newsletter Page 1 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
AEW’s got their whiskey, they got their wine, this time the lights are goin’ out
The constant chatter, if not outright yelling over, and study of TV ratings for both AEW, and WWE has long passed the threshold of being an annoyance. But AEW fans couldn’t help but occasionally peek to see how Dynamite and Rampage were doing, if only to assure themselves that the company was doing ...
Jon Moxley-Kenny Omega is AEW's biggest rivalry for company's biggest summer
Even four-plus years into its existence, AEW still has that magic of being able to get its fans excited by just having two guys step into the ring. Just the sight of a certain matchup coming to fruition — be it simply a fantasy booking dream, a high point in another well-told story, or some combinat...
How did the Milwaukee Bucks ever win a title?
I won’t pretend to be any kind of basketball expert, and my brethren here will spend the day breaking down the Milwaukee Bucks coughing up a curd-ridden hairball in the first round to the Miami Heat. But I know a deer caught in headlights look when I see one, and Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer spent a...
WWE invents new title that Cody Rhodes can win
Just imagine the heartwarming scene, the one fans have been clamoring for. It’s 2 in the afternoon, U.S. time, as thousands of miles away Cody Rhodes caresses the belt that was introduced to WWE a month prior, at a show drenched in blood money that has an incredible wrestling history of…Goldberg nea...
Stone Cold wrestles with where gimmick ends, Steve Austin begins
He’s synonymous with World Wrestling Entertainment if not all of professional wrestling as one of the most popular performers in the theatrical sports’ history. Stone Cold Steve Austin can still garner a crowd reaction like few ever have with the simple sound of glass shattering to start his entranc...
He (allegedly) tried to live the gimmick
Former WWE superstar Ted DiBiase Jr. has been charged in connection with the now-infamous Mississippi welfare scandal. As revealed in an unsealed federal indictment from the Department of Justice, the 40-year-old DiBiase Jr. was charged with the misappropriation of millions diverted from families in...
Vince McMahon is in charge again, in case you couldn’t tell
The first hour of this week’s Raw was commercial-free and contained two minutes of actual wrestling. Brock Lesnar appeared in both the opening and closing segments, opposing Roman Reigns (if only for a moment in the end), culminating in a nonsensical heel turn. Then there was a rerun of a women’s ta...
I don’t know why <i>you</i> trusted WWE to do anything differently
We were just here. Not all that long ago. WWE doesn’t like you. We thought when Triple H took over creative, things would change. They decidedly have not, and it’s a wonder whether he’s actually in charge of creative anymore. Or whether he was yesterday, and whether he will be tomorrow (we’ll get ba...
Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn crash the party
On a night and weekend that is meant to celebrate the sheer enormity of WWE–the bombast, the cultural reach, the money, the sheer scale of it all–it was two guys who made their names in various, darkly lit auditoriums and armories and bingo halls and whatever other seedy corner you might find indie ...
Cody Rhodes proves it doesn’t matter what you actually say
There’s a bit in my favorite stand-up special of all time, Suzy Eddie Izzard’s Dress To Kill, where she mocks most Americans for not knowing the lyrics to the national anthem but also advises them how to get around it. It’s mostly about how one looks and how one sounds, not really what is actually b...
Is the new Vince McMahon biography worth reading?
On one hand, mainstream interest in Vince McMahon, the “Walt Disney of wrestling” has never been higher: last year he retired in disgrace as CEO and chairman after allegations of sexual assault and misconduct. (He has previously been twice accused of sexual assault, and has denied all allegations of...
The Great Debates tournament: Sweet 16
It’s Sweet 16 time. The primaries are over and it is time for the general election. In real-life debates, this is about the time when candidates would be making disingenuous retorts about each other’s bad-faith arguments....
Boy, this John Cena heel turn sucks
It’s what a good portion of wrestling fans have wanted for a couple of decades now. John Cena finally going heel. Well, like most things WWE does, when it finally happened it landed with a splat on par of tossing turkeys from a helicopter (IFYKYK). ...
Bryan Danielson is on the run of his life
This is what I came for, just eight years later. ...
Tom Brady's not the only star who couldn't quit the spotlight
For the second straight Feb. 1, Tom Brady retired from the National Football League. His first retirement lasted all of 40 days, coming back to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers minutes after the NCAA Tournament field was chosen on Selection Sunday. He’s now retired “for good” and the entire sports world kno...
Damar Hamlin's first public speaking appearance since cardiac arrest is at <i>Masked Singer</i> taping
Less than a month since he went into cardiac arrest on Monday Night Football, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin made his first public speaking appearance since the incident on Tuesday night as a surprise guest at a taping of FOX’s upcoming season of The Masked Singer. Per TMZ Sports, Hamlin attended...
WWE hits the right notes, even if it can’t play the song
You’d be forgiven if you thought that WWE falls into its best long-term storytelling by accident, including in last night’s Royal Rumble. It’s so fixated on providing “moments,” where the crowd pops to a riotous level and (these days) social media starts spinning and buzzing like a slot machine. Wha...
Sami Zayn must win the Royal Rumble
WWE kicks its Wrestlemania season into fifth gear this week with Saturday night’s Royal Rumble. Even those who have soured on the product New York has been putting out come back in for the Rumble — for the most part — due to its uniqueness and penchant for surprises, and setting up what the build to...