Jelly Roll teamed with Randy Orton at SummerSlam. (Credit: Georgiana Dallas/WWE via Getty Images)
WWE via Getty Images
If Jelly Roll has his way, he’ll be back in a WWE ring for the long haul.
The 40-year-old country singer made his in-ring debut at SummerSlam in August, where he teamed with Randy Orton to face Logan Paul and Drew McIntyre in a losing effort on Night One. Jelly Roll was widely praised for over-delivering in his first-ever match, and now, he wants more.
During an appearance on Insight with Chris Van Vliet (h/t WrestlingNews.co), Jelly Roll expressed his desire to have an extended run in WWE: “I will wrestle again, for sure…I want to run it back. I want to do one more…a dream scenario is: I’d like to get involved for like a run. Like, I’d like to wrestle every Friday, you know what I mean? Like, I’d like to get involved for like a 6-9 month run.”
The “Liar” singer is just the latest celebrity wrestler to find success in WWE, joining the likes of Paul, Bad Bunny and Johnny Knoxville in recent years. Although Jelly Roll isn’t the athlete that someone like Paul is, he showed strong instincts as both a Babyface and in-ring performer alongside veterans like McIntyre and Orton.
Most importantly, Jelly Roll was able to win over fans and wrestlers alike with his showing inside MetLife Stadium, even noting that The Rock was “all praises” regarding his performance. In that same interview with Van Vliet, Jelly Roll admitted that he pushed to lose at SummerSlam while meeting with Triple H, showing his understanding of pro wrestling and potentially setting something up with Paul or McIntyre for the future.
Part of Jelly Roll’s yearning to step back in the ring? A desire to improve upon his first performance. “It’s like anything else in life. You did it once and you think you were prepared, but you wasn’t,” he told Van Vliet. “And you leave there, all I could think about is everything I know I could have done a little better.”
Of course, Jelly Roll’s in-ring performance was far from perfect, but he showed a strong dedication to his training for his SummerSlam match, where stars like Kevin Owens and The Undertaker helped him prepare for the bout. WWE, especially since transitioning its PLEs to ESPN, has really focused on WWE’s importance in pop culture, so it’s unlikely that the celebrity-to-WWE pipeline will end anytime soon.
In fact, WWE’s continued success with celebrities virtually ensures that stars like Paul and Jelly Roll are here to stay, even if that might not sit well with some of WWE’s diehard fans. Jelly Roll’s SummerSlam match was highly rated by critics, and though being in the ring with talented veterans helped, Jelly Roll’s strong start was a good sign of potential things to come.
WWE has a number of fantastic heels who would make strong candidates for Jelly to face if he gets his wish for an extended program on Raw or SmackDown. Possible foes for the popular singer include Dominik Mysterio and The Judgment Day, Bronson Reed of The Vision or even Solo Sikoa’s MFTs.
A naturally likeable star with a great backstory and good microphone skills, Jelly Roll is easy to root for. In turn, that makes his opponents easy to hate. As WWE continues to turn to celebrities for short-term boosts, Jelly Roll is likely to, at the very least, return for a short feud.
But who knows, a long-term WWE run isn’t out of the question, at least not if Jelly Roll can help it.