Wale Says WaleMania Is Like His Baby Now, Talks Combining Wrestling & Hip-Hop and More

– Wale spoke with Sports Illustrated for a new interview promoting WaleMania this weekend, which you can check out highlights from below:

On how he created the concept for Walemania:: “I’ve always had a love for professional wrestling not only as a fan entertainment-wise, but a huge respect for them as athletes. I also always believed that the parallels between pro wrestling and hip-hop is so obvious at times, it made too much sense to create something like this. Luckily, a lot of my friends that I’ve made in the pro wrestling world agreed so with Court Bauer’s help WaleMania was born. It’s like my baby now. Well, second baby. (Laughs)”

On combining pro wrestling and hip-hop:: “Honestly, pro wrestling has been hip-hop since the ’80s if they knew it or not. Ric Flair is The Godfather of this on the low, just as far as someone who combined performance, style, swag and all that. When you’re cutting a promo you’re essentially spitting a verse, and when I write a verse I’m in one way or another saying I’m the best at what I do. It’s the same thing with pro wrestling, so they go hand in hand.”

On his favorite Wrestlemania moment:: “Man, there is so many. I was a huge Ultimate Warrior fan growing up, so WrestleMania 8 was a highlight for me. But ‘Mania 31 might have been my favorite moment because it was the first time I got to sit ringside at a WrestleMania. Mainly, I got to see Seth Rollins get caught in that sick curb stomp-into-RKO in live and living color, only to steal the show later that night and cash in his money in the bank contract and win the world heavyweight championship. That was incredible.”

On his prediction for the Roman Reigns vs. Undertaker match: “Man, you’re putting me on the spot! Fans are already booing Roman Reigns, so I hope they go all-in with those boos and have Roman just completely take Undertaker out and really embrace the hate he gets. That would be something.”