The intersection of celebrities and professional wrestling has been happening consistently for over 40 years.
The celebrity’s level of involvement generally relies on a variety of factors. Sometimes it’s to add significance to an event like Aretha Franklin singing “America the Beautiful” before WWE’s landmark WrestleMania III event at Detroit’s Pontiac Silverdome.
Sometimes it’s for promotional purposes, such as when World Championship Wrestling put their World Championship on actor David Arquette to promote their “Ready to Rumble” film in which Arquette played a wrestler.
Other times, as we’ve seen a lot in the past couple of years, the celebrity is a wrestling fan and genuinely wants to be involved. In the past five years, Pat McAfee, Bad Bunny, and Logan Paul have all had premier matches on WWE events, and they were each quite good.
A new celebrity wrestler has entered the ring. Saturday night at a Wrestling Revolver show in Iowa, 2024 Emmy Award winner Paul Walter Hauser squared off against Matt Cardona (formerly Zack Ryder in WWE) and picked up a victory after a nearly 20-minute match that saw Hauser put Cardona through a flaming table at the end.
Golden Globe, Emmy, Put Matt Cardona through a flaming table. Paul Walter Hauser living his best life. pic.twitter.com/3IfWi8nTgU #RevolverReady
— Scott Fishman (@smFISHMAN) March 17, 2024
Hauser wasn’t done, though. After the match, Emmy in hand, he challenged wrestler Sami Callahan to a match at Wrestling Revolver’s April 5 show in Philadelphia. A challenge that Callahan accepted.
Paul Walter Hauser poses with his Emmy (for Black Bird) in the ring, then he and Bully Ray cut a promo for a future match between Hauser and Sami Callihan. A young fan named Kaden wins a piece of the burning table that Matt Cardona was put through. #RevolverReady pic.twitter.com/En03LHYYvB
— GIFSkullX (@GIFSkullX) March 17, 2024
We’ll have to see if Hauser can remain undefeated once he faces off with Callahan.