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For years, Asuka, Iyo Sky, and Kairi Sane have been best friends both in and out of the ring. They had a lot of shared experience wrestling in Japan, being highly scouted before coming to wrestle for WWE.

Asuka and Sane have been a tag team called The Kabuki Warriors for several years now. They joined Sky alongside Bayley and Dakota Kai when Damage CTRL was an active faction.

After Bayley got kicked out and Kai got released, they decided to stick together. However, their friendship completely imploded due to Skyâ€s association with Rhea Ripley.

A few weeks ago on Monday Night Raw, Asuka turned on Sky due to her Ripley connection with Sane stuck in the middle. To get viewers caught up on the story, the WWE YouTube channel uploaded another WWE Playlist video about how things got to where they are. This video goes into detail about how things got so bad between seemingly inseparable friends.

This video chronicles how Sky and The Kabuki Warriors went from friends to enemies. The interesting thing about this story is that Asuka is the one whoâ€s angry, Sky wants to forgive Asuka, Ripley wants Sky to walk away from both of them, and Sane is stuck in the middle. Itâ€s not as simple as just Asuka and Sky hating each other. Sane and Ripley are very important to the story as well.

ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…

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The story is woven throughout multiple matches and backstage segments. There have been consequential things happening in matches with Nikki Bella, Stephanie Vaquer, and others. Asuka and Sky havenâ€t had a one-on-one match yet or even a confrontation. The whole buildup has happened as the three have wrestled other women.

The matches are served as a way to drive the story forward, which is smart. Once they actually wrestle each other, the payoff is going to be well earned.

Overall, this was a great video showing how a great friendship crumbled in a short amount of time. In wrestling, there are always sudden turns and betrayals between friends. This type of video produced by WWE is a great way to show fans what happened in a straightforward way so they can fully understand the story.

Each week, Sky and Ripley got closer and closer with each other. That put an immense strain onto the friendship between Asuka and Sky. When Sky ran out to stop Asuka and Sane from beating down Ripley, Asuka finally snapped on her former friend. She had enough of someone she trusted for years helping someone whoâ€s been a rival.

Itâ€ll be interesting to see where Sane goes with all of this, as she is clearly stuck between obeying Asuka and helping Sky. With the go-home Raw and Crown Jewel coming up next week, the story between them and Ripley will certainly embark on its next compelling chapter.

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FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — You have to admit it, the buildout is impressive.

When the drones cruise over the oak trees at Bethpage Black, the immensity of what a Ryder Cup is comes into full view. What isn’t green is white, red and just massive. Hospitality tents and grandstands shoot into the sky. It’s absolutely necessary, too, if the PGA of America wants to do right by the 30, 40 or 50 thousand that show up each day.

Increased security and police presence will be a story of the week. Unruly fans may become another. There is no event in golf quite like this one, and you’ll have no problem finding it. Your Instagram feed will be chock full of 1st tee videos before you crack an egg for breakfast.

But there’s an interesting question that hangs over all that modern, major sporting event flavor: What’s more important to the Ryder Cup — its size or its soul?

We have asked our sporting leaders and governing bodies variations of that question for years. FIFA’s World Cup immediately comes to mind, as its competition has nearly doubled in size for next year … while committing to sports-drunk-but-endlessly-wealthy Saudi Arabia for 2034. (One could easily see the Saudi PIF as a global sponsor of the Ryder Cup some day.)

For now, Saudi money is being spent on advertising this week, inside Long Island Rail Road trains carrying golf sickos to Bethpage.

“IF TEAM GOLF IS YOUR THING” the advert reads. “YOU’LL LOVE OUR THING.”

If any creative marketers have a decent budget and an eye on golfers, they’re spending this week. The People’s Plaza located on-site is filled by five activations for imbibing. There’s a Michelob Ultra tent next to Tito’s (Vodka) Golf Club, next to the Elijah Craig Speakeasy, across the way from the Gosling’s Rum’s Leisure Lounge and William Hill’s not-so-creative “Wine Lounge.” (Luckily, the Gatorade Hydration Station is just around the corner.)

It’s 27 miles as the golf ball flies from that People’s Plaza to Rockefeller Plaza, in the heart of Manhattan, which turns into “Ryder Cup Live” on Thursday, drawing attention to the event through the weekend. On Tuesday morning, the speakers and seats and signs were still being set up, but there’s already a BMW sedan in place for Captain Keegan — the 7 — and a different beamer parked next to it for Captain Luke, the i7. Scan the QR Code to find out more while you watch the golf on the big screen and gaze upward at 30 Rock.

Almost every incoming email the past few weeks has seen some new corner of the Cup getting carved up by another brand. Five Iron is debuting its newest New York location this week. A gambling company is hawking its supercomputer’s newest analysis, that Team USA has a 57 percent chance of winning. The latest email arrived Tuesday afternoon: Good Good Golf will be collaborating with the newfound show, “Breakfast at Bethpage,” produced by Omaha Studios and Pro Shop Studios, leading blindfolded putting competitions and other challenges during the morning of the event.

And you know what, skeptics? People will watch. (Ed. note: Another activation email arrived in the writing of this article, for a Skratch event Friday in the city, featuring the newest technology and products from Hyperice.)

But is it all necessary? Is bigger always moving us in a direction of better? In the age of player empowerment, immense TV rights valuations, $750 tickets and a rapidly dwindling number of locations the Cup can even be hosted — we can’t be so sure. (Often left un-asked: Is this what Seve Ballesteros, Sam Ryder, Arnold Palmer, et al would have wanted?)

Like clockwork, each Ryder Cup arrives bigger, in some way, than the last. Each bit of newness feels special in the moment, and normal two years later. This year’s ticket prices were higher than ever, and drastically more than Rome in 2023. Rome was the first time the event had been played in Italy, on a golf course (and surrounding neighborhood) made precisely for it. The 2021 buildout of hospitality at Whistling Straits — during a Covid-impacted event, no less — made the 2018 France Ryder Cup look paltry. But the 1st tee grandstand in the French countryside made the 1st tee at Hazeltine seem infantile. A suitable reminder exists below.

As exciting as this 2025 Cup has been in the lead-up, numerous players and their teams have intimated a soft weariness at what might come of this week, and that was before President Trump decided to attend. After months of ominous “We’ll sees,” Rory McIlroy said it out loud to The Guardian:

“I think it’s inevitable something is going to happen in New York,” McIlroy said. “It might not involve me, but it is inevitable that something will happen, whether like in Rome last time or something else.”

It makes obvious sense. The bigger the crowd, the easier it is to blend into the noise. The more expensive the ticket, the more entitled one may feel to cross a theoretical line. Who draws the line? Who really knows! But there doesn’t seem to be much slowing this train down, particularly as the Cup continues to go to the biggest cities across the world, exclusively where the government has agreed to help subsidize the proceedings.

It took years for the DP World Tour to choose Barcelona as the host for the 2031 Cup … coincidentally once the local Catalonia government fully committed to funding part of the cost. But it will require all kinds of transportation changes in the surrounding area, not to mention real, physical changes to the golf course. In the same way no city is able to host the Olympics without tearing things down, moving them around and building them back up, there’s an extremely short list of courses the PGA and DPWT would consider Ryder Cup Ready. So let the bidding begin! And fully accept the results when competing parties campaign for London to host in 2035. Just don’t expect to have much attachment to the course, which may not even exist yet.

If it feels odd to worry this much about Ryder Cups in the 2030s, it might be because this growth has been quite linear. And how much more room is there to grow? The 1980s marked this event’s potential in competitiveness and were abruptly capitalized upon in the 1990s. It was just 1999, when American captain Ben Crenshaw pleaded with Tiger Woods and others to settle down their desires for some form of compensation.

“It’s not greed,” Woods said back then. “It’s the fact we want to help out. We want to donate money to our charities in our local areas. There’s so much money being generated at the Ryder Cup, it’s become a corporate event.”

That quote is playing a bigger role than normal this week as: 1) it was rather prophetic; and 2) American players have finally seen their compensation moved “into 2025,” as captain Bradley put it. Each American player and captain earns $300,000 to charities of their choosing, as well as a $200,000 stipend to do with what they please … for the very first time.

The issue is a real Rorschach Test for anyone who cares about this event. It’s a pretty flimsy argument that the Cup should just continue growing in perpetuity, and notdirectly benefit the players at an increasing rate, too. It’s also pretty reasonable (and simple!) to see how money has completely torqued every corner of this sport in recent years. Keeping one of its most cherished events greed-free might feel good for everyone involved. (Or most of everyone.) It’s going to be difficult to tell the hard-working fathers of the Twin Cities that the family vacation fund will look a bit lighter in 2029 if he wants to bring everyone out to Hazeltine. It’s also pretty hard to tell the PGA of America accountants to chill out when they just reached their goal of selling souped-up, $10,000-per-day Metro Club packages to the kind of people who want to arrive via helicopter.

All of that mashed together is where we are with the Ryder Cup. We can enjoy the hell out of it for the next few days, but not without wondering where it’s going.

For some time, there has been a persistent Ryder Cup narrative that Team USA is a collection of 12 individuals…

Manchester United’s Portuguese coach Ruben Amorim is used to being criticised by now. The 40-year-old has taken charge of 47 matches in the Old Trafford dugout, winning 18 and losing 20.

Man United have won once in five outings this season, fell to defeat against rivals Manchester City and Arsenal as well as exiting the League Cup at the Second Round having lost on penalties to fourth tier Grimsby Town.

As a result, Amorim is the second-most likely manager to be removed from his post, according to bookmakers, with West Ham United’s Graham Potter the only Premier League boss seemingly at greater risk of losing his job.

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Ruben Amorim sacking would cost Manchester United up to £20 million

Ruben Amorim watches his side knocked out of the Carabao Cup at Grimsby (Image credit: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

Upon arriving at Old Trafford, Amorim signed a contract which runs until the summer of 2027, meaning the club would be required to pay out the remainder of his salary, should they decide to change head coach.

That is likely to total close to £13 million, given Amorim is rumoured to be earning £6.5 million per year at Man United.

Ruben Amorim, August 2025 (Image credit: Ash Donelon/Manchester United via Getty Images)

Additionally, Amorim’s backroom staff would likely depart alongside the Portuguese coach, if he were removed from his post, meaning compensation payments would be required for those individuals too, bringing the exit bill closer to the £20 million mark.

For context, predecessor Erik ten Hag cost Man United a reported £21.4m to replace; £10.4m in compensation and £11m to hire Amorim and his backroom team from Portuguese club Sporting CP.

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Man United failed to qualify for European competition in 2025-26 and for each season the club spends outside the UEFA Conference, Europa and Champions Leagues, they lose out on tens of millions of pounds in broadcast, commercial and matchday revenue.

Champions League participation is worth an estimated minimum £80m to clubs who feature in the league phase, while Europa League involvement guarantees a team £20m, mostly in broadcast payments.

Ruben Amorim was defeated 3-0 by Manchester City at the weekend (Image credit: Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Switching managers would cost Man United a pretty penny, but if Amorim does not deliver European football for a second successive season, the decision to retain his services could come to be regarded as an example of the economic phenomenon of the sunk cost fallacy. This is where a person or organisation is reluctant to abandon a strategy because they have invested heavily in it, even though it appears abandonment would be more beneficial in the long-run.

In their current guise, Man United do not look like Champions League contenders, nor do they have Europa League football as a back-door route into Europe’s premier club competition for 2026-27.

This means that for the period 2025-2027, the club could realistically lose out on £160m of guaranteed Champions League revenue due to their appointment of Amorim, which greatly supersedes the sum it would cost to make a change in the dugout.

Doing so early enough in the season would theoretically give any new arrival a better prospect of correcting the course.

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