WWE criticized for featuring popular celebrity on RAW; Bill Apter asks, "Who the hell is this guy?" (Exclusive)

Veteran wrestling journalist Bill Apter recently fired shots at the WWE. He was irate with the company featuring Tyrese Haliburton heavily on RAW this past Monday.

Before their faceoff at the NBA playoffs, Tyrese Haliburton and Jalen Brunson squared off on SmackDown last year. The NBA star was on the red brand this week to announce that he would be a playable character in WWE 2K25. He will be part of the Dunk & Destruction DLC pack to be released in June.

On this week's episode of The Wrestling Time Machine, Apter went off on a rant about WWE heavily featuring Tyrese Haliburton on RAW. He felt wrestling fans tuned in to watch the favorite stars and were turned off by the focus on other athletes like the NBA star.

"Who the hell is Tyrese Haliburton? That's my question. Here's the deal. I'm, watching Monday Night RAW and they're showing Tyrese Haliburton, who is gonna be on the WWE video game. So I said okay at the beginning of the show." He continued, "After the initial thing where they showed him in one of the New York Knicks or whatever, it was cute for two or three minutes at the beginning of the show. Then they have Michael Cole and Pat McAfee doing six minutes or four minutes with him on a separate interview, and I'm going, who the hell is this guy?"

Bill noted that creative was trying to attract a new audience with celebs in their programming, but felt like it was overkill with Haliburton this past week.

"Wrestling fans are watching RAW and SmackDown or any other company to watch professional wrestling. This guy had more time than most of the wrestlers on the show." [From 6:28 onwards]

WWE has always roped in celebs to give their product a mainstream vibe. Several celebs have even been successful in the role, like Logan Paul, Bad Bunny, and Pat McAfee.

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