Browsing: earned

AEW Star Explains How Bad Bunny Earned His Respect

AEW star MVP speaks highly of Bad Bunny.

Bad Bunny hasnâ€t appeared in a WWE ring in nearly two years, but his work ethic continues to be talked about to this day. During a recent episode of his Marking Out podcast, All Elite Wrestlingâ€s MVP revealed how Bad Bunny earned his respect.

“I went afterwards to Bad Bunny in his locker room and I shook his hand and I hugged him and I told him straight up, ‘Iâ€m usually not very fond of outside people coming in here, but you have earned my respect. Not that it matters, not that you care, but you have earned my respect,’†MVP said. “And Bad Bunny was cool as f**k. He said, ‘No, it does matter. Thank you, bro.’†[H/T: Wrestling Inc.]

Damian Priest reveals whatâ€s preventing Bad Bunny from returning to WWE

Bad Bunny and Damian Priest went to war in a San Juan Street Fight at WWE Backlash 2023. The match marked Bunnyâ€s last appearance for the company. Speaking to TMZ Sports in a new interview, Priest revealed whatâ€s preventing his former opponent from making his in-ring comeback.

“What heâ€s done, it speaks for itself – the performances, the showmanship, he basically is a WWE Superstar,†Damian Priest said. “Especially in this business, never say never. Iâ€ve talked to him about it, and itâ€s just scheduling, because obviously, he has a lot going on. But he still has that itch; he loves our business. Heâ€s had more than enough time to recover since our match, so heâ€s ready to come.â€

Fans will have to wait and see if Bad Bunny returns to WWE in the foreseeable future.

READ MORE: Nick Khan Says Bad Bunny Set The Bar For Celebrity Wrestlers

What do you make of MVPâ€s thoughts on Bad Bunny? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below!

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These 20 Korn Ferry Tour players just earned their 2026 PGA Tour cards

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The final round of the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour Championship started with two players who needed to win to earn their PGA Tour card leading the way.

For Barend Botha and Sandy Scott, only a win would put them in the top 20 and onto the PGA Tour. But Sunday at the Pete Dye Course at French Lick Resort was not their day. Scott quickly faded, making three bogeys on his front nine en route to a final-round two-over 74 and a T8 finish. Botha lost the lead early as Chandler Blanchet, who had already clinched his PGA Tour card for next season, opened with three straight birdies. Botha hung tough but could not catch Blanchet, who shot a Sunday 66 to post 14 under and beat Botha by two.

Blanchet’s win saw him finish the season in second place on the Korn Ferry Tour points list just behind Johnny Keefer. The 29-year-old, who will be a PGA Tour rookie in 2026, became emotional after the final putt dropped and he turned his attention to what he hopes is a long future on the top circuit.

“I hope I can lead by example,” Blanchet told Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine about having his two kids watch him chase his dreams. “Hopefully we can be on the PGA Tour for a long time, and they can see that perseverance and hard work and translate that into their life.”

The drama was everywhere at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship. As the weekend leaderboard unfolded, Pontus Nyholm found himself at the center of it.

The 27-year-old Swede entered the week at 18th in the standings but fell onto the bubble over the weekend. With Botha making a weekend charge at the trophy, the pressure was ratcheted up on Nyholm to try to secure his card. On Sunday, the pressure came from Botha, who had to win to get his card, and Mitchell Meissner, who made a late charge as Nyholm leaked oil down the stretch, shooting a back-nine 40. Meissner birdied 12, 13, and 15 to enter the conversation and needed at least two more to finish to have a chance at catching Nyholm. But a wayward tee shot on 16 led to a bogey and caused Meissner to finish 21st in the standings.

“Really proud of how I fought,” Meissner told Romine after finishing one spot shy of his card. “It was cool to have a chance today. I’m grateful to be in this position. My buddy last night, he said, when I was a senior in college and going through the yips, I didn’t think I’d be in this spot. So grateful to be here and happy to have a chance.

After dodging Meissner, Nyholm just had to sweat out Botha’s Sunday charge. But once Blanchet held him off, Nyholm could exhale.

“Yeah, I’ve got a new favorite golfer in Chandler Blanchet,” Nyholm said after he secured his card.

On the other side of the coin was Zecheng “Marty” Dou. Three weeks ago, Dou was considered a long shot to make it back to the PGA Tour. But the 28-year-old posted a T2 finish at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship and followed that with a solo second at the Compliance Solutions Championship to jump into the top 20. Dou entered the Korn Ferry Championship at 19 and posted rounds of 72, 69, 72 and 72 to finish T18 and punch his ticket back to the PGA Tour.

“I haven’t really put much thought into getting my card this year,” Dou told Romine after the round. “I was just looking to get into Q School, maybe second stage or third stage. Two runner-ups, and suddenly it turns out to be getting my card. Coming in at 19, I was nervous all week.

“You want to show it on the best stage. Getting it done this week, I’m just looking forward to next year.”

Chandler Blanchet interview after winning Korn Ferry Tour Championship

Check out the full list of Korn Ferry Tour graduates below, in order of their finish on the Korn Ferry Tour points list.

2025 Korn Ferry Tour graduates

1. Johnny Keefer

2. Chandler Blanchet

3. Austin Smotherman

4. Neal Shipley

5. Emilio Gonzalez

6. Hank Lebioda

7. Adrien Dumont de Chassart

8. S.H. Kim

9. Christo Lamprecht

10. Davis Chatfield

11. Zach Bauchou

12. Pierceson Coody

13. S.T. Lee

14. Jeffrey Kang

15. Hensei Hirata

16. Trace Crowe

17. John VanDerLaan

18. Zecheng Dou

19. Sudarshan Yellamaraju

20. Pontus Nyholm

Baseball

MLB playoffs: How George Springer, Blue Jays earned top AL seed

Even in the most trying moments, when it looked like his career had migrated north to never to return, George Springer refused to lose sense of who he is. Over the 2023 and 2024 seasons, the fearsomeness that had defined Springer’s career vanished. And yet he balked at the idea that numbers would define him. He still believed greatness existed within, and any hope at a resurgence necessitated him being his truest self. Which is why every day when the music in the Toronto Blue Jays’ clubhouse thumped through the speakers, Springer would start to dance.

“There has to be a lightheartedness about the day,” Springer said. “It doesn’t matter how you’re doing. I’ve kind of always been that way. When things are not going the way, you want ’em to, you tend to try to find and search for things that aren’t there.”

Gone, in this instance, was the power that defined Springer’s game and the dynamism that made him a four-time All-Star. The quest to find them tested Springer’s fortitude and made the 2025 season that much more fulfilling. Because along with his swing, Springer found purpose. The former World Series MVP wanted to take the Blue Jays back to the playoffs, win another championship — and to ride a Royal Canadian Mounted Police horse through the streets of Toronto.

Saturday starts the endgame of that journey. At 4 p.m. ET, the top-seeded Blue Jays will host the New York Yankees in the first of their best-of-five American League Division Series at Rogers Centre. The 36-year-old Springer will bat leadoff, serve as designated hitter and try to carry over his best season in more than half a decade to the time of year that makes him want to dance more than any.

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For all of the excellence Vladimir Guerrero Jr. offers, the power Daulton Varsho provides, the timely hitting Bo Bichette brings, nobody mattered more to the 2025 Blue Jays than Springer. His .309 batting average ranked fourth in Major League Baseball, his .399 on-base percentage second, his .560 slugging percentage fifth. Only Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani finished with a higher weighted on-base average than Springer’s .408 mark. It harkened back to Springer’s time with the Houston Astros, when his prolific regular-season performances were capped annually by Octobers worth remembering.

“A lot of people wrote off George Springer, said he’s passed his prime, thought the Houston George that I knew and I hated and I played against was gone,” Blue Jays right-hander Chris Bassitt said. “People thought that was a thing in the past. I’m just proud of George being kind of who he is and never really just being OK with being average.”

Even if age is the ultimate performance suppressor, the sight of a diminished Springer — no longer able to patrol the outfield gazelle-like, cratering to a .674 OPS last year — registered as a surprise. He arrived in Toronto in 2021 on a six-year, $150 million free agent contract to rekindle the glory days of the Blue Jays, who last won a World Series in 1992. Though Springer’s lone championship came with the 2017 Astros later exposed for cheating via a sign-stealing scheme, he had earned a reputation as an annual winner and postseason performer, his 19 postseason home runs tied for sixth most all time.

Playing for a Toronto team swept out of the wild-card round in 2022 and 2023 before finishing in last place in the AL East in 2024 whittled away at that reputation as well as his numbers. It prompted him to embrace the suggestions of Toronto’s hitting coaches — David Popkins and Lou Iannotti joined Hunter Mense — that he prioritizes getting off what they called his “A-swing” more often. Springer’s capacity to swing at high speeds had evaporated in 2024, and it would have been easy to chalk that up to age.

“He was very, very passive at times, and he was very defensive, especially hitting-wise,” Bassitt said. “And this year they have him locked into ‘No matter the count, it’s just aggressive.’ He always feels like he’s on the attack and in control of the bat, and then you make a mistake and he’s ready for it.”

One-stop shop for 2025 MLB playoffs

We have everything you need to keep up with all the action this October. Schedule, bracket, more »

The path to his return was not linear. In spring training, Springer hit .108 in 37 at-bats. He went hitless on Opening Day. Toronto’s staff did not waver in its support. Springer’s body remained pliable and explosive, and Toronto’s coaches were convinced that in time the results would match the quality of his swings. The Blue Jays’ hitting coaches, Springer said, have “done everything they can to make sure that I stay in the right headspace. That even if I hit a ball hard and I’m out, it’s OK. It’s to focus on the process and not the result.”

Outcome eventually caught up to process. His bat speed, which had dipped below 72 mph, approached 74, one of the largest gains in MLB this year and in the upper quartile of the league. He stopped chasing pitches outside the zone. He kept drawing walks. And when he did get off that A-swing, it did extreme damage. He posted an OPS over 1.000 in each of the season’s final three months. Springer’s 32 home runs led the Blue Jays. His all-around game crested as well, with 18 stolen bases in 19 attempts and a thirst to cause havoc on the basepaths.

“His baserunning has been contagious,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “That has set a standard for our team and helped us astronomically.”

On-field Springer, teammates said, is exceeded only by his off-field version. He is beloved in the Blue Jays’ clubhouse, where he serves as the wise man to a batch of 20-somethings. When Varsho spent two months on the injured list with a strained hamstring, the only thing he could guarantee every day was that his phone would ring and he would see Springer trying to FaceTime him. Springer’s support buoyed Varsho through the doldrums of waiting for an injury to heal — and served as lesson time, too.

“One thing that I’ve learned from him is how to be able to shut off your brain after games. He’s the best,” Varsho said. “Whether it’s a good day or a bad day, it doesn’t matter. Once that game’s done with, it’s over. It’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. I’ve never seen anybody be able to go right after the game, snap their fingers and it’s like, it’s gone. And it’s honestly very, very impressive. Talk about him postseason-wise: That’s why he’s so good. Because he’s able to turn that brain off really fast.”

Handing out 2025 MLB season awards

From best slugger to best game to … badonkadonk of the year?! It’s time for The Passans, our alternative regular-season accolades. Jeff Passan »

That time on the calendar has arrived. The Yankees, who the Blue Jays beat via tiebreaker to secure the top seed and home-field advantage in the AL, come to Toronto still reveling in their wild-card series win against Boston. They know Springer well. He beat them in the wild-card game in 2015. He beat them in the ALCS in 2017. He beat them in the ALCS again in 2019. And now, starting with his 68th career playoff game, he has a chance to do so once more.

“It doesn’t matter who you’re playing,” Springer said. “You’ve most likely already played them. You’ve most likely faced a guy on the mound before you’ve played in these environments. The biggest difference is the overall atmosphere is much more intense.”

With more than 40,000 people packed into Rogers Centre, there are scant few baseball environments more intense than Toronto. And it infuses in Springer all the more energy to fulfill his goal. He wants to celebrate a title by serving as an honorary Mountie for one day, high atop his steed, strolling down a packed-to-the-gills Bremner Boulevard.

The Toronto Police Mounted Unit is happy to oblige. In a recent video, a police officer offered Springer a deal: Win the World Series, and the coolest pony ride this side of HorseCapades is his. The love of these Blue Jays, picked to finish last in the AL East, is endless, and the least the city can do for their most productive player is offer him a ride.

So he’ll step into the batter’s box today against Luis Gil and try to make this October as memorable as April through September. Unleashing his A-swing. Fighting the good fight against Father Time. And dancing all the way.

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WWE

Giants’ Russell Wilson Has Earned None of $10.5M in Contract Incentives as of Benching

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Russell Wilson could be leaving $10.5 million in incentive money on the table if he does not play another game for the New York Giants this season.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported earlier Tuesday that the Giants are planning to bench Wilson in favor of rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart ahead of Week 4.

Wilson originally signed with the Giants on a one-year, $10.5 million deal worth up to $21 million with incentives.

Spotrac provides a breakdown of those $10.5 million in incentives, none of which Wilson qualified for during the Giants’ 0-3 start to the season.

For one, Wilson was slated to receive $176,471 for each regular-season win in which he played at least 50 percent of the Giants’ snaps, per Spotrac. A 17-0 season could have netted him $3 million.

The remaining bonuses have to do with Wilson’s full-season stats, including $2.5 million in playing time incentives which will become harder to reach with each game the veteran quarterback sits out.

Wilson was set to pick up $500,000 if he plays in at least 65 percent of the team’s snaps this season.

That incentive increases to $1 million at 75 percent of the Giants’ snaps, $1.5 million at 85 percent and $2.5 million if Wilson passes the 95 percent threshold, per Spotrac.

The quarterback was also offered up to $2.5 million in performance incentives. Those include $500,000 for a passer rating of at least 96 percent and $500,000 for a completion rate of at least 64 percent, per Spotrac.

If he finishes the season with a passer rating of at least 88, Wilson could also can pick up $750,000 for 30 touchdown passes and another $750,000 for 3,500 passing yards, Spotrac reports.

Wilson has so far fallen short of those thresholds, completing 59.1 percent of his passes and receiving a 78.5 passer rating through three games.

With his team now in an 0-3 hole to start the season, Wilson might not have gotten the chance to earn any of his playoff incentives even if the Giants hadn’t reportedly decided to bench him.

Those postseason incentives max out at $2.5 million if Wilson plays in 75 percent of the Giants’ snaps and leads the team to two playoff wins.

The most achievable incentive threshold for Wilson to reach would potentially be the 64 percent pass completion rate, although he also fell just short of that standard during his last season with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

It remains to be seen if Wilson will be able to continue working toward earning some of the incentives remaining on his contract. The likelihood he gets another shot with the Giants could hinge on how Dart handles his first NFL start when Week 4 kicks off Sunday against the undefeated Los Angeles Chargers.

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Michael Kim just earned this new putter’s 3rd worldwide win

It’s becoming pretty clear that low torque and onset putters aren’t going anywhere, and one new model just captured its third worldwide win.

In his second start since switching to a TaylorMade Spider ZT putter, Michael Kim won the FedEx Open de France by one shot after a final-round 65.

It’s been a slow and steady rise for TaylorMade’s entry into the low-torque putter space since it launched last spring, but Kim’s win with the putter comes on the heels of Brian Harman’s victory at the Valero Texas Open and Hae Ran Ryu’s win at the LPGA’s Black Desert Championship a month later.

Kim, who had been using different L.A.B. Golf models throughout the season, switched to a conventional length version of the putter but one with an all-blacked out look as photographed by SMS on Tour. The retail version of the putter features a silver front piece with a single black sightline, as opposed to the white “T” sightline on Kim’s.

TaylorMade debuted different alignment options last week on the DP World Tour.

The Spider ZT has been one of the most popular low-torque putter options since its release in May, with Fairway Jockey almost immediately selling out of its initial allotment. But now all three configurations of the Spider ZT (Conventional, counterbalance and long) are available to order again.

While every Spider ZT has a 70-degree lie angle, the draft of the putter was specifically angled so it will appear square no matter how the putter is soled on the ground.

TaylorMade’s Pure Roll insert is in each putter and the conventional length versions are paired with a SuperStroke Pistol grip that is offset by one degree to account for the preset shaft lean of the putter.

Think the Spider ZT might be a good option for you like Michael Kim, check out all three options at Fairway Jockey today and try one for yourself.

TaylorMade 2025 Spider 5K-ZT Custom Putter

TaylorMade 2025 Spider 5K-ZT Custom Putter

LOW TORQUE DESIGN
The KBS putter shaft is bored directly toe-ward near the CG at a 1° shaft lean with 25mm onset behind the face allowing golfers to realize the benefits of a new stable, toe up design.
UNIQUE SOLE SHAPING
New and improved sole shaping to work specifically with this unique hosel configuration, engineers worked tirelessly to find new ways to improve accuracy from the moment the putter is placed behind the ball. The new sole curvature accommodates different player types and ball positions, giving golfers the ability to find a consistent and repeatable stroke.
SPIDER STABILITY
Combining high density stainless steel and low-density aerospace quality aluminum provides the perfect foundation for a design that is high MOI and allows for a shaft orientation that sits closer to the face.
MILLED TRUE PATH™ ALIGNMENT
Based on tour player feedback, we were tasked to find a new premium alignment system. Building on the classic TaylorMade True Path™ technology, milled lines the width of the golf ball were added helping golfers properly index to center face.

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TaylorMade 2025 Spider 5K-ZT Counterbalance Custom Putter

TaylorMade 2025 Spider 5K-ZT Counterbalance Custom Putter

LOW TORQUE DESIGN
The KBS putter shaft is bored directly toe-ward near the CG at a 1° shaft lean with 25mm onset behind the face allowing golfers to realize the benefits of a new stable, toe up design.
UNIQUE SOLE SHAPING
New and improved sole shaping to work specifically with this unique hosel configuration, engineers worked tirelessly to find new ways to improve accuracy from the moment the putter is placed behind the ball. The new sole curvature accommodates different player types and ball positions, giving golfers the ability to find a consistent and repeatable stroke.
SPIDER STABILITY
Combining high density stainless steel and low-density aerospace quality aluminum provides the perfect foundation for a design that is high MOI and allows for a shaft orientation that sits closer to the face.
MILLED TRUE PATH™ ALIGNMENT
Based on tour player feedback, we were tasked to find a new premium alignment system. Building on the classic TaylorMade True Path™ technology, milled lines the width of the golf ball were added helping golfers properly index to center face.

View Product

TaylorMade 2025 Spider 5K-ZT Long Custom Putter

TaylorMade 2025 Spider 5K-ZT Long Custom Putter

LOW TORQUE DESIGN
The KBS putter shaft is bored directly toe-ward near the CG at a 1° shaft lean with 25mm onset behind the face allowing golfers to realize the benefits of a new stable, toe up design.
UNIQUE SOLE SHAPING
New and improved sole shaping to work specifically with this unique hosel configuration, engineers worked tirelessly to find new ways to improve accuracy from the moment the putter is placed behind the ball. The new sole curvature accommodates different player types and ball positions, giving golfers the ability to find a consistent and repeatable stroke.
SPIDER STABILITY
Combining high density stainless steel and low-density aerospace quality aluminum provides the perfect foundation for a design that is high MOI and allows for a shaft orientation that sits closer to the face.
MILLED TRUE PATH™ ALIGNMENT
Based on tour player feedback, we were tasked to find a new premium alignment system. Building on the classic TaylorMade True Path™ technology, milled lines the width of the golf ball were added helping golfers properly index to center face.

View Product

Want to find the best putter for your game?Find a club-fitting location near you at True Spec Golf.