WWE Celebrity Integration & Sponsorship

[Supremo]

I don’t think it’s tribal to enjoy Double J having a Comedy Deathmatch to promote Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but finding WWE’s endless parade of celebrities exhausting.

I wouldn’t mind if WWE ever actually did anything beyond soulless whoring. It’s one of the tragedies of them binning off R-Truth and Carlito. They were the perfect characters to actually do something fun to promote stuff. Send R-Truth to the Upside Down to promote Stranger Things. Have Carlito steal Wednesday Adams’ credit card to buy some PS5 DLC. Bring back the Guest GM. Fucking anything.

Or just keep doing the same old shit. Someone I’ve never heard of is shown in the crowd waving awkwardly. Pat McAfee shouts about how they’ve got a can’t-miss comedy special debuting on Netflix. And then an inevitable clip appears on Twitter of said person being a painfully unfunny MAGA whopper. Rinse and repeat. Three times a week.

Edited June 4, 2025 by Supremo

[The Reverend]

Looking back advertising has always been there. I was watching an old Superstars taping on Youtube from 1990 (love me some old time WWF when I'm ironing!) and they had a bit with 'Slam of the Week' sponsored by Mountain Dew. I think also there was a Burger King tie-in late 80's early 90's as I can recall Vince commentating and mentioning it at the start of the match. 

Of course these days it's all a bit more frenzied and in your face, but isn't that just the world we live in anyway? Nothing is subtle anymore. And I guess again a lot of us are dinosaurs (or maybe just me!) the advertising that goes on in no different to the mass promotion on YouTube, Tik-Tok etc. that the younger generation of fan (aka the majority) are well used to. They don't notice as it's the world they come from. 

I suppose that if nothing else at least advertisers want to be part of the wrestling world - it keeps it mainstream, the money rolling in and keeps it popular - without that, the business is dead. Most of us can remember a time when outside companies wouldn't touch wrestling with a bargepole. At least now there's an arse-wipe company wanting to be involved.  

 

[The Reverend]

Celebrities have long since been a part of wrestling - even before Vince's take over you had Andy Kauffman and Muhammad Ali popping up in the territories. In the 80s and 90s they were everywhere - there was one Wrestlemania (11 perhaps?) where the opening video featured all the celebrity guest stars as opposed to the wrestlers. 

But again the dinosaur analogy. These days most of us don't know who most of the 'celebs' are because it's not aimed at us. Also there is too much of a wide platform for media these days to keep up with everyone and everything. 

If at Wrestlemania this year they had wheeled out Alicia Silverstone and Steven Segal, I would've gone 'Yes, proper celebs', but just as the ones who were this year were a mystery to me, so too would my picks be to the new generation of fan. 

Celebs are always going to be part of wrestling, and to be fair I'm not against it as it does at least bring a certain main-stream credibility to it. It's just these days I doubt I know who they are. 

As a sidenote - although we don't know who some of the names are who they feature, think about the Yanks who back in 1989 watched the first London WWF show and saw the UK's biggest names being featured - the cast of Hi-de-Hi and Screaming Lord Sutch, or in the 90's and 00's when Eamonn Homes and Chris Tarrant popped up on Raw UK shows!  

Edited June 4, 2025 by The Reverend

[SuperBacon]

11 minutes ago, The Reverend said:

If at Wrestlemania this year they had wheeled out Alicia Silverstone and Steven Segal

This is brilliantly so 1995

[air_raid]

I couldn't give a fuck about sponsorship to be honest, mostly because

On 6/3/2025 at 10:50 AM, Merzbow said:

New Japan have been doing that for god knows how long now

Somewhere between the death of huge centre-ring WCW PPV logos being beautiful and today, I stopped letting the mat influence my enjoyment of the matches either way.

As for celebrities...

On 6/2/2025 at 7:37 PM, FUM said:

We had a skinny rapper decide the WrestleMania main event.

... this is where I draw the line. It was fuck-awful in execution but by and large the concept was a failure anyway. Firstly because out of Travis and The Rock who were involved in Cena's turn, expectation that Dwayne would be the more likely to show up was far too high, and Travis showing up without Rock makes little sense, and secondly because, well, it's never made sense. There's never been any explanation as to why Travis was at the Chamber, neither him or Rock had anything to do with Cena vs Cody in the weeks inbetween, and again its never been addressed or explained since Mania, or lead to anything, even though we all saw it, it's "canon" and it affected the result of the biggest match of the year. In no other form of fiction would something so inexplicable just rear its head, flip everything on its head, then everything just move on and pretend it didn't happen. FUCKING AWFUL.

That said, there's nothing wrong with celebrity involvement if the celebrity is widely known and relevant, can get eyes on the product, and the storyline reason for their involvement is authentic enough. I never had an issue with the execution of Lawrence Taylor's involvement at Mania XI, and it's probably a bit lost to the sands of time what a big deal (on top of Mr T) Cyndi Lauper was in terms of eyes-on-the-product during the Rock N Wrestling Connection with both her support of Wendi Richter (theme music and all) / feud with Moolah and all her angles with Lou Albano and Roddy Piper between The Brawl To End It All, The War To Settle The Score and of course, WrestleMania.

Edited June 4, 2025 by air_raid
This is where the big boys play.

[FUM]

4 minutes ago, air_raid said:

... this is where I draw the line. It was fuck-awful in execution but by and large the concept was a failure anyway. Firstly because out of Travis and The Rock who were involved in Cena's turn, expectation that Dwayne would be the more likely to show up was far too high, and Travis showing up without Rock makes little sense, and secondly because, well, it's never made sense. There's never been any explanation as to why Travis was at the Chamber, neither him or Rock had anything to do with Cena vs Cody in the weeks inbetween, and again its never been addressed or explained since Mania, or lead to anything, even though we all saw it, it's "canon" and it affected the result of the biggest match of the year. In no other form of fiction would something so inexplicable just rear its head, flip everything on its head, then everything just move on and pretend it didn't happen. FUCKING AWFUL.

Well summarised I would say. I have no issue with celebrity involvement in general but this modern era feels like it’s more “get the celebrity on TV to give us the reel shares” without any thought as to a story or reason.

As another example, they recently randomly had two basketball players scrapping on SmackDown just because they had met in a NBA play-off game and it was never mentioned again.

I have no issue with a Bad Bunny coming in for a run when there was a storyline reason for it. Even during the, often senseless, guest GM era they planted stories on the show for the guest GM to get involved in matches as opposed to them just walking out and inserting themselves for nothing.

I don’t think the level of celebrity is the issue as previously mentioned though. Going to celebrities in the crowd for a wave on TV was also a “big show” deal in the past so it gave a vibe of the level of show you were watching. It’s now numerous times on every TV show.

[tiger_rick]

11 hours ago, WyattSheepMask said:

It’s just the hypocrisy/tribalism of it all that does my nut in. WWE are sellouts for taking ad money and sticking dome logos on the mat, but when AEW, who’ve had Draft Kings plastered all over the place for the last 3 or 4 years, take (a reported) $300,000 to do a match unconnected to anything else on the show for a Texas Chainsaw Massacre video game that was forgotten about almost as soon as it was released, that’s “smart business”.

That's bollocks. The daft AEW ad-matches have been referenced in this thread. WWE have done it loads of times themselves. Wasn't there some Mountain Dew match on a PPV? No-one has even brought them up until now.

No-one expects wrestling, in any form, to not contain advertising or celebrities. In fact, I think we could easily have an enjoyable thread about nostalgic examples of both. The question being asked is whether WWE has gone OTT with it. And given the entire ethos of TKO, I'd say they have and it was inevitable because TKO are fucking melons.

[BomberPat]

I think it's not so much just that it's OTT as it is the sheer naked obviousness of it all. WWE have always done the odd shot of a celebrity in the audience, and it being America, it's usually a sportsperson I've never heard of or the star of a TV show that's run for eighteen seasons and gets seven million viewers but no one you will ever meet has ever seen a second of it, but now it feels like it's a designated format point on every show to show us all the famous people in the crowd, most of whom will have some kind of direct marketing tie-in either via TKO or via Netflix. It's the difference between having an on-screen sponsor graphic when they show a replay, or the announcers using a break in the action to say, "this show is brought to you by...", and having the PRIME HYDRATION STATION visibly at ringside for every show. It's pro-wrestling as content creation, as a means to an end to sell ad space, and it's more often than not to the detriment of my enjoyment of it as a TV show.

Edited June 4, 2025 by BomberPat

[Ro_y Disco]

47 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

Wasn't there some Mountain Dew match on a PPV? 

I think we could easily have an enjoyable thread about nostalgic examples of both

It was for Mountain Dew Dark something, Bray Wyatt against, I think LA Knight, and the debut of Uncle Howdy. It was very cool visually and something a bit different. 

That lumberjack that had zombies, was that sponsored by something? 

Re. Nostalgic examples, I've just remembered Backlash 2001 being sponsored by Castrol GTX. I had no idea what that was as a kid, but the silver blades flashing across the screen and the gravely voiceover going "drive hard!" was cool as fuck! 

[Cheeky Boy]

3 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

The only one I am completely against is the Slim Jim tables which I think is insanely fucking stupid and completely illogical. From a kayfabe (yes, I know it's dead) perspective how do you even explain why a table has a sponsor? These things matter!

I suppose you could say that Slim Jim have seen the sheer amount of table breaking coverage over the years, and made an offer on the basis that, if someone were to unfortunately go through one, they want their name on it.

Not to say it won't look jarring and help kill the moment.

[Vamp]

I've always assumed that the Netflix promotion stuff was during the ad breaks on other channels. They need some pointless filler and they can promote Netflix at the same time. 

The Travis Scott thing is shit but I'm guessing that's at least partly because Travis Scott is a flake as well as a shit performer. 

[Chili]

I don't have a problem with sponsors but I also do. 

It's all down to aesthetics. The WWE can have all those sponsors, but the ring looks ugly as fuck when they've done it every time I see it. It's the classic WWE thing, you have sponsors on all sorts of sports etc, but WWE always somehow find a way to make it gaudy and like when films take the piss out of the concept.

One big logo, in the middle, or little ones in the corner always seem neat, but tables tied into a brand literally tells you that a sponsor is dictating something as it means you are DEFINITELY going to see tables. We know it's bollocks, but now you are telling us it's unavoidable, or the silly Prime hydration station. They just have a knack for being way too naff about it.

Of course it's always existed but nobody's been bothered because it didn't really encroach on the product so much. You had Randy Savage literally dressed as a Slim Jim man back in the day, but that was HIS deal and not WCW, plus he was Macho Man so weird shit was to be expected of him. 

[FUM]

Apologies if this counts as live discussion but advertising on the MITB briefcase, ladders (which we were told by a wrestler are the official Fireball Whiskey ladders) and turnbuckle pads tonight.

Immersive experience indeed.

[Rob Lowe]

Bloody hell I thought people were joking about the Slim Jim tables, that is so lame.

Imagine if it it could get crowds to actually boo tables? Then a big cheer when a regular table gets pulled out.

Ive still not finished Mania yet, so im not the target audience anymore. But I want it on record that I find it very distracting and dystopian. Hurrumph!

 

edit: They even plug Slim Jim as someone is slammed through it! (and tag them in the tweet.)

I think i'll stick to the vault youtube channel. Modern WWE aint for me.

Edited June 8, 2025 by Rob Lowe
tweet

[LaGoosh]

Watched a little bit of MITB and I gotta hand it to 'em. At times there were about 7 adverts on screen simultaneously. Ugly as fuck but masterful work when it comes to making as much money as possible. 

Any chance wrestlers start wearing adverts next? Surely that's the next step.