Eric Bischoff Believes Bad Bunny Set The Template For Influencers In WWE
On the latest episode of 83 Weeks, Eric Bischoff spoke about Bad Bunny and his performance at WrestleMania 37. Bummy teamed with Damien Priest to defeat The Miz and John Morrison on night one of the big event. Bischoff said he was impressed with how the Latin superstar performed at Mania, but also how he was able to use his platform to sell out his upcoming tour.
"What a phenomenal impact Bad Bunny had," Bischoff said. "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.
"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?"
At WrestleMania 37, Logan Paul was involved in the Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens match in which he took a stunner from Owens. Bischoff discussed the future of celebrity performances in wrestling, saying we could see more influences involved who aren't movie stars.
"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."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit 83 Weeks with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.