WWE Sunday Night’s Main Event: Have Celebrity Matches Run Their Course?

Wrestling and celebrities are as synonymous as peanut butter and jelly, but before Bad Bunny raised the bar and Logan Paul became a full-timer, the “glamoratti’s” most famous tended to avoid the squared circle altogether. Aside from Andy Kaufman’s involvement in wrestling in the early 80s, which culminated in his feud with Jerry Lawler, the marriage between the entertainment industry and wrestling was cultivated and strategically implemented by Vince McMahon.

WrestleMania set the industry standard with the likes of Mr. T and Muhammad Ali, and, in turn, they paved a road for every celebrity that came after, from David Arquette and Johnny Knoxville to Mike Tyson and Lawrence Taylor. The use of celebrities runs the gamut, with examples ranging from short-term roles like MGK taking a sit-down power bomb from Kevin Owens on RAW to major angles culminating in PPV programs, like the feud between Karl Malone/DDP and Dennis Rodman teaming with NWO’s Hollywood Hogan.

As for recent celebrity bookings, fans were not enthusiastic about Pat McAfee and Jelly Roll being inserted into prominent Mania programs. The dissatisfaction with their usage spilled over from the previous year’s Mania, where Travis Scott helped John Cena defeat then-champion Cody Rhodes en route to his record-breaking title reign.

It has become increasingly difficult to navigate the tightrope of securing celebrity spots, but creative has found the right booking at the right time with the right superstar rapper: Lil Yachty. The Grammy-nominated artist has been Trick Williams’ ringside ‘manager’ while providing commercial recognition for the former U.S. champion. To Yachty’s credit, he has been committed to the role of hype-man on weekly WWE TV.

Now, headed into Sunday Night’s Main Event in Atlanta at the State Farm Arena, Lil Yachty will feature in a physical segment with some real stakes. Trick lost his title to Baron Corbin, who used the U.S. title belt as a foreign object to win that match as well as the rematch, and Corbin refused Trick another title shot unless Yachty can ‘survive’ his onslaught for 5 minutes in the ring.

Yachty has been physical in the ring since he started appearing with Trick in the lead-up to this year’s WrestleMania, where Trick initially won the title. Still, most of Yachty’s physical work has been limited to a single spot, with this weekend’s match acting as a far greater test of his in-ring prowess.

Pressure to produce in front of his hometown crowd aside, WWE has done an excellent job of incorporating a celebrity in a meaningful way with sound logic for the booking. Sure, Yachty will help sell tickets, draw live viewers, and grab headlines outside the confines of sports media—same reasons for the additions of Pat McAfee and Jelly Roll to Mania— but those reasons are not so thinly veiled in this upcoming celebrity spot.

Celebrities add mainstream value to a show, yes, but the storyline must feel deeper than just selling tickets—fans need to believe in a stronger motivation, particularly one with a rich connection to the material’s lore. In the past, it could be argued that a celebrity’s use is always a net positive because ‘all publicity is good publicity.’

However, in the wake of the Travis Scott booking, the fan backlash not only derailed whatever future plans they had for Travis, but it may also have contributed to the souring of his relationship with WWE.

Lil Yachty will get the opportunity to flex whatever skills he has developed since first appearing on WWE programming, and as a fan of the product, you could argue that this has always been something Yachty has wanted to try. The best part, however, is that Yachty’s effort to ‘get over’ will end up being goodwill towards Trick’s big title-winning moment at the end and accomplishing what celebrity spots should: getting over the [younger] talent.

Mario Mungia

Mario Mungia Jr. has a decade worth of experience as a combat sports journalist and correspondent which began with ThaBoxingVoice (TBV) as a podcast co-host, writer and editor-in-chief. Aside from his online resume, Mario spent a fair portion of his early career working for Spanish/English magazine Premier Round and the Mexican website Izquierdo. Mario has also contributed to NYFights while simultaneously working for MIC Sports Network as part of the broadcast crew covering local high school sports. Since then, he has launched his own podcast/live stream (Infighting/Work In Progress) and is covering pro wrestling for FightsATW.

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