The wrestling community is in turmoil due to a recent announcement by United States Champion Logan Paul on SmackDown. It revealed that Prime is now the official ring mat sponsor for all Premium Live Events (PLEs) organized by WWE. While this move promises to be financially lucrative for WWE, it has drawn criticism from many fans. This includes WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley, who has passionately called for a reconsideration of this decision.
Foley took to Instagram to voice his concerns. He shared an image on his story. The image depicted his iconic Hell in a Cell match with The Undertaker at King of the Ring 1998. However, a Prime logo was edited in the center of the ring. Check out the post below:
However, introducing Prime as the first-ever ring mat sponsor for WWE’s premium live events marks a significant departure from tradition. At the same time, the move may signal a new era of commercialization within WWE. But it could also make the wrestling ring less special.
Logan Paul reacts to criticism of Prime’s WWE ring sponsorship
Reports indicate that the Prime partnership is the largest sponsorship deal in WWE’s history. Amidst the fervent debate surrounding Prime’s landmark sponsorship deal with WWE, Logan Paul has offered his candid response to the widespread criticism during the latest episode of his Impaulsive podcast.
He stated, “Getting that center ring spot is interesting. It’s more positive reviews, but I think the die hard wrestling fans are really upset. It’s never been done, and Vince [Vince McMahon] was always really protective of the mat and not putting any brands on it, but in this new era, which it is, no matter how you cut it. TKO is a publicly traded company, they have to meet a bottom line. That spot was going to be sold. We saw an opportunity, and potentially an opportunity to make people hate me even more, because I am a heel, that’s kind of the angle I took. F*ck y’all, I’m going to stamp everything about this with me so you’re reminded of just what my aim is; to takeover,” said Paul.
He continued, “If we don’t have this spot forever, who knows, it’ll be somebody else. I promise, if you’re a die-hard WWE fan, you’ll forget about it. It’ll start to be standard practice and I don’t think it’ll be as distracting as y’all think.” Whether fans ultimately embrace or reject this paradigm shift remains to be seen.
