Between the skill for talking smack, the combative personalities and the penchant for performing — it’s really only the muscles and the finishing moves that separate most battle rappers from professional wrestlers.
Five WWE stars showed off their lyrical chops on the July the Fourth episode of Smackdown during an in-the-ring rap battle hosted and refereed by rapper Wale. Tag-team The New Day faced off against their rivals The Usos before the whole thing (almost) descended into a brawl, with Wale playing peacemaker between the two sides in a classic piece of WWE entertainment.
As for the bars, there were a few stand out moments — especially when The Usos referenced the leak of their opponent Xavier Woods’ intimate photos with WWE wrestler Paige: “Big E, let’s just keep it PG, you know what’s good/ Just don’t get all rated-R like your boy Xavier Woods.”
It was enough to elicit a “Don Demarco” from Wale, an adlib that seasoned battle fans will already know from watching SMACK/URL battles on YouTube.
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But New Day brought personals of their own, dropping bars early on about The Usos’ father, famous former-wrestler Rikishi.
Watch the video in full above.
The WWE crowd certainly took well to the battle (which New Day won after the Usos were disqualified), but of course, this isn’t the first time the WWE has made battle rap moves.
