Month: May 2020

Here are your quick and editorial-free WWE NXT results for May 20, 2020. The show featured Rhea Ripley vs. Io Shirai and more Interim Cruiserweight Champion Tournament action. Make sure you’re back here tomorrow for the complete Best and Worst of NXT column.
WWE NXT results:
– The episode opened with an “In memory of Shad Gaspard” graphic.
1. Karrion Kross (with Scarlett) quickly defeated a jobber by submission with the Kross Jacket.
– Tommaso Ciampa entered after the match and introduced himself to Kross. He cut a promo about how they are both special and they will have a match at the June 7th TakeOver.
– A video package recapped the cruiserweight tournament so far.
2. Interim Cruiserweight Champion Tournament match: El Hijo del Fantasma defeated Akira Tozawa, pinning him with Thrill of the Hunt. Fantasma is now the winner of Group B and will compete in the tournament final.
– Timothy Thatcher challenged Matt Riddle to a match that can only be won by knockout or submission.
– Shotzi Blackheart talked about her tank, punk rock past, and ballsy attitude. She cut a promo on the NXT women’s division while crushing cars in a tank.
3. Mia Yim defeated Santana Garrett.
– Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae entered and sarcastically congratulated Yim, then mocked her about her loss to Charlotte Flair. They said LeRae would have defeated Flair if she was given that opportunity, and they would show Yim what happens in their NXT when someone gets an opportunity they don’t deserve. Keith Lee saved Yim from the subsequent attack and the pair faced off against Gargano and LeRae.
– Cameron Grimes cut a promo about his defeat of Finn Balor.
– Drake Maverick cut a promo about the cruiserweight tournament.
4. Roderick Strong defeated Dexter Lumis by roll-up. After the match, Lumis locked the kata gatame on Strong and the other Undisputed Era members tried to save their friend. Velveteen Dream saved Lumis from the UE attack.
– During the commercial break, Hijo del Fantasma and Akira Tozawa had a friendly post-match chat. When Fantasma got in his car to leave, masked men drove up and beat up Tozawa. They drove away when confronted by Fantasma.
5. Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch defeated Ever-rise by submission.
– Keith Lee cut a promo on Johnny Gargano.
– Matt Riddle accepted Thatcher’s challenge and named their match’s location: “the cage.”
6. Interim Cruiserweight Champion Tournament match: Drake Maverick defeated Kushida with a roll-up. Jake Atlas supported Maverick from outside the barricade.
– Byron Saxton entered to deliver a message from William Regal: because Maverick, Atlas, and Kushida are all 2-1 with the same head-to-head record, they will wrestle a triple threat match next week to determine who will face El Hijo del Fantasma in the tournament final.
– Atlas vs. Kushida vs. Maverick and Riddle vs. Thatcher were announced for next week’s episode of NXT.
– Damian Priest cut a promo on Finn Balor.
– Ciampa vs. Kross was officially announced for NXT TakeOver: In Your House.
7. Rhea Ripley vs. Io Shirai ended in a no-contest when Charlotte Flair attacked the competitors. Flair posed with her title to end the show.

Here are your quick and dirty, editorial-free AEW Dynamite results for May 20, 2020. The show featured a Women’s Tag Match, Jon Moxley versus 10 of he Dark Order, Matt hardy versus Sammy Guevara, and more. Make sure you’re here tomorrow for the complete Ins and Outs of AEW Dynamite column.
AEW Dynamite Results:
— The show opened with the Inner Circle arriving at Daily’s Place in a stretch limo. Jericho bragged that what they did to Vanguard 1 is nothing compared to what they’re going to do to the Elite.
— Mr. Brodie Lee came out with several of his follows, including 10, who he ordered to take a knee. Lee said that people think he’s unrelatible, but he’s just a man like anyone else, except that he operates at a more elite level. Then he sent 10 to the ring for his match.
1. Jon Moxley defeated 10.
Don’t need to ask @JonMoxley twice for his weekend plans! #AEWDynamite #AEWonTNT pic.twitter.com/ntfqhwQZqB
— TDE Wrestling (@tde_gif) May 21, 2020
— After the match, Moxley threw two chairs into the wrong, then he put 10’s arm through one of the chairs and stood on it. Mox threatened to break 10’s arm unless Brodie Lee came out to face him. Brodie appeared on the titantron and said that he’s leaving, but he’ll see Mox on Saturday. Moxley attacked 10’s trapped arm with the other chair.
2. MJF defeated Marko Stunt. Wardlow interfered by choking Marko against the bottom rope behind the ref’s back, but Marko still got a lot of offense in before he eventually tapped to the Salt of the Earth. After the match, Wardlow held Stunt up while MJF punched him with his ring. Luchasaurus and Jungle Boy ran in to make the save.
BREAKING: @TheArnShow still rules. #AEWDynamite #AEWonTNT pic.twitter.com/Dy1LOo0Wg3
— TDE Wrestling (@tde_gif) May 21, 2020
— Arn Anderson and Jake the Snake Roberts sat at a table in the ring, watched over by Tony Schiavone, and cut promos on each other and their respective charges, Cody Rhodes and Lance Archer. They stood up and Jake threw the table aside, and just when it seemed like there was going to be an Old Man Fight, a bunch of referees ran in and broke it up.
— Darby Allin presented an artsy video building up to Saturday’s ladder match.
— PAC appeared in a video promo saying that he’ll never be forced to sit home doing nothing again, and that he’s sent Fenix to assassinate Orange Cassidy.
Up and down and all around! @orangecassidy #AEWDynamite #AEWonTNT pic.twitter.com/ZBQinZhf1i
— TDE Wrestling (@tde_gif) May 21, 2020
3. Rey Fenix defeated Orange Cassidy. The match was surprisingly competitive, but then Kip Sabian provided a distraction by bringing a ladder to ringside and sitting on top of it to watch the match, and Fenix took Cassidy down for the three-count. After the match, Scorpio Sky and Frankie Kazarian came out and dumped Sabian off the ladder. Then a bunch of other guys came out and it became a huge messy brawl.
4. Nyla Rose and Doctor Britt Baker defeated Kris Statlander and Hikaru Shida. Rose pinned Shida after a Beast Bomb. After the match, Nyla got a table and was about to put Hikaru through it, but Kris interfered to give Hikaru time to recover. Shida superplexed Rose through the table instead.
Nothing’s going to stop @shidahikaru! #AEWDynamite #AEWonTNT pic.twitter.com/9koE7UWOgH
— TDE Wrestling (@tde_gif) May 21, 2020
— Alex Marvez interviewed Jon Moxley, who said that things are only going to get worse from here, and he’s going to put Brodie Lee to sleep at Double Or Nothing.
— Shawn Spears appeared as the anchor of SSN (Shawn Spears News), reporting that Dustin Rhodes has retired after his defeat by Lance Archer, and then he challenged Dustin to a match at Double Or Nothing.
5. Matt Hardy defeated Sammy Guevara. He pinned him after a Twist of Fate.
.@MattJackson13 and #NickJackson are BACK! #AEWDynamite #AEWonTNT pic.twitter.com/f8j751zaJz
— TDE Wrestling (@tde_gif) May 21, 2020
— The Inner Circle were tying Kenny Omega to a goal post at the football stadium, when the Young Bucks appeared to make the save. Matt Hardy ran in too and the show ended with a brawl, with Hangman Adam Page also making an appearance.

ESPN’s The Last Dance finished its massively successful five-week run on Sunday, giving us the fitting conclusion to a series that has captivated viewers as fans around the world try to cope with the extended absence of professional sports. The backlash, however, was inevitable.
Given Michael Jordan’s penchant for nurturing lifelong grudges and taking every opportunity to settle old scores, a docuseries produced under his watch was sure to rankle some feathers. For Jordan, no slight was ever too small. Hell, it didn’t even have to be based in reality in some cases. It is perhaps telling that his own teammates were among his biggest targets.
Horace Grant punched back the hardest, once again scoffing at the allegation that he was Sam Smith’s source for the infamous The Jordan Rules expose and taking it a step further to call Jordan a liar and a snitch for his revealing comments about the illicit parties older Bulls players participated in during the early days of his career.
But he wasn’t the only one unhappy with his portrayal. Scottie Pippen reportedly came away from the series harboring strong feelings about what he apparently sees as a lopsided emphasis on the more complicated parts of his tenure in Chicago. Here’s what David Kaplan said in his ESPN 1000 show, Kap & Co.
According to @thekapman, Scottie Pippen is “so angry” at Michael Jordan on how he was portrayed in the Last Dance. “He is beyond livid.”
(Via ESPN 1000’s Kap and Company)
— Daniel Greenberg (@ChiSportUpdates) May 20, 2020
In fairness, the series didn’t shy away from some of Pippen’s less flattering moments, including the time he refused to check back into a playoff game after Phil Jackson called the final shot for Toni Kukoc, the conference finals game he missed against the Pistons because of a migraine, which Jordan was openly skeptical about in the documentary, and how he demanded a trade and underwent ankle surgery during their final season together in 1998 when he could’ve had the procedure earlier in the offseason.
Still, you could argue that Pippen has emerged from the series relatively unscathed, as most of these instances have been discussed ad nauseam over the years and account for mostly minor blemishes on his NBA legacy. Even Pippen himself admitted that he might no do things differently, given another opportunity. Regardless, Pippen is now officially among the ranks of the many aggrieved parties that the series trained its sights on.

Now that The Last Dance has come to an end, many of us have been left jonesing for whatever Michael Jordan content we can get our hands on. The final two episodes added a little extra to what has already been a wellspring of material, prompting Horace Grant to lash out at his former Bulls teammate for what he saw as an unfair depiction in the documentary.
Questions of objectivity are certainly warranted for a film that was produced in part by its primary subject, and it didn’t help that an episode midway through the series acted as little more than a thinly-veiled promotional piece for Nike and their massively popular Jordan Brand line, sales of which skyrocketed as a result.
But if you’re looking for something that takes a deeper — and presumably more impartial — look at the Air Jordan phenomenon, then the upcoming documentary VICE VERSA: One Man and His Shoes, premiering Monday, May 25 on VICE TV might be for you.
Here’s more from their official press release:
Produced by Break Em Films, the two hour-long special takes a deep dive into the social, cultural, and racial significance of the iconic Air Jordan sneaker. The film explores the innovative marketing that built a multi-billion-dollar business and the dark side of greed and conflict around the shoe. Using a mix of archival footage and graphic animation, the documentary returns viewers to the nostalgic 80’s and 90’s hip hop scene to capture America’s dark love affair with consumer capitalism and celebrity culture.
Directed by Yemi Bamiro, it marks the third in the VICE VERSA series and will feature interviews with former Commissioner David Stern, Jordan’s longtime agent David Falk, the original designer of the sneaker Peter Moore, and many others. It will also feature interviews with reporters who covered the tragic killings that occurred during robberies related to Air Jordan shoes.