Dear Wrestling Fans,
Hope this letter finds you well. I am one of you, I fight everyday to prove people wrong and drop the typical mentality, the non-wrestling-fan people have of us. I hate the stereotype. I hate when I hear “You don’t look like a wrestling fan” - I’m sorry, what are we supposed to look like? We are all different and come from different walks of life and most importantly from different backgrounds - which brings me to the main reason why I am writing this letter. I am proud to be a wrestling fan, almost as proud as I am of my background. I was born and raised on a small island in the Caribbean, you might’ve heard of it, Puerto Rico - where the weather is nice and life is easy. Puerto Rico, 100 x 35miles of beautiful scenery and people. Someone else who shares my background is Bad Bunny.
I understand that Bad Bunny might not be for your demographic, nor do I expect you to listen to “that kind” of music. I get it - it is not for everyone. What I hope you can understand at the end of this letter is why he should be embraced, or at the bare minimum let the demographic that adores him have this without having to defend him. I am not going to sit here and educate you on how big of a star Bad Bunny is, how he is Spotify’s most streamed artist, was in the Super Bowl halftime show last year and truly is one of the world’s biggest stars today - that you can learn with a simple Google search. What I would like to do is help you understand why I love seeing him on TV every week - what it represents to me and other people like me.
I will 100% own up to having an overprotective attitude when it comes to Benito - his real name. We come from the same island and the same home town, Vega Baja, Puerto Rico. Not going to blame you if you’ve never heard of it, not a popular town - most people who visit the island only know of San Juan - they never truly experience the real beauty Puerto Rico has to offer. Benito hails from my hometown, started working at a grocery store - Econo, down the street from where I had my first job as well. He didn’t have it easy growing up and knows all about being picked on. Hell, the name Bad Bunny came from a photo of a young Benito pouting from being forced to wear a bunny costume to school - I know we can all relate to that. I still beg my mom to take down my baby photos from her walls when I visit.
I wasn’t always a Bad Bunny fan - in my opinion - JUST MY OPINION - once Daddy Yankee went mainstream with reggaeton, that music got soft, I never felt the same as the underground reggaeton I grew up with. Still think Daddy Yankee got soft after becoming global and that is also when I stopped paying attention to what was going on with that music genre. You listen to some of it and they sound so mainstream - you don’t hear the island slang we used back in Daddy Yankee’s Talento De Barrio days. So when I started hearing of up and coming Bad Bunny I assumed it was more of that. Then I saw him on my timeline a few years ago in a music video with Ric Flair and I popped. Before “Ric Flair Drip” there was “Chambea” - and if you pay close attention to the lyrics of that song you can also hear Bad Bunny drop a “Stone Cold” reference. In fact - throughout the years Bad Bunny has made a wrestling reference in a lot of his huge hits, names he has mentioned include John Cena, HHH, The boogeyman, Booker T, Ric Flair - you get the point - back to Chambea - once I saw the video on my TL I had to run to youtube not for Bad Bunny but for Flair - so I found the full video and pressed play - I remember loving everything about the video, from the Nature Boy to me saying out loud “MY GOD HE SOUNDS SO PUERTO RICAN” - if you ask some people from other Latin American countries they will tell you sometimes they have a hard time understanding him and that’s because he speaks that straight-outta- the-island Spanish. I was HOOKED. I started following him on social media seeing him get bigger and bigger. I popped when I saw him on a music video right next to Drake wearing a “Latino Heat” shirt. This guy - one of the coolest dudes today LOVES WRESTLING - someone to help break the “stereotype”.
Bad Bunny loves wrestling so much that in 2020 when he had beef with Anuel y Ozuna (two other Puerto Rican rappers), they decided to use it against him by poking fun at Bad Bunny for still liking wrestling - implying that they “grew out of it” but Benito didn’t. How many times have you been in that position? How many times have you gotten the “You know it’s fake” or the “Oh I watched when I was little but grew out of it”? Comments that make you mad - and make the people saying feel like they are sooo much better than you because they “grew out of it” Imagine if that happened to you on a music video that has over 100 million views on youtube (Here’s the link for reference: youtube.com/watch?v=fg4ZY92w0L4). I get embarrassed when someone I know makes fun of it on a small scale - I couldn’t imagine having to deal with that on a large scale. Bad Bunny continued to love wrestling, promoting his hit single Booker T and having Booker T in his music video - I remember watching his IG story when they were filming and he was marking out - shortly after he booked his Royal Rumble appearance and the rest is history.
When I see Bad Bunny - I feel proud of all he has done and accomplished - especially as a fellow jibarita myself (jibaro/jibara is a term we use for people from the island) but what I really See is someone who shares the same background as me, from a small island trying to make his dreams come true, trying to spread a positive message and take care of his family. I see someone who has been picked on and made fun of for something he enjoys, I see someone super cool that “doesn’t look like a wrestling fan” proving to the world what I say on a daily basis wrestling fans come from different walks of life and that’s one of the coolest things about wrestling. I don’t expect you to love him, download all his songs and wear bunny ears after you read this, but I hope it helps you understand that he is targeted to a certain demographic and those that are part of that group adore him, love seeing him and just want to enjoy the moment without having to defend him. I'm sure if this was someone from your state, country or hometown you would feel the same way.
Thank you
<3 Isa
