Names making news

 Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's back in the news.

Reports are that Palin is planning to refile a defamation lawsuit against the New York Times, this after a judge threw out the suit last week because Palin and her lawyers didn't have enough evidence to back up their claims. What a surprise.

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Does Russian President Vladimir Putin want to reunite the Soviet Union?

Maybe not, but Putin's invasion of Ukraine this week would recall how the USSR was the enemy of all of America during the Cold War years. However, as Putin is directing his army toward Ukraine, right wing media is on his side here in the US, with Tabloid Carlson on Fox Shmooze leading the charge. 

Unsurprisingly, former US president Pecos Pampers (Donald Trump), who idolized Putin, is cheering for him. Anything to humiliate and embarrass Joe Biden, the current president, right? Trump wished he could do what Putin's doing now, and many believe that if Trump does weasel his way back to the White House in 2024, he will. 

Scary, but unlikely, given Trump's legal troubles.

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One of Trump's best friends in the entertainment business wants to get back in the ring. At age 76.

It has been 12 years since Vince McMahon had a match at Wrestlemania, losing a street fight to Bret "The Hitman" Hart, ending 13 years of on-air acrimony between the two.

But, then came word on Smackdown on Friday, in an announcement made by color analyst-radio talk show host, and former NFL player Pat McAfee, that the CEO-Chairman would appear on his radio show in Indianapolis on March 3.

File photo circa 2006. Courtesy Wikipedia.

F4WOnline, the online arm of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter and Figure Four Weekly, almost immediately released a report that claimed McMahon would be involved in a match at this year's Wrestlemania, taking place April 2-3 in Arlington, Texas, presumably against the younger, more athletic McAfee, who had a total of two matches in NXT not long ago. Online commentators are being more realistic, suggesting this would be the end game for McMahon's current mentoring angle with wrestler Austin Theory on Raw.

One way to try to explain away McMahon's supposed need to get back in the ring at 76 would be to make a run toward erasing the legendary Lou Thesz from the record books if McMahon can hold out long enough to wrestle past his 80th birthday. I think I read somewhere that Thesz wrestled into his 80's, but that was 30-odd years ago, and I believe it was in Japan. McMahon has appeared less and less on TV in recent years, but this does seem a little odd.

I'd make it more likely he'll be in Theory's corner vs. McAfee, but we'll see.