A WWE legend is not fond of the latest SummerSlam 2025 storyline developments.
Pro wrestling and Hollywood have always maintained a close relationship, with wrestlers often appearing in popular Hollywood movies or actors appearing on the weekly shows or PLEs/PPVs to promote their films. However, in recent years, the involvement of celebrities in pro wrestling has reached new heights.
Often, popular celebrities such as Bad Bunny, Stephen Amell, and Johnny Knoxville have been seen wrestling. While these names made rare appearances, popular YouTuber and boxer Logan Paul has established himself as a regular name in WWE.
With less than two weeks left, Randy Orton is now scheduled to tag with popular musician Jelly Roll and face the duo of Paul and Drew McIntyre at SummerSlam. Calling out the current phenomenon of celebrity infusion, WWE Hall of Famer Rob Van Dam opened up on the latest edition of his 1 of a Kind podcast. Expressing his dislike for such matches, the veteran said:
You have to be an athlete to be able to do it. And so, like for me, it’s always offensive, because I take the perspective that in order to have a celebrity take a spot on a wrestling card, everyone else has to work around them to make it look like just anybody could do it. And I don’t like that, because not everybody could do it… It’s always insulting, though, for me, like when people feel like it’s, like it’s easy, like we’re just playing, or like just anybody can do it.
I always will feel defensive about the fact that my career took an incredible amount of physicality, an amazing amount of durability to be able to take, you know, a s**t load of punishment on a nightly basis, besides having the talent to even pick up the timing and have cool moves and any of that. And so I feel like a lot of that just gets thrown out the window in order to fu**ing make, make this work.”
[H/T WrestlingNews.co]
American rapper Cardi B is also confirmed to host the upcoming two-night SummerSlam PLE in New Jersey.
WWE Veteran Rob Van Dam Wants Celebrities To Respect The Sport
In the same edition of his 1 of a Kind podcast, Rob Van Dam revealed that late Sabu and he once faced the celebrity rap duo Insane Clown Posse in ECW, and they made sure to make them respect pro wrestling.
Before you even finish your question, it sounds like you’re talking about when ICP came and they came, me and Sabu beat the s**t out of them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Take it easy on them at all. And I broke Shaggy 2 Dope’s eardrum. He wrote about it in his book… Everyone knows that I didn’t go exceptionally hard on him, but I didn’t hold back either… They even had wrestling training, but we looked at them like they weren’t us, because they’re not… If they didn’t respect what we’re doing before, they’re going to respect it afterwards.”
In other news: A released WWE star’s in-ring return has been announced.