This past weekend’s WrestleMania 42 was by all means, as lackluster as it could’ve been. And with many feeling like Cam’ron’s “beatdown” at the hands of Jey Uso was arguably the highlight of the weekend, it seems like the celebrities connected to the wrestling company are what’s helping keep its popularity afloat these days.
While ratings continue to decline for WWE events (moving them to different streaming services really hurt viewership), WWE has been relying on Hip-Hop and pop culture names to join its promotional stints, and people are noticing the trend. According to Billboard, WWE has been enlisting the talents of Hip-Hop personalities to once again help them stay relevant in 2026 and relying on the likes of Cam’ron, Joe Budden, and others to create WWE-related content for their audiences. It was very apparent this past weekend after Cam’ron got hands put on him in his podcast studio at the hands of Jey Uso.
While some feel this is WWE trying desperately to breathe new life into its struggling popularity, others see this as an opportunity for Hip-Hop to reach audiences that wouldn’t normally tune into its content if not for the WWE’s following.
Per Billboard:
“That feels good,” former WWE Women’s Champion Jade Cargill told Billboard about the visibility the company has gained via premier, hip-hop-leaning podcasts. “A lot of the podcasts I’ve been doing recently are successful Black podcasts. I want to put on for the culture — and, more than anything, I really want to have more of a Black fanbase in wrestling. We’re there, but we can be so much bigger. I believe anything that we put our hands on turns to gold.”
Still, Hip-Hop stars taking part in WWE festivities isn’t anything new. Just last year, Travis Scott put WWE superstar Cody Rhodes on the injury-reserved list following his pimp slap from hell.
This time around, it was none other than Lil Yachty who made his WrestleMania debut as he walked alongside Trick Williams down to the ring and “helped” him capture the WWE United States Champion from Sami Zayn.
“Yachty’s been around for a while. Obviously, he loves the product, and he wants everybody to know that. He ain’t no celebrity promoting nothing – he wants to be down with WWE. I’ve known Yachty for a couple [of] years now, and they asked me how I would feel about doing something with him. It was a no-brainer. He wanted to work with Trick, Trick wanted to work with Yachty, and we got gold.”
While we don’t know to what extent WWE will continue to utilize the Hip-Hop culture into its business going forward, the connection will undoubtedly continue to grow, and we can’t wait to see what they have in store.
That said, shout out to Cam’ron for blessing us with the new term “Saturday WrestleMania ni**as” that will now probably be considered a slur among WWE wrestlers going forward (LOL).
