WWE aired its first Super Bowl commercial last night. Current SmackDown announcer and former NFL player Pat McAfee read a list of adjectives over footage of high spots and fireworks before Michael Cole reminded people, “We are officially on the road to WrestleMania!”

In the 2022 ad none of the wrestlers speak. No wrestler is mentioned by name. It was quite different from the last time, the only time (WWE did not pay for last night’s commercial, the ad is technically a Peacock ad, Peacock purchased the WWE Network in 2021), the company purchased air time during the Big Game.

WWF aired its last Super Bowl commercial in 1999. It’s arguably the best wrestling commercial of all time, highlighting the larger than life personalities of Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, The Undertaker, Mankind, Mr. McMahon and more.

23 years later, it holds up incredibly well. There are no adjectives on screen, no high spots, no fireworks. There’s also no mention of the competition.

In 2022, WWE is dynamite.

I was watching the Big Game while dealing with a toddler more interested in playing with trains than watching adults play sports. When the WWE ad came on, I thought I misheard McAfee. Did I break my brain with so much wrestling that I thought the biggest wrestling promotion was promoting the second biggest wrestling promotion?

I did not break my brain. My brain is not broken. One of the partners of the biggest wrestling promotion used one second of Super Bowl air time, $233,333 (30 second ads cost $7 million during the 2022 Super Bowl), to remind viewers wrestling is dynamite.

AEW’s flagship TV show is titled AEW Dynamite.

WWE reminded me to watch AEW Dynamite.

WrestleMania season is dynamite.

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