Hollywood celebrities occasionally appeared in WWE since Vince McMahon purchased WWE from his father in 1982. WWE got mainstream attention because of the celebrities’ contributions to the product. Some of them were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as well.
Logan Paul and Bad Bunny made their WWE debut during the pandemic era. The two stars competed on WWE television several times and put on a memorable performances.
On MoffettNathanson’s Inaugural Technology, Media & Telecom conference call, WWE CEO Nick Khan revealed how the company signed Bad Bunny. Khan said that he learned about Bunny from an article in New York Times. Khan added that the Spanish audience increased by 40% because of Bunny.
“It started during the pandemic. There was a New York Times Sunday magazine cover with Bad Bunny on it. I didn’t know Bad Bunny’s music that well at the time. This was pre-vaccine COVID, so October 2020. Read the article, and a young lady who works with us said, ‘I don’t know if you know, but Bad Bunny is a huge wrestling fan.’ Showed me his Instagram feed. Triple H, when he was active, did this water routine with his entrance. Bad Bunny did it at a Miami Heat game. He’s a huge fan. We sat there on Bad Bunny and this guy, who was not yet the number one artist, but certainly seemed on a path to that, he was not touring. He was sitting at home like all the rest of us. We reached out to him, ‘what do you think of this?’ ‘Yeah, I’d love to do it.’ He came in, lo and behold, our Spanish viewership on the show he was on spiked by 30 or 40 percent. Obviously, the relevancy factor mattered. He wanted to do more and more.”
H/T Fightful
Nick Khan then explained why WWE signed Logan Paul. Khan said that WWE’s younger audience grew because of Logan.
“We also replicated that in a different demographic category with Logan Paul, who we were getting pitched on internally by our entertainment relations folks. ‘Logan Paul is going to be the next big thing.’ He came in and took is seriously, as did Bad Bunny. It registered. It mattered. Our young audience spiked. Our bread and butter are our full-time superstars, but to be able to bring in Bad Bunny and Logan Paul and Pat McAfee at different points, it just increases awareness, which is good for us.”
H/T Fightful
Logan Paul last competed at this year’s WrestleMania, where he lost to Seth Rollins. Earlier this month, Bad Bunny defeated Damian Priest in a San Juan Street Fight at Backlash.
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