In case you haven’t been on the internet (or in listening range of another medium that “contributes” to our current disagreement-based culture) lately, let me tell you that the Super Bowl halftime show
is once again the controversy du jour. I did my best to describe it in this post about a sitting United States Senator calling for AEW’s Tony Khan to sign this year’s halftime star, Bad Bunny, away from WWE*.
Seth Rollins is not exactly a neutral party. The NFL of course is pro-its own halftime show, regardless of how it’s being fussed over in any given year. And Rollins seems to have a recurring gig appearing on NFL Network’s Good Morning Football, and become a frequent guest on other podcasts and radio shows for his pro football commentary.
He also, as he reminded us twice in his minute-plus promo this morning, is affiliated with Bad Bunny via WWE. So even if you don’t want to wade into the politics of the halftime show, Rollins promo is noteworthy for how he pointedly calls Bunny his “colleague” and “fellow WWE Superstar”:
“I wanted to give a shoutout to Bad Bunny, because it was just awesome. My colleague Benito — fellow WWE Superstar. You know, there was a lot of talk going into the halftime show about this and that and this and that. But at the end of the day, it was about unity. His message was about bringing people together. Love is stronger than hate. And I just thought that was so beautiful and so powerful.
“And it didn’t matter where you come from, what your background was, what your ethnicity, your religious background, anything. It was just about love. It was like, come as you are, be a part of this, and I thought that was beautiful. And it was a bigger kind of — that’s what the Super Bowl is. That’s what football is. You bring everybody together, you watch this game, you talk about it, we’re talking about it. And there’s just so much joy that comes from football and that comes from being together as a community as one with different cultures. It was such a beautiful halftime show. I don’t even know a single Bad Bunny song, and I was nearly in tears by the end of it. I was nearly in tears by the end of it. The messaging was beautiful.”
It’s a beautiful sentiment, although I’m probably too realistic/cynical to fully buy what Seth’s selling. But I am a fan of Benito’s music**, and would probably highlight more specific things I loved about Sunday’s production and performance rather than praise the unifying power of (American) football. But I get why Seth did, and you didn’t click on a post about Sean Rueter’s take on Super Bowl 60’s halftime show — not that that’s stopped me before. Anyway…
So do you agree with Rollins’ evaluation of Bad Bunny’s halftime show?
* Which I still kinda can’t believe is something I had to write about, but then I think of everything that’s happened in the past, dang… 10 or so years, and I can totally believe that’s something I had to write about.
** I can’t listen to music with English lyrics while writing/thinking about writing, and Bunny got added to my rotation of jazz, movie scores, and various jams with non-English vocals.
