Logan Paul has signed a multi-year deal with WWE, and he is 100 percent a perfect fit with the company's vision of sports entertainment. The company announced the move on its official Twitter, and this deal isn't a one-off like WrestleMania 38 was. He took part in a tag-team match alongside The Miz on that night, who hit him with a Skullcrushing Finale following the bout, setting up a potential match in the future. For what it's worth, that attack received one of the biggest reactions of the weekend.
That future may come to fruition as soon as SummerSlam. Sources told Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani/Twitter) that the contract was for multiple years, that Paul will "compete at multiple events per year," and that he will "have his first big appearance at [SummerSlam] but could be on TV before that."
If AEW's forbidden door stands between itself and NJPW, then WWE's forbidden door is between it and former combat and media stars with crossover potential. Paul has the latter in spades and showed at WrestleMania 38 that he has good natural instincts in the ring. His fight alongside Miz wasn't a spot fest. It had solid pacing, and while Paul wasn't asked to do the heavy lifting in the match, Miz also didn't have to carry him, kicking and screaming, to something that was only borderline watchable. It was fun. It was entertaining, and if WWE handles him right, so will mostly everything that Paul does with the company.
Logan Paul's boxing career didn't match his brother Jake's, but he's still an absolute master when it comes to self-promotion. WWE immediately gains access to all of Paul's followers, many of whom presumably wouldn't be otherwise interested in the upcoming SummerSlam show. It'll at least be on their radars, however, and with the widespread availability of the Peacock streaming service, that could lead to some big ratings for WWE.
Adding Paul to the roster falls directly in line with how WWE seems to be viewing creating future superstars. NXT 2.0 is focused on adding physically gifted young adults, like Paul, and then training them how to wrestle. Brock Lesnar is one of the biggest stars the sport has ever produced, while more recently, former UFC star Riddle has seen his stock dramatically rise inside the company. Riddle was popular in UFC, but he currently has 279,000 followers on Twitter and no real YouTube presence to speak of. Logan Paul has 6.4 million followers on Twitter, 25.4 million subscribers on YouTube, and 771,000 followers on Twitch. That is a massive signal boost for WWE and SummerSlam, and it won't come at the cost of fans having to watch another awful celebrity match at one of the major events of the year. Paul actually has a ton of potential as a sports entertainer and is a real wild card in the coming months due to injuries to major players like Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton.
Source: @arielhelwani/Twitter