Logan Paul’s Japan Controversy

WWE’s Road To Royal Rumble tour rolled into Belfast, Northern Ireland last night, the 19th of January, and the crowd didn’t disappoint.

Superstars such as the new WWE World Champion, Drew McIntyre, World Heavyweight Champion, CM Punk, and the rest have spent January hopping around the UK and Europe. Last night’s episode of WWE Raw took place in the Northern Ireland capital, and it’s fair to say the excited crowd had some fun.

The second match of the evening saw The Vision, which consists of Bronson Reed, Austin Theory, and Logan Paul, take on Rey Mysterio, Penta, and Dragon Lee in a six-man tag match. The crowd immediately expressed their feelings towards one individual. That person was the enigmatic Logan Paul.

What Belfast Fans Chanted at Logan Paul

The YouTuber-turned-WWE Superstar has been a polarising figure since debuting in 2021. His athleticism and ability in the ring cannot be doubted, nor can his work on the mic. However, fans believe he hasn’t gone through the hard yards that others have in order to get into this position.

The Maverick is often the subject of taunts from WWE fans, but the Belfast crowd were original in their chanting. They began with the standard “F*** you, Logan” before taking it up a notch.

Their rendition of “Logan Paul, he’s banned from Japan” was well received by fans online. Comments like “I hope this catches on in America lmao” and “if US fans should copy any chant, it’s this one,” were plastered around social media.

Logan Paul’s Japan Controversy

The chant comes from a Logan Paul video about the Aokigahara Forest at the foot of Mount Fuji in 2017. The forest is known as the suicide forest, for obvious reasons. The place is thought to be haunted, and many YouTuber vloggers have filmed themselves at the site. However, the issue with Paul’s video was when he and his crew came across a man’s body, they continued to film and make jokes about the situation.

The video gained millions of views on YouTube before finally being taken down. Paul later issued an apology on Twitter, now known as X, claiming he had been “misguided by shock and awe.” He went on to post a video continuing his apology. In it, he said: “I should have never posted the video. I should have put the cameras down and stopped recording what we were going through. I’m ashamed of myself.”

He ended the video by saying: “I’m disappointed in myself.”

YouTube reacted to this video by removing Logan Paul from their Google Preferred programme, which meant certain brands could sell ads on the platform of the site’s top creators. This ended up potentially costing the star millions of dollars in revenue.