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Keller & Powell react to Austin’s interview with Brock Lesnar, Raw a sinking ship creatively paying price in viewership, bold Seth prediction, more (133 min.)

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

SHOW SUMMARY:In this week’s Flagship Flashback episode of the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast from ten years ago (10-20-2015), PWTorch editor Wade Keller was joined by Jason Powell from ProWrestling.net and the Pro Wrestling Boom podcast. They discussed the Steve Austin interview with Brock Lesnar, plus reaction to last night’s Raw and the breaking news of Raw’s rating. They also field phone calls from live listeners on a variety of WWE-related topics.

Then, in the previously VIP-exclusive Aftershow, they follow up on the Livecast to absorb the ratings news, plus answer a wide range of email topics including Global Force Wrestling, a Kane-Seth Rollins PPV prediction, a bold declaration from Keller regarding Seth, TNA in India, and more.

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Browns Paying 8 QBs After Joe Flacco Trade, Full NFL Salary Cap Breakdown

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The Cleveland Browns have featured a rotating carousel of quarterbacks throughout their history and have the infamous fan jersey to prove it, so maybe it shouldn’t be surprising they are paying eight different signal-callers this year.

After Cleveland traded Joe Flacco to the Cincinnati Bengals, Michael Ginnitti of Spotrac provided an updated look at the overall cap hits for the eight different quarterbacks the Browns are paying:

It’s safe to say that’s not exactly how teams want their books to look, and the Deshaun Watson number in particular is an anchor on the salary cap and team’s overall outlook.

Cleveland surely envisioned him being the franchise cornerstone for years after acquiring him, but poor play, suspensions and injuries have prevented that from happening.

The team’s quarterback room was once again thrown under the spotlight this offseason when it decided to select Shedeur Sanders in the fifth round of the draft. That pick alone would have generated headlines given the amount of attention Sanders receives, but it came just two rounds after the Browns also took Dillon Gabriel.

Now even after the Flacco trade, there are plenty of fans paying attention to see if Sanders will eventually get an opportunity to play or if Gabriel will remain in the starting role.

At this point, the Browns are 1-4 and seem to already be playing out the string on what will be a lost season. Getting Gabriel and perhaps Sanders some experience will help them decide what to do with the position down the line, but there is no surefire answer in place providing reason for significant optimism moving forward.

Which is unfortunate for the front office because it is certainly paying enough quarterbacks to expect at least one long-term answer to emerge.

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Bullpen Games Keep Paying Off In The Postseason


Image credit:
NEW YORK, NY – OCTOBER 08: Louis Varland #77 of the Toronto Blue Jays pitches during Game Four of the American League Division Series presented by Booking.com between the Toronto Blue Jays and the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday, October 8, 2025 in New York, New York. (Photo by Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

I know that there are a lot of baseball fans who dream of a day when we can once again see a Madison Bumgarner-style ace take a team and carry it on his back to a World Series title.

Instead, we have games like Wednesday, where the Blue Jays knocked out the Yankees in a game started by reliever Louis Varland and finished by a never-ending wave of seven additional Blue Jays relievers.

Love them or hate them, the bullpen game is a strategy that is working consistently for playoff teams. We wrote about this last year, and if anything the trend has grown since.

This postseason, teams are 5-0 in bullpen games, and no team that has used a bullpen game has been eliminated, at least yet. The Blue Jays are in the ALCS having used a bullpen game to knock out the Yankees.

The Brewers are one win away from a spot in the NLCS having used a bullpen game. And the Tigers, who love the bullpen game more than anyone, are playing a deciding Game 5 against the Mariners.

Last year the Dodgers used a trio of bullpen games in the postseason on their way to winning the World Series. The Mets used the strategy in winning the Division Series. It didnâ€t work in the LCS against the Dodgers, but they were foiled by a Dodgers team that was bullpenning themselves.

Between the 2024 and 2025 postseasons, teams are 10-4 in bullpen games. Teams using bullpen games have won eight postseason series in the past two years (a number that would climb if the Tigers and/or Brewers win their series). Since 2019, teams are 19-15.

From 2015-2018, there was no postseason game that could be called a bullpen game. Since then, they have quickly become a fixture in the playoffs.

Defining a bullpen game can be tricky. For these purposes, weâ€re not calling a game where a team uses an opener and then hands it over to a starter to hopefully turn over the lineup two times.

The Blue Jays ALDS decider was indisputably a bullpen game. Not one Blue Jays pitcher threw two innings in the deciding game that eliminated the Yankees.

What happened in the other ALDS game was a little trickier. On the same day in Detroit, the Tigers staved off elimination in a game where Casey Mize, one of the teamâ€s starters, threw three scoreless innings, and then was pulled to turn the game into a bullpen game.

Mize is a starter, but  the design was to only let him pitch three innings, even when he dominated early on.

“When I talked to Casey, I took him in the tunnel. Those cameras are a funny thing; they follow me everywhere. I just wanted to tell him that the best chance for us to not only keep this game close but win this game was to continue to throw different pitchers at them. It’s been a successful strategy for us. Casey definitely could have gone out, but when the game dropped us off at Naylor and we have our full allotment in the pen, including Troy, Tyler, I knew Finnegan, Vest was going to throw career-high pitches if we needed, we were all hands on deck. And so the aggressive move to the pen was to try to give them a lot of different looks,†Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said.

It seemed like a risky move at the time, as Tyler Holton, following a short Mize outing for the second straight time this postseason, failed to get an out.

But Kyle Finnegan, Troy Melton (a starter in another Tigers†bullpen game this postseason) and Will Vest held Seattle relatively silent as the Tigers rallied back to beat the Mariners and force a deciding Game 5.

The Brewers used Aaron Ashby and Jacob Misirowski in shortened stints earlier this week to go up 2-0 in their NLDS series.

This year, weâ€ve already seen five bullpen games this postseason. Last year there were nine. Even with none in 2022, there has been an average of five per year since 2019.

And all of that makes what Cam Schlittler did this postseason seem even more special.

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Penguins celebrate start of new era while paying tribute to Crosby, Malkin and Letang

NEW YORK — Dan Muse was very intentional when he chose the Pittsburgh Penguins’ starting lineup on opening night.

Their new coach made sure to get Ben Kindel and Harrison Brunicke out there for their NHL debuts. With them, he chose Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, who have been teammates for the past two decades and were making some history.

“We had three guys that have been playing together for 20 years, and I thought it was important that they get to start that game together,†Muse said. “It kind of worked out well to be able to do that.â€

Just about everything worked out at the beginning of a new era for the Penguins, who got Muse a victory in his first game behind their bench by beating old coach Mike Sullivan and the New York Rangers 3-0 on Tuesday night.Â

Crosby, Malkin and Letang became the first trio in the four major North American menâ€s professional sports leagues to play 20 seasons together with the same team. During that time, they’ve won the Stanley Cup three times.

On the ice during the national anthem, a lot of different thoughts about that tenure went through Crosby’s mind.

“To be sharing 20 years with Geno and Tanger and having played this long together, itâ€s so rare,†Crosby said. “Just grateful that we can be in this situation, and weâ€re still competing and still doing it.â€

Kindel and Brunicke, at 18 and 19, respectively, hadn’t even been born yet when Crosby, Malkin and Letang started their journey together. Crosby marvelled at the age gap between him and his longtime running mates and a couple of fresh-faced players not even old enough to legally drink alcohol in the U.S.

His message to them was to enjoy the moment.

“Itâ€s been a while, but I still remember my first game and the emotions and itâ€s always fun to see that and to be a part of that with other guys,†Crosby said. “It was fun to be out there with them to start there. It makes you realize how long youâ€ve been around when youâ€re standing next to some of these guys.â€

Muse was standing not far from what used to be his usual spot. He spent the previous two seasons as a Rangers assistant under Peter Laviolette, before taking over the Penguins when they parted ways with Sullivan.

Crosby felt Muse prepared the team well to get off to a good start. With a long season ahead, that’s all they’re considering this first win.

“Weâ€ve got to enjoy it tonight, turn the page and back to work,†Muse said. “Iâ€m really happy for the guys. … You always want to start things off on the right foot.â€

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