If you needed any further proof that First Take is sports entertainment and not sports journalism, Tuesday morning was it.
Stephen A. Smith doesn’t always stick to sports on First Take and he proved it again on Tuesday by talking…pro wrestling. And a lot of it. For two full segments, nearly a quarter of First Take’s two hours on ESPN, WWE star Roman Reigns and promoter Paul Heyman dominated the show.
Maybe Smith is a big wrestling fan, or maybe he was just using some of what he learned on General Hospital and pretended to be one for 30 minutes. Either way, the First Take host sold his love for wrestling well. Fawning over the WWE celebrities as they entered the studio, Smith was acting like he might have to take a page out of Dan Orlovsky’s hygiene handbook and skip a few showers after being graced with the opportunity to hug the Tribal Chief.
Then, Smith handed over the reins to Reigns and Heyman. The usually boisterous Smith sat on set uncharacteristically quiet while Reigns trash-talked Jey Uso ahead of their upcoming match. Smith was similarly enthralled as Heyman boasted about being the greatest WWE manager of all time.
“Screw him, he’s dead,” Heyman said after Smith referenced Bobby ‘The Brain’ Heenan. “You want me to prove to you that I’m the GOAT? I’m with [Roman Reigns]. Why would he settle for anything less than the GOAT? He’s the Tribal Chief.”
The appearance was meant to promote Saturday’s WWE SummerSlam and it served as good summer filler for First Take. It was bad news for Major League Baseball, however. On the day of the MLB trade deadline, ESPN’s premier daytime studio show allocated a quarter of its show to wrestling. That would never happen around the NBA trade deadline.
This wasn’t the first time Smith featured a WWE segment on his ESPN show, but it served as a good reminder that First Take isn’t hard-hitting sports journalism. Smith was lambasted by Dan Le Batard earlier this year for supposedly ruining sports television with exaggerated opinions and theatrical debates. But Smith doesn’t hide from the fact that he prioritizes entertainment on First Take. If Smith wants it, he actually has the swagger, charisma, and entertainment value to be a WWE promoter.
Occasionally, Smith reaches back to his journalism roots and conveniently forgets that First Take is another form of aggregation desperate for social media clicks. But for the most part, hard news isn’t what First Take is, and it’s not what ESPN wants the show to be.
