banks Page 4 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Boy… Charlotte Flair sounds like a barrel of kittens
Backstage drama in professional wrestling is part of the charm, given that it usually finds its way into their on-screen storytelling. Reading about rumors and whispers in the business becomes a major staple for a lot of fans. But still, like sports, when things from backstage and in the locker room...

Did we learn anything from Friday night’s TV wrestling war?
While it’s been fun to project the battle between AEW and WWE as a TV war, the reality has been that they’ve really been separate. Sure, AEW has vacuumed up a lot of talent that WWE left out in the alley when it was perfectly serviceable or better (is this just a Chicago thing? Every one of us had a...

No one cares if they can coexist
To claim that there is one tired storyline trope that WWE has to do away with is to bring a squirt gun to a massive inferno. It doesn’t cover the breadth of the company’s problems, and you probably don’t have enough ammo to even take care of the specific portion you want. And it might come down to p...

Look, I’m really trying to avoid wrestling company tribalism, but…
It would be healthier to not use WWE as a comparison point for AEW, or vice versa. One shouldn’t need the other to prove why it’s good and worthy of fanship. And you can enjoy both equally, which should make this time the best it’s ever been to be a fan (and it is!). These are the tenets I’m trying ...

Clinton Portis broke the law — but it doesn’t mean he was wrong
On rare occasions, it’s possible to be both the culprit and the victim. And in the case of Clinton Portis and the other 14 players who allegedly defrauded the NFL of millions, that seems to be it....

This weekend told you everything you needed to know about what WWE and AEW are
The idea WWE higher-ups have been pushing that they don’t pay attention to AEW seems as flimsy as ever now....

Previewing Sunday’s<i> Money In The Bank</i> PPV
Briefcase SZN is back! ...

The pandemic era has ended for AEW and WWE. Now what?
You wouldn’t think a video package simply about a wrestling company being stuck in one location for 15 months can bring a tear to the eye, but I suppose that’s a testament to the production team at AEW:...

LeBron reminds us of other greats who wore multiple numbers on the same team
After a tumultuous 2018-19 season with the Los Angeles Lakers, LeBron James tweeted this out, passive-aggressively declaring his intentions to change his number to six....

Albert Pujols is the latest Hall of Famer you’ll forget played for the Dodgers
The possibility of Albert Pujols returning to St. Louis to finish his career where he started it, this time as a bench bat for a Cardinals team that has title aspirations and Paul Goldschmidt at first base, was too good to be true....

Bianca Belair and Sasha Banks did the thing
The main event of Wrestlemania has had a bit of a rough streak the past few years. That could simply be a product of cramming Brock Lesnar and his wavering dedication and attention span in there repeatedly. But it could also be that it’s just really hard for that one match to thread all the needles ...

We’ve got your Wrestlemania Night 1 preview
It’s the Showcase of the Immortals! And it’s a return to live crowds for wrestling, at least for big-time wrestling. As well as the first time the industry’s biggest show appears on Peacock. So many nuances! Once again, Wrestlemania is split into two nights, and Deadspin wrestling writers Bryan Fons...

It was a great weekend for terrible people in wrestling
It is often said that WWE does its best booking when backed into a corner. That is, whether through injuries to performers or sudden waves of popularity or other factors, when the company has to change or invent stories on the fly is when it tends to produce its best work. Daniel Bryan is a perfect ...

Britt Baker match finally gives AEW a signature moment in its women’s division
For the past few weeks, or months, the frustration with AEW among some fans had begun to be unavoidable. The ignoring or dismissal of the women’s division was becoming too much, and it was impossible to watch an episode of “Dynamite” and not count the segments that could have, and should have, been ...

However you feel about pro wrestling, Bianca Belair’s Royal Rumble win matters on many levels
People who watch wrestling often argue over the legitimacy of the art form with friends who don’t watch. The skeptic will often point to the staged punches and kicks, ignoring the very real table bumps, glass spots, and other physical demands that most human beings aren’t cut out for. The wrestling ...

Deadspin’s surprises, wishlist & predictions for a WWE Royal Rumble rife with possibilities
Wrestlemania season kicks off for real this Sunday, in the strangest Royal Rumble WWE has ever had. At least it will be, with only manufactured crowd noise, no live audience, and the possibility of any kind of theatrical goofiness they can think of possible. The rumors of a prerecorded finish or fin...

It’s been Sasha Banks’ year in WWE, but let’s get her a better one soon
WWE will air its final PPV of the year Sunday, Tables, Ladders, and Chairs. Roman Reigns will almost certainly anchor the show against Kevin Owens, and probably rightly so. Reigns has been the story in the company for the last quarter of the year, but that’s just it. It’s only been a quarter of the ...

Wildest Plays Yet From NBA Bubble Scrimmage Games
All 22 teams taking part in the NBA restart down in the Orlando “bubble” have now officially competed in game action....

Five Years On, Wrestling Women’s Evolution Has Come Far, Still Has Far To Go
Last night marked the five-year anniversary of WWE’s “Women’s Evolution,” the night they called up Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks and Charlotte to the main roster and decided they were going to completely alter their women’s division. It was the culmination of the #GiveDivasAChance movement, which had spa...

Sasha Banks And Luke Harper Are Emblematic Of WWE's Talent Mismanagement
Let’s leave aside the draconian contract clauses, and also the sadness of WWE losing one of its best talents and potentially alienating another. The specific failures to get the most out of Luke Harper and Sasha Banks, respectively, are various and complicated, but fundamentally simple at bottom. T...