WWE Considered Featuring Dr. Anthony Fauci on The Bump

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, WWE faced challenges with live audiences unable to attend shows, leading to the introduction of tapings in empty arenas and eventually the Thunder Dome. In fact, it appears WWE had plans for Dr. Anthony Fauci to appear on The Bump.

During the pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci gained prominence as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and as a key medical advisor to the president from 2021 to 2022.

While speaking on The Wrestling Matt, Matt Camp reflected on this period and revealed that WWE had discussions with the White House about featuring Dr. Fauci on their programming to promote vaccine awareness.

Camp noted that The Bump had hosted various celebrities during the pandemic, though these appearances didn’t always resonate well with wrestling fans. Despite this, discussions progressed with the White House to have Dr. Fauci appear on The Bump, seen as a platform to reach a global audience effectively.

“As the months go by…Dr. Anthony Fauci was in the news a lot, and they’re trying to get the word out about the vaccine and whatever and okay, and he was making appearances everywhere and on television. It comes out, I found this out, I don’t think I knew as it was happening, or maybe I knew right at the end. I’ve said this before, The Bump didn’t get a lot of love within the company, but sometimes it was used in certain ways. The Bump could make money for the company with sponsorships and things like that. You go back and watch some of those pandemic episodes, we had the most random people on that aren’t wrestling people.

We had the Property Brothers on, we had some YouTuber from Mexico, we had Ken Jeong, we had Joel McHale, we had Keegan Michael Key, we had Randy Jackson, you name it. We had all these random people on, and they drew…not that well. There was that wrestling bubble that, I don’t think people cared about celebrities. It’s why I thought the Raw guest hosts never did that well unless they were in.”

Camp detailed the involvement of top WWE talent like Drew McIntyre and Sasha Banks in a proposed roundtable discussion with Dr. Fauci, which Stephanie McMahon reportedly supported. However, ultimately, Vince McMahon decided against it, deeming it too political for WWE’s programming. As a result, Dr. Fauci’s appearance on The Bump did not actually end up happening.

”If they were into it, it was a fun interview. But this was not about that. So conversations actually started and took place with the White House, the White House, the President. There were conversations happening with the White House about, this is a big global entity and there’s another way to get the word out about Dr. Fauci, who became the main character of COVID and the pandemic, coming on…that guy was going to appear on WWE programming to get the word out about getting the vaccine or vaccine awareness and all that. So actual communication did take place with the White House, and it was determined that this appearance, I think [it] was discussed in a few different ways, would happen on The Bump. Somehow, that was the medium, and if you think about it, what else would it have been? Some kind of pre-tape they ran during Raw and SmackDown? Maybe, but this was the only live talk show to do it on, so okay. It probably would have been pre-taped, we taped a lot of stuff during the pandemic. But the idea was, here’s the right forum.

Do it on The Bump. There were conversations, and I will tell you, I guess from a digital regime, it’s like one and a half regimes ago, and there was a trust in our show, and I will say a trust specifically in me and Kayla [Braxton] to handle that. So part of the discussion was to involve top talent. Drew [McIntyre], the other name floated about, I’m not gonna speculate on anything, but Sasha Banks was the other name. It was supposed to be them, and it was going to happen. I’m 99% sure that Stephanie McMahon was on board with this. She was, as far as I know, on board with this idea. So it got pretty far down the line, and it had one more stop, Vince. Now, initially, I was told that Vince was okay with it. You gotta remember, not that everything went through Vince, but a lot did. This was a big deal, it was a big thing for the company, so he would have to sign off on this.

Initially, I was told he was on board, and when it came down to, ‘Hey, this is gonna happen, the details have all been figured out,’ I don’t know if in the end it was gonna be Drew and Sasha. I think Drew was gonna be involved. It was just gonna be, I think the idea was a round table discussion of the pandemic and living in it and being entertainers in it, getting the word out about the vaccine, all that. But Vince had to give the final [thumbs up], and he did this [thumbs down]. As you may expect, considered too political.

It was one of the few times he got directly involved with the show, that I know of. Vince said no, and it didn’t happen. That was the end of it. I think the intent was good. I don’t know how it would have been received. I think it would have been a big deal for the company to do it. But that was considered political. ‘We think this is political, so we’re not gonna do it.’ So Anthony Fauci did join the esteemed guest list of Bump guests because Vince said, ‘Nah, not gonna happen.”

Camp mentioned that he was uncertain about how the interview with Dr. Fauci would have been received by the audience. He mentioned that, although political figures like Donald Trump and Barack Obama had previously appeared in taped segments on WWE programming, the company had since moved away from involving itself in political matters. Regardless, Fauci’s appearance was simply not meant to be and fans have accepted that fact.

Are you disappointed Dr. Anthony Fauci didn’t appear on the Bump? Let us know in The comments section below!