#wwe releases poll

[gdwessel]

Rumors About Ospreay + Unrest In The NJPW Locker Room; Government Adds Okinawa to State Of Emergency, Another Extension Possible; Quick Review of DSOTR Collision In Korea; Shota Umino News!; Ren Narita on Dark Elevation; Satoshi Kojima In Impact Next Week

Strap in because this is going to be a long one.

There are rumors and reports coming out now (mostly from one source, the Voices of Wrestling website, from behind a Patreon paywall) that Will Ospreay's injury may not be what it seems, and there is growing discontent to the point of "mutiny" among the non-Japanese wrestlers regarding the state of emergency, the last-minute decision to resume touring when some were already travelling out of Japan, and the constant need for quarantining when coming back into Japan. Unfortunately this is as much as I can say, because this is behind a paywall, so until it gets made for public consumption I’m kinda limited in what I can say.

I can totally buy that all is not well within NJPW, especially after the COVID-19 bubble has burst. I've already discussed the creative malaise happening in the company right now. That there seems to be backstage dissent shows possible signs of trouble ahead for the promotion, and this golden period that we've been accustomed to is well and truly over. (I mean, it already was once lockdown happened, but they did the best they could, in my honest opinion, including a Pretty Good if not great WK15. Right now, creatively, we are below 2nd-half 2018 levels of poor.) But NJPW has weathered these storms before, although not with a global pandemic looming over everything. I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that Ospreay is indeed injured, because a) they haven't exactly been shy about wrestlers being injured and needing to vacate titles before b) if Ospreay is legit injured, he is far more likely to receive treatment as a citizen of the UK from the (somehow still alive if not totally hobbled by Brexit) NHS, as opposed to Japan's healthcare system which is far more like the US model. Some wrestlers are swearing up and down he is injured, from the rumors. Ospreay certainly hasn’t said anything in his own words, beyond RTing NJPW’s announcement of his injury and vacating the title, and posting a pic of himself kissing the belt. RevPro kinda sorta said something but were also pretty vague. But for an injury suffered on 5/4/2021, this pic posted on 5/18 does not look like someone who just had such a severe neck injury they need to fly back to the UK (mind you, it COULD have been taken much earlier than that). Indeed, Ospreay’s still-active Twitter is more focused on Hana Kimura at the moment*. All this said, professional wrestling by it’s very nature has a baked-in amount of bullshit as part of it, so that this injury might be phony is always a distinct possibility.

It is utterly believable there is conflict between wrestlers and management, and communication is piss-poor at best. It is also believable that NJPW and Bushiroad are only taking their cues from a government Hell-bent on holding an Olympics an overwhelming majority of those polled are against, and who are treating the extended state of emergency as a vague suggestion rather than as a, you know, state of emergency. Pretending everything is hunky dory hasn't worked so far, so not sure why NJPW, nor the Japanese government, think eventually it will. (And NOAH is on my shit list right now too.) On that note, the government has now officially added Okinawa to the state of emergency. There is also talk that it will be extended further, as a government subcommittee member is quoted in the article as saying “it is difficult to think” that it will be lifted on 5/31/2021. Among that talk is word that Tokyo particularly will be under a stricter lockdown if this goes on. On a piece of actual GOOD news, it has been announced that the government has approved both the Moderna and AstraZeneca versions of the vaccine, so perhaps the vaccination rates will start to go up at last.

* - The anniversary of Hana Kimura’s tragic death is tomorrow (5/23/2021). I still sometimes struggle with the idea she is gone. Tonight at 10:30pm EDT (which is 5/23/2021 12:30pm in JST), FITE TV will be showing a live Hana Kimura tribute show put on by her mother, Kiyoko Kimura. Have a look in if you can

I was able to watch the Vice Dark Side Of The Ring episode on Collision in Korea, the two-night joint NJPW & WCW show from May Day Stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea, on 4/28 & 4/29/1995, as it aired Thursday. It will hit YouTube here pretty soon. I am working on a podcast project about this documentary, and the (WCW version of the**) show itself, with the good lads at the Days Of Thunder podcast, so I won't talk too much here, but I will say a few things about it:

I did appreciate the detail here, as well as being able to get an interview with Antonio Inoki for this, especially as he was the principal driver of this show happening. I did also like that they took time to detail Inoki's mentor, and the "father of puroresu," Rikidozan, who himself was a North Korean national by birth. I did not appreciate the mythical pathos they added to the death of Rikidozan, which by all accounts was a random street fight with yakuza over a perceived insult (stepping on Rikidozan's shoe). I also felt they could have done a better job explaining the situation between Japan and North Korea at the time. When the event was first proposed to the NJPW roster, Scott Norton recounts Masahiro Chono telling Norton that "they want us dead," but it took until introducing former CNN foreign correspondent Mike Chinoy nearly halfway through the documentary to (briefly) explain the brutal colonialism that Japan wreaked on North Korea in the first part of the 20th century.

Also, as salacious as DSOTR can get, I am very surprised one of the most famous rumors/stories about this show did not get discussed, the internet wrestling legend that Kensuke Sasaki and Akira Hokuto were, erm, Quite Vocal when they were together, which of course did eventually lead to their marriage four months later which continues to this very day. But that was also part of another critique I had, which is, they mainly focused on the WCW part of the events, when this was an NJPW promoted show. The way it was told on DSOTR, the only Japanese wrestlers there were Antonio Inoki, Shinya Hashimoto, Akira Hokuto and Bull Nakano. I'd love to hear more from the NJPW side of things, besides how proud Inoki was of this political stunt that did not get him re-elected to the Diet anyway.

Overall, I do recommend watching this when and how you can, because it is absolutely bonkers. I will definitely keep you posted on when the podcast project for this drops. ** - I've tried looking for the NJPW version and have failed so far. NJPWWorld only has two matches from this, Antonio Inoki v. Ric Flair, and Akira Hokuto v. Bull Nakano. The WCW version is not officially released, even on WWE Network, so yeah search the internet to see it.

We finally have an update on Shooter! That is, Shota Umino. Earlier in the week, RevPro's official Twitter had a tweet saying This Summer, showing Umino in not only his white/pink Tanahashi-esque tights, but holding his Death Riders jacket from Jon Moxley, that Shota retweeted, making this his first tweet since September 2019. Two days later, a hype video appeared with footage of Shooter, including performing Death Rider. Now a Sports Illustrated article is claiming that Shooter was supposed to have reunited with Mox on the NJPW Strong episode that had Mox & Chris Dickinson face Yuji Nagata & Ren Narita, but Umino had an unspecified injury preventing that. (They further say that Mox v. Nagata’s IWGP US title match was originally set for Strong but Tony Khan convinced NJPW to hold it on AEW Dynamite.) Umino's last match listed on Cagematch was on 3/14/2020 in ATTACK! Wrestling in Cardiff, Wales, on the winning side of a 6-man tag match with Kyle Fletcher & Kid Lykos II defeating Shigehiro Irie, Chief Deupty Dunne & Los Federales Santos, Jr. It's great to have him back wrestling again, and I hope we get that reunion with Moxley soon enough too.

As an update to an item from an earlier post, it appears that the Ren Narita v. Royce Isaacs match that was teased but then not aired on AEW Dark this past Tuesday will actually be on AEW Dark: Elevation this coming Monday instead. Also part of that will be approximately 35 other matches (I only slightly kid), one of those being Rocky Romero v. JD Drake. This usually drops on YouTube at 7pm EDT / 6pm CDT Mondays.

This past Thursday on Impact, a video package showed that Satoshi Kojima would be appearing on next week's episode. This will be Kojima's first time ever wrestling in Impact under any name, as the last time NJPW and TNA were working together, Kojima was still away in All Japan Pro Wrestling. No word as to what he will be doing or whom he will be wrestling.

Also on Impact, Juice Robinson & David Finlay Jr. successfully defended the Impact World Tag Team titles against Ace Austin & Madman Fulton... before getting blindsided by two members of the Violent By Design unit (in this case, ECW veteran Rhino and former AJPW Triple Crown champion + cancer beater Joe Doering) with whatever Impact's version of a Anytime Anywhere Challenge is, and took the belts from FinJuice. They claimed FinJuice were going back to Japan, but, erm, who knows if that's the case or if it was for a time period when Wrestle Grand Slam was still a thing that was happening.

Also also, it seems Don Callis is no longer in any executive capacity at Impact. This is a little significant as it seems it was Callis who opened the negotiations back up for Impact to work with NJPW. Of course, lately he's spent more time as an on-screen heel manager for Kenny Omega, the Good Brothers and now the Young Bucks on both AEW and Impact programming. We'll see how much longer Kenny Omega's belt collector shtick goes on for with Callis no longer part of creative or management.

And that is actually it for now! Yipes!

#NJPW #new japan pro wrestling #Will Ospreay #IWGP World Heavyweight Championship #COVID-19 #dark side of the ring #collision in korea #scott norton #Masahiro Chono #Antonio Inoki #Rikidozan #kensuke sasaki #akira hokuto #shota umino #ren narita #AEW #Satoshi Kojima #juice robinson #david finlay jr. #impact wrestling #joe doering #don callis #Kenny Omega #rocky romero #hana kimura

[mixdgrlproblems]

#RondaRousey (@rondarousey): #AfroVenezuelan #Trinidadian #English & #Polish Ronda is an #American professional wrestler, retired mixed martial artist, judoka and actress. She is best known for her time in #UFC and her stint as a #WWE wrestler. She was born in Riverside County, California. Her mother is Afro-Venezuelan and #Trinidadian and had a decorated Judo career, she was the first U.S. citizen to win the World Judo Championship in 1984. Her Trinidadian maternal great-grandfather, Alfred E Waddell, was a doctor who emigrated to Canada and became one of the first black physicians in America. After becoming the first American woman to earn an #Olympic medal in #judo by winning bronze at the 2008 #SummerOlympics, she began pursuing a career in mixed martial arts (MMA). She took part in the first women's fight in UFC history when she successfully defended her title against Liz Carmouche and she later set the record for most UFC title defenses by a woman (6). In 2018, she became the first female fighter to be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame. She debuted at WrestleMania 34, and later won the Raw Women's Championship, her first WWE and professional wrestling title in 2018. Her reign as Raw Women's Champion is the 2nd longest in the title's history at 231 days. She's the only woman to win a championship in both the UFC and WWE, as well as the only woman to headline a pay-per-view event in both companies. She was voted the best female athlete of all-time in a 2015 ESPN fan poll, and Fox Sports described her as "one of the defining athletes of the 21st century." As an actress, she has appeared in Expendables 3, Furious 7, Entourage, Mile 22 and released her autobiography in 2015. 🇹🇹🇻🇪🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧🇵🇱🏆🥇🥈🥉🏅 #mixedolympians #mixedgirl https://www.instagram.com/p/CR_rvIqrdKB/?utm_medium=tumblr

#rondarousey #afrovenezuelan #trinidadian #english #polish #american #ufc #wwe #olympic #judo #summerolympics #mixedolympians #mixedgirl

[brokebritannia]

POLL - Do you think WWE was justified in releasing staff due to COVID-19 ?

POLL – Do you think WWE was justified in releasing staff due to COVID-19 ?

Today has been one of the worst days Wrestling has seen in many years, with WWE (owned by Vince Mcmahon) has decided to release over 30 WWE superstars (wrestlers) and backstage staff as a way of cutting costs due to the current COVID-19 epidemic which is affecting most of the world.

This Poll asks the questions …

Do you think WWE was justified in releasing staff due to COVID-19 after reporting…

View On WordPress

#cash in the bank? #Do you think WWE was justified in releasing staff due to COVID-19 after reporting $500million #wwe coronavirus releases #wwe covid19 releases #wwe releases 2020 #wwe releases poll #wwereleases

[hellopopculture]

Top 20 Worst Things About WWE (Part 1) Description: Pro Wrestling has been one of my favorite forms of entertainment since I was very young and but the biggest brand name in the industry has seemingly lost it’s way, here are the Top 20 things that are dragging it down, for me....

1. Vince McMahon-The #1 problem with WWE is the guy in control. Everything you can think of that will fix some of the issues with their content, will not work because ultimately you have to get a control freak to release the stranglehold on the product so you can get something done. He never will. At 75 years old, he is still very much involved in the day-to-day. He will keep running the WWE until he is physically and mentally incapable. Each show has their own creative teams, but it's been reported that Vince often re-writes the show just hours before it goes on air and sometimes, he's still putting the show together as it's already underway, which is insane when you consider how repetitive the content is, especially this year. What is he re-writing? Is he phasing out new ideas and making sure we see the same thing over and over?

As an artist myself, I completely understand his stubbornness and his controlling nature when it comes to what he sells to his audience, but when you factor in his almost antagonistic relationship with his talent, that's where the problems begin to arise. His booking is basically an exposé on how he feels about the people who work for him. It tells you a lot about how he thinks in general but even more so how he thinks about certain TYPES of people or members of the roster that don't fit his personal preferences and fetishes.  

When you watch other wrestling shows today, you don't really get the sense that anything you're being shown is personal. Whatever decisions they make seem to be on the basis of what they THINK will draw money. At the WWE? Not so much. When they start an entire cruiserweight division despite the fact that Vince NOTORIOUSLY doesn't see the value in guys that size, and not only does it fail, but the talent from it they farmed out to their main roster brands are all under-utilized, you don't really have to guess why that is. When WrestleMania 33 was coming up, and they put a poll on their website asking who should main event the show and the overwhelming majority picked AJ Styles, but WWE just took the poll down and gave the main event to Roman & Undertaker who didn't even get half of the support combined, it's pretty obvious it's because AJ was popular at other companies for the majority of his career and Roman is their homegrown guy. I could continue on like this with pretty much the entire roster, but I think you get the point.

I often get the sense that he doesn't like ideas that aren't his own because if they actually work, he will resent the fact that he wasn't the one who came up with it. That seems to be the reason for his "I don't care what you like, this is what I WANT!" booking of certain superstars, it also seems to be why ideas like having the women be trained and treated the same as their male counterparts is slowly devolving back to "Diva era" standards. That wasn't a Vince idea, it was Hunter's. Jim Cornette once questioned why Vince even had a creative team, he felt like they were just there for him to bounce ideas off of. It seems like Vince wants people around that will write a show FOR HIM instead of the viewers. Why else would he hire people who admittedly don't know anything about wrestling? If you don't know about the Kenice Mobley debacle; basically, she's a comic who was writing material for the Hurt Business. On a podcast she talked about working for WWE but didn't seem to really know much about the characters she was writing for and admitted that she was not required to be a fan or know anything about wrestling. She was fired following this, but what is the actual strategy behind hiring people with no credentials in the business? If this was another show you would assume that the idea was audience based. You would assume that they were hiring people with credentials in working other types of entertainment so they could reach a wider range of viewers, but in actuality I think Vince would rather not have people around who are savvy in writing a wrestling a show or are actually attached to the content, because there would be objections, there would be alternative views and opinions.

Because of his success, Vince McMahon has been sold to us as some sort of genius. I think he's a decent businessman who sits at the head of a form of entertainment that has not only drastically declined in popularity but was never really attractive to other entrepreneurs as a revenue stream. For him, this was a family business. For anyone else it's probably just more trouble than it's worth. He has no legitimate competition here and the opponents he did have simply failed at it more than he put them under pressure by delivering quality programming.

One day there won't be a Vince McMahon to run the company and someone else will have to take the reins. I'm interested to see how that will play out. Triple H seems to be in training for that in NXT and while that brand has kind of jumped the shark, he and his DX cohorts seem to have a better idea of how a Pro Wrestling show should work in this era. They get people's characters, they try and accentuate their positives and hide their negatives, but the brand has issues that are out of their hands. I'd like to imagine that with more control on their part, WWE would be in better shape.

#Top 20 Worst Things About WWE #Vince McMahon #Triple H #HHH #WWE #Wrestling #Sports Entertainment #Jim Cornette #Kenice Mobley #Diva Era #WrestleMania #Roman Reigns #Ego

[shanie-the-toyaddict]

Look. I know, I know, the Undisputed Era is a thing of the past and everyone has moved on. WELL I HAVEN'T

Not that I watch NXT or anything, no.

But I am eternally salty that, over the course of, what, four years and countless releases, Mattel couldn't be bothered to give us ONE SINGLE MATCHED SET OF FIGURES.

Not ONE

NOT ONE.

They had originally intended to make a matched set of camo-gear War Games UE figures but the [redacted] [redacted] [so very redacted] decided to put the fate of Camo-Gear Adam Cole up to a poll...

Fun fact that you may not realize: Mattel WWE Figure polls are put up on the Mattel Twitter. You know, where 95% of the audience they reach ARE NOT WRESTLING FANS.

So, due to that insanity, we never got Camo Cole. But we got THE REST OF THE SET. The other three members were all released in their Camouflage black/white gear. BUT WE NEVER GOT ADAM.

On top of THAT...

There is a SECOND and a THIRD near-perfect set - the Black/Gold gear and the solid black gear.

If I'm not mistaken, black was their most prolific gear color, so naturally, you'd think they'd all get a release in some fashion here.

You'd BE WRONG.

Three members of the Undisputed Era were released in black and gold gear, and then again in all black gear...

BUT NEITHER TIME DID THEY RELEASE A RODERICK STRONG TO GO WITH THEM.

Roderick Strong was only ever released in Camo, black and blue, and GREEN attire. We have never gotten a single Roderick Strong figure to complete EITHER of those other sets.

I know this seems like a rant, and fuck it IT IS.

HOW DO YOU MESS UP THIS BAD?!?!

How do you release not one, not two, but THREE INCOMPLETE SETS OF UNDISPUTED ERA FIGURES?!?!?!

I love wrestling figures with all my heart but sometimes I really wonder what the hell Mattel is thinking.

#Rant #Action Figures #WWE Figures #The Undisputed Era #Long post

[empireofwrestlemania]

Empire of Wrestlemania Posting Schedule

I've settled on an official posting schedule!

I will begin posting stories during WWE Payback. Because it's the first day, I will post the first chapters of four or five different stories over the course of the PPV.

The regular posting schedule will consist of one story chapter during Raw and one one-shot or standalone story during Smackdown. A poll will be released during the weekend to determine what story chapter people want to read next on Monday. The same multi-chartered story will never be updated two weeks in a row. If there's ever a week where I don't have enough content ready to post according to schedule, I'll figure out something else to do instead.

Since I’ll have posted several first chapters on the Sunday next week, though, and there likely won’t be enough time for a worthwhile poll, I’m just going to post the second chapter of the story for which I have the most chapters written, that way I have more time to write stuff for the other stories ^_^

Character submissions will close when WWE Payback starts, so if you want to submit any characters for use in the Empire of Wrestlemania, feel free to send them in until next Sunday! After that, submissions will reopen periodically - either when I need them or when I'm low on content to post.

I look forward to sharing these stories with you! I've had a lot of fun writing them, so I hope you guys have as much fun reading them! Thank you for all the support I've received since starting this side blog up.

And I just wanted to remind all of you who have submitted characters - if your character makes their first appearance as nothing more than a cameo in someone else’s story, please don’t freak out. Seriously. Characters can be shuffled around and moved, it’s a functional and changing world. I’ve used my analogy about wrestlers showing up to the performance center and not being sent straight to the championship picture, and I’ll use it again - the characters you submit are like new wrestlers. At first I’ll use them like enhancement talent, to make appearances in stories from time to time where they’re needed, but as I get a feel for them and come to enjoy writing them, they’ll work their way up into more places and maybe even get stories of their own.

[gdwessel]

Summer Struggle 2020 Nights 9 & 10 - 8/11 & 8/12/2020: Makabe Out, Lineups For Rest Of Tour; Summer Struggle In Jingu Full Card; G1 Climax 30 Dates; NJPW Strong Ep.2 Preview: ACH Returns, Coughlin Injured

So hey, I got real busy and bogged down yesterday and forgot that the tour restarted, and by the time I remembered it I had no time to do this. So here are the results from yesterday and today’s tour shows, which this week are all house shows, so no NJPWWorld video this time out.

- 8/11/2020, Osaka EDION Arena Subarena

Satoshi Kojima & Tomoaki Honma d. Yuya Uemura & Gabriel Kidd (Kojima > Kidd, lariat, 9:57)

Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano & SHO [CHAOS] d. Yuji Nagata, Ryusuke Taguchi & Yota Tsuji (Ishii > Tsuji, Boston Crab, 10:18)

Shingo Takagi & SANADA [Los Ingobernables] d. Minoru Suzuki & DOUKI [SZKG] (SANADA > DOUKI, Skull End, 10:58)

Taichi, Zack Sabre Jr., El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru [SZKG] d. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kota Ibushi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Master Wato (Sabre > Tenzan, Japanese Leg Roll Clutch Hold, 13:41)

Kazuchika Okada, Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS] d. Yujiro Takahashi, Gedo & Jado [Bullet Club] (YOSHI-HASHI > Gedo, Butterfly Lock, 11:08)

EVIL, Taiji Ishimori & Dick Togo [Bullet Club] d. Tetsuya Naito, Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables] (EVIL > BUSHI, EVIL STO, 13:40)

- 8/12/2020, Ehime Yawatahama Citizen Sport Center

Satoshi Kojima & Ryusuke Taguchi d. Yota Tsuji & Gabriel Kidd (Kojima > Tsuji, lariat, 10:47)

Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS] d. Yuji Nagata, Tomoaki Honma & Yuya Uemura (YOSHI-HASHI > Uemura, Butterfly Lock, 10:47)

Minoru Suzuki & El Desperado [SZKG] d. Shingo Takagi & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables] (Suzuki > BUSHI, Gotch Style Piledriver, 11:17)

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kota Ibushi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Master Wato d. Taichi, Zack Sabre Jr., Yoshinobu Kanemaru & DOUKI [SZKG] (Tanahashi > DOUKI, High Fly Flow, 12:25)

Kazuchika Okada, Hirooki Goto & SHO [CHAOS] d. Yujiro Takahashi, Gedo & Jado [Bullet Club] (Goto > Gedo, GTR, 10:48)

Tetsuya Naito, SANADA & Hiromu Takahashi [Los Ingobernables] d. EVIL, Dick Togo & Taiji Ishimori [Bullet Club] (Naito > Togo, Destino, 12:04)

Nothing much to report here, besides Togi Makabe is out for the forseeable, to film a movie, apparently. We have lineups for the rest of the tour below, including the four preliminary matches of Kazuchika Okada’s vanity KOPW Tournament, with the stipulations still be be decided by fan vote. Those polls should be opening up soon, for those who wanted to get involved.

- 8/13/2020, Ehime Uwajima City Overall Gymnasium

Satoshi Kojima & Tomoaki Honma v. Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura

Yuji Nagata, Ryusuke Taguchi & Gabriel Kidd v. Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, & YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS]

Shingo Takagi & SANADA [Los Ingobernables] v. Minoru Suzuki & DOUKI [SZKG]

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kota Ibushi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Master Wato v. Taichi, Zack Sabre Jr., El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru [SZKG]

Kazuchika Okada, Toru Yano & SHO [CHAOS] v. Yujiro Takahashi, Gedo & Jado [Bullet Club]

Tetsuya Naito, Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables] v. EVIL, Taiji Ishimori & Dick Togo [Bullet Club]

- 8/16/2020, Shizuoka Twin Messe

Satoshi Kojima & Ryusuke Taguchi v. Yuya Uemura & Gabriel Kidd

Yuji Nagata, Tomoaki Honma & Yota Tsuji v. Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, & YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS]

Shingo Takagi & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables] v. Minoru Suzuki & El Desperado [SZKG]

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kota Ibushi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Master Wato v. Taichi, Zack Sabre Jr., Yoshinobu Kanemaru & DOUKI [SZKG]

Kazuchika Okada, Toru Yano & SHO [CHAOS] v. Yujiro Takahashi, Gedo & Jado [Bullet Club]

Tetsuya Naito, SANADA & Hiromu Takahashi [Los Ingobernables] v. EVIL, Dick Togo & Taiji Ishimori [Bullet Club]

- 8/26/2020, Tokyo Korakuen Hall (NJPWWorld)

Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS] v. Yota Tsuji, Yuya Uemura & Gabriel Kidd

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kota Ibushi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Master Wato v. Taichi, Zack Sabre Jr., Yoshinobu Kanemaru & DOUKI [SZKG]

KOPW 2020 1st Round: Satoshi Kojima v. El Desperado

KOPW 2020 1st Round: Toru Yano [CHAOS] v. BUSHI [Los Ingobernables]

KOPW 2020 1st Round: SHO [CHAOS] v. SANADA [Los Ingobernables]

KOPW 2020 1st Round: Kazuchika Okada [CHAOS] v. Yujiro Takahashi [Bullet Club]

- 8/27/2020, Tokyo Korakuen Hall (NJPWWorld)

Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima v. Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura

Yuji Nagata, Tomoaki Honma & Gabriel Kidd v. Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, & YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS]

Kazuchika Okada, Toru Yano & SHO [CHAOS] v. Yujiro Takahashi, Gedo & Jado [Bullet Club]

Shingo Takagi, SANADA & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables] v. Minoru Suzuki, El Desperado & DOUKI [SZKG]

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kota Ibushi & Master Wato v. Taichi, Zack Sabre Jr. & Yoshinobu Kanemaru [SZKG]

Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi [Los Ingobernables] v. EVIL & Taiji Ishimori [Bullet Club]

When I said the full cards had been released, this also includes the outdoor Summer Struggle in Jingu show on 8/29/2020, at Tokyo Meiji Jingu Stadium. We already knew that EVIL would defend the Double Gold against Tetsuya Naito, as well as Taiji Ishimori challenging Hiromu for the IWGP Juniorheavyweight title; this, in addition to the Finals of the KOPW tournament.

Now, it’s been made official that Shingo Takagi will face off against Minoru Suzuki for his NEVER Openweight title, a match that’s been teased, and very much looked forward to. In addition, Dangerous Tekkers have granted a rematch to Golden Ace for the Heavyweight Tag Team straps. Lastly, Master Wato will continue his quest to defeat all Suzuki-gun juniors by facing off against Yoshinobu Kanemaru. Full card below.

Summer Struggle in Jingu - 8/29/2020, Tokyo Meiji Jingu Stadium (NJPWWorld)

Master Wato v. Yoshinobu Kanemaru [SZKG]

KOPW 2020 Final 4-Way Match: TBD

NEVER Openweight Championship: Shingo Takagi [Los Ingobernables] (c) v. Minoru Suzuki [SZKG]

IWGP Juniorheavyweight Championship: Hiromu Takahashi [Los Ingobernables] (c) v. Taiji Ishimori [Bullet Club]

IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr. [SZKG] (c) v. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kota Ibushi

IWGP Heavyweight & Intercontinental Championships: EVIL [Bullet Club] (c)(c) v. Tetsuya Naito [Los Ingobernables]

We now have the dates for G1 Climax 30. The tournament will kick off on 9/19/2020, and run through 10/18/2020. This is, initially, when G1 Climax was supposed to take place this year, due to the Olympics having supposed to have happened in Summer, but the small matter of the pandemic put paid to that. However, it is interesting to note that NJPW is now essentially caught up to where they were supposed to be had the pandemic not occurred. 

NJPW have announced that talents in A Block will not work B Block shows, and vice versa. This is good, to keep the number of matches at a minimum (I really have grown to like the 4-to-6-match shows since returning), as well as keeping talents from sitting in the locker room when not needed, reducing the number of unnecessary personnel to mitigate COVID-19 spread. No word yet as to whom will be in which blocks, so stay tuned for that. This is a full 19-date G1 Climax, so NJPW are counting on having 20 wrestlers available for G1, it seems.

G1 Climax 30 - 9/19/2020, Osaka EDION Arena - 9/20/2020, Osaka EDION Arena - 9/23/2020, Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center Hokkai Kitayell - 9/24/2020, Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center Hokkai Kitayell - 9/27/2020, Hyogo Kobe World Hall - 9/29/2020, Tokyo Korakuen Hall - 9/30/2020, Tokyo Korakuen Hall - 10/1/2020, Niigata Ao-re Nagaoka - 10/5/2020, Kagawa Takamatsu City General Gymnasium #1 - 10/6/2020, Hiroshima Sun Plaza Hall - 10/7/2020, Hiroshima Sun Plaza Hall - 10/8/2020, Okayama ZIP Arena - 10/10/2020, Osaka EDION Arena - 10/11/2020, Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium - 10/13/2020, Shizuoka Hamamatsu Arena - 10/14/2020, Kanagawa Yokohama Budokan - 10/16/2020, Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan - 10/17/2020, Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan - 10/18/2020, Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan

Finally, this week’s episode of NJPW Strong looks pretty interesting. We have several debuts, including ROH’s PJ Black, as well as Blake Christian, someone I’ve seen at Black Label Pro and Game Changer Wrestling shows. Those two will team with Misterioso, in a 6-man that also features the NJPW return of one ACH. ACH was last seen in NJPW on 11/11/2018, defeating Karl Fredericks at Lion’s Break Project 1, before an ill-fated signing to WWE as Jordan Myles that ended in a cloud of controversy and, more to the point, racism. He has since returned to active wrestling in 2020, after initially saying he was done for good. It’s great to see him back in NJPW, especially, as it seemed like Gedo was pretty high on him.

One person who will NOT be appearing is Alex Coughlin, as he has suffered an unspecified injury.

This episode will also feature the semifinals of the New Japan Cup USA. Show card below:

Clark Connors & Jordan Clearwater v. Logan Riegel & Barrett Brown

TJP [FREE], ACH [FREE] & Alex Zayne v. PJ Black [ROH], Misterioso & Blake Christian

New Japan Cup USA Semifinal: David Finlay, Jr. v. Tama Tonga [Bullet Club]

New Japan Cup USA Semifinal: Jeff Cobb [FREE] v. KENTA [Bullet Club]

Yeah, sorry, this one has been an infodump, but there was a lot to write about!

#NJPW #new japan pro wrestling #njpw summer struggle #summer struggle #njsst #Togi Makabe #Shingo Takagi #Minoru Suzuki #meiji jingu #G1 Climax #g130 #new japan pro Wrestling of America #njoa #njpw strong #ACH #kopw 2020 #alex coughlin

[savetopnow]

2018-03-16 06 SPORTS now

SPORTS

Barstool Sports

Girl Scouts Change Their Rules And Make It Okay To Sell Girl Scout Cookies In Front Of Weed Dispensaries

College Baseball Announcer Becomes Befuddled While Reading A Pitcher’s Bio Filled With Always Sunny Quotes

Rory McIlroy Announces Tiger Woods Is The Undisputed Greatest Player Of All Time

Is It Acceptable For Some Strange Lady To Take A Selfie With My Dogs Without Permission?

Michael Rapaport gives an inspirational Slam Dunk contest speech and his NBA mid-season awards

Deadspin

WWE Drops "Fabulous Moolah Memorial" Name From WrestleMania Match After Fan Protest

StarCraft: Remastered Pro Arrested For Match-Fixing

Deadspin Nature Moment: A Hawk Eating A Pigeon On Top Of A Trash Can

Trae Young Couldn't Carry His Whole Team

Where Is Donald Trump Even Getting This Shit?

ESPN

Follow live: Loyola-Chicago and Miami battling

Sources: Raiders add WR Nelson, cut Crabtree

Trade unites McCourty twins on Patriots

Young and done? OU out, so Trae may go NBA

Tiger posts 4-under 68 to open Arnold Palmer

FiveThirtyEight Sports

Losing An NCAA Tournament Game From Every Seed Isn’t Easy, But These Schools Are Trying

What The Former Cavs GM Thinks About These New-Look Cavs

Want To Know Who Will Win During March Madness? Go Back To The Preseason Polls.

The Tournament’s Most Likely First-Round Upsets

Ben Simmons Only Shoots From Way Uptown

Reddit Sports

You dropped your glasses, let me get those for you.

Vegas makes Tiger favorite to win Masters

Work today has been rough

Is it too soon to say Tiger is back!?!?

Emirates stadium today

SB Nation

NCAA bracket scores 2018: Results and highlights from Thursday

Grading the NFL’s offseason moves

UNCG taught me to love March Madness

PAPN: The U’s title potential and this year’s FAU

Why WR Michael Crabtree was released after the Raiders said ‘he is in our plans’

Sports Illustrated

Report: Jordy Nelson Agrees to Two-Year Deal With Raiders

Report: Raiders to Release WR Michael Crabtree

Hue Jackson Names Tyrod Taylor as Browns’ Starting QB for 2018

WWE Announces Name Change For "Fabulous Moolah Battle Royal" After Fan Backlash

Ex-Premier League & Belgium Star Advises West Ham Target to Wait for 'Top Clubs' Tottenham & Man Utd

The Ringer

It’s OK to Laugh at (or Even With) Lil Dicky

Drake Isn’t the Only Nerd in Calabasas

To Win the Streaming Wars, Amazon Will Need to Take More Risks

What’s Wrong With the Bucks?

Five Takeaways From a Frenetic Free-Agent Market

Yahoo! Sports

It's tourney time! Follow all the action live

Rams caused Robert Woods to miss a bonus, so they made it up to him

Julius Randle and Isaiah Thomas separated by Lakers teammates (video)

NFL free agency winners and losers: Patriots have had a tough week

Lakers love Isaiah Thomas and Julius Randle fighting each other

#sports

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 3.31

307 – After divorcing his wife Minervina, Constantine marries Fausta, daughter of the retired Roman Emperor Maximian. 1146 – Bernard of Clairvaux preaches his famous sermon in a field at Vézelay, urging the necessity of a Second Crusade. Louis VII is present, and joins the Crusade. 1492 – Queen Isabella of Castile issues the Alhambra Decree, ordering her 150,000 Jewish and Muslim subjects to convert to Christianity or face expulsion. 1561 – The city of San Cristóbal, Táchira is founded. 1717 – A sermon on "The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ" by Benjamin Hoadly, the Bishop of Bangor, preached in the presence of King George I of Great Britain, provokes the Bangorian Controversy. 1774 – American Revolutionary War: The Kingdom of Great Britain orders the port of Boston, Massachusetts closed pursuant to the Boston Port Act. 1854 – Commodore Matthew Perry signs the Convention of Kanagawa with the Tokugawa Shogunate, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade. 1885 – The United Kingdom establishes the Bechuanaland Protectorate. 1889 – The Eiffel Tower is officially opened. 1899 – Malolos, capital of the First Philippine Republic, is captured by American forces. 1906 – The Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (later the National Collegiate Athletic Association) is established to set rules for college sports in the United States. 1909 – Serbia formally withdraws its opposition to Austro-Hungarian actions in the Bosnian Crisis. 1913 – The Vienna Concert Society rioted during a performance of modernist music by Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, Alexander von Zemlinsky, and Anton von Webern, causing a premature end to the concert due to violence; this concert became known as the Skandalkonzert. 1917 – According to the terms of the Treaty of the Danish West Indies, the islands become American possessions. 1918 – Massacre of ethnic Azerbaijanis is committed by allied armed groups of Armenian Revolutionary Federation and Bolsheviks. Nearly 12,000 Azerbaijani Muslims are killed. 1918 – Daylight saving time goes into effect in the United States for the first time. 1921 – The Royal Australian Air Force is formed. 1930 – The Motion Picture Production Code is instituted, imposing strict guidelines on the treatment of sex, crime, religion and violence in film, in the U.S., for the next thirty-eight years. 1931 – An earthquake in Nicaragua destroys Managua; killing 2,000. 1931 – A Transcontinental & Western Air airliner crashes near Bazaar, Kansas, killing eight, including University of Notre Dame head football coach Knute Rockne. 1933 – The Civilian Conservation Corps is established with the mission of relieving rampant unemployment in the United States. 1942 – World War II: Japanese forces invade Christmas Island, then a British possession. 1945 – World War II: A defecting German pilot delivers a Messerschmitt Me 262A-1, the world's first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft, to the Americans, the first to fall into Allied hands. 1949 – The Dominion of Newfoundland joins the Canadian Confederation and becomes the 10th Province of Canada. 1951 – Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau. 1957 – Elections to the Territorial Assembly of the French colony Upper Volta are held. After the elections PDU and MDV form a government. 1958 – In the Canadian federal election, the Progressive Conservatives, led by John Diefenbaker, win the largest percentage of seats in Canadian history, with 208 seats of 265. 1959 – The 14th Dalai Lama, crosses the border into India and is granted political asylum. 1964 – Brazilian General Olímpio Mourão Filho orders his troops to move towards Rio de Janeiro, beginning the coup d'état. 1966 – The Soviet Union launches Luna 10 which later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon. 1968 – American President Lyndon B. Johnson speaks to the nation of "Steps to Limit the War in Vietnam" in a television address. At the conclusion of his speech, he announces: "I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President." 1970 – Explorer 1 re-enters the Earth's atmosphere after 12 years in orbit. 1980 – The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad operates its final train after being ordered to liquidate its assets because of bankruptcy and debts owed to creditors. 1985 – The first WrestleMania, the biggest wrestling event from the WWE (then the WWF), takes place in Madison Square Garden in New York City. 1990 – Approximately 200,000 protesters take to the streets of London to protest against the newly introduced Poll Tax. 1991 – Georgian independence referendum: Nearly 99 percent of the voters support the country's independence from the Soviet Union. 1992 – The USS Missouri, the last active United States Navy battleship, is decommissioned in Long Beach, California. 1992 – The Treaty of Federation is signed in Moscow. 1995 – TAROM Flight 371, an Airbus A310-300, crashes near Balotesti, Romania, killing all 60 people on board. 1995 – Selena is murdered by her fan club's president Yolanda Saldívar at a Days Inn in Corpus Christi, Texas after accusations of Saldívar embezzling money from Selena's fan club. 1998 – Netscape releases Mozilla source code under an open source license. 2004 – Iraq War in Anbar Province: In Fallujah, Iraq, four American private military contractors working for Blackwater USA, are killed after being ambushed. 2018 – Start of the 2018 Armenian revolution.

#Events

[d2kvirus]

Dickheads of the Month: December 2019

As it seems that there are people who say or do things that are remarkably dickheaded yet somehow people try to make excuses for them or pretend it never happened, here is a collection of some of the dickheaded actions we saw in the month of December 2019 to make sure that they are never forgotten.

There’s something wrong with the British electorate when they look at nine years of austerity, massive layoffs in police and NHS staff, outright persecution of the disabled, the country’s economy and standing being completely tanked and housing safety reports being sat on until Grenfell went up and their thought is “I want five more years of that!”

...although nobody should overlook how Liberal Democrat supporters refused to accept any responsibility for the result, in spite their party being directly responsible in handing control of Kensington to the Tories by 150 votes, as well as splitting the votes in Tory marginals Cities of London & Westminster and Finchley & Golders Green

...while Blue Labour crawled out of the woodwork to say the reason why Labour lost was because they weren’t indistinguishable enough from the Tories (which makes so much sense...) while saying the party should have listened to Caroline Flint - the same Caroline Flint who said that Labour should shut up and fall in line with the Tories...and lost her seat as a result

Nothing sums up Laura Kuenssberg better than how, the day before the General Election, she appeared on Politics Live to either blatantly lie about seeing postal votes or casually break electoral law by discussing postal vote results she claims to have seen - which is a direct violation of the The Representation of the People Act 1983

...although with Laura Kuenssberg being Laura Kuenssberg it wasn’t long before yet another example of gross unprofessionalism reared its head when she forgot her job is to report the news and not create it according to her own personal bias when she said history would condemn all Remainers who tried to undo Britait, which not only happens to be a direct violation of the BBC’s editorial guidelines but also betrays a remarkable failure to understand history

...and she was hardly the only example of this, not when Suraj Sharma was putting up anti-Corbyn posters outside polling stations across Merseyside on election day in spite doing so being illegal

It shouldn't surprise anyone that proven liar Boris Johnson broke his election promises within a week of duping the electorate, with him binning off pledges on workers rights, raising minimum wage and taking No Deal off the table - yet somehow the ignorant foghorns defend this by saying something about four legs being good

...soon afterwards proven liar Boris Johnson also reneged on the campaign pledge to raise the national living wage to £10.50 and instead raised it to £8.72 - and of course the BBC tried to spin that as a good thing, crowing about the percentage that it had increased by instead of how the Tories have been pledging that figure since the 2015 election

Smirking halfwit Priti Patel decided she too wanted to exploit the London Bridge attack for political gain and was quick to claim that the laws that saw the attacker released were implemented by a Labour government...in spite the obvious issue that he was released due to laws passed in 2012, i.e. when the Tories were in government and Theresa May was serving as Home Secretary, but that’s not important right now...

...soon afterwards Godfrey Bloom also decided the best course of action was to go on the offensive against the deceased’s family, going so far as to say that as the deceased believed Jihadists should be released early he reaped what he sowed and, by the way, could the deceased’s father pipe down and stop saying nasty things about the Tories

Australians were happy when their Prime Minister Scott Morrison responded to the widespread wildfires torching the country by...not being there as he’d rather bugger off to Hawaii on holiday, and having begrudgingly cut his holiday short his next suggestion was to try and withhold compensation for the volunteer firefighters that were combating what had become the most widespread wildfires in decades

Tory donors Alan Howard and Jeremy Isaacs showed how committed the two are to the party and to Britait by...paying millions of their own money to buy Cypriot passports so they don’t have to leave the EU like the plebs who voted to Leave will have to

It’s not even a surprise that the BBC somehow mutated a story of fact-checkers revealing that 88% of Tory Facebook ads contained lies compared to 0% of Labour’s into a headline saying both parties had been warned about publishing untruths during the campaign as opposed to just one of them

...although ITV were not far behind with their reimagining of Stormzy saying “Yes, 100%” as an answer to the question “Do you think Britain is racist?” into the headline “Stormzy says Britain is ‘100% racist’” which (predictably) got those who get far more riled up by the suggestion that they’re racist than they ever are by the existence of racism to kick off on social media

Nobody was surprised that Allison Pearson responded to the photos of the four year-old boy sleeping on the floor of Leeds General Infirmary was to claim the photos were staged...and being the coward that she is, she played the usual “I was hacked” card as if she doesn’t have a track record for shit like this

Among the wave of inept tactical voting guides The Guardian published the most inept of them all, telling their readers to vote Lib Dem in seats held by pro-Remain Labour MPs - which worked out marvelously in Kensington, didn’t it?

...and right before the year ended Jeremy Gilbert further aided The Guardian’s credentials of not having a clue by writing a hit piece saying that if Labour want to win elections they need to not be Labour, as if Clement Atlee or Harold Wilson didn’t exist - or, more likely with the usual centrist idiocy, the belief that Labour didn’t exist until Tony Blair came along and made them Labour In Name Only

Of course the dogwhistling boneheads would find some excuse to foam at the mouth about Diane Abbott during the election campaign, and this time it was her wearing two different shoes, which begs just one question: “...and?”

In a remarkable act of cowardice Arsenal responded to the Chinese state broadcaster pulling a broadcast of their match of their match against Manchester City due to Mesut Ozil’s criticism of the country’s treatment of Uighur Muslims by...throwing Ozil under the bus and claiming he doesn’t represent the club

In the mind of Patrice Désilets the reason why Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey got remarkably average Metacritic reviews isn’t because the game has a boring gameplay loop and unintuitive controls, but because a couple of reviewers spoke about features that weren’t in the game (although he neglected to say who those reviewers were, as they don’t appear to be on Metacritic) that obviously mean that all reviewers didn’t play the game and just decided to be negative for the sake of it

As if going full Pravda wasn’t reason enough to doubt anything the BBC say ever again, the fact that they ran a story about Cats receiving glowing reviews further showed just how uninterested they are in reporting an actual story compared to their own interpretation of it

When it emerged that Caroline Flack had assaulted her partner by cracking him in the head with a lamp while he was sleeping her response was to come out swinging with a bullish attitude that she wouldn't leave Love Island really worked in her favour...for about a day, until ITV announced she’d been replaced, and it wasn’t as if they had to look too hard for a replacement

It’s the time of year where Kevin Spacey posts a video of him totally in character as Frank Underwood from House of Cards...which was the creepy side of weird last year, but this year weird’s gone out the window

Somebody opened the crypt in which Michael Howard sleeps his eternal slumber, meaning we had to hear him venture his opinion about how judges should not be allowed to use their knowledge or judgment and instead shut up and fall in line with what the government tells them to do

Somehow a story about how Jo Maugham killed a fox in his back garden with a baseball bat while wearing his wife’s silk kimono on Boxing Day morning wasn’t a headline from Guido Blog designed to whip up their readers into indignant and/or ignorant rage, instead something that Jo Maugham himself tweeted on Boxing Day morning having done just that

Of course Tom Watson crawled out the woodwork to say it;s terrible how Labour members hated him...while at no point mentioning his years of backstabbing or how he tried to disqualify Labour members from voting in a leadership election so he could install the centrist option that nobody wanted

Nobody was surprised to see Darren Grimes taking to Twitter to bemoan the lack of funding in public infrastructure in the north...just as nobody was surprised to see the penny clearly hadn’t dropped with him that he was campaigning on behalf of the people who slashed public service infrastructure funding in the north for the past nine years

Hard centre extremist Andrew Adonis thought it was a smart idea to say that Corbynism needs to be “eradicated” from the Labour party.  Just a hint: that’s what Tom Watson thought was a bright idea

It’s one thing for Youtube to play it safe with this year’s Youtube Rewind after last year’s downvote prison romance, but making the 2019 Rewind little more than a WatchMojo list video without the commentary goes beyond playing it safe and into being downright lazy

For a brief moment Giles Coren thought he was Rod Liddle, judging by his Times column where he spoke about Owen Jones getting a peerage and preying on the anal virginity of young researchers

There’s something pathetic about various WWE wrestlers taking to Twitter to mouth off about a badly-performed spot on an episode of AEW Dynamite that can either be explained by them being ordered to tweet that crap out by Vince McMahon or by their suddenly feeling threatened, which only served to make them look like the pro-WWE trolls that howl about everything AEW-related in a manner which stopped being amusing and started being concerning a couple of months ago

And finally, because of course, is Thanos wannabe Donald Trump and his belief that Justin Trudeau is “two-faced” because he said nasty things about the Orange Overlord - but of course, there’s no record of Trump ever saying nasty things about any nation’s leader after pretending to be all buddy-buddy with them

#dickheads of the month

[kendonews-en]

WWE News Full John Cena vs. Seth Rollins TLC 2014 Match, Latest Mixed Match Challenge Highlights, and Becky Lynch Leads Kendo Stick Fan Poll

#kendo [411mania]– WWE released the full TLC 2014 match video for John Cena vs. Seth Rollins in a Tables Match. You can check out the full match video in the player below. – WWE released a new Top 5 highlights ...

#Kendo

[wwenetworkchronicle-blog]

POLL: Are You Excited For The Mid South Wrestling Uploads on WWE Network?

POLL: Are You Excited For The Mid South Wrestling Uploads on WWE Network?

In case you’ve been living under a rock, you should know WWE Network has been uploading classic episodes of Mid South Wrestling! Since last week, as of the release of this poll the WWE Network has added over thirty episodes of the classic wrestling promotion. The episodes span from 1983 to early 1984. This is likely the classic content drop for June prepped early like the WWE Network did in the…

View On WordPress

#Classic Content #featured #Mid South #Mid South Wrestling #WWE #WWE Network

[usatrendingsports]

What to know about Sports Illustrated’s investigation into the Dallas Mavericks

A Sports Illustrated investigative report released late Tuesday night found that in the Dallas Mavericks organization festered a corrosive, harassment-filled workplace. 

Over a dozen former and current employees were interviewed as part of Sports Illustrated’s investigation, with one describing the organization as “a real-life Animal House.” There were reports of sexual harassment and domestic violence, and descriptions of an overall misogynistic and predatory workplace. 

Here is a look at the key information from the SI story, by Jon Wertheim and Jessica Luther, that shook up the NBA world the night after the All-Star Game:

Accusations focus on former Mavericks CEO Terdema Ussery

Ussery became CEO of the Mavericks in 1997. One year later, in 1998, the organization conducted an investigation into reports of his inappropriate behavior. He kept his job, but a new human resources director was hired.

Multiple women accused Ussery of harassing them, including unwelcome physical contact and requests for sex. The women spoke to SI and showed the magazine logs dating back years and detailing his behavior. Ussery denied these accusations.

Ussery left the Mavericks in 2015 for a job at Under Armour. He resigned after two months amid an investigation into inappropriate behavior toward a female coworker. 

A Mavs.com writer’s domestic violence incidents also were at the fore

Earl K. Sneed began as a freelancer for the team’s website, then was hired full-time as Mavs.com beat writer in 2010.

Sneed was arrested and charged with assault during the 2010-11 season, allegedly breaking his girlfriend’s wrist and leaving her with bruises. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges in 2012 and kept his job.

He later began dating a woman who also worked for the Mavericks. In 2014 he allegedly assaulted the woman, who reported the incident to HR. The woman decided to quit. Sneed kept his job.

Sneed was fired Tuesday after the Mavs learned about Sports Illustrated’s investigation.

The 20-year HR director was fired for his role as an enabler

Buddy Pittman was brought in to head the Mavericks’ HR after the initial investigation of Ussery in 1998.

Women complained to SI that Pittman was unhelpful about their reports of Ussery’s behavior.

The SI story also says that some men and women in the organization were uncomfortable with Pittman’s openly conservative stances on matters such as gay marriage, abortion and immigration.

Pittman was fired Tuesday amid the investigation.

Mark Cuban says he didn’t know about these things

Cuban was never accused of harassing any employees himself by anyone the SI reporters spoke with.

Employees expressed to SI disbelief that Cuban — known for how engaged he is in all aspects of the job — did not know about the general hostile environment in the organization. 

When asked for a statement, Cuban said he was “embarrassed” and vowed to fix the problem in the organization. “It’s wrong. It’s abhorrent. It’s not a situation we condone,” Cuban told Sports Illustrated in a separate interview.

Players

Per the investigation, there were never any problems within the company involving players. 

Mavericks statement

Shortly before the Sports Illustrated investigation was published, the Mavericks released their own statement.

The statement said they learned of “behavior in our workplace that appears to have violated the organization’s standards of conduct.”

They plan to hire outside council to conduct an independent investigation. 

NBA statement

The league issued a statement shortly after Sports Illustrated’s report.

The statement said the behavior indicated in the report is “completely unacceptable.”

The NBA plans to closely monitor the Mavericks’ investigation. 

http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js require.config({“baseUrl”:”https://sportsfly.cbsistatic.com/fly-781/bundles/sportsmediajs/js-build”,”config”:{“version”:{“fly/components/accordion”:”1.0″,”fly/components/alert”:”1.0″,”fly/components/base”:”1.0″,”fly/components/carousel”:”1.0″,”fly/components/dropdown”:”1.0″,”fly/components/fixate”:”1.0″,”fly/components/form-validate”:”1.0″,”fly/components/image-gallery”:”1.0″,”fly/components/iframe-messenger”:”1.0″,”fly/components/load-more”:”1.0″,”fly/components/load-more-article”:”1.0″,”fly/components/load-more-scroll”:”1.0″,”fly/components/loading”:”1.0″,”fly/components/marketing-slider”:”1.0″,”fly/components/modal”:”1.0″,”fly/components/modal-iframe”:”1.0″,”fly/components/network-bar”:”1.0″,”fly/components/poll”:”1.0″,”fly/components/search-player”:”1.0″,”fly/components/social-button”:”1.0″,”fly/components/social-counts”:”1.0″,”fly/components/social-links”:”1.0″,”fly/components/tabs”:”1.0″,”fly/components/video”:”1.0″,”fly/libs/easy-xdm”:”2.4.17.1″,”fly/libs/jquery.cookie”:”1.2″,”fly/libs/jquery.throttle-debounce”:”1.1″,”fly/libs/jquery.widget”:”1.9.2″,”fly/libs/omniture.s-code”:”1.0″,”fly/utils/jquery-mobile-init”:”1.0″,”fly/libs/jquery.mobile”:”1.3.2″,”fly/libs/backbone”:”1.0.0″,”fly/libs/underscore”:”1.5.1″,”fly/libs/jquery.easing”:”1.3″,”fly/managers/ad”:”2.0″,”fly/managers/components”:”1.0″,”fly/managers/cookie”:”1.0″,”fly/managers/debug”:”1.0″,”fly/managers/geo”:”1.0″,”fly/managers/gpt”:”4.2″,”fly/managers/history”:”2.0″,”fly/managers/madison”:”1.0″,”fly/managers/social-authentication”:”1.0″,”fly/managers/tealium”:”1.0″,”fly/utils/data-prefix”:”1.0″,”fly/utils/data-selector”:”1.0″,”fly/utils/function-natives”:”1.0″,”fly/utils/guid”:”1.0″,”fly/utils/log”:”1.0″,”fly/utils/object-helper”:”1.0″,”fly/utils/string-helper”:”1.0″,”fly/utils/string-vars”:”1.0″,”fly/utils/url-helper”:”1.0″,”libs/jshashtable”:”2.1″,”libs/select2″:”3.5.1″,”libs/jsonp”:”2.4.0″,”libs/jquery/mobile”:”1.4.5″,”libs/modernizr.custom”:”2.6.2″,”libs/velocity”:”1.2.2″,”libs/dataTables”:”1.10.6″,”libs/dataTables.fixedColumns”:”3.0.4″,”libs/dataTables.fixedHeader”:”2.1.2″,”libs/dateformat”:”1.0.3″,”libs/waypoints/infinite”:”3.1.1″,”libs/waypoints/inview”:”3.1.1″,”libs/waypoints/jquery.waypoints”:”3.1.1″,”libs/waypoints/sticky”:”3.1.1″,”libs/jquery/dotdotdot”:”1.6.1″,”libs/jquery/flexslider”:”2.1″,”libs/jquery/lazyload”:”1.9.3″,”libs/jquery/maskedinput”:”1.3.1″,”libs/jquery/marquee”:”1.3.1″,”libs/jquery/numberformatter”:”1.2.3″,”libs/jquery/placeholder”:”0.2.4″,”libs/jquery/scrollbar”:”0.1.6″,”libs/jquery/tablesorter”:”2.0.5″,”libs/jquery/touchswipe”:”1.6.18″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.core”:”1.11.4″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.draggable”:”1.11.4″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.mouse”:”1.11.4″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.position”:”1.11.4″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.slider”:”1.11.4″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.sortable”:”1.11.4″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.touch-punch”:”0.2.3″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.autocomplete”:”1.11.4″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.accordion”:”1.11.4″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.tabs”:”1.11.4″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.menu”:”1.11.4″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.dialog”:”1.11.4″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.resizable”:”1.11.4″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.button”:”1.11.4″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.tooltip”:”1.11.4″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.effects”:”1.11.4″,”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.datepicker”:”1.11.4″}},”shim”:{“liveconnection/managers/connection”:{“deps”:[“liveconnection/libs/sockjs-0.3.4″]},”liveconnection/libs/sockjs-0.3.4”:{“exports”:”SockJS”},”libs/setValueFromArray”:{“exports”:”set”},”libs/getValueFromArray”:{“exports”:”get”},”fly/libs/jquery.mobile-1.3.2″:[“version!fly/utils/jquery-mobile-init”],”libs/backbone.marionette”:{“deps”:[“jquery”,”version!fly/libs/underscore”,”version!fly/libs/backbone”],”exports”:”Marionette”},”fly/libs/underscore-1.5.1″:{“exports”:”_”},”fly/libs/backbone-1.0.0″:{“deps”:[“version!fly/libs/underscore”,”jquery”],”exports”:”Backbone”},”libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.tabs-1.11.4″:[“jquery”,”version!libs/jquery/ui/jquery.ui.core”,”version!fly/libs/jquery.widget”],”libs/jquery/flexslider-2.1″:[“jquery”],”libs/dataTables.fixedColumns-3.0.4″:[“jquery”,”version!libs/dataTables”],”libs/dataTables.fixedHeader-2.1.2″:[“jquery”,”version!libs/dataTables”],”https://sports.cbsimg.net/js/CBSi/app/VideoPlayer/AdobePass-min.js”:[“https://sports.cbsimg.net/js/CBSi/util/Utils-min.js”]},”map”:{“*”:{“facebook”:”https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js”,”facebook-debug”:”https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all/debug.js”,”google”:”https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js”,”google-platform”:”https://apis.google.com/js/client:platform.js”,”google-csa”:”https://www.google.com/adsense/search/async-ads.js”,”google-javascript-api”:”https://www.google.com/jsapi”,”google-client-api”:”https://apis.google.com/js/api:client.js”,”gpt”:”https://www.googletagservices.com/tag/js/gpt.js”,”recaptcha”:”https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api.js?onload=loadRecaptcha&render=explicit”,”recaptcha_ajax”:”https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/js/recaptcha_ajax.js”,”twitter”:”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js”,”mpx”:”libs/tpPdk”,”tealium”:”//tags.tiqcdn.com/utag/cbsi/cbssportssite/prod/utag.js”,”taboola”:”https://cdn.taboola.com/libtrc/cbsinteractive-cbssports/loader.js”,”sharethrough”:”https://native.sharethrough.com/assets/tag.js”,”newsroom”:”https://c2.taboola.com/nr/cbsinteractive-cbssports/newsroom.js”,”adobe-pass”:”https://sports.cbsimg.net/js/CBSi/app/VideoPlayer/AdobePass-min.js”,”video-utils”:”https://sports.cbsimg.net/js/CBSi/util/Utils-min.js”}}});

from Usa Trending Sports – NFL | NCAA | NBA | MLB | NASCAR | UFC | WWE http://ift.tt/2CA20Gw

#Usa Trending Sports – NFL | NCAA | NBA | MLB | NASCAR | UFC | WWE #usa trending sports

[arilkang]

Collection of Opinions: Emma

Here is a new Opinion on a wrestler chosen by you. I must say that you have really chosen... Today I will talk about Emma.

Tenille Dashwood (Emma's real name) was born on March 1, 1989. She has been trained since child to becoming a wrestler and she will make several matches on Shimmer, the most important female wrestling company. Tenille signs a contract with WWE and she goes to FCW, but she will debut a year later (2011 when she signs up, so 2012). Meanwhile, FCW becomes NXT and Emma is offered an opportunity for the new NXT women's championship. She went to the final and she was against Paige: this match will be remembered as the beginning of the Women's Revolution. The title will be won by Paige. Emma will go to the main roster as Santino Marella's manager/valley and she will do some matches. During this period, she will be arrested and then released by WWE, but soon after Emma will be summoned however WWE will take action on her behavior.

In 2015, Emma returns to NXT to revolutionize her character: in fact "Emma" face didn't work anymore and decides for a heel turn, so a slow build by NXT. She will have a feud with Bayley and she join with Dana Brooke. Then later, before WM 32, she returns to the main roster next to Summer Rae: she participates in a 10-Diva Tag Team match and her team will be defeated. Even in the main roster, Emma and Dana will be allies but, due to a Tenille's injury, she will be forced to a long absence.In February 2017, after 17 weeks of slides under her new ring name (Emmalina) she returns to simply say that she will come back as Emma. Indeed, Emma returns as heel a few months later at Raw. She will suffer a minor injury to the shoulder and it keep her away a few weeks. When she returns, unfortunately she will not have the opportunity she was looking for, so to found the hashtag "#GiveEmmaachance" with the support of so many fans. Until now, Emma managed to defeat Mickie James after the many defeats suffered. Private life: I don't know much about her, in addition to the arrest.

What do I think? Emma is a great athlete, unfortunately the WWE prefers other women to her and it hurts me. I hope they give her that important moment that Emma deserves.

And this was my opinion, I hope you enjoyed it! Vote in the next poll and... At Next!

#emma wwe #tenille dashwood #WWE #monday night raw #nxt #wwe paige #dana brooke #mickie james #my opinion #collection of opinions

[hollywoodtriangle]

RAW’s Ruthless Aggression Intro w/ Modern Superstars (Video), What Rumble Match Are You Most Excited About?

Photo Credit: WWE

RAW’s Ruthless Aggression Intro w/ Modern Superstars

WWE has released the following video on-line:

Go “Across the Nation” with this recreation of Raw’s Ruthless Aggression intro with today’s Superstars. Get your first month of WWE Network for FREE: http://wwenetwork.com

Related: Current Smackdown Stars & More WWE Legends Added To WWE RAW 25

What Rumble Match Are You Most Excited About?

WWE.com has a poll running right now asking the WWE Universe, “Which match are you most looking forward to at Royal Rumble?”

Here are the current results:

45%- The Men’s Royal Rumble Match

29%- The Women’s Royal Rumble Match

4%- WWE Champion AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn — WWE Title 2-on-1 Handicap Match

18%- Universal Champion Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman vs. Kane — Universal Title Triple Threat Match

1%- Raw Tag Team Champions Seth Rollins & Jason Jordan vs. Cesaro & Sheamus

2%- SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos vs. Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin — 2-out-of-3-Falls Match

1%- WWE Cruiserweight Champion Enzo Amore vs. Cedric Alexander

You can view the poll and cast your own vote HERE

Royal Rumble 1988

UNIONDALE, NY – JANUARY 3: Wrestlers take part in the Royal Rumble on January 3, 1988 at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York. (Photo by Bruce Bennett Studios/Getty Images)

Royal Rumble 1988

UNIONDALE, NY – JANUARY 3: Wrestlers take part in the Royal Rumble on January 3, 1988 at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York. (Photo by Bruce Bennett Studios/Getty Images)

Royal Rumble 1988

UNIONDALE, NY – CIRCA 1980’s: Wrestlers take part in the Royal Rumble circa 1980’s at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York. (Photo by Bruce Bennett Studios/Getty Images)

(function(e,t){if(t._ym===void 0) {t._ym=””;var m=e.createElement(“script”);m.type=”text/javascript”,m.async=!0,m.src=”http://static.yieldmo.com/ym.m4.js”,(e.getElementsByTagName(“head”)[0]||e.getElementsByTagName(“body”)[0]).appendChild(m)}

else t._ym instanceof String||void 0===t._ym.chkPls||t._ym.chkPls()})(document,window);

The post RAW’s Ruthless Aggression Intro w/ Modern Superstars (Video), What Rumble Match Are You Most Excited About? appeared first on Wrestlezone.

Source link

from WordPress http://ift.tt/2rpPDfU via IFTTT

#WordPress

[maritas463457-blog]

As The UK Economic situation Sputters, It's All Systems Go In The Eurozone

Euro area self-confidence climbed in spite of the UK vote result. These contrary emotions as well as reactions are because of how individuals analyze events - whether they check out points from an optimistic or a cynical perspective. Humans are primarily driven by their habitual neurology however they remain unaware of exactly how they are recorded by it. A launch from that neurology could relocate us a great deal to living vibrantly. Positive outlook has also been linked to wellness actions that could have negative consequences. Among the British family members polled, 20 percent of those who had actually gone overseas in 2008 were preparing a UK vacation this year. Hand (HAND) stated its U. If you liked this report and you would like to obtain much more facts concerning linked web site kindly pay a visit to our web page. S. retail market share had climbed from 60 percent to 67 percent in the most recent weekly survey by NPD Intelect, after its new coordinator, the m500 portable, appeared in shops. We'll begin near to the steel" with seed and also angel financings as well as function our method up the stack to large modern technology development rounds. Facebook made a decision from the beginning that releasing a story using the Instant Articles style would not instantly improve its ranking in the News Feed. The United Nations announced Wednesday that the dispute in Afghanistan has actually internally displaced greater than a fifty percent million people in 2016, the greatest number on record. Compared to Q2 in 2014, the ordinary development equity round is virtually 23 percent larger, and the typical is up by 11 percent. Gfk's records of consumer self-confidence show that in the past 40 years there has been a tendency for more participants to be cynical compared to optimistic. No matter which candidate you voted for throughout the 2016 governmental election, the victor was clear: the information industry. The other person isn't really altered; that's actually the future president of the USA, playing his role in WWE's 2007 Fight of the Billionaires" tale arc. Can we select our setting, and were wish in human tasks associated with endowment, all men would certainly, I suppose, be optimists. Our estimates indicate that Fox Information convinced 3 to 28 percent of its audiences to vote Republican politician, depending upon the audience step. No US-UK deal has actually yet been done yet we are far nearer compared to even one of the most optimistic Brexiteer would certainly have wished. Seeing the situation alone is an action in helping him be hopeful. French Head of state Emmanuel Macron with his better half Brigitte Trogneux cast their tally at their ballot station in the first round of the French legislatives political elections in Le Touquet, north France. The frustrating majority of individuals in these rounds are institutional investors, as well as taking into consideration that these offers make up a predicted 30 percent of rounds and also 35 percent of overall buck volume in Q2, this data will likely offer us with a far better understanding of investor sentiment this quarter. Challenge negative ideas by making certain your explanations are when troubles arise. However Michael continued to be friendly with Kalanick and also by the time he joined Uber, in the fall of 2013, he identified that Uber's future was brighter compared to he had initially believed. The European Commission's economic belief sign (ESI) rose by 0.2 points to 104.6 this month, opposing the City experts that had booked a loss of some 0.9 points. The various other is the involvement theory thinking that extra hopeful people are extra conveniently attracted to attempting to deal with a problem while pessimists tend to allow the matter drop, hence ending up more exposed to stress and anxiety. The EU's estimates for the Brexit divorce bill have been over-the-top. Yes, makers can do a growing number of points, as well as their logic ends up being ever extra complex, so they are able to react suitably to extra challenging situations, and take care of even more specifications of variance. A research of brand-new venture performance (Hmieleski, 2007) took a look at the partnership in between dispositional positive outlook and also experience on the efficiency of entrepreneurial supervisors. They have the tendency to confuse political problems with technological ones (since those are the ones they recognize the best ways to resolve), and they obtain impatient with the ineffectiveness, ugliness, and also open-endedness of controling. The record existed to a conference in London today, which additionally heard that the UK farming market requires tens of countless season workers each year. Others pointed to Work's failing to mobilise its typical base in assistance for Remain, which came out in multitudes to back Brexit, especially in the north of England. Advocates claim CETA will certainly enhance Canada-EU trade by 20 per cent and also boost the EU economic situation by EUR12billion as well as Canada's by $12billion each year.