Well, folks. We knew since the WWE’s merger with the UFC to create TKO Group Holdings that this was coming. The center-ring advertisements, like they have in the octagon. I, personally, just didn’t think it was going to be for a company that sells energy drinks to children. But hey, maybe I’m just daft because United States Champion Logan Paul’s PRIME energy and hydration drink company was right in front of my face the entire time. During tonight’s “SmackDown,” Paul said he had a historic announcement for the fans in Dallas when he kicked off the show, and this honestly wasn’t what I was thinking it would be. I was hoping we’d set up his match against Randy Orton at WrestleMania 40 in an official capacity, but, nope. We just found out that PRIME is now the center-ring sponsor for all WWE premium live events moving forward, starting at Mania.

Maybe I shouldn’t be so quick to judge because I’ve only ever had one PRIME energy in my life (and will probably be entitled to financial compensation in the coming years for how much caffeine those suckers pack) and never had their hydration drinks, but I still think it’s pretty lame. The logo itself at center-ring is just… tacky. Maybe if it wasn’t the full bottle and just maybe “PRIME” written in the middle of the ring, I’d be a little more okay with it. Also, we got the involvement of Paul’s business partner, or as he called him, his “partner in PRIME” (insert cymbal crash here) KSI. Maybe it’s because I’m in my 30s and don’t watch the Paul brothers on YouTube, but I didn’t know who KSI was when he rocked up at WrestleMania 39, I think even wearing a PRIME bottle costume – or that could have been another one of Paul’s friends, I honestly have no idea – and I still don’t know anything about him now. He’s not a wrestler like Paul, he’s not signed to WWE, us older fans have no idea who he is, so just leave him out of it. He was brought in just to take the RKO from Randy Orton, but Orton sneaking in the ring to try and take out Paul, and Paul just simply rolling out of the ring and getting away, would have been just as effective to me. Who cares about this random guy getting hit with the RKO? He went through a table at WrestleMania and his “partner in PRIME” didn’t seem to care at all. Call me old, but I just don’t get it.

The moral of this story, this hate in the story, is that most fans knew this was probably coming, and while it does make sense at WrestleMania, PRIME has been a pretty controversial topic in the past due to its wild caffeine content and its marketing toward kids. So, WWE is going to let that slide, when it used to be a problem for wrestlers to even stream on Twitch and make their own money? What about OnlyFans? Not that I expect WWE to do the morally right thing, though it has been getting better under the Triple H regime, it just seems a bit tacky to me, and like maybe they shouldn’t have chosen a brand owned by one of their performers. Either way, get your Slim Jims and your Cherry Freeze PRIME water ready for WrestleMania, folks, because WWE is about to go heavy on the advertisements on the “Grandest Stage of Them All.”

Written by Daisy Ruth