Triple H Cleverly Trolls Deontay Wilder During ‘WrestleMania 30’ Rerun
Well played, Hunter
I usually don’t like to lead this column by writing about just a single tweet, but look: There are no sports going on, and this is a really good tweet.
ESPN is filling some of the gaps in its programming schedule over the next few Sundays by airing old WrestleManias, starting with WrestleMania 30. It’s a smart move for ESPN. The network gets to fill four hours of the schedule with well-liked, premade, eye-catching programming. WWE and ESPN have also been rumored to be in discussions to air new pay-per-views on ESPN+, so this is a way to whet the audience’s appetite for wrestling.
If you’re trying to get people interested in current-day WWE, there’s no better place to start than with 2014’s WrestleMania 30. The show is most memorable for the match where Brock Lesnar snapped the Undertaker’s 21-match WrestleMania winning streak, a good John Cena–Bray Wyatt match and the crowning of lovable underdog Daniel Bryan as world heavyweight champion.
The event also featured an all-time great entrance by Triple H before his show-opening match against Bryan.
If it looks familiar, maybe you’re thinking of heavyweight boxer Deontay Wilder’s entrance before last month’s rematch against Tyson Fury. The music was different but Wilder’s costume was awfully similar.
Wilder ended up losing that fight and said part of the reason was because the costume, which was made of steel and fitted with LED lights, weighed 45 pounds and made his legs weak by the time he got to the ring.
Like Wilder, Triple H also lost his fight and he had a cheeky explanation for it during ESPN’s re-air.
When I first saw Triple H’s tweet, I thought, “Wow, that’s a good reference to something that happened a long time ago.” But the Wilder fight was only a month ago! It’s impossible to keep track of time these days. It’s still a great reference, though.
FS1 aired a simulated NASCAR race
With the NASCAR season on hold, Fox Sports got a whole bunch of drivers together to compete in a race on the iRacing simulator, which a lot of drivers already use to stay sharp.
They raced at Homestead–Miami Speedway, which was supposed to be the site of Sunday’s race, and whole thing aired on FS1. It was received very well.
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