Now far be it from me to poke fun at a Tournament that is trying its hardest to let people know it’s right around the corner, but when you employ Don King and the WWE to do so….I have to comment. The U.S. Open is getting underway today, but the past few weeks have been rather interesting in the way of PR for the matches in Flushing, New York.
First up was Nike’s campaign hyping the potential final matchup of Nadal v. Federer. The Swoosh decided to turn the potential meeting into a pseudo-weigh in for the two Tennis stars and even brought in Don King to do what Don King does. Hype. Via the Telegraph….
King, speaking exclusively to The Daily Telegraph, revealed his “delight” at being called up to promote one of the greatest sporting rivalries on the planet. “You had the ‘Thrilla in Manila’, you had the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ now we have the ‘Grapple in the Apple’. We gonna take it to the moon. They try to pretend to be friends. But they’re no kin and they’re gonna bend. They got to be competitive.”
King, getting into character, insisted in his idiolect that the US Open would be “free of trickeration”. Tennis may never be the same. But nor would boxing have had some of its most memorable nights without the genius of King.
As annoying as King is, that’s pretty clever and that poster is pretty spot on. You would think that “stunt” was enough, but oh no, they weren’t done there. “Hey, Let’s try to use the most obvious avenue to cross promote the Tourney. Why of course that’s the WWE!”
Well then…..that was special. The collaboration between WWE and the U.S. Open isn’t anything new, but I think it’s safe to say that having a wrestler jump off a judges chair onto a tennis player is taking it to another level.
‘Apple Grapple’ brings a gleam to Don King’s eye (Telegraph)
