The biggest pop star on the planet spent his Saturday afternoon acting like it’s 1997. Justin Bieber turned up at the WWE booth at Fanatics Fest in New York on July 18 wearing an nWo shirt, walked the aisle like a wrestler, and then performed his hit YUKON for the crowd at the Javits Center.
WWE caught the whole thing and posted it with the only caption that made sense: “BIEBER 4 LIFE,” a riff on the classic nWo 4 Life sign-off, as Fightful noted in its report.
A Warm-Up for the Biggest Stage of All
The timing makes this even better. Bieber’s Fanatics Fest set doubled as a warm-up gig, because he co-headlines the first-ever FIFA World Cup Final halftime show on Sunday, July 19 at New York New Jersey Stadium, sharing the bill with Madonna, BTS, and Shakira. He was even featured on the official Fanatics Fest playlist alongside Jay-Z and Drake. So the night before playing to the largest television audience on Earth, he chose to cosplay as a member of wrestling’s most famous faction. Wrestling fans have claimed Bieber as one of their own before, but this is the most commitment he’s ever shown to the bit, sunglasses and all, as Just Jared documented.
Everyone Got an Entrance This Weekend
Bieber wasn’t the only celebrity living out a wrestling fantasy at the Javits Center. John Cena helped run entrances at the WWE booth all weekend, and athletes lined up for their turn: Rob Gronkowski and David Ortiz both recreated WWE entrances, and tennis legend Novak Djokovic walked out in Jacob Fatu‘s Samoan Werewolf mask with Fatu right beside him.
The Stunner has been all over this event already. Earlier in the week, Knicks champion Karl-Anthony Towns credited Danhausen with New York’s title on the same floor, and that story got an even wilder sequel at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night. Between the celebrity entrances, the music, and a pop star repping the nWo a day before the World Cup Final, Fanatics Fest has quietly become one of the best wrestling crossover weekends on the calendar.
