WNBA Is Turning Into The WWE, Says Analyst, After Angel Reese’s Teammate ‘Body Checks’ Referee

The WWE’s intergender matches were all the rage in the early 2000s, until they were banned for a laundry list of reasons (less viewership not being one of them). And as history has proven, where there’s demand, there’s a 2K simulation waiting to cash in. And cash in they did, by launching intergender wrestling mode on March 14, 2025. Now the franchise has caught the scent of another crossover goldmine (NBA x WNBA) and true to form, they’re not holding back this time either. The upcoming NBA 2K26 will let players mix NBA and WNBA emblems in the same gameplay, it’s a first for the series.

But virtual similarities aren’t the only way WWE is bleeding into the WNBA. On the hardwood too, the league’s fiercest women have been serving up wrestling-level drama this season. The biggest example of it comes from the Fever’s fiery 88–71 win that ended with Sophie Cunningham delivering a hard foul on the Sun’s Jacy Sheldon. She intended it as a payback for an earlier incident when Sun players poked Caitlin Clark in the eye and slammed her to the floor. The aftermath, as Sophie put it was, “I worked my whole life to become a WNBA basketball player and now people know me as WWE.”

Not that she’s losing any sleep over it though. The so-called “WWE moment” earned her a tidal wave of love online. It skyrocketed her TikTok and Instagram followers from barely 250K to over a million. Clearly, fans are invested in the league’s growing physicality, and players are happily leaning into it. The latest proof came on Wednesday night’s triple ejection. It was a scuffle so chaotic that Rachel DeMita broke it down for us. “Again the WNBA turning into the WWE, except this time it is between Bria Hartley, Rebecca Allen, and Ariel Atkins,” she said.

It all kicked off with 6:35 left in the second quarter. In DeMita’s words: “Saniyah Rivers gets the rebound, and then Bria Hartley just pushes Rebecca Allen to the ground. Rebecca Allen then grabs her jersey. Saniyah gets in between it, and then here comes Ariel Atkins.”

Aug 13, 2025; Uncasville, Connecticut, USA; Chicago Sky guard Ariel Atkins (7) advances on Connecticut Sun guard Bria Hartley (14) both players were ejected from the game during the first half at Mohegan Sun Arena. Mandatory Credit: Eric Canha-Imagn Images

Now, a huddle of passionate women shoving each other isn’t exactly unheard of in the WNBA, but what happened next made even DeMita raise an eyebrow. “Ariel Atkins has to be careful, though, because she basically body-checked the referee, and that is something you can get in serious trouble for.” And she’s right, just ask Stephanie White, who got T’d up for simply asking the ref to call a foul a little too loudly. Or DiJonai Carrington, who had security called on her for what Nai swears was a “civil conversation.”

By comparison, Atkins skated out lucky from the situation because they didn’t single her out. Instead, the refs handed technicals to all three players involved (Hartley, Allen, and Atkins) and made immediate ejections. But here’s the kicker: the tension didn’t really begin at the 6:35 mark. That was just the boiling point. The real drama had been brewing long before. And that, my friends, is where things get spicy in the WNBA. Let’s get into it…

WNBA’s Grudge Game

Rachel DeMita innocently summed it up by saying, “I don’t know what happened, but I am glad that the referees did their job in this specific moment and ejected all of them. Because, like we have seen throughout the season. There have been times where things got heated and the refs did not call flagrant fouls, did not call flagrant twos. Did not get people ejected from the game, and it escalated into something worse.”

Fair take, but she missed a pretty big piece of the puzzle. Earlier in the game, Bria Hartley’s elbow had made clear contact with Rebecca Allen’s face. It went as a missed call that almost certainly poured gasoline on the fire. Now you know exactly what sparked the escalation. Had the refs caught it in real time, maybe the whole thing wouldn’t have turned so personal. It escalated too much especially given the Sky-Sun bad blood that’s been simmering for weeks.

The last time these two teams met, it got real ugly in the third quarter. When Hartley yanked Angel Reese’s hair while fighting for a rebound. The 23-year-old Maryland native wasn’t having it at all. She immediately confronted Bria Hartley and collaterally drew Olivia Nelson-Ododa into the fray. They exchanged words, Reese shoved Nelson-Ododa, and both benches spilled onto the floor to break it up.

It didn’t end there though. The whole thing triggered Connecticut Sun vet Tina Charles. She went on shouting across the court and then her teammates physically restrained her. After a lengthy review, the refs hit Reese and Nelson-Ododa with technicals for unsportsmanlike conduct. While Bria Hartley walked away with only a common foul. It was a decision that drew side-eyes from the Sky bench, who felt the hair pull deserved a flagrant.

So when Chicago and Connecticut get physical now, it’s surely personal. Layer that history onto a fresh elbow to the face, and it’s no wonder Wednesday’s chaos felt less like a random dust-up. Instead, it is more like the latest incident in an ongoing grudge match.

The post WNBA Is Turning Into The WWE, Says Analyst, After Angel Reese’s Teammate ‘Body Checks’ Referee appeared first on EssentiallySports.

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