Bad Bunny Poised for One of Best Celebrity Showings in WWE WrestleMania History

WWE WrestleMania has a long history of celebrity appearances, with some even wrestling matches. Grammy-winning musician Bad Bunny will be the latest to try his hand at pro wrestling at WrestleMania 37 on Saturday.

Bad Bunny has been appearing regularly on Raw since January's Royal Rumble pay-per-view, and he and Damian Priest have been embroiled in a feud with The Miz and John Morrison, stemming from The Miz destroying Bad Bunny's DJ equipment at the Rumble.

It was initially announced that Bad Bunny and The Miz would face off in a singles match on The Grandest Stage of Them All, but on the go-home episode of Raw, it was changed to a tag team bout pitting Bad Bunny and Priest against The Miz and Morrison.

The change figures to allow Priest to do the bulk of the work before handing over the reins to Bad Bunny for a few big spots and the finish.

Bad Bunny is smaller than most pro wrestlers and isn't known to have an extensive athletic background, but he makes up for his deficiencies in those areas with his love for and dedication to the wrestling business.

The Puerto Rican rapper cut a passionate promo on Monday's Raw about how much WWE means to him, and it seems his words were real rather than part of a storyline.

WWE executive Triple H divulged recently that Bad Bunny has committed himself to learning how to wrestle ahead of his WrestleMania match.

Appearing on Barstool Sports' Pardon My Take (h/t Cultaholic's Mitch Waddon), Triple H said:

"But when I say dedicated himself to the idea that he was going to do something with WWE, like picked himself up, rented a house in Orlando and moved to Orlando, and has been at the [Performance Center] every day. I see people online going, 'First time he takes a bump in the ring he'll be done with.' That was a long time ago. He is tearing it up in the ring every day.

"When people say, 'He's taken up a spot,' he's earned my respect and the spot that he has."

Priest has worked closely with Bad Bunny since he walked through the door in WWE, meaning there is no one with more intimate knowledge about how he has progressed.

In an interview with WFLA's Daisy Ruth, The Archer of Infamy suggested that Bad Bunny will exceed expectations at The Showcase of the Immortals: "Every week, multiple days a week, we're in the ring together. I'll tell you what, come WrestleMania, he's going to surprise some people. He's taking it seriously. The one thing he's been adamant about is making sure he got everybody's respect. He earned everybody's respect."

There have been some quality celebrity matches in WrestleMania history. Two that stand out are the WrestleMania XI main event between New York Giants legend Lawrence Taylor and Bam Bam Bigelow and the WrestleMania XXIV match between boxing great Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Big Show.

Those contests exceeded expectations at the time, but it is notable that both Taylor and Mayweather were elite-level athletes, which conceivably made the transition to wrestling a bit easier.

Bad Bunny is likely having to work extra hard since he doesn't possess the same background, but he can close the gap based on his will and desire to represent himself well in a business he loves.

It isn't fair to expect Bad Bunny to put on a 5-star match, but with Priest and a couple of veterans in The Miz and Morrison carrying the load, he is being put in a position to succeed.

As long as Bad Bunny plays his role and follows through on everything he has been learning over the past several weeks, the match should be a highly entertaining showcase and establish Bad Bunny as one of the better celebrity wrestlers to perform on the WrestleMania stage.

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