Jelly Roll Steps Into the WWE SummerSlam Ring for His Wrestling Debut
Jelly Roll made his wrestling ring debut at WWE’s 2024 SummerSlam.
SummerSlam took place on Saturday, August 3, at the Cleveland Browns Stadium, which saw Jelly Roll, 39, make his surprise wrestling debut in the ring. The singer stepped onto the mat to team up with wrestlers Miz and R-Truth against Austin Theory and Grayson Waller.
Footage of the match shared via Instagram Reels shows Jelly Roll (real name: Jason Bradley DeFord) lifting Theory into the air by his neck, before slamming him back onto the mat. He also at one point used a metal chair to hit one of his opponents over the back.
A longtime fan of the sport, Jelly Roll took to social media after the match to express his gratitude to WWE for including him in this year’s event. “Crazy — I lived a childhood dream tonight in the craziest way I’ve ever lived it. Wow. Man thank you WWE for everything. What a night,” he wrote via X on Sunday, August 4. “Absolute madness — unreal — butter biscuit bombs baby.”
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Jelly Roll has been the face of the WWE’s ad campaign for the 2024 SummerSlam, even starring in a promo wherein he fantasized about being a wrestling champion. In another video shared via Instagram Reels leading up to SummerSlam, the singer exited a car exclaiming, “The Jelly Roll era has begun, baby!”
Jelly Roll also turned the ring into a stage to perform his latest single, “Liar,” one of his SummerSlam theme songs. The other is his song “Dead End Road,” which also appears on the Twisters soundtrack.
“When you see somebody succeed at the level that they have, like he has, and is yet a massive fan of what we do, that’s the best for us,” Triple H, retired wrestler and chief creative officer for WWE said of Jelly Roll in a video shared via Instagram on Saturday. “So when we can all get together and we love his music and he loves our product, and we share that passion together, man, this is when it’s [the] absolute best.”
Roll quipped in response, “We’re watching every week.”
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While Saturday was his debut inside the ring, this isn’t Jelly Roll’s first time going up against WWE wrestlers. In November 2023, the musician had an altercation on the sidelines with Dominik Mysterio and JD McDonagh during a WWE Raw card in Nashville.
“It was my hometown of Nashville, Tennessee. I said, ‘Whatever it takes, we got to be in the building,’” Jelly Roll said in an interview with WWE after the November match. “Dude, I’m still shaking man. When I stood up and everybody cheered, I’m like, ‘I’m doing the right thing. I am not wrong here.’ And I just went for it, dude. It was awesome.”
He added, “It has been one of the most amazing experiences. I have been starstruck all night. I have been to award shows, I have been to all kinds of crazy stuff, I have never been more starstruck than I was back here tonight.”
