Backstage News On Jalen Brunson & Tyrese Haliburton Closing Out Saturday Night's Main Event

The main event segment of the July 18 edition of WWE Saturday Night's Main Event from Madison Square Garden was centred around the New York Knicks and their recent NBA Playoffs win, with Jalen Brunson receiving his own hype package ahead of making his way to the ring with Roman Reigns.

This led to a "greatness acknowledges greatness" promo from Roman Reigns before he gifted Jalen Brunson his own WWE World Heavyweight Title belt complete with Brunson and New York Knicks side plates. As they performed Reigns' signature pose, though, the WWE World Heavyweight Champion and Brunson were interrupted by Tyrese Haliburton of the Indiana Pacers, who entered to Seth Rollins' music. This allowed Seth Rollins to attack Roman Reigns from behind, and Rollins came close to hitting a stomp on a steel chair to Reigns when Jalen Brunson stood in Rollins' way.

A period of trash talking allowed Reigns to recover and hit a superman punch and spear to Rollins, with Reigns and Brunson ultimately standing tall to close out the show as Reigns raised the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy while Brunson held up the WWE World Heavyweight Title.

Don't expect Brunson and Haliburton to be involved in the Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins match at SummerSlam, however. Bryan Alvarez reported on Wrestling Observer Radio that the NBA involvement was simply for one night, with one of the reasons behind the segment being that WWE wanted to be covered on ESPN during a packed weekend of sport.

"The latest I heard is they're not going to be involved in SummerSlam. It was just something to do for this night. But they wanted to get their ESPN coverage, and I'm sure they got a lot. I don't know how much they got with the final of the World Cup. They were happy about it, let me tell you," Alvarez said.

Jalen Brunson and Tyrese Haliburton first appeared on WWE programming in the summer of 2024, becoming involved in the programme between Logan Paul and LA Knight. The NBA players have made multiple appearances on WWE TV since then.

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