Stephen A. Smith might be the master of ceremonies at WrestleMania XL in Philadelphia, he also might not even attend WrestleMania.
On the latest episode of The Stephen A. Smith Show, the former sports radio host took calls and one listener chimed in to ask whether Smith would be attending WrestleMania XL at Philly’s Lincoln Financial Field in April. Perhaps not wanting to tip his hand, Smith wouldn’t give a yes, no, or even a maybe to the seemingly simple question. Instead, Smith offered a long word salad response, creating more questions than answers surrounding his potential presence at WrestleMania.
“I don’t know yet,” Smith began. “I mean, WrestleMania is in Philly, it’s right up the road, but I got obligations with this job, with ESPN and others where I gotta be out of town. So, I don’t know if I’ll be around, but if I’m around, I’ve already received the invite to go to WrestleMania and if I’m around and I have the time, I will be there.”
The caller, Cameron in St. Louis, expressed disappointment at the vague response, explaining that not only was he hoping to see Smith in Philly, he hoped the prominent ESPN personality might actually host the event.
“Well, we’re not ruling it out,” Smith said to pique the listener’s interest. “The folks at WWE might want me to be the modern day Paul Heyman or Bobby “The Brain” Heenan. I mean, you never know. You just never know. I don’t know what’s gonna happen. The Rock already talked to me about joining him at WrestleMania. I mean, we don’t know. We don’t know if he’s gonna be there, we don’t know if I’m gonna be there. And even if I did know, I wouldn’t tell you because they wouldn’t want me to tell you. But you understand what I’m saying.”
Not really. There were so many “I don’t knows” in there that my brain is knotted up like a pretzel after transcribing Smith’s answer. But it sounds like there’s a chance?
Smith attended WrestleMania 39 in Los Angeles and later claimed he enjoyed it so much that it made him want to get into the ring as a villain. I don’t know whether that will appease wrestling fans outside of Cameron in St. Louis, I don’t even know if WWE selected a WrestleMania host yet. It seems like something WWE would have already booked by now, although they’re probably having to pivot on a lot of plans after the bombshell sex trafficking lawsuit that was recently filed against Vince McMahon.
About Brandon Contes
Brandon Contes is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He previously helped carve the sports vertical for Mediaite and spent more than three years with Barrett Sports Media. Send tips/comments/complaints to bcontes@thecomeback.com