vino Page 3 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

WrestleMania Night 1 Preview
Whatever it is, it’s upon us. WWE’s, and the industry’s, biggest week and show happens in Dallas. WrestleMania 38 is just about the best representation of what “New York” is these days: scrambled, lazy, nonsensical, yet intriguing, loud, brash, and when they actually bother to try, containing some o...

Stone Cold Steve Austin to return for <em>WrestleMania</em><em></em>
The Texas Rattlesnake is likely lacing his boots up one more time. For the first time in 19 years, Stone Cold Steve Austin will hear glass shatter, walk out onto the entrance way to an ovation that would make Robert Plant jealous, and get his shtick to reverberate through a crowd like it’s 1998 for ...

AEW boss Tony Khan buys legendary independent promotion Ring of Honor
The fingerprints of those who elevated Ring of Honor from a tiny independent promotion designed to help save a fledgling video distribution company to cult-favorite national phenomenon have their smudge inked all over professional wrestling’s landscape. Look at a random ROH show lineup from 2009-11....

The best NCAA March Madness teams by seed
The NCAA Tournament has become one of the most unpredictable, edge-of-your-seat sporting events of the year due to its knockout nature. It’s a clash of college basketball styles coming together as the calendar turns from winter to spring, pitting teams that usually never see each other on the same c...

Coach K’s succession mistake was bigger than choosing Scheyer over Amaker
Hours before Coach K’s dizzy spell sent him to the locker room in Duke’s win over Wake Forest, excerpts from Ian O’Connor’s upcoming book, Coach K: The Rise and Reign of Mike Krzyzewski” detailed a brief power struggle within Duke last year over Coach K’s plans to name his replacement. O’Connor’s in...

Cody Rhodes is nuts
Cody and Brandi Rhodes must be insane, right? The couple integral to the founding of All Elite Wrestling, with a strong family heritage inside the squared circle, has left the upstart promotion they helped lay brick and tile for and could head back to their former employer, World Wrestling Entertain...

WWE is truly lost
You’re not supposed to be able to fuck up the Royal Rumble....

WWE Royal Rumble predictions: Return of Ronda Rousey?
No matter how down you are on WWE, and Eric and I certainly are somewhere around ankle-level, there’s still something special about the Royal Rumble. It’s still the only of its kind. It signals the beginning of the build to WrestleMania, but mostly it’s because it’s still the only event on the calen...

WWE is as stale as it’s ever been, but I’m watching Royal Rumble anyway
It’s a good opportunity for the industry giant to bring back lapsed fans....

Jayhawks looking elite in double OT win over Texas Tech
It’s the time of year when teams start to lock down NCAA Tournament spots. Regardless of any collapse, combined with the easier games remaining on schedules, college basketball’s elite know when the calendar flips to February that their postseason lives aren’t on the line every night....

Some great wrestling matches from the year that was
That time again. This year’s list feels a little more genuine, as wrestling (outside of Japan at least) was able to get out of the TV-studio era and back in front of the crowds it so desperately needs. Whether that was or is a really good idea at the moment, we’ll save for another time. Trying to ju...

WWE finally wins one
The new addition to wrestling discourse in the past couple years, and this year especially with the raft of releases from WWE, is to dream of which wrestlers will go from WWE to AEW, whether by choice or by force. And also, to dream what they will do when they get there, to fantasy book your dream m...

And just like that… (poof)... NXT is gone
It’s not that it was surprising. Back when WWE announced it was completely reshaping it’s junior brand, NXT, I wrote that it would be the end of what fans of the black and gold had come to love. I guess I’m just impressed (while simultaneously depressed) at how ruthlessly and efficiently it came to ...

So what is WWE’s plan for Roman Reigns?
I’ll admit to watching Survivor Series last night hoping that it would be an unmitigated disaster. Through WWE’s terrible promotion and build to the event, spiced with the disheartening and cold releases of wrestlers due to “budget cuts” even though the company keeps trumpeting record profits, there...

ESPN should replace Michigan State with Villanova in the Champions Classic
Villanova is a better basketball program than Michigan State. That’s not an opinion, it’s a fact. The Wildcats have more program wins and national titles than the Spartans....

...If it weren’t for those meddling Mariners
Friday, July 23. If you’re an A’s fan or player, you wake up feeling pretty good. I’d say it’s a beautiful day in the Bay Area, but July tends to be pretty miserable there. And anyway, you’re in Seattle this morning, and it is lovely there. As far as your team’s fortunes, everything is ok. Not great...

The Giants just won’t die
For everyone who isn’t a child of Will Clark or Jason Schmidt, watching the Giants hold off the Dodgers in the NL West has been something like watching one of those nature videos of a lion stalking a wounded antelope. It’s not a question of if or when. It’s going to happen....

It’s getting away from the Red Sox
In some ways it’s heartening, at least for those of us who aren’t part of The Nation, to see the Red Sox backing up. Because no team that trades Mookie Betts, then doesn’t really do much in the following offseason either, should return to the playoffs after only a gimmick season. Fenway Sports Group...

WWE will finally kill NXT
I guess the folly for all of us was thinking the NXT we loved could last a long time in the world of WWE, if reports are to be believed. I have to admit that I’m biased. While Daniel Bryan was the reason I started watching wrestling again, NXT was the reason I became such a huge fan. But it’s starti...

Under-the-radar sports you should check out during the Tokyo Games
There are certain sports that are staples of the Olympics, the ones that get on in prime time and take hold of the sports world when they’re going for the gold. It used to be that those sports, like gymnastics, swimming, and track, would only really show up on your TV every so often. Maybe you’d cat...