At least online, WWE fans don’t sound that excited about the big SummerSlam tag match set-up last Friday on SmackDown. That’s mostly because it will involve country music superstar Jelly Roll instead of someone who has ever wrestled before.
Burnt by the recent, and extremely unsatisfying, use of rapper Travis Scott in a major WrestleMania angle, some in the audience aren’t excited about Jelly Roll getting a spot on the first-ever two-day SummerSlam. But not all celebrities are like Scott, who rumors
say “flaked” on training — perhaps because he wasn’t “a quick learner for the business.” You’ll only have to look across the ring during Jelly Roll’s match to see one in Logan Paul*.
The wrestler who worked with many people’s favorite celebrity wrestler, Backlash ‘23 star Bad Bunny, says Roll is much more like Bunny than he is like Scott. Earlier this week, Damian Priest told Busted Open:
“Jelly Roll is doing exactly what Bad Bunny did — he moved to Florida to be at the PC full time because he’s taking it seriously.”
On The Pat McAfee Show today (July 16), Jelly went into more detail about his life at the WWE Performance Center getting ready to team with Randy Orton against Paul & Drew McIntyre:
“I have quietly been living in Orlando for about three or four weeks at the PC. Showing up every day like a piece of furniture over there. They can’t kick me out. I’m there from the moment I wake up till it closes almost. Matt Bloom’s my coach.
“I was training with Matt Bloom the other day, and Undertaker comes in with Michelle [McCool]. ‘They just want to watch for a minute, is that cool?’ ‘For sure.’ This is who he is as a human. The entire three-hour session, him and his wife stood on those ropes and gave me pointer after pointer...
“Kevin Owens, Jacob Fatu came in and wrestled with me the other day for three-four hours. These dudes are like pouring into me because they see that I’m trying to take it as serious as I can.”
Jelly Roll says the training has been a key part of his recent weight loss (in April, Roll told McAfee he was down to 357 pounds after being 540 pounds when he decided to take his health more seriously. At the time, his goal was to lose another 100 pounds). That’s not the only impact it’s having on his body, though. He told McAfee today:
“When me and Hunter [Triple H] started talking, the more I got involved with WWE over the last couple of years, every time I lose weight, they’re like, ‘Looking good.’ ‘Good enough for a match yet, or do I need to lose another hundred?’ ‘A little more, brother.’ [Laughs] I just kept pushing for it...
“I knew how physically grueling it was, and I knew that’s what I needed at this point in my weight loss journey that this would be the fire that I needed but man, if I took my shirt off right now, not only would you be appalled by the loose skin, but you would see I am beaten.”
Does that make you a little more excited for, or at least a little less down on, Jelly Roll & Randy Orton vs. Logan Paul & Drew McIntyre at SummerSlam?
You can watch Jelly Roll’s entire appearance on The Pat McAfee Show in the video embedded at the top of this post.
* There are plenty of reasons to hate Logan Paul, but he has proven to be pretty good at pro wresting.
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