The wrestling community may forever view him as an outsider who was allowed to skip the line on account of his celebrity status, but Logan Paul surely deserves some praise for his unwillingness to break kayfabe despite being challenged by one of the biggest names known in professional sports.
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Seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady recently suggested that pro wrestling was “very cute” when compared to the “real competition” that is football. Paul, who competes in WWE part-time, pushed back and argued that Brady was underestimating the level of athleticism required to be a pro wrestler.
With his stance, Brady reignited the rivalry between WWE Superstars and other athletes. And now there’s another former quarterback backing him up. During an episode of his 4th & 1 podcast, the 2015 regular-season MVP, Cam Newton, decided to weigh in on the topic by defending Brady’s original claims.
“It’s synchronized swimming,” the former Carolina Panther asserted. “It’s choreographed dancing,” referring to WWE wrestling.
“When you compare it to football, when you got somebody that’s trying to knock your block off, and to take your dog-gone girl… Man listen, that ain’t a part of the script. I can see The Rock, I love him to death. Him and Stone Cold, they’ll tell ya. If you don’t believe it, go back and watch the [Vince] McMahon documentary, it’ll tell you everything you need to know about wrestling.”
It shouldn’t surprise anyone to see that football players are coming to the defense of their own, nor should it when WWE wrestlers do the same. Historically, suggesting that professional wrestling is “fake” in the presence of a performer was enough to provoke a physical altercation.
While that tradition has since subsided, mainly due to lawsuits and public perception, it’s still readily apparent that no one within Paul’s industry took too kindly to Brady’s comments. “It just comes from a place of ignorance,” WWE champion Drew McIntyre stated.
One of the most prominent promoters in the history of professional wrestling, Paul Heyman, took things a bit further by suggesting that Brady is hardly deserving of the amount of recognition that he’s received throughout the years. “What’s Tom Brady done?” Heyman questioned.
“He’s thrown a football across a field that was caught by [Rob] Gronkowski. Gronkowski deserves the credit. [Bill] Belichick and his girlfriend deserve the credit. But Tom Brady? No.”
Suffice to say, neither side nor their respective fan bases are willing to budge an inch on this one. Conveniently enough, however, Paul will have an opportunity to besmirch the NFL’s reputation a bit by putting on a show at the upcoming Fanatics Flag Football Classic that is set to take place in Saudi Arabia one month from now.
