Logan Paul has re-signed with WWE on a multiyear deal, Paul and the promotion's chief content officer, Paul "Triple H" Levesque, told ESPN.
Paul, a social media star, made his in-ring WWE debut at last year's WrestleMania with a tag-team match alongside The Miz. Paul went on to defeat The Miz at SummerSlam in his first singles match, then challenged WWE's top star, Roman Reigns, for the undisputed WWE Universal Championship in November.
Paul impressed with his eye-popping, high-flying moves and is already considered the best celebrity-turned-wrestler ever. At WrestleMania 39 earlier this month, Paul once again delivered an excellent match, this time against Seth Rollins. And now Paul is committed to more WWE appearances going forward.
"I feel incredibly blessed to have found something that I'm good at, at 28 years old," Paul said. "And the fact that the organization believes I'm good enough to continue hopefully building this WWE legacy is mind-blowing. And I'm incredibly grateful and incredibly blessed. And as long as I can keep putting on good shows, man, I'm gonna keep doing this sport."
Said Triple H: "Logan has just been a game-changer. I mean, he's probably the most natural guy I have ever seen. It's almost like he was made for this business. ... Just being natural as far as talking and being on camera ... he's so good at that. And then his athleticism is just next level. ... He's exactly the kind of guy that I look for as a WWE superstar. Whether he was an influencer or not, he'd be the kind of guy I'd look for as a superstar."
Paul has sporadically appeared on WWE's weekly TV shows, "Monday Night Raw" and "Friday Night Smackdown" -- "I do show up, it's memorable," he said. " ... We wanna make them impactful."
There's value in scarcity, but now that Paul is in the fold for the foreseeable future, WWE can start to build around him more with long-term storytelling and perhaps even a title run. Triple H said the multiyear deal "allows us to see him a bit more regularly as a main character within the show."
"It's hard to do that when you don't have a long contract with a piece of talent or you're talking about putting a guy over who may not be there next year," Paul said. " ... The idea with this multiyear contract was to get really creative around the story that we're telling as my professional wrestling career unfolds. Being the hyperambitious person that I am, I'm going for a belt.
"I wouldn't have signed this contract if I didn't think that I was capable of getting a WWE belt. I think it'd be the coolest thing ever. I'd love to have it on my résumé, and I'd love to show every kid around the world who watches WWE that you can achieve anything."
Already, Paul boasts a versatile move set inside the ring. Besides the frog splash, which he used to mistakenly put KSI through a table at 'Mania, there's the Buckshot Lariat, the blockbuster and the power slam. Now that he's sticking around for at least a while longer, Paul said he needs to develop a signature finisher he has dubbed "The Paulverizer" along with some other "funky moves" he plans to innovate.
Paul already realized firsthand just how dangerous pro wrestling is despite its scripted nature. During the match against Reigns, which Paul lost, he suffered a torn MCL. He admitted some hesitation regarding the knee entering the WrestleMania match with Rollins.
"I was worried that maybe I was too fragile for this sport, having a lot of self-doubts about my vessel and my body's capability to withstand the type of damage that you take in this sport; you have to be durable to be a wrestler," Paul said.
"After this WrestleMania, when I walked away unscathed -- like I'm telling you unscathed, the next day I could have ran a half marathon -- I got a lot more confident in my longevity in this sport. There's a way to do it. There's a way to perform where you mitigate athletic risk, and I'm gonna find it, and I'm gonna go for the long haul."
Now, the challenge becomes showing different layers to Paul's game after the surprise factor has faded away of just how good he was straight out of the gate so he can become a staple of WWE, someone fans gravitate toward each time.
"So now I have to actually be really good at this and, and take it serious and get creative in how I can make these lifetime moments that people never forget over and over and over again," Paul said. " ... So, while it is definitely harder to impress, and the WWE universe is gonna be watching me very carefully and scrutinizing how I perform and how I grow as an athlete, I am excited for the challenge.
" ... I've always wanted my whole life to be the biggest entertainer in the world, and WWE has given me a platform to do that. And so I'm gonna take these next [few] years really seriously as a wrestler, and hopefully continue breaking boundaries and doing the impossible."