NBA star Jalen Brunson gets unwelcome surprise at WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event
As expected, Jalen Brunson of the NBA’s New York Knicks was acknowledged by WWE World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns in the main event segment of Saturday Night’s Main Event.
What Brunson didn’t expect was having to defend Reigns against a Seth Rollins curb stomp and his rival, Tyrese Haliburton of the Indiana Pacers, to get involved as well.
Reigns had presented Brunson with a customized WWE title belt when Rollins’ music hit. Out came Haliburton who Brunson has confronted on WWE programming before. As the injured star strode to the ring with a chair, Rollins snuck in from behind and attacked Reigns. Haliburton slid the chair in, Rollins put Reigns on top of it and then prepared to drive Reigns’ head into it with a curb stomp.
Brunson, who had just stood by in the ring, then got in Rollins’ way and they started talking to each other which gave Reigns the opening to hit a Superman punch and then a spear to send Rollins packing with Haliburton who never got into the ring.
The show was held at Madison Square Garden where Brunson led the Knicks to their first NBA title in decades this past season. He was sporting a brace on his left wrist and hand and didn’t get physical.
Haliburton, who missed the entirety of last season recovering from a severe Achilles injury, was once tabbed to walk out with John Cena for the 2025 edition of SummerSlam due to suffering the aforementioned injury. He and Brunson have confronted each other on WWE TV before with a match involving them unlikely unless they were cleared by their respective teams to do so.
Since 2011, Josh has been a contributing editor to Wrestling Observer/F4WOnline.com and also hosts the Punch-Out podcast. He has also written for Fight Magazine, Bloody Elbow, Bleacher Report, and other websites. He's a 2000 graduate of the University of Maine, worked in pro sports, and once was an indie ring announcer.