Appearing on fellow AEW Superstar Chris Jericho’s podcast Talk is Jericho, former WWE Superstar, Paul Wight recalled WWE’s plans for Justin Bieber to make his in-ring debut at SummerSlam and why the ‘big deal’ fell through.
Since 2014 it has been well speculated that, international music sensation, Justin Bieber was in talks with WWE to appear for the company in an in-ring capacity. In 2015, former WWE creative team member Kevin Eck revealed that plans had been discussed for John Cena and The Big Show to team with the Canadian musician to take on The Wyatt Family at SummerSlam 2014.
Speaking on his blog in 2015, Eck would speak of Bieber’s relationship Floyd Mayweather and how this relationship had led to a discussion of Bieber appearing at the Los Angeles PPV event:
“Everyone knows that pop star Justin Bieber is a member of Floyd Mayweather’s entourage. What isn’t known is that Bieber, who was seen walking to the ring with Mayweather for the boxer’s fight against Manny Pacquiao Saturday night, was interested in stepping into a WWE ring last summer to make his wrestling debut.
“The idea was that Bieber would team with John Cena and Big Show to face The Wyatt Family in a six-man tag match that would have headlined SummerSlam in Los Angeles.
Although Eck was able to reveal much about the proposed segment, including its position on the SummerSlam card as the PPV’s Headline match, the former WWE creative team member was unable to shed any light on why the match failed to come to light.
“The proposed match was discussed among the booking team (which I was on) about five months before SummerSlam, but a deal with Bieber never came to fruition. I’m not sure how close it was to actually happening.”
However, on a recent episode of Talk Is Jericho, Paul Wight [aka The Big Show] would discuss Bieber’s plans with the WWE and how it was in-fact WWE’s failings that led to the 12-time Multi-Platinum recording artist not appearing at the 2014 SummerSlam PPV event.
“Years ago, I had worked out with a friend who knew Scooter Braun and Justin Bieber. It was going to be John Cena, The Big Show, and Justin Bieber against The Wyatts at SummerSlam. This deal was really…Bieber was on board, he was excited and wanted to workout with John and I. This was a big deal. One of the people making decisions said, ‘I don’t see how Justin Bieber is going to relate to our audience.’ Does anyone not see the amount of eyes Justin Bieber would bring to that match? I think WWE offered to promote his album. You’re dealing with Scooter Braun, he’s all about cash. They jacked Scooter around for about two weeks and he’s like, ‘It’s not going to happen. I got the kid a million dollars to watch a soccer game and he’ll be on a private jet…”
Ultimately, the plans of having “Cena hitting the Attitude Adjustment on him [Bieber] for a big pop” would not come to fruition. Instead, Cena would face-off against ‘The Beast’ Brock Lesnar in match rated highly by fans and critics alike even receiving 4.25 stars from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Elsewhere on the show, Bray Wyatt would defeat Talk is Jerichohost Chris Jericho whilst Paul Wight would not feature on the show in any capacity.