ESPN has gone all out to promote WrestleMania 42 in its first year of streaming the event after signing a media rights deal to become the exclusive U.S. home of all WWE Premium Live Events last August. While the entirety of WrestleMania 42 can be found on ESPN’s new app, ESPN Unlimited (which was not made available on YouTube TV in time for the two-day event), the first hour of Saturday night’s coverage from Las Vegas was shown on ESPN2.
And in that first hour, the broadcast showed off stars from the sports world that were in attendance, including San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle, Detroit Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs, Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton… and ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith.
Smith received loud boos from those in attendance at Allegiant Stadium and fully embraced it in WWE heel-esque fashion.
While on its own it wouldn’t feel surprising that Smith would be in attendance for such a big ESPN event as the face of the network, the timing led to plenty of mocking from people on social media.
For one, Saturday marked day one of the 2026 NBA Playoffs. And while the ESPN family of networks only showed one of the four games (Houston Rockets vs. Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night), with the Inside the NBA crew handling that ABC studio coverage, it should still be assumed that an ESPN NBA analyst would pay attention to playoff games.
Additionally, as Smith was shown on the WrestleMania broadcast, the New York Knicks were in the middle of playing Game 1 of their playoff series vs. the Atlanta Hawks at Madison Square Garden.
Smith claims to be a big Knicks fan, despite a history of struggling to even know the basics of their roster. Knicks guard Josh Hart said in March, “For me, Stephen A., as a part-time Knicks fan, needs to shut the hell up. He barely knows guys that’s on the team.”
Here’s a look at some social media reactions to Smith’s WrestleMania 42 appearance:
Smith missed the Knicks winning Game 1 of their series 113-102 over the Hawks.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.