Bill Simmons did his best to avoid becoming a meme during 'WWE Raw.' Screen grab: Netflix
The RingerWWEBy Ben Axelrod on

Bill Simmons knew what was happening as it was happening.

But despite his best efforts to prevent it from happening, the Sports Guy became a meme while sitting ringside at WWE Raw‘s debut episode on Netflix on Monday night.

While Simmons was visible on multiple occasions, sitting directly behind the announce table (and rival Pat McAfee) at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, his most memorable moment occurred just before the start of the main event match between CM Punk and Seth Rollins. After showing WWE stars Bron Breakker and Tiffany Stratton sitting in the crowd, the camera then panned to legend Nikki Bella, who performed her signature entrance dance.

For the uninitiated, Bella used to announce her arrival for each match with what could best be described as a slow spinning booty shake. And as she did so on Monday night, she happened to be standing directly next to Simmons, who noticed the former WWE Divas champion mid-shake.

The Ringer founder proceeded to stare straight ahead almost immediately, realizing that looking any longer — especially from his vantage point — wouldn’t have just appeared creepy, but would have been witnessed by millions of viewers around the globe. Clearly Simmons was well aware of the stakes, as the Boston native seemed to be fighting back a laugh as he stared straight ahead for an unnatural amount of time.

To be clear, Simmons didn’t do anything wrong here — in fact, considering the circumstances, one could argue that he did the best he could do short of being totally oblivious to Bella. The Ringer’s Van Lathan even joked that he was proud of the way the Boston native handled the situation, although that didn’t stop him from sharing a screenshot of the humorous moment.

Ultimately, Simmons seemingly had only two options here: watch the former WWE star dancing directly in front of him and look like a total creep or safely stare ahead and become a meme for intentionally avoiding looking like a total creep.

Fortunately, he chose the latter. Still, to steal a Simmons-ism, it made for a funny, meme-worthy moment — it just did!

[The Bill Simmons Reddit]

About Ben Axelrod

Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.

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