On the latest edition of his 83 Weeks podcast WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff discussed the performance of Bad Bunny at WrestleMania 37, and how WWE may lean on more abstract celebrities and social media influencers like Bunny or Logan Paul. Highlights are below.
How great Bad Bunny was at WrestleMania 37:
“What a phenomenal impact Bad Bunny had. Don’t be surprised if we don’t start seeing a lot more social media influencer stunts. Gone are the days where you are going to take someone who is a movie star or television star. Not that it won’t continue to happen from time to time but I think because of just the way the world is shifting and pop culture has evolved, don’t be surprised if we start seeing more and more huge social media influencers and people that you would never expect to get involved in professional wrestling stepping into the arena.”
How Bad Bunny’s tour sold out real quick:
“They’re going to make more money, go back to Bad Bunny, here’s a guy some wrestling experts thought nobody even knew who he was. Wow, reality proved that perspective very very wrong, Bad Bunny comes in and he uses his WrestleMania performance, which was a hell of a performance and leverages that to sell out his tour, he shutdown TicketMaster. Not bad for a guy nobody knows right?”
Says WWE could use more influencers like Logan Paul in the future:
“If you’re a young talent and you don’t mind getting physical, like Logan and Jake Paul, like Bad Bunny, there are others and there will be even more [to follow],” Bischoff said. “Once those individuals and their teams realize if I leverage my social media following into an opportunity to have a great performance like Bad Bunny did. I think what he did and took advantage of that opportunity at WrestleMania and leveraged that opportunity to increase his fanbase and reach an audience he might not have otherwise reached and do it so successfully, that is a model that other people will try to follow. There will be more and more people going ‘hey, Bruce Prichard, Vince McMahon, over here’! Bad Bunny created the template for celebrity, non-wrestling performers to step into that world and do it successfully. Bad Bunny created a formula and a template that other people are going to use and WWE and AEW are going to learn how to exploit it in the best way possible. I think you’re going to see more and more of it.”
(H/T and transcribed by Wrestling Inc.)