ACH‘s career changed dramatically in November 2019. After WWE released a T-shirt for him that resembled blackface imagery, the 32-year-old-wrestler, who had been working in NXT under the ring name Jordan Myles, spoke out on Twitter about the design. Things escalated from there, and he soon quit WWE, then spent days on social media responding to fans and critics and commenting on the wrestling industry. After being released from WWE, ACH worked a handful of matches on the independent scene but has been on hiatus since February.

In the most recent episode of the podcast “Submission Squad Presents: Dollar Menu Midcarders” (hosted by tag team Evan Gelistico and Pierre Abernathy, who are longtime friends of ACH), the Texan wrester spoke in-depth about his career from his indie beginnings to his time in WWE, and addressed the T-shirt incident and its aftermath.

ACH says he was initially having a good time in WWE, but when the shirt incident occurred, it brought up issues not just with WWE, but how he feels he was perceived earlier in his career. “When the released this shirt of the minstrel show [imagery], it was like, ‘Is that what I am? Am I just a joke? Am I just like something that no one takes serious? Is that what I am?’”

ACH also addressed how smiling becoming part of his NXT persona:

I was told to smile because that’s a Vince thing. Vince likes that. Now, when I got there I wasn’t smiling at all, I would come out and I’d have a straight face and I would wrestle. That was my thing. And I was told ‘you should smile more.’ And I went, ‘Okay, you want me to smile more? You got it.’ And I smiled, and I smiled a fucking lot. And I’m one of those people if you tell me to do something and if I’m not feeling it, I’m going to do it because it’s my job, but I’m going turn that motherfucker up to a 10, and that’s exactly what I did.

Despite the character change, ACH said he was still having a good time in NXT until the T-shirt incident.

Then they released that shirt and I got angry. And I made a lot of comments that I’m not going to take back because that’s just how I feel. Now, could I have said them a lot better? Absolutely. Absolutely. I said a lot of things out of anger. If I had said those things a little bit more intelligently and calmly and came from a real place and not an angry place, it would have been okay. But I was just so angry and mad and disrespected and I just feel like a joke.

He says he talked to management about the shirt before addressing it on social media because “mistakes can happen,” but never got a clear explanation.

This guy [the shirt designer] lied to my face. He said that I approved the shirt when I didn’t approve that shirt. That was another thing that got me hot, when they released the ‘He approved of it.’ No, I didn’t. The dude told me that was Triple H’s vision for me. So how am I supposed to feel if I work for this guy and he thinks that’s what I look like?

ACH says he was told the design was meant to look like the famous Rolling Stones lips logo, but he looked at the designs side by side and thought they looked nothing alike. ACH offered an alternate logo for his shirt and says he offered to collaborate on another design, but the designer told him that Triple H wanted to stick with the first design. When ACH talked to Triple H about the issues, the WWE executive told him, “I thought you approved this.”

After the issue went unresolved and the shirt was released (briefly – it was taken down after people pointed out it looked like the racist depictions of black people from minstrel shows), ACH took to social media about the issue. With the Submission Squad, ACH addressed his mindset at the time and some of his comments, including when he controversially called ROH star Jay Lethal an “Uncle Tom.”

ACH says he used to look up to Lethal, but they did not get along in ROH and he knew they never would after an incident where Lethal slapped him. ACH says he still has “a lot of resentment” because of that and, “Maybe I should have not called him that. I should have used something else, definitely not an Uncle Tom. But I was angry and upset. At the time, I felt like he was an Uncle Tom.”

ACH described the kind of anger he had at the time as “toxic” and “unhealthy.” Though many online commenters went further and said his behavior must be the result of mental illness, ACH says that wasn’t the case.

I honestly wish I could have done things differently. I feel like I had people trying to tell me to use mental issues as not as an excuse, but you know, say that’s the thing. You know, ‘your anxiety or your depression…’ to help smooth things over. But I’m not one of those people. I don’t come up with excuses for myself. I was angry… I’m not going to be like, ‘Oh, sorry guys, like, mental illness!” because people deal with this stuff in serious ways. That’s a serious issue. I’m not going to publicly say things like that to smooth things over…

ACH went on to describe his online behavior as “a meltdown.”

I had a freaking meltdown in front of the entire world. That’s really what happened. I had a meltdown. I broke down in front of the entire world. The only thing is that people didn’t see me cry…

Truth be told, it’s all my fault. It’s all my fault. I’ll take the blame for this. I could have easily just put the phone down. I could have easily deleted my Twitter app like I normally do. Like, I didn’t have to go on there and say all those things, but I chose to because I was angry, and I felt like I needed to get a lot of stuff off my chest and that’s just not a place to get stuff off your chest. Social media’s just not the place.

Though he says the incident killed his passion for pro wrestling for a while, ACH ends the interview sounding ready to return to the ring once wrestling can resume. In his words: “This could be a really cool comeback or a really shitty ending.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has to be a real letdown for the Class of 2020. They’ve worked years to earn their graduation, prom, baccalaureate, and senior banquets all to have it wiped away by the pandemic.

The end of the 2020 school year is also a disappointment for teachers and staff at schools across the country. They also feel a sense of tremendous pride in watching their students graduate.

Virdie Montgomery, the principal of Wylie High School in Texas, didn’t feel like he was doing enough to congratulate the class of 2020, so he decided he would do so in person to all 612 graduating seniors.

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After all, the self-described “66-year-old, fat, bald principal” was known for his exuberant school spirit. He once dressed as an Elf on the Shelf and perched himself on top of the school’s marquee to celebrate the holidays.

via Virdie Montgomery / Facebook

“I get emotional real easy with my kids,” he told WFAA. “And I just didn’t feel like I was doing enough. It just seemed like the right thing to do.”

So the principal and his wife jumped in their car and got to work.

“She told me I was crazy,” Montgomery said. “I tell you what, that first day, at the end of the first day it felt like I had made a mistake. Because it was hard,” he said. He delivered a Snickers candy bar to each student and it came along with a dad joke.

He told them each that they’d look back on these days and “snicker.” “I delivered that joke nearly 600 times. So it’s pretty lame,” he admitted.

“I just love our kids and they have awesome families I have found,” he wrote on Facebook. “If I missed someone it was totally by chance.”

It took 12 days and put over 800 miles on his car’s odometer but Montgomery and his wife were able to reach all 612 seniors at trips to 636 addresses.

“I am now a well-traveled Wylie person and found parts of the town I did not know existed and so many Pirates that live on the other side of town was humorous as well,” he wrote on Facebook.

The principal hopes that someday his school will be able to hold a graduation ceremony for the Class of 2020. Texas’s statewide stay-at-home order ended on Thursday so people are starting to get back to normal.

Non-essential businesses, including shopping malls, retail establishments, movie theaters, are now allowed to operate at 25% capacity. Museums, libraries, and restaurants are now open as longs as people practice social distancing.

Large gatherings in the state are still forbidden until further notice.

Montgomery’s trip surely brightened the days of his students on lockdown, but it meant just as much to him. “All I know is that for me it was something I needed to do,” he said, “I can’t adequately describe the reward it is to get to do this and see these kids in their natural environment.”

When we talk about the coronavirus pandemic, we often talk about numbers. How many cases. How many deaths. How many recoveries.

But the true impact of the virus goes far beyond those statistics. We’ve seen this in harrowing stories from medical workers on the front line and from people who have made it out of hospitalization.

While there’s so much we still don’t know about COVID-19, as more people recover we get more stories of what the disease can do. We know that it can infect people with no symptoms. We know that it can kill. What we see less often is what it can do to those who get sick but don’t die.

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Barry Mangione is a pediatric physical therapist who contracted the virus just over a month ago. As a healthy 50-year-old with no underlying health conditions, one might assume he’d weather the illness without too much trouble. But as he described in a Facebook post, this isn’t a “get it and get over it” kind of disease for many people who have officially recovered.

Mangione wrote:

COVID19 is a continuum.

I want to hopefully shed some light amid the confusion. There is a continuum of COVID19 in between ‘you die’ and ‘you get over it and return to normal.’ Today is day 31 for me. I tested negative on day 27. Yesterday out of nowhere, I was hit with crippling fatigue and chills. My cough is almost gone, and I’ve been fever-free for two weeks, but when it comes to COVID19, testing negative doesn’t mean it’s over. For all who talk about wanting it to spread among the healthy to encourage ‘herd immunity,’ let me ask you: if you get sick with COVID19, how do you know how sick you’ll get? I’m a healthy 50 year old with no underlying medical conditions. Those of you who know me know that I am passionately devoted to developing and maintaining mental, physical, and spiritual health.

I’m a pediatric physical therapist. I work in homecare with infants and toddlers. Prior to COVID19, I would travel to people’s homes and work with up to ten children a day for 30 minutes each. Prior to COVID19, I struggled with insomnia, but I could still get up after a nearly sleepless night and rock my day job. Now, I can get a full night’s sleep and be wiped out after doing a couple of telehealth sessions with kids via Zoom. Let me repeat that. I used to travel to different homes, play with up to ten kids a day, and now some days I’m exhausted after sitting at a desk and talking to parents via a screen.

I talk to other COVID19 survivors who still experience symptoms after 30, even 40 days, symptoms like kidney pain, fevers, coughing, fatigue, shortness of breath, headaches, circulation problems, loss of smell, loss of taste, body aches, rashes, back pain…

This is not an all-or-nothing virus. It’s not ‘you die’ or ‘you don’t die.’ When we see the numbers of people who’ve ‘recovered from COVID19’ posted to illustrate how it’s not that bad, those numbers don’t take the lingering health issues and symptoms into account.

Please think about this when you question social distancing. Please think about this when you question wearing a mask in public. Ask yourself, ‘Can I be sick for over a month or more? Can I deal with the uncertainty of when or if this sickness will go away if I get it?’

I’m not looking for sympathy or trying to scare anyone, and I don’t want to diminish the memories of those who’ve died or the pain felt by their loved ones. I grieve for them all. What I hope I’m doing is giving you another tool in addition to gloves, masks, and social distancing to keep yourselves, your loved ones, and all of us safe and healthy: knowledge that this is real, knowledge that we don’t know enough about it yet, and that the continuum of COVID19 is more complicated than dead versus ‘recovered.’

Please stay safe, my friends.

Mangione’s story is important not just for our understanding of what the virus can look like for those who have “recovered,” but also for our understanding of what it might look like if we were to shoot for herd immunity. Despite the much higher death count that would result, it seems that more and more people are leaning toward trying to achieve herd immunity through letting 60% to 80% of the population get infected with the virus instead of waiting a year or more for a vaccine. Some are surprisingly willing to accept more deaths in exchange for saving the economy—but would it actually save the economy? Imagine a large portion of the population getting sick in the way Mangione describes. What would that do to the economy, when millions of people are too sick to work for a month or more? (Though some people will fly through infection without any symptoms, we don’t have proof yet that asymptomatic cases will outnumber those who actually do fall ill.)

Until we have a reliable treatment or vaccine, we’re going to have to get used to the idea of life not going back to normal. We’re either locked down with fewer illnesses and deaths and a choked-off economy, or we’re dealing with millions sick and dying and still end up in an economic crisis.

Because we don’t yet know the full impact of the virus, and there’s no way to predict how it will affect an individual or how many people they might infect if they get it, health experts are not recommending letting the virus run its course through society. It’s not as simple as “Eh, I’m not old or immunocompromised, so I’m not worried.” Getting sick and getting over it isn’t how this is playing out for many people.

As we continue learning more, keep yourself and your community safe and well by continuing to practice social distancing and good hygiene even as things start to “open up.” As frustrating as it is, we’re not anywhere near out of the woods with this virus.

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The National Women’s Soccer League followed in the footsteps of Major League Soccer on Monday, announcing that players will be able to use outdoor team training fields for solo practice sessions starting May 6. These individual workout sessions will be voluntary and will comply with the league’s “Return to Play Phased Protocol.” The “Return to Play Phased Protocol” was created by the NWSL’s medical task force and details all health and safety guidelines in addition to requiring teams to respect all government mandates.

Preseason for the league’s eighth season began on March 4, but NWSL Commissioner Lisa Baird swiftly announced its suspension on March 12 due to the spread of the global coronavirus pandemic. As a result, the 2020 regular season did not kick off as scheduled on April 18, and the league-wide moratorium on full team training remains in place through and including May 15.

Beginning May 6, players who participate in the voluntary, individual workouts will not have access to locker rooms, weight rooms and indoor team training rooms. Only players who require medical treatment are allowed to use team weight rooms and training rooms. An essential staff member will, while maintaining social distancing, be allowed to oversee training in this phase to ensure that players are following all league and team protocols. According to the league statement, the NWSL hopes to have teams go through specific “phases” until full team training and play can resume. Many teams in the German Bundesliga also followed this first phase of only allowing individual practice sessions and is hoping to resume play later this month.

While the league is allowing players to use team’s outdoor training fields, it requires that each team get approval from their medical staff before making any decisions, screen participating players daily for COVID-19 symptoms, thoroughly clean and disinfect all commonly touched surfaces daily and limit the number of staff to only include essential personnel. Additionally, players who are fulfilling self-quarantine for any reason are not allowed to enter team practice facilities and everyone has been advised to continue to adhere to the Center for Disease Control’s guidelines for good hygiene which include refraining from touching your face, washing your hands often and thoroughly and practice social distancing.

According to Steven Goff of the Washington Post, the NWSL is eyeing May 16 for the return of training camp, which would make it the earliest American sports league to return. The league also told all of its players at the end of April that they should return to their team markets within two weeks for medical exams. While it remains to be seen if the NWSL can actually hold its season this year, the NWSL might be better suited than some other men’s leagues to due to its smaller operating numbers and a higher ability to adapt to changing circumstances. As Forbes’ Howard Megdal wrote, “consider that while every league requires the coming together of hundreds of people to fully operate, the NWSL has just nine teams, making such an undertaking exponentially easier (though still, let’s be clear, extremely difficult with unknown variables) than, for instance, Major League Soccer.”

If nothing below suits your sensibilities, check out our guide to What You Should Watch On Streaming Right Now.

9-1-1 (Fox, 8:00 p.m.) — Athena risks her life to find the serial rapist terrorizing the community while the team races to save a little girl trapped in a runaway hot air balloon.

Creepshow (AMC, 10:00 p.m.) — Shudder brings its popular horror anthology series to AMC tonight, and the show’s first episode — one that centers on severed doll heads and a father’s devious drinking habit — looks like sufficient nightmare fuel.

The Bachelor: Listen to Your Heart (ABC, 8:00 p.m.) — The six remaining couples switch partners and go on dates with someone in another couple in order to test their relationships and their chemistry on stage, and off.

The Neighborhood (CBS, 8:00/ 8:30 p.m.) — Malcolm, Marty, and Grover have an unwelcomed adventure at the county fair while Dave enlists Calvin’s help in improving the neighborhood after a near hit-and-run. When he decides to run for city council, a photo from his past threatens to derail Dave’s campaign.

All Rise (CBS, 9:00 p.m.) — With Los Angeles under strict stay-in-place orders and trials piling up, Judge Benner authorizes Judge Carmichael to preside over a virtual bench trial.

Roswell, New Mexico (CW, 9:00 p.m.) — Rosa makes a life-changing decision as Max searches for Cameron despite Liz’s warnings to take it easy and Michael worries over Maria’s mental health.

Regardless of what else is going on in the world, nobody can take holidays away from us. Sure, many of us are working from home, socially distancing from friends and family, and generally feeling weird about day-to-day life. But we can still enjoy the upcoming spring and summer holidays. In fact, it feels sort of essential for maintaining even a vague sense of normalcy.

The first on the docket is Cinco de Mayo and you bet we’re going to make an all-you-can-eat home taco buffet and drink more tequila than we probably should. But we’re not interested in beginning Seis de Mayo with a killer hangover, so we’re not ordering a plastic handle of bottom shelf swill. Instead, we’re asking some of our favorite bartenders to tell us the tequilas they wish more people knew about and letting them guide the way.

Santera Anejo

Nate Fishman, bartender at Liquor Lab in New York City

Santera Tequila is made in the traditional brick oven method, which results in a smooth and enjoyable finish. Santera also has a bunch of great recipes on Instagram for the at home bartender to get crafty with on Cinco de Mayo. It is a collector’s tequila at an everyday tequila price.

Forteleza Reposado

Ellen Talbot, lead bartender at Fable Lounge in Nashville

Espolon Blanco in a margarita. It’s affordable and made with 100% Blue Weber Agave. For shots, try Forteleza Reposado. Forteleza is made using a 100% tahona mill process, providing smooth, silky vanilla notes.

Clase Azul Reposado

Matt Shields, bartender at The Bay Restaurant in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida

If you’re balling in a budget for Cinco or looking for happy hour specials, this tequila won’t be on there — but Clase Azul Reposado is one of the best tequilas in the marketplace. No mix, no lime, no chill, just neat.

Código Blanco

Saeed “Hawk” House, bartender at Ever Bar in Los Angeles

The best tequila to drink on Cinco de Mayo is Código Blanco. I like their blanco a lot because not only is it great in a margarita, Paloma, etc., it is also great in a tequila tonic. If you don’t want to go through the hassle of shaking up multiple cocktails for you and your friends, consider grabbing Código Blanco and Fever-Tree Citrus Tonic, and pouring up some two-ingredient highballs. Garnish it with a lime wedge, and you’re good to go.

Coralejo Reposado

Blake Jones, bartender and director of beverage at The Kennedy in Pensacola, Florida

I’m a huge fanboy of Coralejo and Fortaleza. Both put out great products and have such a good clean finish. Great neat, on the rocks, chilled or in a cocktail. It doesn’t matter the application.

Clase Azul Anejo

Gabriela Dimovska, general manager at V DTLA in Los Angeles

I would choose Clase Azul Anejo for my Cinco de Mayo celebrations. I think it’s a delicious tequila to both drink on its own or in a cocktail (best served on ice, in my opinion). Also, the bottle is a blue & white hand crafted and painted ceramic majestic bottle that would spice up any liquor shelf or cabinet, both at home and in a bar.

Olmeca Altos Reposado

Danielle Becker, bartender at the Aspen Meadows Resort in Aspen, Colorado

Hands down my favorite tequila for cocktail mixing is Olmeca Altos. It’s so smooth, so clean and the price is spectacular for a 100% agave, hand cut and tahona ground traditionally-made tequila. Honestly, it should be in every bar that wants to create great tequila drinks.

Hornitos Black Barrel

Freddy Concepcion Ucan Tuz, bartender at JW Marriott in Cancun, Mexico

Hornitos Black Barrel: A tequila which is aged in used American barrels in the Scottish way. Toasted with vanilla notes it is both balanced and very smooth in the palate. A perfect combination with dessert, too — as it can combine very well with chocolate. Overall, a great tequila for drinking on the Cinco de Mayo with friends and family.

Don Julio Blanco

Wesley MacDonald, owner of Caña Bar and Kitchen in Curaçao

Most people know this one, but Don Julio Blanco will always have a special place for me as is it a consistently delicious tequila. Smooth, crisp and versatile in any cocktail and the great heritage of Don Julio lives throughout the spirit. Added bonus its affordability and availability.

Milagro Anejo

Jaime Salas, Milagro Tequila brand ambassador

Milagro Tequila makes for a great go-to for Cinco de Mayo celebrations. Its versatility in drinks makes it an exceptional choice, not to mention its friendly price point for a finely crafted 100% agave tequila.

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After Rick and Morty fans waited 25 months between the third and fourth seasons, Chris Parnell, who voices Jerry Smith on the hit animated series, has some good news going forward.

While talking to TV Line, Parnell promised a much shorter wait between seasons now that Rick and Morty co-creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland locked down a 70-episode order from Adult Swim. “[Dan and Justin] wanted some job security, and they wanted to know that the show was going to be around for a while so that they and the writers could get into some sort of momentum,” Parnell said. “We’ll see less lengthy breaks between seasons going forward because of that.”

Parnell also fielded questions about what it’s like voicing, Jerry, the most pathetic character on the series. Don’t get him wrong, Parnell thinks playing Jerry is awesome and loves that he works in his own way, but the SNL alum also admits that he’s pretty much in the dark as to how his performance will fit into each episode. When asked what sort of shenanigans Jerry will get into in the fourth season, Parnell had very little idea:

The only thing I really remember is that he takes up beekeeping. That’s the thing that I remember. Beyond that, I couldn’t really tell you. Watching the trailer, I was reminded of the face-hugger episode. Honestly, after I record the show, I kind of forget it. Then I watch it a year or so later, and I think, “Oh yeah, I kind of remember that!” It’s fun, because I don’t have any expectations or memory of what I did. Hopefully I’ll be pleasantly surprised — or at least pleased with my performance.

To put a further point on it, Parnell was specifically asked if the season finale, “Star Mort: Rickturn of the Jerri,” will be a Jerry-focused episode, he just laughed and said, “I would guess so.”

In the meantime, if fans are worried that the ongoing health crisis will have an impact on Rick and Morty‘s production, the show made a surprising pandemic reference in Sunday night’s mid-season premiere. The last minute addition amazed even Parnell who admitted in a separate interview that he had no idea that the show could pivot that quickly to current events like South Park. It’s definitely an encouraging sign for the days ahead.

“I’ve only seen the trailers so I did not know that had been put in,” Parnell told GamesRadar+. “That’s amazing. I guess obviously very late in the game they can add that stuff.”

(Via TVLine & GamesRadar)

The NFL is moving its 2020 five-game International Series back to the U.S. due to the global coronavirus pandemic, the league announced in a statement Monday. The NFL was scheduled to play two games at Wembley Stadium and two at Tottenham Hotspur’s home ground in London, as well as one game in in Mexico City at Azteca Stadium although no dates were announced.

Additionally, the Arizona Cardinals, Atlanta Falcons, Jacksonville Jaguars and Miami Dolphins were the four organizations set to be home teams during the International Series. Instead, these teams will now play all of their home games at their respective stadiums in the U.S. — assuming that the 2020 NFL season is played as scheduled in the fall.

“After considerable analysis, we believe the decision to play all our games domestically this season is the right one for our players, our clubs, and all our fans in the US, Mexico and UK,” said NFL Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy & Growth Officer Christopher Halpin in the statement. “We greatly appreciate the support of our governmental and stadium partners in Mexico and the United Kingdom, who all agree with this decision, and we look forward to returning for games in both countries in the 2021 season.”

The International Series was started in 2007 as a way to grow the NFL’s global fanbase, and the games in the United Kingdom were broadcast on Sky Sports and BBC Sports. Since the series began, the NFL has held at least one regular season game in London every year and the Jaguars have hosted one game there every season since 2013. In recent seasons, the games have grown in popularity and the number of international fans has surged. Last year, Reuters reported that ticket demand for the NFL’s five international games had jumped 55% compared to in 2018. Additionally, the number of domestic ticket sales to international fans traveling to the U.S. to watch a game increased by 19% last season, with most of the demand coming from Canada, Mexico, Australia, the UK and Germany.

The NFL is expected to release the full 2020 schedule later this week.