Summerslam is just around the corner and for the first time ever it will be on back-to-back nights in I’m sure what will be a mostly packed NFL stadium. At the time of this writing the card is shaping up reasonably well and should be a pretty good show in one of the company’s biggest markets. Of course, there is a hot button issue that is overshadowing some of the show. This would be the tag team match of Logan Paul & Drew McIntyre vs. Randy Orton & Jelly Roll. This is not the first time a non-wrestling celebrity has competed in a tag match at the biggest party of the summer. Tom ‘Tiny’ Lister (RIP) better known as Zeus teamed with Macho Man back in ‘89 and in 2015 Stephan Amell known for his work on Arrow teamed up with Adrian Neville…as he was known at the time. Kinda funny that all three of these matches took place in the New York / New Jersey area, but a bigger question remains. Why in the year 2025 are wrestling fans, experts and insiders of the industry outraged by booking a match like this? The answer is actually a little bit more complicated than some might expect.

Veterans and pioneers of yesteryear are giving their usual responses to this. Jim Cornette...hates it. Dutch Mantell...kind of looks at it as a joke. I respect the opinions of both men as they have done everything in the business that you can for a long time but I am not always in agreement with them. One perspective I would like to focus on came from quite an unexpected source. Rob Van Dam (I see you...pointing the thumbs to yourself as you read that). To paraphrase, Van Dam feels like celebrities shouldn’t automatically be allowed in the ring because being in the ring and doing it well is extremely hard and opening the door to non-wrestlers can give off a perception that ‘anybody can do it’ with a little bit of training. If you want an exact quote it’s on Youtube but he touches upon a credible issue here. Rob received the ring moniker ‘Van Dam’ because his look and martial arts skills made people say ‘this guy reminds me of Jean-Claude Van-Damme’. JCVD was at his acting peak when Rob started to make a name for himself and whether you were a fan of his style or not Rob did things in the ring at a high level that very few could pull off. Athleticism, toughness and charisma (physical charisma at least…maybe not the promos) were off the charts but he paid his dues the hard way after being trained by The Sheik and his nephew Sabu. So the question is does RVD have a perspective worth exploring further? Should outside celebrities be involved between the ropes at all in 2025? This is all worth exploring Daddy…but before I do so I want to turn back the clock a bit.

The most obvious example of successful celebrity engagement in the ring is Mr. T. at the first Wrestlemania. In fact when I was little I thought that Mr. T. was a wrestler before he became an actor because he looked the part so convincingly. Eventually I smartened up and got my act together but would find out that most of the wrestlers really didn’t want him in their world. Forty years on and this attitude still exists in some respects. But right now I think it's only appropriate to shout of the G.O.A.T. of celebrities who went into wrestling: Andy Kaufman. There may have been celebrities who wrestled before Andy (Muhammad Ali for sure) but I am not privy to that kind of in depth history so I will say that he was the first to get excessive attention in the media. The reason being is that he will go down as being one of the greatest heels in any era…celebrity or not. You can catch some of his promos and matches on Youtube and they are nothing short of brilliant. Was he athletic? No. Could he wrestle a lick? No. Did he have a strong physique? No. Did he look like he belonged on a cosmetic level? No. Did he ever wear proper wrestling attire to stand out? No. He was an avant-garde comedian/actor who understood the psychology of wrestling before he even knew what it was. The more they hate you the more money they will spend to see you get beat. So he took on the women and the fine people of the American south and he had the perfect babyface foil…territory legend Jerry “The King” Lawler. This run was short but memorable but culminated in the two having a shoot (but really staged) fight on the David Letterman show which took things to an unheard of level back in ‘82. Sadly his run in wrestling would be short and he would be dead almost a year before Wrestlemania I…man the possibilities there would have been endless.

Anyway, I don’t want this column to be a repetitive history lesson but I do want to shout out a couple of other important celebrities who didn’t wrestle but got involved in their own way. Arguably the most important of all time was Iron Mike Tyson at WMXIV. I still think Austin winning would have helped set the Attitude era in motion but Tyson’s involvement gave it that much more starpower and credibility. Like Kaufman he was also a loose cannon and you weren’t sure what he was gonna do and allegedly Shane McMahon became his handler to make sure he stayed in line with everything (oh the stories Shane must have). It will go down as one of the most significant ever and Mike thankfully didn’t wrestle.

Another one I want to mention didn’t have a monumental dent on business but it is so cool that I need to mention it. WCW Slamboree in 1994 took place in Philadelphia and the tag team titles were defended in a Broadstreet Bully Match. This took place between The Nasty Boys facing Kevin Sullivan (RIP) and Cactus Jack. The guest referee? The most notorious NHL enforcer ever and Broadstreet Bully member Dave “The Hammer” Schultz. Foley told the story before that backstage Schultz was concerned that his punches may look too soft as he didn’t want to hurt anyone once he got involved. To get back at the Nastys always hurting people Mick and Kevin told him (famous last words) ‘oh don’t worry…we don’t pull our punches so you won’t have to’...the result? Schultz jerseying and pounding the living crap out of Jerry Saggs (allegedly for real) to one of the louder pops in Philadelphia wrestling history (that is saying something!) and vindication for the locker room and the careless actions of the ‘Boys.

Moments like these and seeing the troupe of Hart, Uecker, Cooper and Aretha at WM III or Trump’s (we’ll excuse his actual performance for this one) involvement in the Battle Of The Billionaires put a smile on my face. This is because their presence made the show better and they did not step between the ropes. So before I finish and circle back to RVD’s point I want to share that in my humble opinion celebrity involvement is welcome in wrestling in the right place at the right time with the right people. Word to the wise though…like all good things in wrestling this has been abused and remember this is why celebrity involvement  is a cautionary tale:

For every Bob Barker there is a Jeremy Piven hyping up Summerfest
For every Bob Uecker there is an Al Roker
For every Regis Philbin there is Rev. Al Sharpton
For every Shaquille O’Neal there is Adam ‘Pacman” Jones
For every Stephen Amell there is Snooki
For every Snoop Dog there is Travis Scott
 
You get the idea but let me stop here for a moment. At the time of this writing TKO seems to (thankfully) have cut ties with Travis Scott who will likely go down as one of the worst celebrities of all time to ever get involved with wrestling in any capacity. This is saying something because the early days of TNA Wrestling and the later days of WCW had a lot of really BAD celebrity involvement. But there is something about Scott that was so incredibly egregious. I cannot confirm right now but rumors are circulating that the WWE brass put up with his crap as long as they did because he is allegedly tight with TKO big boss Ari Emanuel. It wasn’t just that Scott was skinny, unfocused, involved in the biggest storyline of the year (maybe of the last five years), and unprofessional it was like he was completely indifferent and functioning in another dimension altogether. No wonder the reports are saying that his focus isn’t on training…because it probably isn’t. Rubbing shoulders with Ari and the Final Boss got him into a spot he certainly did not deserve. He will forever be known in wrestling circles as the guy who injured Cody Rhodes and helped ruin the finish of a historic Wrestlemania main event. I really hope all of those involved learned their lesson on this one.
 
Which brings me back to where I exactly stand on the quote from RVD. As a nearly life long fan I believe the right celebrity involvement in the right situations enhances the product and business. But when the front door is left wide open you are prone to welcoming a litany of disasters (as previously written about) and the Travis Scott debacle is the zenith of all that. I think Rob really has a point that just because celebrities are fans and are ‘passionate’ about the business they shouldn’t necessarily be given a match on one of the biggest shows of the year. Given the circumstances for this year’s Summerslam match I think it will go okay. Will it be an all time classic? Likely not. Will it be entertaining? I would like to think so. Many are upset because they feel Drew and Randy are being wasted which I do not fully agree with. They are the reason this match is going to be watchable in any fashion. They are the generals who will lead things and will do the lion's share of the work. I’m no promoter nor a wrestler but I feel being chosen to lead in a high profile match like this has some honour as your experience is being asked to be put on full display and possibly bring in some eyeballs that haven’t invested in wrestling before. As for Logan Paul…he’ll be fine. I marvel at his athleticism, presence and ability to naturally get people not to like him. But honestly I am kind of bored of his ‘I’m an outsider taking over the wrestling world’. He’s proven he can do it with an array of opponents on a big stage (I was blessed to be in attendance to watch him and Ricochet open Summerslam in Detroit). So he is perfect in this role too and now that I have poured in my two cents I want to close with this.
 
Back in the dying days of WCW when they began to struggle to sell tickets Jimmy Hart did something kind of cool. In whatever market they were taping in, Hart would do PR with one of the local radio stations and rile up one of their star DJ’s to have a match with them. The caveat was that none of these matches made it to air. They were done as dark matches and were a nice bonus for the ticket buying customers and the TV audience didn’t have to suffer through them. AEW’s All-In Texas had Big Boom A.J. wrestle on their pre-show (I still don’t even know who this guy is..honestly speaking) and not the main card. So with all that being said I feel we are at a point that if celebrities want to wrestle they have to register and train for one full year before they have a match. Ones who don’t want to do that but the company wants to get some use out of them, put them on the pre-show or promote it as a dark match. The argument about celebrities wrestling is always ‘it’ll sell more tickets’ or put more ‘eyeballs on the product’. Well if you follow this system it’ll still accomplish both of those things if we are being honest and we can weed out the celebrities who are really there to boost their own ‘brand’ and solely get clicks on social media instead of giving to the business they supposedly ‘love’.

Final thoughts on the Summerslam tag match are this. I think it’ll be fun and given the talent involved I think they will carry Jelly Roll through nicely. A word on this man…I thoroughly enjoyed his involvement at Summerslam ‘24 and even enjoyed some of his music (which is wild because I’m not much of a country fan). I can’t say I had any vested interest in seeing him wrestle. The build up for this match seemed rushed and awkward (in reverse I always thought the Big Show / Mayweather match at Mania had a great build but a subpar match) but I think the match will deliver for said reasons. I saw Jelly Roll on the Pat McAfee show (who also delivered a better than expected match against Baron Corbin at Summerslam ‘22) recently and the guy seems quite likeable, humble and I think he’s been taking his training quite seriously. He’s also kicked a life of drugs, crime and poverty while losing close to half of his body weight over the past year. That is not easy for anyone let alone a touring musician so respect is given where it is due in that matter. I want him to do well at Summerslam but I also don’t want to see him between the ropes again. If anyone like him wants to do this on a big stage again they should either go on the pre-show, a dark match or rigorous (and I mean rigorous training) to earn their spot. There is not another sport on Earth that offers these types of opportunities and like RVD has said we can’t let everybody think they can do this and that it’s easy. But the ones who are willing to pay the price and not steal the main roster’s thunder and they are involved in the right place at the right time and not around to ‘sell tickets’ and garner ‘social media clicks’...I say bring 'em in. 
 
I’ll end this with a quote from Vince McMahon that many may not know about. It aired during the all day Wrestlemania 2000 special which I believe is still in the vault somewhere. He was asked about celebrity involvement at Mania and responded with something along the lines of the wrestlers themselves have now become celebrities so it wasn’t as necessary as it was before. He wasn’t wrong about this…and in fact maybe ahead of his time as 25 years on some of wrestling’s biggest names are in fact celebrities and have broken down the barriers into acting, music and whatever else you can name. Even with their established names they still had to pay their dues and hone their craft. It should be a two way street and with that this is Phil Gordon wrapping up another Grand Slam and I will connect with you soon.
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- Phil Gordon