Wednesday, May 24, 2023

Sports this 'n' that

 Reports have circulated that Tom Brady, who recently retired after finishing the 2022 season with Tampa Bay, capping a 23 year career, is joining the Las Vegas Raiders' ownership group.

This may seem like it's coming out of left field, but Brady has seen how other former players, such as Denver icon John Elway, have transitioned into front office roles after retirement. All Brady needs to do, really, is take a look at one of his failed reclamation projects at the end of his Patriots tenure, Antonio Brown, and how he's created a toxic atmosphere here in the 518 with the Albany Empire, as an object lesson.

It could work.
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They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Unfortunately for AEW's Outcasts stable, their gimmick involves using spray paint on defeated opponents, a tactic used by the New World Order in WCW early in their run (1996-7), but then they moved on.

The Outcasts (Toni Storm, Saraya, & Ruby Soho) act like a trio of juvenile drama queens, which, in truth, devalues all three wrestlers. The spray paint has to go, like, yesterday.
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As WWE is celebrating two of their alumni topping the box office charts last week, three current wrestlers are getting ready for the big screen.

On the heels of "Fast X" (w/John Cena) & "Guardians of The Galaxy, Volume 3" (w/Dave Bautista) finishing 1-2 at the multiplexes last weekend, comes news of Seth Rollins (Colby Lopez) landing a part in the next "Captain America" movie for Marvel & Disney, but that ain't all.

Charlotte Flair (Ashley Fliehr) and Liv Morgan have been cast in a feature film biography of women's wrestling pioneer and Hall of Famer Mildred Burke, based on a best selling book by Jeff Leen. Emily Bett Rickards (ex-Arrow) has been cast as Burke, with Flair as June Byers, and Morgan as Clara Mortensen.


In other WWE news, WWE President Nick Khan, in an interview, said the company is open to moving its primetime flagship, Raw, off Monday nights, and to another night, likely to suit the needs of a new network home, should that be necessary when the current network rights expire next year.

Raw, which marked its 30th anniversary in January, has only been on USA (1993-2000, 2005-present) and what is now Paramount Network (2000-5). Smackdown, currently on Fox on Fridays, may be looking for a new home again, and could head back to NBC-Universal, with rumors that NBC itself would take it over, after the series has previously been on USA & SyFy, in addition to UPN (1999-2005), MyNetwork TV (2005), & CW (2006-10), before landing at Fox in 2019. Khan also indicated that they are exploring the idea of expanding Smackdown to 3 hours to match Raw, but, as a number of fans have repeatedly noted, 3 hours is one hour too many for Raw, with too few matches over the course of three hours, as opposed to NXT on Tuesdays, which can cram as many as 9 matches into that time frame.

Here's a better idea. If Fox is willing to part with Smackdown, becoming the 3rd broadcast network to drop the show, let it go back to USA, and keep it 2 hours, while cutting Raw back to 2 hours, so all 3 primetime shows have a uniform format. Can't go wrong with that.

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