When Logan Paul, social media star, or in other words basically famous for just being famous, arrived in the WWE a few years ago, I shook my head. His involvement, despite training with the legendary Shawn Michaels at the Performance Center prior to his in-ring debut, seemed like a rather artificial way for the company to get some publicity in 2022. Keep in mind, at that time, Cody Rhodes had just made his return to the organization at Wrestlemania so there were no guarantees that he would flourish as a main event guy or that his journey to win the championship would be the focal point of the company in the two years that followed. Management knew that they had a commodity with the return of Cody to the promotion, but it’s doubtful that anyone would’ve guessed how the length of his story arc would’ve been such a key piece of the overall puzzle. You should also remember that in 2022, the organization ran the massive AT&T Stadium for the two-night event, and ticket sales had stalled to the point that they brought 58-year-old Steve Austin out of retirement to main event the first night of the pay-per-view to move most of the remaining tickets.
Austin had been retired longer than his actual in-ring career, but with a venue of that size that has to sell double the amount of tickets over the weekend, management had to go deep into the playbook when they wanted Stone Cold to move the needle at his age. Thankfully, Kevin Owens is a top-notch worker and made sure everything was safe and easy for Austin so the match was a success.
That being said, Logan Paul’s introduction to the business was more for him to shill the company to his fan base than any type of entertainment value that he brought to the table at that time. That notion is underscored when you take into account the status of the promotion at the time, this was before The Rock’s original involvement garnered some main stream hype a few years later.
However, within the past three years, despite some of the booking that had to be used to camouflage his inexperience, Logan Paul had done consistently well, in terms of in-ring performance. He doesn’t have the intangibles of timing, selling, or pacing of a polished worker, but it would be unreasonable to expect him to check those boxes with just a few years of experience. He went from training in a mostly empty building with Shawn Micheals to working on live television so realistically, he’s overachieved. The issue became, at least so far, was that Logan Paul, true to his experience level, was making a positive impression with his in-ring work based on pure athleticism, not the finer points of the genre. To this point, that wasn’t a major concern, based on his spot on the card, but if he’s going to move up the ladder to a position of more prominence, there will undoubtedly have to be more substance to his overall performance.
I’m not sure if Logan Paul will get there, as the only thing that we know for sure is that he’s a very athletic guy that can be successful in the spots that are designed to make him as good as possible. That’s not a knock on him, but rather to point out that the office has been smart with how they’ve booked him. Obviously, it remains to be seen if Logan makes the leap from the celebrity that gets booked in an attempt to secure a viral moment that gives the company a temporary boost, or if he’s going to be a more integral part of the direction of the brand.
But, based on the segment with Paul Heyman this past week on Raw, it looks like Logan Paul might be a key performer within the landscape of the WWE for the next several months.
With Seth Rollins on the sidelines for at least the next six months, WWE brass needed something to boost its depth of heels on Raw. As I’ve written previously, Breakker and Reed are projects and rushing them to any particularly spot as a temporary fix might hinder their overall progress, especially in terms of a meaningful angle that could legitimately make either of them a bigger star in the process. In short, there’s a reason with running with Bronson or Breakker just because the office has to find a heel to work with CM Punk. In some ways, it would be similar to when Randy Orton won the World Heavyweight title in 2004 at the age of 24 just as a way for the company to move Brock Lesnar out of the history books as the youngest champion in the history of the company since he left the promotion on negative terms earlier that year.
There’s no need to put a stumbling block in front of either of them, specifically Bron Breakker so using Logan Paul for the center piece so to speak of the stable fills the void left by Seth’s injury.
While I don’t think Logan Paul’s fan base ever truly crossed over to the WWE, there’s undoubtedly a younger demographic within the WWE audience that views him as a star. That Prime sponsorship is a valuable revenue stream, too. Given the fact that Logan Paul become involved in sports entertainment because he made a name for himself on social media, there will always be a novelty or gimmick associated with what he does in the industry so a temporary position to patch a hole on the roster doesn’t really affect his overall trajectory. Furthermore, for the majority of the crowd, Logan Paul is an actual heel, not just someone cast in a villain role that they will cheer anyway. Seth Rollins is a tremendous performer, but did he really get heat with the audience when they sing his song every time he makes an entrance?
As far as the segment on Raw, Paul’s presentation looked a little forced, almost as it he was trying too hard to act like someone that just turned heel rather than working through it in a more natural way. That’s not a criticism, though, but rather to point out that he will have to polish his performances to be more organic instead of looking like an acting session. It goes without saying that Paul Heyman’s involvement will be a major asset for the entire angle, as he remains the best talker in the entire industry and has been for the past several years. Heyman’s reaction in the segment on Raw really helped to put it over as a major deal, which adds a level of cache to the next chapter for the stable.
Most importantly, this angle gives CM Punk a firm direction as champion. Some might claim that Jey Uso could turn heel to give him an opponent, but taking into account that he’s one of the top merchandise sellers for the organization, it might be counter productive to turn him heel right now. The potential Logan Paul/CM Punk feud for the belt gives the baby face champion a heel with heat to work with and odds to overcome with the stable behind Logan Paul so it could be a simple, but effective formula to get the company through the rest of the year.
Of course, it remains to be seen how the office will construct the card for Wrestlemania 42, but the earliest pieces of the puzzle are usually put in place at The Royal Rumble so key decisions are on the horizon for WWE brass. I’m not sure of the answer, but with the brand naturally losing some momentum in recent months, I’d say that they will have to shuffle the deck next year to provide some fresh rivalries. Truth be told, that was probably the case this year as well, but the John Cena retirement tour fueled the promotion through 2025. It might’ve sounded preposterous a few years ago, but a Logan Paul title reign might be the right move to get the company through The Royal Rumble. CM Punk fighting for the prosperity of pro wrestling to win the title back from the social media star is a story that writes itself for the next few months.
What do you think? Share your thoughts, opinions, feedback, and anything else that was raised on Twitter @PWMania and Facebook.com/PWMania.
Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
Email [email protected] | You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, & Threads @jimlamotta89
