Browsing: Pass

John Cena (photo credit WWE media kit)

SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)…

For the most part, Iâ€ve really enjoyed a post-Vince McMahon WWE. Most of the things I dislike about the current product have been faults of TKO. The constant brand-integration sponsorships, rising prices to attend a live event, and having to have access to six different platforms to watch WWE are at the top of my list. While not perfect, WWE’s Creative has been better than what we were getting from WWE in the last decade of Vince McMahon. Better is not an automatic pass, though.

Paul Levesque will never be a perfect booker, nor should he be expected to be. Look at any era and there are stories that didnâ€t work. The same shows with The Undertakerâ€s debut had the Gobbledy Gooker, and while Steven Austin and the Rock were on top of the world, Mae Young was delivering Mark Henryâ€s baby hand. Any writer will tell you that not everything is a hit. I know that different ideas in my head will play differently when put out into art for others to appreciate.

Weâ€ve had great moves like Codyâ€s story, the introduction of mid-card womenâ€s titles, and the rise of brilliant talents such as Dominik Mysterio. Weâ€ve also had some misfires that were more than simple undercard angles that were dropped.

Tag Teams (or Making Every Title Matter)

If you watch Smackdown in a vacuum, they have a really good tag team division. Thereâ€s even a team in Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss that are a pretty fan act as champions right now. But thereâ€s a lacking of depth in the company when it comes to tag team wrestling.

Raw has been the worst offender, as Finn Balor & J.D. McDonough have only defended their titles once on television before the match with A.J. Styles & Dragon Lee – two guys who have been feuding with another guy in their stable, showing there are no actual tag teams that are taken seriously on Raw as contenders right now. With a roster with more members on it than ever before, there have to be more green guys who can learn in teams or established stars without storylines, like with Styles & Lee.

With the women, it will be the same 3-4 teams, not leaving enough teams to have personal grudges as established teams. Makeshift teams end up being the majority of the womenâ€s tag roster. We need the male equivalents to the Road Warriors, Dudleys, and FTR who make tag wrestling their established division to work within.

As stacked as the Smackdown tag roster is, you do have to watch Smackdown to catch the matches. With USA not having streaming abilities outside of a cable package, this leaves many people without access to Smackdown. While personally loving tag team wrestling, and one that has watched the majority of WWE PLEs, I miss watching tag title matches on the big cards. The biggest moments are saved for these PLEs, and their tag team champions arenâ€t priority to get those moments.

Wyatt Sicks

While on the topic of tag team champions, The Wyatt family not being a major part of your October PLE makes no sense to me. People adored Bray. We miss him and want to celebrate and honor his work that was left. After a stellar debut, it quickly became just another faction. There were injuries, but instead of using the healthy members, theyâ€re removed from television until all were healthy. Thereâ€s a Universal Studios exhibit, and theyâ€re tag team champions, but we missed a lot in between, and now fans have less invested in the group than we should.

ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…

Check out the latest episode of the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Post-show covering the latest episode of Smackdown: CLICK HERE to stream (or search “wade Keller†on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other iOS or Android app to subscribe free)

Karion Kross

I remember when Claudio Castignoli was in WWE as Cesaro and how everyone he worked with seemed to have great things about him, fans were strongly behind him, and even “Stone Cold” Steve Austin was pushing for Cesaro to get pushed to the top of the card on a live podcast to Vince McMahon. Alas, that glass ceiling withstood, and there was no shattering it by proving yourself if the right person who made the decisions didnâ€t see it.

Kross was a viral sensation and top merch seller, while being at the bottom of the mid-card. He was getting ovations in multiple cities that didnâ€t match his presentation. The fans liked him. I guess the new WWE offices have those glass ceilings too.

Ron “The Truth†Killings

The man cut the Promo of the Year after returning from being released from his contract. Interrupting the broadcast, taking over the show, and ending that monologue by cutting the braids from his hair heâ€d been known from for decades… and nothing.

Heâ€s now the same R-Truth comedy character he was before. I was ready for a matured version of his TNA run. I wanted to hear from the man who was always held back. Especially when the fans – and fellow wrestlers who disagreed with the decision – were very vocal in their support. It was his chance to visit the main event in the twilight of his wrestling career, but nowâ€s heâ€s another missed opportunity.

Cena Heel Turn

We all wanted to see it. We got it and the wrestling world was on fire. Crossover attention on memes, fan reaction videos creating internet traffic, and the venture fandom wanting to hear that first promo afterwards. Then he came out in jorts and a retirement T-shirt that celebrated his career as brightly as a cereal box.

When Eric Bischoff recalls working with Hulk Hogan, he remembers how, no matter how good an idea was, that Hulk Hogan would always ask, “What happens next?†Hogan knew that no matter how big the moment could be, there was a show to do next week and a new PPV to start building towards. WWE has attempted to build too many shows around “moments†without there being a payoff or a move to something bigger.

In any narrative, you need a reason for a character to change their motivation, and it needs to be plotted out, as a shocking moment should be a stepping stone, not the ultimate moment itself. TV dramas have shown how this can go down for years. Kill off a character in order to alter the relationships of the characters for a storyline payoff, or a ratings ploy that left them in a hole they couldnâ€t get out of. The Cena turn ended up being the latter.

(Griffin is a lifelong fan of wrestling, superheroes, and rebellious music of all forms. He is the owner of Nerdstalgia, and you can shop online, learn about visiting the store in Colorado Springs, or catch him at a comic con in the Rocky Mountain area by going to http://nerdstalgia.shop.)

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There is no question that PGA Tour veteran Stephan Jaeger is an elite golfer. But in one moment on Thursday at the Sanderson Farms Championship, Jaeger looked more like your 20-handicap friend at a local muni.

That’s thanks to a mishit with his driver during Round 1 so bad that the TV broadcast called it “shocking.”

Stephan Jaeger hits 104-yard top at Sanderson Farms Championship

When he arrived at the par-4 17th hole in Thursday’s opening round, Jaeger had a sparkling bogey-free scorecard and a four-under score to show for it. The early lead at the Sanderson Farms Championship was in sight.

But then something happened that’s familiar to all recreational golfers but is wholly unfamiliar to Tour pros, especially Tour winners.

Star amateur hit with rare penalty at PGA Tour event

By:

Kevin Cunningham

Jaeger lined up his tee shot, drew back his driver and unleashed his swing. But instead of making clean contact, the bottom of his driver smacked the top of the ball.

As the video review shows, Jaeger’s ball first hit the ground just after impact, then sailed forward just above the grass, eventually coming to rest 104 yards from the tee box.

It also appeared to come up short of at least one set of member tees at the Country Club of Jackson.

Check it out below.

Just after impact, either Jaeger, his playing partner or caddie can be heard saying, “You ever seen anything like that?”

“He’s topped it,” one TV analyst remarked. “Completely topped it.”

“He’s swinging this club at around 120 mph and just catches the top of that ball … shocking,” his partner in the booth replied.

Jaeger rockets up the leaderboard after embarrassing miss

Unfortunately for Jaeger, the 2024 Texas Children’s Houston Open winner, his top led to a bogey at 17, dropping his final score for the opening round to three under.

Still, that left him just four shots off the lead heading into Round 2, with one eye on his second-career victory. And in Friday’s round, Jaeger showed zero signs that the top had impacted him negatively.

Starting on the back nine, he made three birdies over his first five holes. At the site of his embarrassing shot from Thursday, the par-4 17th, he laced a 297-yard drive to the right fairway, ending with a par.

He sat three shots off the lead with several holes left to play in his second round.

On the latest Sporticast episode, hosts Scott Soshnick and Eben Novy-Williams discuss some of the biggest sports business stories of the week, including the Los Angeles Dodgers reaching 4 million fans over the course of the MLB regular season.

The Dodgers are the first baseball team to reach that milestone since the New York Yankees and New York Mets in 2008. The only other teams to do it were the Toronto Blue Jays (1991-93) and Colorado Rockies (1993). It’s an average of 49,537 fans per game, and strong show of ticket sales for MLB’s highest-revenue club. The Dodgers made $855 million in revenue in 2024, according to Sportico’s MLB valuations, more than the Yankees’ $799 million.

Here’s the catch: No other MLB team could hit that 4 million fan milestone currently. Dodger Stadium’s 56,000-seat capacity is the largest in MLB. The Yankees, Mets and Rockies are all in new stadiums, and the Blue Jays downsized their building last year. The second largest stadium in the league is in Arizona with a max capacity of about 48,300.

Next the hosts talk about the Sphere, the MSG-backed entertainment venue in Las Vegas. While sporting events like UFC and concert acts like U2 get a lot of attention, it’s the non-live shows that deliver most of the economics for the venue. The latest is an adaptation of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, which has generated more than $65 million in ticket sales through June. Plans for a Sphere in London have been scrapped, but the group plans to open one in UAE via a franchise model in the coming years.

The hosts close by discussing upheaval in college and junior hockey, where better development and new rules have changed recruiting and career paths for young prospects.

(You can subscribe to Sporticast throughApple,Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts.)

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