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AEW

Depending on who you ask, Josh Alexander hasn’t had the opportunity to prove why he’s called “The Walking Weapon” on AEW programming yet. Since leaving TNA, which put him on the map from 2019 to 2025 as both a flagbearer in singles and tag team action, legends in the business like Konnan do not believe AEW fans are seeing Alexander for the prizefighter he’s known to be. A fan, who wrote into Konnan’s “Keepin’ It 100” podcast, asked the mastermind his thoughts on Alexander since his transition from Impact/TNA to AEW now.

“When he was in TNA, he was champion,” Konnan noted before addressing the question. “He was protected. He came over here, his very first match, he debuted with a loss. I think 90 percent of his matches have been losses. And then, he’s part of a team that has way too many people that don’t even look like they belong together or hang out together. You know, Don Callis has like 15 in his group.”

During the six years Alexander was with Impact/TNA, he and now “WWE NXT” star Ethan Page (collectively known as The North), served as the two-time Impact World Tag Team Champions, with their first reign becoming the longest in the title’s history at 380 days. From there, Alexander would venture over to singles competition, holding the X-Division Championship once before trading up his hardware for the Impact World Championship, and making history again, not only as a two-time titleholder, but carrying the longest reign within his second run with the belt at 335 days. Hoping to parlay all those accomplishments he had of yesteryear to now, although he has not claimed any gold in AEW yet, he does have another notch in his weaponeer belt by becoming the current and inaugural MLP Canadian Champion for Scott D’Amore’s Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling promotion. Alexander’s last victory in AEW came against Kota Ibushi via count out at “AEW Collision: Homecoming,” on October 11. Â

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “Keepin’ It 100 ” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

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Tommy Fleetwood’s very good, very successful, golf-is-too-easy fall season doesn’t seem to be slowing down.

The toast of the golf world, fresh off a dominating Ryder Cup performance and Tour Championship victory — his first on the PGA Tour — is now leading the DP World India Championship, a first-year DP World Tour event several big-name pros are competing in (thanks to a little help from appearance fees).

Fleetwood shot an eight-under 64 on Friday at Delhi Golf Club in New Delhi, India, a round highlighted by birdies in five of his last eight. That followed his opening-round 68, and he now heads into the weekend leading Brian Harman and Shane Lowry by one. Rory McIlroy, at six under, is six back.

Fleetwood said he wasn’t happy with how he ended his round Thursday but hit balls afterward and felt like his Friday swing was in a better place.

“I hit it in the fairway a lot today and gave myself some chances with irons,” he said. “It’s easy talking about how many things you did well when you shot eight under, but a really good round of golf.”

Delhi Golf Club is a unique test for professionals this week. It’s shorter and tight and driver isn’t needed as often as it’s weaponized in the States. McIlroy’s put away his trusty driver altogether. Fleetwood said he hasn’t hit more than a 5-wood.

“It’s such a unique challenge, and the greens are firming out a little bit and the pins have been tricky,” he said. “It’s been very, very enjoyable. It’s a test of patience when you’re not quite on it because like it’s one of those courses, you get a few of them where you feel if you hit it good off the tee you’re going to have some short irons and wedges and feel like you’ve always got a chance to get it wrong. It’s such a waiting game. You’ve got to be very patient. It’s been a great test.”

Fleetwood, to his credit, has passed the majority of his tests the last couple of months. The fan favorite was long known as one of the best golfers in the world to never have won on the big tour (despite his DP World Tour success) and had even more close calls this summer. But in August he won the Tour Championship and the $10 million FedEx Cup title to shed that label.

A month later he was the Europeans’ best player at Bethpage Black, securing four points and leading Europe to an away Ryder Cup victory.

That Ryder Cup familiarity has carried over to this week. Fleetwood’s been grouped with fellow Ryder Cupper Shane Lowry and European captain Luke Donald for the first two rounds.

“Unbelievable three-ball,” Fleetwood said. “I think because you’re so comfortable with each other, you do your own thing. Yeah, I mean, like just it’s always links-style golf course a bonus when you’re with two guys that you’re really close with. So yeah, I saw the draw, or Shane actually told me about the draw, and I was really pleased. It has been a great two days.

Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was among the masses who were caught off-guard by the Cleveland Browns sending veteran quarterback Joe Flacco to the Cincinnati Bengals in a rare in-division trade last week.

“It was shocking to me,” Tomlin said Monday, per ESPN’s Brooke Pryor. “[Browns general manager] Andrew Berry must be a lot smarter than me or us because it doesn’t make sense to me to trade a quarterback that you think enough of to be a day 1 starter to a divisional opponent.”

Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski was asked about Tomlin’s criticism of the Flacco trade on Monday, and he told reporters, “I don’t have a comment on that.”

Cleveland had benched Flacco and inserted rookie quarterback Dillon Gabriel as the starter in Week 5. Rather than holding onto the aging vet, the Browns traded him to the Bengals, who were struggling at the quarterback position after losing star signal-caller Joe Burrow to toe surgery.

The Steelers easily handled the Flacco-less Browns with a 23-9 win on Sunday. Gabriel completed 29 of his 52 passes for 221 yards, no touchdowns and no interceptions while being sacked six times.

Rather than facing Flacco with Cleveland on Sunday, Pittsburgh will meet its old nemesis when it faces Cincinnati on Thursday Night Football to kick off Week 7. In his Bengals debut, Flacco threw for 219 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions on 29-of-45 passing in Sunday’s 27-18 loss to the Green Bay Packers.

The Steelers will be seeking their fourth straight win on Thursday, so it can be expected that Tomlin will have his players amped up to take on Flacco and the Bengals as they try to continue to establish supremacy in the AFC North.

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AEW/Lee South

The online tribalism between fans of AEW and WWE has been in full swing since Tony Khan opened his promotion in 2019, and in recent years, things have only seemingly become worse with counter-programming and wrestlers jumping from one promotion to the other. While there are some who call for unity amongst wrestling fans, MVP doesn’t believe the tribalism will ever end.

“As our species, as humans, we love to categorize ourselves. ‘I’m a Northerner.’ ‘I’m a Southerner.’ Oh, ‘East Coast,’ ‘West Coast.’ You know? ‘I’m a Cowboys fan!’ ‘I’m a Texas fan!’ We love to put ourselves in categories; we like to do that on our own,” MVP opined during an interview on “TMZ’s Inside The Ring.“

Despite this, the veteran urged fans to remember that the wrestlers in either company aren’t tribalistic and are rooting for each other.Â

“I’ve said this many times: like, having multiple wrestling companies is great for the talent, because it gives us better financial and career opportunities,” MVP added, noting that it’s also good for fans to have competition between the promotions for better product. However, he doesn’t berate people for not sharing his opinions on things, but asserts that he doesn’t think tribalism will ever stop.

“I just think that people like to categorize themselves and put themselves in certain pigeon holes, and it’s just part of something that our species does,” MVP noted. “So, no, I don’t think we’ll ever completely get out of it.”

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit “TMZ’s Inside The Ring” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

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The NBA season is less than two weeks away and Russell Westbrook remains unsigned, but the veteran point guard reportedly isn’t considering playing overseas just yet.

According to NBA insider Marc Stein, Westbrook has had “zero discussion” about gauging interest from teams abroad, but “securing his next NBA opportunity has been the focus for Westbrook’s camp.”

Westbrook, 36, spent the 2024-25 campaign with the Denver Nuggets, where he played a key role off the bench as he put up 13.3 points, 6.1 assists and 4.9 rebounds per game.

He had the chance to return to Denver for the 2025-26 season, but instead chose not to exercise his $3.5 million contract option and entered free agency. Former NBA player Danny Green said on his podcast last week that Westbrook declined his player option because the Nuggets didn’t plan to include him in the rotation.

There was some reported interest in Westbrook early this offseason as teams looked for point guards, but many of those teams have since filled those roles. One team reportedly is still eyeing him, however.

ESPN’s Shams Charania reported last week that “there is strong mutual interest between” the Sacramento Kings and Westbrook, which could give him a place to call home before the start of the season.

But even if Westbrook goes unsigned through the start of the season, teams will inevitably need a point guard once injuries begin taking a toll, so the odds that Westbrook isn’t in the NBA at some point this year seem slim.

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A WWE star left podcast hosts stunned after admitting he didnâ€t know what a Sega Genesis was.

WWE NXT star Jeâ€Von Evans recently appeared on the No Contest Wrestling Podcast hosted by Oâ€Shea Jackson Jr. and TJ Jefferson. During the conversation, Oâ€Shea recalled being introduced to Shawn Michaels through WWE RAW on the Sega Genesis because his older brother always used to pick The Heartbreak Kid.

The conversation took a hilarious turn when Jeâ€Von Evans asked the hosts what Sega Genesis was. Evans prefaced his question by saying it would show how young he was. A quick Google search shows that the “Young OG†was born in April 2004, making him slightly older than the original WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw video game.

The Sega Genesis console was released in the late nineties. It featured classic titles such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Altered Beast, Castlevania: Bloodlines, Streets of Rage 2, and Contra: Hard Corps, to name a few.

Elsewhere in the interview, Evans revealed he decided to become a pro wrestler the moment Triple H hit a Pedigree on Sheamus through the Spanish announce table. That particular segment took place in the lead-up to WrestleMania XXVIII, which saw The Game take on The Undertaker in the second of their three WrestleMania encounters.

Also read: Shawn Michaels Convinced WWE To Hire This NXT Superstar

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While the Toronto Maple Leafs started their season off with a victory, Craig Berube knows there’s a lot of room for improvement

Speaking with Nick Kypreos and Justin on Real Kyper and Bourne,the Leafs head coach believes that there were things that need to be worked on, especially the top line, which featured Auston Matthews, Matthew Knies and newcomer Matias Maccelli.

“I think they had some good shifts where they’re possessing the puck and doing some good things, but obviously it wasn’t enough. We all know that,” Berube explained. “It’ll get better. I do believe that. I think some of their puck touches were not great. I didn’t think that we were making good plays with it or executing our plays with the puck. “So, like I said, we’ve got to keep working on that. You know, that’s something we’re going to focus on tomorrow at practice. Just making better puck plays, better decisions with it, a little more directness.”

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Coming into the game, Toronto had to make some lineup changes following the injury to Scott Laughton, which forced Max Domi off the top line right wing spot and back at third-line centre, which is where he played for the majority of last season.

Berube understands that it will take some time for the new players to get used to their new roles on the team, especially Maccelli, who is playing in a prominent spot on the top line.

“He can pass the puck, he can make plays. He made some plays last night,” Berube said, “But I think they need to find some chemistry between the three of them. A little more chemistry than they’re showing right now.”

Among the positives was the play of Morgan Rielly, who scored a goal and had an assist in 20:47 of ice time.

During training camp, the Leafs made it known that they expected a bounce-back season from Rielly, especially spending the entire camp working with Brandon Carlo.

“I’m very happy. I thought all camp he moved like that, so I wasn’t surprised,” Berube said about Rielly’ play. “He’s skating and doing the things that we want him to do and that he needs to do. I was pretty impressed with him last night. Great to see him come out and play a real good game right off the hop, contribute offensively, do the things he’s capable of doing with and without the puck. He put the work in all summer. He was prepared.”

When looking at the other newcomers, Berube saw some up-and-down performances from Nicolas Roy and Dakota Joshua. The Leafs coach believed Roy’s game got better as the night went along.

“Early, like a lot of guys, he was maybe a little hesitant with the puck, feeling things out, but as we got into the second and third periods, thatâ€s when you started to see the player we know,” Berube said. “He was strong down the middle of the ice, winning battles, responsible in his own end. His faceoffs got better as the night went along, and I thought he really showed that big, heavy presence that we were expecting from him.”

Berube did shuffle lines during the game and said that’s something to expect as the season goes along, as he tries to find the right combinations. He believes it’ll take some patience for things to come together.

One player who will need to be patient before he gets his first crack at NHL action is Easton Cowan, who found himself sitting in the press box with Calle Jarnkrok drawing into his spot on the fourth line.

While it’s tough for a young player to be sitting and waiting, Berube stressed the 19-year-old wonâ€t be sitting long.

“Iâ€ve got to make sure heâ€s not sitting out too long because he needs to play,†Berube said. “Weâ€ll find a way to get him in there. Itâ€s something we talk about all the time with Brad [Treliving] and the staff. Heâ€s a smart kid, heâ€s got a great attitude, and when heâ€s in, I expect him to play with the same confidence he showed in camp.â€

With the depth the Leafs have at forward, the team is not short of options to play in the bottom six, but it’s been made known that their desire to eventually add a top-six forward, especially one that can log top-line minutes.

However, Berube didn’t rule out players currently on the team being capable of handling that task.

“We have guys capable of getting there,†he said. “Not everybody can play that many minutes, but there are some with the motor to do it,” Berube said. “Watching Easton Cowan from junior to now, heâ€s got a motor on him. Thatâ€s still a ways away, but I do believe in time he could be that kind of player.â€

Berube acknowledged that trades are always an option down the road if the need arises, but for now, heâ€s focused on developing the forwards already in the room and seeing who can seize the opportunity to play more.

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New Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Flacco has managed to extend his career into his 40s, but Ja’Marr Chase has no plans of following in his footsteps.

The star wide receiver swiftly shut down the idea of playing when he’s 40.

“No. No. Of course not,” Chase told reporters. “Them kids going to be killing me when I’m 40.”

There are only a handful of players who are in their 40s this year, and none of them are wide receivers. The oldest wide receiver in the NFL this year is Adam Thielen, who is just 35.

Those who play quarterback, kicker and other less physically taxing positions can play past 40, but it’s mostly unrealistic for a wide receiver to do so. In fact, only one wide receiver in NFL history has reached that mark, as Jerry Rice played until he was 42. Even though Rice extended his career the way no other receiver has, he wasn’t exactly a star in his final years.

For now, the 25-year-old Chase can focus on making the most of the season at hand.

Things have gotten off to a bit of a rocky start for Chase and the Bengals, with quarterback Joe Burrow currently sidelined with turf toe. Cincinnati has gone 2-3 to begin the year, and Chase has 374 receiving yards and three touchdowns.

Things could start to improve soon, however, since the Bengals traded for the veteran Flacco, who was previously with the Browns. While Flacco isn’t the MVP candidate Burrow is, he’s still more than capable of finding receivers, and he’ll have one of the best in the NFL to throw to with Chase.

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  Jorge CastilloOct 9, 2025, 05:56 AM ET

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  ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the Washington Wizards from 2014 to 2016 and the Washington Nationals from 2016 to 2018 for The Washington Post before covering the Los Angeles Dodgers and MLB for the Los Angeles Times from 2018 to 2024.

NEW YORK — After the Yankees’ season-ending loss to the Blue Jays on Wednesday night, right fielder Aaron Judge did not dismiss the possibility of undergoing offseason surgery to repair his injured right elbow.

“We’ll definitely do some work on it,” Judge said. “We’ll do some work on it and get it right.”

Does that mean surgery?

“I’m not a doctor,” Judge said. “I don’t know.”

Judge, 33, suffered a flexor strain in the elbow in late July to interrupt another MVP-caliber season. Unable to throw without acute pain, he was placed on the injured list. He returned exclusively as a designated hitter on Aug. 5 while rehabbing the injury. A month later, though still limited, he returned to right field with the Yankees in a heated playoff race.

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He split time between right field and designated hitter until Sept. 23 when he started the Yankees’ final six regular-season games and seven postseason games in the outfield. Judge’s arm strength improved — he fired a 90.2-mph throw, slightly higher than his average in 2025, in Game 1 of the ALDS against the Blue Jays — but remained compromised.

The arm issue did not impact Judge in the batter’s box. After winning the batting title with a .331 average along with 53 home runs during the regular season, Judge registered the best individual postseason of his career.

Highlighted by his game-tying three-run home run off the left field pole at Yankee Stadium in Game 3 — on a 100-mph fastball in off the plate from Blue Jays right-hander Louis Varland — Judge went 13-for-26 (.500) with a 1.273 OPS, four walks and seven RBIs across 31 plate appearances in the Yankees’ seven playoff games.

But the performance could not prevent the Yankees from getting bounced in the ALDS after a 5-2 loss in Game 4, extending the franchise’s championship skid to 16 seasons.

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Collin Morikawa admitted the behavior of American fans at the Ryder Cup “crossed the line” but does not believe he was partly to blame for inflaming the atmosphere.

Two days before the Ryder Cup started at Bethpage Black in New York, the two-time major winner said he hoped the opening day was “absolute chaos.”

Over the course of three days, European players were subjected to abuse from the galleries, including frequent insults and snide comments, jeering while players were preparing to take a shot and going so far to see a beer thrown in the direction of Rory McIlroy’s wife, Erica. The behavior was widely criticized, with PGA of America CEO Derek Sprague apologizing to McIlroy and the rest of the European team.

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Morikawa said Wednesday that the fans went too far but denied any responsibility for contributing.

“I think we’ve taken what I said a little out of context,” Morikawa said. “I think Ryder Cups are meant to have a lot of energy, right, and I think me saying the word ‘chaos,’ I didn’t mean for them to be rude, right?” So like, that’s not on me, I believe, for me to take credit for people being rude. I think what I meant was like I wanted energy, right?”

The PGA of America added extra security around the matches at tensions grew through the three-day Ryder Cup, which Team Europe won after withstanding a final-day charges by the Americans in the singles matches.

Morikawa was speaking ahead of the PGA Tour’s Baycurrent Classic — which he won in 2023 — in Yokohama, Japan. He said he didn’t believe he had the power to incite the U.S. fans by “saying one word.”

“I think fans can do and say what they want sometimes,” he said. “It probably crossed a line out there, so I would say there’s a line that needs to be drawn. But what’s so different and unique about golf is that we hear nearly everything what people say because people have access to be so close to us. I think you have to learn how to find that division of what’s appropriate and what’s not.”

PA contributed to this report.