O’Shea Jackson Jr. said he told Triple H and Stephanie McMahon directly that the amount of advertising on WWE television has gotten so heavy the product is “unwatchable,” and that both WWE executives agreed with him.
Jackson, the actor and No-Contest Wrestling podcast co-host, made the comments on Wednesday during an in-studio appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show. The exchange came after Helwani called WrestleMania 42 “very disappointing” as a whole and pointed to the volume of commercials during the two-night event.
“That is where I draw the line,” Jackson said, before describing the conversation he said took place when he was at WWE headquarters in January to record an episode of Stephanie McMahon’s What’s Your Story? podcast for the WWE and Fanatics network.
“This was like five, six months ago when I went to do Stephanie McMahon’s pod,” Jackson said. “Afterwards, because we did it at WWE headquarters, Triple H comes down, we’re all talking, and I brought up my transgressions. I was like, ‘Dude, the ads are crazy. Unwatchable.’ He was like, they know, they agreed. It’s just about they’re working on placement of them, maybe.”
The specific complaint Jackson hit hardest was placement, not volume. He cited the WWE WrestleMania 42 broadcast cutting to commercial in a way that cost viewers Iyo Sky’s run-in during the WWE Women’s Championship match.
“I get it, Roman Reigns’ entrance is seven minutes long, but that doesn’t mean that’s the time to throw the ads in,” Jackson said. “I should not — there should never be a moment where I miss Iyo Sky’s entrance because we are back from commercial break. It’s a level of respect for them. It’s fine in the middle of a match, but at least picture-in-picture me.”
Helwani then pointed to the between-match content that gets sacrificed for ad time, referencing the backstage segments that used to fill WrestleMania broadcasts — Bob Uecker and Andre the Giant, Mean Gene Okerlund in the locker room. “We had none of that. None of that. It was all cut out. That’s why I said it felt soulless,” Helwani said.
Jackson agreed. “It’s for sure soulless,” he said.
He acknowledged the business reality driving the inventory.
“But I mean, to get to a billion, I don’t know what you got to do. Sounds pretty soulless. We’re dealing with Bs, not Ms. We’re dealing with billions.”
WWE WrestleMania 42 took place April 18 and 19 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, with the first hour of each night simulcast on ESPN and ESPN2 as part of WWE’s new ESPN broadcast deal. The ad load drew significant criticism from fans across both nights, with multiple matches returning from commercial mid-entrance or partway into entrance sequences.
Where To Listen
The Ariel Helwani Show airs every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at 1 p.m. ET on Uncrowned and the Ariel Helwani Show YouTube channel.
