this generation’s Michael Jackson,” Rollins said.
“I mean, this guy is the most — he sells out concerts and stadiums globally. We’re talking like nearly hundreds of thousands of people at these shows, and he’s coming to wrestle for WWE and is so pumped about it and is psyched about it and is willing to like put in the work. He doesn’t just show up game day and be like, ‘You know, I can do this.’ He’s like, okay, give me a ring. I gotta train, send somebody down here.'”
Rollins is facing off against Bron Breakker in a grudge match at Backlash this Saturday. On UnSportsmanlike, Rollins described it as a teacher vs. trainee matchup between himself and his former understudy in The Vision. Rollins hyped that we’ll find out at Backlash if Breakker is truly ready to take the next step in his WWE career.
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.