While the Pittsburgh Steelers offense spent a Friday night at the ballpark, the defense was in a different part of town for WWE Smackdown. As tweeted out by Pat McAfee, commentator for the WWE, DL Cam Heyward, OLB Nick Herbig, DL Keeanu Benton, and OLB Alex Highsmith were at least four Steelers in attendance.
McAfee sent out this photo of Heyward raising up this Steelers’ wrestling belt.
It’s safe to say those guys had a more enjoyable event to watch than Russell Wilson and the Steelers’ offensive linemen, who watched the Pirates get pelted by the Red Sox 8-1, scratching out just four hits and their lone run coming in the ninth when the game was decided.
I’ll admit I’m not a wrestling connoisseur but the WWE website here details all the marquee matches and storylines happening tonight. The best I can offer is Highsmith with his John Cena impression in the headline photo.
The Steelers and WWE have gone together for years. In his younger days, QB Ben Roethlisberger would frequently attend and even appeared in the ring with his offensive linemen for one segment.
Putting wrestling aside, it’s worth nothing Herbig and Benton have felt seemingly inseparable throughout the offseason. Benton went to Hawaii for one of Nick and Nate Herbig’s football camp and if you follow either on social media, they’re always hanging out. They even showed up to the first day of offseason workouts together.
Obviously, the two go back to their days at Wisconsin and it’s cool to see them come up in the NFL together. Expectations will be high for both in their sophomore seasons. Benton will begin the year as the team’s starting nose tackle while Herbig is expected to be the Steelers No. 3 outside linebacker, a key rotational piece behind T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith. Both should make a jump in their second seasons after flashing as rookies. And with the hip drop tackle banned, maybe they can learn some new takedowns from the WWE scene.
