It’s safe to say that Boomer Esiason and partner Gregg Giannotti didn’t spend their Sunday evening wondering if Cody Rhodes would finish his story. The Boomer & Gio hosts talked WWE on their Monday edition of the show, but it wasn’t what most wrestling fans were talking about.
‘Gio’ said he heard a Sports Flash during overnights where Peter Schwartz gave the result of the main event of WWE WrestleMania. “…and at WrestleMania 40 in Philadelphia, Cody Rhodes, he finishes the story as he defeats Roman Reigns to win the WWE undisputed universal heavyweight championship,” he said as he wrapped up the report.
After hearing the report, Boomer Esiason’s immediate reaction was, “WWE is scripted, it is not a sport.”
Gregg Gianotti said, “They are athletes and what they do I could never do; however, the results are scripted. I am not downplaying the popularity of WrestleMania, it was huge. But to put it in the update after the Devils score, c’mon…It should not be in the sports update, you agree?”
“Yeah…of course not,” said Esiason.
As the conversation continues, Giannotti realizes he had worked with WWE announcer Corey Graves when he was in Pittsburgh, although he went by his given name then, Matthew Polinsky. “14 years later, he’s one of the lead voices of WWE and that’s a cool thing, I’m happy for the guy,” he said.
In a separate segment, the question was brought up again with Giannotti saying, “Does something that is scripted belong in sports updates?”
Boomer Esiason begins to try and look and see if ESPN.com has coverage of WWE and doesn’t see anything (turns out the section is called ‘Professional Wrestling’). Which leads to a funny moment when Esiason believes a headline says, “North Korea wins 4th consecutive LPGA title,” before he realizes it says Nelly Korda, not North Korea.
Giannotti says talking about major wrestling news on a show is different than putting it in the sports update. “…It’s different when you are on for four hours doing a talk show,” he said. “If you are an anchor reporting the news it’s a totally different thing…It’s sort of the same to me as if he were a Curb [Your Enthusiasm] fan, putting the ending in the update. Same thing – scripted, actors, just because it’s not as physical, doesn’t mean it’s not the same thing. It’s a TV show.”
Boomer compares wrestling to Cirque du Soleil and says, “They’re out there entertaining you. That’s kind of like what WWE does, it entertains you. You love the storylines, and you love the characters and the people that deserve a lot of the credit are the writers behind the scenes who create those characters and those storylines.
Boomer then brings up The Rock, who was part of both nights of WrestleMania 40, and him being one of the top five most popular personalities in the US, and that it started in WWE. “Look at what he has turned into, the success that he is,” Esiason said. “God bless him, but he ain’t playing defensive tackle for the Miami dolphins.”
Gianotti said, “He tried.”
Esiason replied, “But he didn’t.”
