Tyrese Haliburton is no stranger to the WWE. In the 2024 NBA offseason, Haliburton made several appearances in their program. And in those, he played the role of a ‘heel’ like a fish taking to water. Even so, expect your jaw to drop once you find out how he feels about WWE superstar John Cena! Let’s just say that he definitely breaks kayfabe when it comes to Cena, but more on that later.   

Tonight, fresh off a victory against the Atlanta Hawks, Tyrese graced the WWE with his presence once more. The WWE is hosting their January pay-per-view, the Royal Rumble, at the Lucas Oil Stadium, only a few minutes from the Pacers’ home at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse. With the memory of victory fresh, Hali appeared in the crowd with some of his teammates amid the Royal Rumble!

Joining him were TJ McConnell, James Johnson, Issac Yacob, and one of his brothers. After he was spotted in the crowd, WWE legend and Chief Content Officer Triple H even made him an offer. Hyping up the crowd before the massive 30-man battle royale, he said, “Just about anybody could enter the Royal Rumble as a surprise. You never know who might show up.”

He then scanned the crowd before acknowledging the Pacers’ guard stood on the stage. “You got a minute?” sneakily asked Paul “Triple H” Levesque, with Hali casually replying, “Let’s talk, let’s talk.” Could we see Tyrese as an entrant in the Rumble this year?

Tyrese Haliburton had unhesitantly picked his 2025 Royal Rumble winner!

Tyrese Haliburton promised Pat McAfee before this week’s episode of SmackDown that he would appear at tonight’s Royal Rumble. And as you can see, he lived up to his promise. But that wasn’t all he did during the interview with McAfee. Tyrese also announced his pick for this year’s winner and the person who will go on to headline WrestleMania. And the fans in attendance were not expecting this superstar to be his pick. Neither will you. Well, unless you too were a fan of a certain WWE PG-13 era babyface turned Hollywood star.

After Pat asked him for his prediction, the crowd went wild with chants of CM Punk!

But Tyrese clearly did not feel the same way. “Does that mean I’m supposed to agree?,” he asked the crowd before exclaiming, “Give me John Cena!” Tyrese’s splash sent the crowd into a frenzy as they popped loudly, hearing the name of the 16x WWE World Champ.

Tyrese is an avid fan of the WWE, there’s no questioning that. He most recently appeared on the January 31st edition of Smackdown. Even before that, he was setting up matches on NXT, and interfering in matches, nearly coming to blows with Jalen Brunson!

The rivals appeared on Smackdown in June last year after the heated Eastern Conference Finals between them… It was during a triple-threat matchup involving LA Knight, Logan Paul, and Santos Escobar… Their ringside antics, which saw Tyrese Haliburton sporting brass knuckles, led to LA Knight winning.

But soon after, Haliburton and Logan Paul would gang up on LA Knight. However, Jalen Brunson stepped in to level the odds with a steel chair. Not willing to risk it, the pair of Paul and Haliburton walked away, dejected. After this experience, Brunson said he “lived out a childhood dream,” while Haliburton has returned to the WWE several times.

Clearly, he loves it.

After all, no one goes to another sports event minutes after winning an NBA game, if they don’t!

And it’s probably because of his love for the sport that he chose John Cena to win this year’s Royal Rumble. After all, the ‘Suicide Squad’ star announced that he would retire from the in-ring competition. So it’s no surprise that Hali wants Cena to break Ric Flair’s Championship record by first winning the Royal Rumble, despite the persona he plays when appearing in WWE programming.

But John Cena will need to get past 29 other superstars to win the match. 28, if Tyrese ends up entering! And who knows, perhaps a career as a pro wrestler may be on the cards for Haliburton, one day, after he concludes his NBA career.

What would you trade to have a WWE career?