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Demi Burnett, a contestant on American reality dating shows The Bachelor and Bachelor in Paradise, has appeared on the last three episodes of WWE RAW in the build-up to SummerSlam 2020.
On the August 3 episode of RAW, Angel Garza gave Demi Burnett a rose in a backstage segment and introduced her to Andrade and Zelina Vega.
One week later, The Viking Raiders’ Ivar was spotted talking to Demi Burnett in another backstage segment. She seemed impressed with his basketball skills and complimented the former RAW Tag Team Champion on how “cute” he looks.
This week, with six days to go before Andrade and Garza take on The Street Profits in a RAW Tag Team Championship match at SummerSlam, Demi Burnett made another appearance on RAW. On this occasion, she received a turkey leg from Ivar and another rose from Garza, and she was torn over which Superstar she should support.
Hardly any information has been revealed about Demi Burnett on WWE television, except for the fact that she is from The Bachelor, so let’s take a look at five WWE-related things that fans need to know about Garza and Ivar’s on-screen love interest.
#5 Demi Burnett is a WWE fan
Demi Burnett is such a big fan of WWE that her former ABC bio for The Bachelor even mentioned that she likes watching the sports entertainment product.
“Demi grew up in rural Texas and is a proud country girl. She loves ATVing, fishing and watching WWE. She can also drive a stick shift. She's ready to put her pursuit of Colton [The Bachelor’s Colton Underwood] into overdrive! Keep an eye on this one, Bachelor Nation!”
After her debut appearance on RAW, Demi Burnett told Charly Caruso in a backstage interview that Becky Lynch is her favorite WWE Superstar. She also name-checked The Bella Twins and Nia Jax, and said she does not have any favorite male Superstars because she prefers watching the women.
WWE fans will be aware that plenty of celebrities have not known what they were getting themselves in for after agreeing to appear on RAW, especially during the days when the show had a weekly guest host, but Demi Burnett obviously knows her stuff when it comes to the world of sports entertainment.
#4 Demi Burnett had The Bella Twins on her podcast
Demi Burnett started her own podcast on the Podcast One network in April 2020. Many of her guests so far have been from The Bachelor, but she also welcomed The Bella Twins onto her show – Big Demi Energy – in May.
The 53-minute episode, which you can listen to in full right here, featured lots of talk about relationships and plans for the future.
As a WWE viewer herself, much of the conversation revolved around Demi Burnett’s love of Brie Bella and Nikki Bella’s on-screen characters.
“I watched you guys and I told you whenever I met you, Nikki, that I was a huge fan of the WWE, I was obsessed. I would watch it all the time with my friend and I loved you guys so much because you were those bada** b****es.”
Demi Burnett said she preferred Brie Bella at first because Nikki Bella had the Divas Championship around the time that she started watching. However, she grew to become a fan of both future Hall of Famers in and out of a WWE ring.
#3 Demi Burnett laid the social media smack down on a hater
Following Demi Burnett’s appearance on the August 17 episode of WWE RAW, she posted the picture above on her Instagram account, accompanied by a caption asking whether she should cheer for Angel Garza or Ivar.
When a WWE fan replied by accusing her of ruining wrestling, Demi Burnett made it clear that she is not going to accept criticisms of her cameo appearances on RAW.
“Am I really RUINING it? Let me have my fun. 1 minute of screen time and less than 5 sentences isn’t RUINING wrestling you drama queen.”
Celebrity appearances are not usually received well by live crowds. In fact, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, WWE fans would often boo people from the showbiz world whenever they took television time away from Superstars by making on-screen appearances.
The difference here is that, while other celebrities usually feature on WWE television to promote their own work, Demi Burnett has actually helped further the tag team storyline on RAW between Andrade & Angel Garza, The Viking Raiders and The Street Profits.
#2 Total Divas made Demi Burnett a fan of WWE
Demi Burnett also mentioned during The Bella Twins’ appearance on her podcast that she became a fan of WWE after watching episodes of Total Divas.
“I didn’t get into it until Total Divas, then I started watching it and I got into it, but I didn’t know the history of it before then. My friend, who has been watching it her whole life, she was like, ‘No, let me show you some s***.’”
Prior to 2015, it was not uncommon for WWE’s women’s matches to last fewer than two minutes every week on RAW and SmackDown. Then, following the #GiveDivasAChance hashtag in February 2015 and the main-roster call-ups of Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks in July 2015, the Divas Revolution/Women’s Evolution became a key focus on WWE television.
Demi Burnett told Brie Bella and Nikki Bella that she watched old footage of how WWE’s women used to be portrayed, and she is glad that Superstars including The Bella Twins were able to change the way that women are booked in WWE.
“I saw how a lot of the women got really mistreated in the beginning and then, boom, you guys all came out and it’s like women are the s***.”
It is not known whether The Bella Twins played any part in recommending Demi Burnett to WWE for her recent appearances on RAW, but it is worth noting that she got along very well with the former Divas Champions throughout the podcast episode.
#1 Demi Burnett has more Instagram followers than everyone else in this storyline
A lot of WWE fans will be wondering why Demi Burnett has become involved in this RAW storyline instead of another female Superstar from the WWE roster (say, a new Superstar from NXT).
Well, as we are seeing with the storyline between Adam Cole and Pat McAfee on NXT right now, WWE has been known to use people from outside the world of sports entertainment to get more eyes on the product.
McAfee’s storyline with Cole gained a lot of coverage on sports sites, with ESPN even interviewing NXT founder Triple H about the former NFL star’s disagreement with Cole on his podcast.
There is no question that McAfee, who has more social media followers than most Superstars, will attract new fans to WWE (even if they only watch for his one match), and the same can also be said for Demi Burnett.
Looking at Instagram numbers, Demi Burnett has more followers than every other person who is involved in this rivalry.
- Demi Burnett - 1.3 million
- Zelina Vega - 1 million
- Charly Caruso - 745k
- Andrade - 633k
- Bianca Belair - 359k
- Montez Ford - 310k
- Angel Garza - 229k
- Erik - 199k
- Angelo Dawkins - 191k
- Ivar - 118k
Granted, the new viewers who McAfee could bring in from the sports world are likely to be a completely different fan base to The Bachelor, but WWE is all about appealing to a wide mix of people through both sports and entertainment.
Demi Burnett even said she was introduced to WWE through Total Divas, so it is not impossible that new fans could be introduced to WWE through someone from The Bachelor.
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