There’s not much in the way of concert tours at the moment thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. So, artists are instead shifting gears and getting things lined up for 2021. That includes Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit, who have just announced a run of tour dates for next summer, for which they’ll be joined by Lucinda Williams.
The brief run of dates, which lasts for a few weeks and takes place mostly on the West Coast, stretches from mid-July to early August and includes stops in Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, San Diego, Reno, Salt Lake City, Colorado, Kansas, Little Rock, Dallas, and Austin.
Check out Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit’s upcoming tour dates with Williams below, and revisit our recent interview with Isbell here.
07/19/2021 — Vancouver, BC @ Orpheum Theatre
07/20/2021 — Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theatre
07/23/2021 — San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield
07/24/2021 — San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield
07/25/2021 — Santa Barbara, CA @ Santa Barbara Bowl
07/27/2021 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Greek Theatre
07/28/2021 — San Diego, CA @ Humphrey’s Concerts by the Bay
07/29/2021 — Reno, NV @ Grand Sierra Theatre
07/31/2021 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Eccles Theater
08/01/2021 — Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre
08/03/2021 — Bonner Springs, KS @ Providence Medical Center Amphitheater
08/04/2021 — Little Rock, AR @ First Security Amphitheater
08/06/2021 — Dallas, TX @ The Bomb Factory
08/07/2021 — Austin, TX @ ACL Live at the Moody Theater
08/08/2021 — Austin, TX @ ACL Live at the Moody Theater
Racism is a difficult subject to discuss among adults and it can be just as challenging when talking about it with children. It’s important for parents or teachers to talk about it in a way that’s age-appropriate and to address any strong emotions that are caused by the discussion.
Talking about about race with kids can be difficult, but avoiding the conversation helps perpetuate racism.
“Because institutional racism is so ingrained and so automatic and so accepted, without enough people wanting to enact true, long-lasting change, institutional racism ends up becoming our personal bias. But we still must be held accountable for our actions,” Sarah Gaither, assistant professor psychology and neuroscience at Duke University, told CNN Health.
Over the past few weeks, the topic of race in America has come to the forefront of the national conversation after the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Abrey and Breonna Taylor. While these deaths have caused unbelievable grief anger, they present parents and educators with a teachable moment.
Vera Ahiyya, who’s known affectionately as the “TuTu Teacher,” is a Kindergarten teacher in Brooklyn, New York who created a great video explaining the issue of race in America for her students.
Ahiyya does such a great job at talking about a subject at a level that children can understand it’s being viewed and shared by people outside of her classroom.
“You may have noticed, or heard your family talk about what’s happening on the news … Beyond just the COVID virus, which is spreading, we also are combating a different kind of disease,” she begins the clip.
“It’s something that happens with the way that people think,” she adds.
“Some people have the belief that people with black or brown skin should not have the same rights or privileges as people with white skin,” she continues. “This is called racism, and racism has happened in the United States for over 400 years”
“That’s a very long time, and by now, you would think that something so terrible would be gone. But it’s not that easy. Racism, is everywhere and it is our job to stop it,” she continues.
She then gives her students tips on how to handle racism when they see it in the world to stop it from spreading.
“One way to stop racism is to call it out when you see it,” Ahiyya continues. “That means, if you see someone being treated differently because of the color of their skin, you have the voice, you make the choice, to say ‘This is wrong.'”
“You can decide whether to say something, or walk away,” she advises. “But your choice can impact the lives of a lot of people.”
She then shows how people are fighting racism today by protesting in the streets.
“So, right now, what’s happening is a lot of people are making the choice to say ‘that’s wrong, racism is wrong’ and they are talking specifically about racism towards black people,” Ahiyya says,
Ahiyya ends her comments by empowering children to fight back against racism.
“You can do it by writing letters to show your support,” Ahiyya tells them. “You can do it by speaking up when you see something that is very wrong. You can ask questions to your family and friends about how you can do more to help. There’s so many ways to help.”
She concludes the video reading “Let’s Talk About Race” by Julius Lester.
Nostalgia sells. People are constantly looking to some sort of link to a past they remember — think, for instance, of how ESPN just put on a 10-part documentary series about a basketball team from the 1990s that more or less served as an opportunity for sports fans of all ilks to go “Oh, yeah, that team was extremely good.”
This applies to the world of video games, too. Even beyond those who have Triforce tattoos or own shirts that prominently display the Nintendo 64 logo — the hardcore, tried-and-true individuals who tie their identity to their love of video games — more casual gamers will willingly open up their wallets to play something they’ve probably already played before. Think, for instance, of those who forked over enough cash to give Final Fantasy VII Remake the distinction of being the fastest-selling PlayStation 4 exclusive in history.
Money talks, but as is the case with almost everything it can all be in vain if a re-release is not able to meet the lofty expectations that come with having a revered name. For instance, if Final Fantasy VII Remake was anything other than one of the best games of 2020, there would have been an air of disappointment around the release. Fortunately for the folks over at Square Enix, though, the game was released to acclaim, both among those who played the original and have long loved the Final Fantasy series, and those like myself, who had an Xbox growing up and joyously experienced Cloud Strife, Midgar, and Avalanche for the first time with this release.
Final Fantasy VII is not the only game to get the re-make treatment, of course. Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony have all seen the value in mixing in nostalgia with new releases over the years, particularly if it’s part of a wildly popular, console-specific series like Halo, Kingdom Hearts, or Pokemon. Even if remade games are available for a collection of consoles, nostalgia has worked for, say, Resident Evil 3. And later this year, those who have asked for a new skateboarding game of any sort will get a dose of nostalgia when the first two releases in the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series hit modern consoles.
When nostalgia goes poorly, it comes off like a shameless cash grab that disrespects the legacy of something that scores of people hold near and dear to their hearts. When it works, though, nostalgia can breathe new life into something beloved, taking games that everyone remembers and making the process of playing them a joy due to updated controls, graphics, and little touches that just were not feasible due to the limits of technology available at the time of their initial release.
With the console wars set to enter their latest chapter — at least when it comes to Microsoft and Sony — the opportunity to take classic games and give them a modern twist is as tantalizing as ever. Even games that have previously been revamped could get another chance due to the sheer possibilities capable on the PlayStation 5, Switch, or Xbox Series X.
At the time of its release on the Nintendo 64, GoldenEye 007, the first-person shooter based on the James Bond film of the same name, was considered groundbreaking and is high on the list of the greatest video games of all time. In the 23 years since its release, FPS games have taken a gigantic step forward, and even though GoldenEye 007 received updated releases for the Wii and, in the case of GoldenEye 007: Reloaded, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, the sheer magnitude of what is possible for these sorts of games is vast enough that a remake has the potential to be groundbreaking once again. It feels like high time to try it again.
Sticking with legendary N64 games, Star Fox 64, the rebooted version of 1993’s Star Fox, was groundbreaking in its own right. From its multiplayer mode to its choose-your-own-path story mode, the game was a marvel and continues to be a fun, engaging title even today. Personally, there was perhaps no game I poured more time into as a child than Star Fox 64, and the concept of an updated version was a major influence on deciding to write this post.
While a remake for this came out on Nintendo 3DS in 2011, advances in technology could make a more modern Star Fox 64 release even better. For example, this game in particular seems tailor-made for online play. The possibility of building out an entire world and not having a single linear story also seems like it could work perfectly here while paying proper homage to the original.
Nintendo 64 isn’t the only platform that lends itself to fun remakes — although I, for one, would love to see remakes of Donkey Kong 64 and Super Mario 64 on modern platforms. Imagine, for instance, if PlayStation followed a similar script to when it packaged the first three Uncharted games for PlayStation 4 in Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, only it went a half-step further and remade the first three games in the Metal Gear Solid series. Released in 1998 (Metal Gear Solid), 2001 (Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty), and 2004 (Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater), the trio of games have been packaged as part of collections in the past.
The catch here is that the collection that featured the original game dropped in 2004 for GameCube, while the one that included the second and third games received less-than-stellar reviews for PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 in 2011. For a series as popular and influential as Metal Gear, especially considering that it boasts a number of overarching themes that were relevant at the time of its release and are still relevant today a la Final Fantasy VII, a well-done remake that builds on what the series does well while simultaneously using the advancements in tech that have made stealth games some of the most complex in all of gaming would be a joy. And besides, we have not had a Metal Gear Solid release since 2015.
With how vast the world of video games is, the possibilities of doing something with beloved old games is endless. Imagine a remade Perfect Dark, or an updated version of Red Dead Redemption that comes on the heels of 2017’s massive prequel, or any of the games in a series, whether it’s one where we’ve seen other remakes (Zelda, Pokemon, Mario, etc.) or one where that territory hasn’t been covered all that much in the modern era. Any number of titles you loved on an old console fits here, especially if it’s largely been left behind in the modern gaming era.
There is ground that can be covered once again, and as long as it is covered in a way that respects what made the original so great while simultaneously taking advantage of years of technology and progress in the world of gaming, those who fell in love with those games will open up their wallets and sink hours upon hours in the name of nostalgia.
Reality TV stars Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doute have been officially fired from Vanderpump Rules after a former African-American cast member revealed that the two falsely reported her to the police because she looked like a burglary suspect.
Last week, Faith Stowers participated in an Instagram Live Chat where she shared how, in 2018, Schhroeder and Doute saw a Black woman wanted for theft in a Daily Mail article and jumped to the incorrect assumption that the woman was Stowers. Not only did the two reality stars report Stowers to the police, which can have very grave consequences for a Black woman in America, but they bragged about it in interviews and on social media. Variety reports:
Schroeder had talked about the incident in the past and confirmed calling the police during a 2018 appearance on the “Bitch Bible” podcast. Doute tweeted a link to an article at the time about the woman involved in the alleged crime, posting, “hey tweeties, doesn’t this ex #pumprules thief look familiar? someone put her on mtv & gave her a platform for press. I didn’t wanna go there but I’m going there.”
After Stowers’ revelation went viral during the first week of June, Schroeder and Doute apologized, but the damage was already done. Schroeder was dropped by both her publicist and her agent, and she and Doute now join controversial cast members Max Boyens and Brett Caprioni in being fired from Vanderpump Rules over racist actions.
Dublin post-punk rockers Fontaines D.C. released their well-received debut record in 2019. Now, the band is already setting their sights on the future. Fontaines D.C. shared “I Don’t Belong,” the second single off their forthcoming album A Hero’s Death.
“I Don’t Belong” hones the band’s sound while staying true to their post-punk roots with droning guitars and cerebral lyrics. Fontaines D.C. vocalist Grian Chatten insouciantly delivers each lyric over nodding percussion. “I heard him serving as a soldier / In the attics of the earth / Threw himself before a bullet / Threw the medal in the dirt, it’s a man’s worth,” Chatten sings.
Upon announcing A Hero’s Death and sharing the eponymous lead single, the group reflected on their time as a band since releasing their debut album in 2019. “It feels like time hasn’t ticked since we announced our first record just over a year ago,” they said. “We wrote these songs during the 12 months after finishing Dogrel as a necessary reaction to assure ourselves we will always be the band we set out to be. A Sincere thank you to everyone who has supported ur music since and before then.”
Listen to “I Don’t Belong” above.
A Hero’s Death is out 7/31 via Partisan Records. Pre-order it here.
Previously on the Best and Worst of Raw: Nia Jax injured Kairi Sane, Charlotte Flair defeated Asuka, and the Street Profits and Viking Raiders played a dumb sport badly instead of wrestling each other. [checks notes] Wait, was this a re-run?
One more thing: Hit those share buttons! Spread the word about the column on Facebook, Twitter and whatever else you use. Be sure to leave us a comment in our comment section below as well. I know we always ask this, and that this part is copy and pasted in every week, but we appreciate it every week.
And now, the Best and Worst of WWE Raw for June 8, 2020.
Worst: Pardon The (Endless) Interruptions
A plea to WWE’s creative team on every brand: you have got to find another way for characters to naturally interact that isn’t one character interrupting another. “Promos” without interviewers are a curious concept anyway as you’d think there wouldn’t be a line of people waiting to monologue every Monday night, but they’re more curious still when so many of them only exist to set up an interruption. To put it another way, here’s the entire women’s division plot-line from Monday’s Raw, laid out end-to-end:
Asuka is supposed to wrestle Charlotte Flair, but gets interrupted by Bayley and Sasha Banks
Bayley and Sasha are interrupted by Charlotte Flair
Charlotte is interrupted by The IIconics, who announce a Women’s Tag Team Championship match for Backlash
a match happens and Charlotte’s about to win easily but Asuka tags herself in and steals the pin, proving yet again that two singles stars who hate each other and don’t get along can still flatly defeat your Tag Team Champions and the number one contenders to the Tag Team Championship at the same time, with no prep
Charlotte sneak attacks Asuka, because Charlotte always wins, even when she loses
Asuka vs. Charlotte Flair is supposed to happen, but Bayley and Sasha interrupt to sit at commentary
Bayley and Sasha’s commentary is interrupted by a sneak attack from the IIconics
Nia Jax interrupts the match
Charlotte sneak attacks Asuka, because Charlotte always wins
To recap this one episode’s A-story, that’s seven interruptions, the champions losing (or, more accurately, not winning) a non-title match and Charlotte Flair completely dominating across two matches and one-upping Asuka twice with sneak attacks. This doesn’t do anything to promote the Women’s Tag Team Championship match on Sunday because the number one contenders were booked to lose a show-opening match on Raw, and it doesn’t do anything for the Raw Women’s Championship match on Sunday because Charlotte Flair’s the one standing tall, and she’s not even in the damn match. They didn’t even mention her losing the NXT Women’s Championship at In Your House until a backstage interview an hour and 45 minutes into the show, and when they did, she just kinda blew it off.
Having typed out that paragraph, who does this benefit? Not Asuka, who lost one match because she stopped paying attention and got beaten up by her own tag team partner after the other. Not the IIconics, who are “building momentum” for a title match on Sunday by tapping out clean to a team that’s not involved in the title match. Not Bayley and Sasha, who showed up to celebrate their four-day-old tag title reign only to immediately lose their first match as champions. Plus, they got beaten down by the team that lost in the opening match. Nia Jax is a non-factor until the closing moments of the main event, presumably to keep her from wheeling a wood chipper into the building and accidentally throwing her opponent into it. She never even gets into the ring, she just stands in the background while Charlotte celebrates.
So, to answer your question, “Charlotte.” It benefits Charlotte Flair, somehow. Charlotte Flair, who is not on the Backlash card, at the expense of Asuka, Bayley, Sasha Banks, Billie Kay, Peyton Royce, and Nia Jax, all of whom are. NXT and Smackdown will ALSO be used to glorify Charlotte. I’m not even complaining at this point, it’s just funny. Shawn Michaels, Hulk Hogan, John Cena, and Roman Reigns are watching Raw together somewhere and thinking, “Wow, they’re really cramming her down our throats, aren’t they?”
Best: There Are Some Bests
Really, there are. I’m just losing my patience with “interruption is interrupted by interruption” as a thing happening multiple times on every episode of every WWE show produced. If they didn’t happen so often, they might matter when they did. As it stands, you’re a fool if you walk to the ring by yourself to talk to the camera and don’t expect 1-7 people to butt in.
Asuka vs. Charlotte was good. Really good. Even Charlotte’s moonsault off the security railing almost connected flush, which has kinda started to feel like she’s wearing a blindfold at a bowling alley and trying to roll a strike. They’ve got incredible chemistry with one another, and Charlotte’s the exact right amount of confident and naturally talented to have a legend like Asuka keep her focused and playing the best version of herself. The three-brand-wide Charlotte push is borderline bewildering and I hate getting 99% of the way through a banger 20-minute main event only to Raw all over it, but I guess even that’s designed to make me want to blame Nia. And since WWE’s beaten me into whataboutist insanity, I’m happy they’re doing wrestling between the hacky story stuff instead of running the exact same program but keeping the matches between three minutes and 90 seconds. They did that for YEARS.
Outside of that match, Bayley’s been on a different level of comedic obnoxiousness lately, so hearing her sneer and cackle her way through commentary while sounding EXACTLY like a middle-schooler who’d try to get Stephanie Tanner to be coo and smoke cigarettes is delightful. And you guys know I approve of anything that gets the IIconics on television and doing something. The amount of Billie Kay slander I see on Al Gore’s internet continues to disappoint me.
TL;DR: I really like (most of) these performers and I like watching them work, I just wish they had some better and more uncommon, actually character-based stories and situations to work with. There are more emotions and plots out there than “somebody’s jealous,” and more interesting physicality for pro wrestlers working 52+ shows a year than interruptions, run-ins, disqualifications, and sneak attacks.
Study question: Remember when Bianca Belair debuted on Raw? They sure had some great ideas ready to go for that, huh?
Worst: Dominick Is Definitely The Third Disciple
Speaking of interruptions, Rey Mysterio Facetimes in with a followup to his retirement promo from last week and gets interrupted by Seth Rollins. Why Mysterio needed a followup interview when the only point he made in the first one was, “I don’t know if I’m going to retire and I’ll probably be back soon,” is beyond me. Rollins invites them to Raw again, and Rey promises that he’s not going to wait until the end of the match to do the 619, he’s going to do it as soon as the bell rings. I love that Seth Rollins tried to force Rey’s retirement and tried to straight up murder him on live television by pushing the corner of the ring steps into his brain through his eye socket, and Rey’s heated response is, “I can’t wait until the match officially begins, I’m going to stay within the parameters of the rules and then swing around in the ropes to bop you in the forehead with my shins you son of a bitch.”
Let’s hope Rollins is working from the Hollywood Hogan David Flair playbook and has secretly already welcomed his rival’s son into his wrestling gang, because his current henchmen really could use some work. Remember when Buddy Murphy was supposed to be the perfect antithesis to Aleister Black, and always felt one good series of moves away from defeating him? Now Black’s pinning him easily a couple of minutes into a match off transition moves. Murphy didn’t even need to get with SIGNATURES to lose.
The heels “get their heat back” after the match, but much like the promo interruptions it’d probably be more effective if we hadn’t just watched them get completely crunched. I can’t remember a time when I saw somebody lose a match and attack their opponent afterward to “stand tall” and thought, “wow, maybe THEY really won! I can’t wait to see this settled in a rematch!” Theory and Murphy beat Carrillo and Black last week and beat them up after the match, so this week they lose the same match, and do more or less the same post-match attack. That “wins and losses matter” thing AEW likes to push is more of a catchphrase than anything, but the subtle truth is that they really are the only thing that matter. They construct the sport that provides foundational support to your medium of storytelling. Paying attention to wrestling characters without paying equal attention to wrestling matches (and vice versa) is like painting without paint. You can find some other goop to throw on the canvas and make it LOOK like paint, but wouldn’t it be a hell of a lot nicer to have some fucking paint?
Shout-out to Austin Theory, though. That dude leveraged a global pandemic to elevate his spot in WWE from “NXT special guest jobber” to “high-ranking henchman who has been a part of two heel factions on Raw” in just three months. It’s like if Raul Mendoza got kidnapped by luchadores in the Full Sail parking lot in March and was a two-time Intercontinental Champion by June. Scab, young man, scab.
Worst: Dick Move, Apollo
Last week, new United States Champion Apollo Crews thanked Kevin Owens for his recent assistance against Los Ingobernables de Central Florida by giving him the first shot at the title. That match ended with (SURPRISE) an interruption and turned into a tag team match. Player. So this week, instead of, you know, giving Kevin Owens the match he was promised, Apollo shows up like, “congratulations, Kevin, I got you a spot in a triple threat number one contender match where the other two guys are the tag team we’ve been feuding with. No, I can’t help you, I’m gonna walk straight to the back and stand beside a flat screen television so I can look over my shoulder and watch it. HAVE FUN ON YOUR OWN, BYEEEE.” Dick move, Apollo.
Left out there on his own, Owens gets beaten down 2-on-1 until the heels have a Malfunction At The Junction — some junctions only seem to service constant malfunctions — and start half-assedly fighting each other as well. Dude fights from underneath the ENTIRE MATCH only to finally hit a finisher on one of them, get tossed out of the ring by the other, and lose. Again, I feel like Crews could’ve at least hung out at ringside and provided moral support while the only guy on the roster who gives a shit about him tryies to win a handicap match for an opportunity he was already promised. Babyfaces are crazy, y’all.
Worst: Wrestling Is Also An Olympic Event, You Guys
The Street Profits and The Viking Raiders are feuding over the Raw Tag Team Championship in a series of sporting events that have nothing to do with wrestling or the Raw Tag Team Championship. So far they’ve played basketball, tossed axes, golfed, and bowled. Now they’ve decided to settle things once and for all with an OLYMPIC DECATHLON, not stopping for even a second to think it could end 5-5 and solve nothing. Odd numbers, guys. This is why you don’t see any “best of six series.”
Events include sword fighting, STICK fighting (which is like sword fighting, but instead of losing by dying you just fall into some milk), a wrestling entrance theme dance-off, a turkey leg eating contest, and a pole vault filmed in extreme close-ups. I’d make a joke about how obviously that disguises the fact that nobody in the group can pole vault, but this is the show where getting pushed into the security railing and back requires 11 jump cuts, so maybe the camera men just have bad eyesight.
Win, Lose, Or Drew
Somewhere in the middle of the episode, MVP decides he’s going to interview his own wrestler, Bobby Lashley, on his themed in-universe pro wrestling talk show. With Christian stopping in to do “The Peep Show,” it’s a good week for concepts from 15 years ago. Maybe next week we can have Charlotte Flair confront Asuka on Carlito’s Cabana.
Anyway, the Drew McIntyre vs. Bobby Lashley story continues like you’d expect. So far all we’ve really gotten is that MVP has replaced Lana as Lashley’s wife and got him to get serious about his wrestling career by doing a bunch of full nelsons. WWE Champ McIntyre is like, “YEAH, FULL NELSON ME, LET’S DO THE DEAL,” presumably because he wants regular competition that isn’t Brock Lesnar or the Big Show. Lashley won’t stop Masterlocking folks, McIntyre won’t stop kicking MVP in the face for literally any reason that pops into his head, and they’re going to fight about it at Backlashley.
The WWE Championship plot and the Raw Tag Team Championship Jerkoff Competition come together in the main event, when McIntyre understandably thinks the Viking Raiders are cool and enlists them as backup and tag team partners against Lashley and MVP. They have a two-on-two tag team match with the Street Profits watching, which ends in the Vikings … [checks notes again] tapping out and losing. Nothing says “we are the best tag team in the world” by skipping work to bowl and golf and then losing the first match you’ve had in like two months to a singles star and his manager.
The Profits seem to be out there so someone can hold Lashley’s full nelson in place so it can get broken up b a Claymore. Sorry for everything, tag team division!
The segments here aren’t notably bad in that “Lashley’s sisters” kind of way and McIntyre vs. Lashley at Backlash might rip, but the Raw content’s still pretty uninspired. I’m no expert, but I’d recommend giving your tag teams something more productive to do than play putt-putt and stooge for more important characters, but I guess a history of decisions like that is a lot of why we are where we are. As long as Lana doesn’t drag poor Rusev back into this feud, I think it’ll be all right.
Worst: And Finally, The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever
When Tom Phillips intros any Edge vs. Randy Orton content on the episode, he refers to it as, “what many are calling the greatest wrestling match ever.” “What many are calling” is some Donald Trump shit. Who is “many?” Do you mean the Raw announce team, the Smackdown announce team, and Charly Caruso? Because you guys are the ones promoting it like this. On an internet with millions of wrestling fans and a true rainbow of diverse, subjective opinions, I can’t imagine one person on the whole damn earth who’d see Randy Orton vs. Edge announced for Backlash and think, “a 45-minute violent brawl at WrestleMania was one thing, but a standard wrestling match between a guy who hasn’t wrestled a one-on-one match in nine years and the slow stomps and even slower chinlocks of Randy Orton? This is going to be the best pure wrestling match in history.” Having Kurt Angle send in this hostage video doesn’t make it any more legitimate.
You’ve got to admire WWE’s dedication to putting over their own bullshit, though. They had Charly say with her whole chest that Edge vs. Randy Orton will be the greatest wrestling match ever, and when everybody snickered about it they were like, “no, it’s the greatest wrestling match ever, Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels and Kurt Angle say so, WHO ARE YOU TO DOUBT THEM? SHUT UP, IS WHAT!” The marketing strategy is asking people to get their hopes up and be wildly optimistic about a match between 40-year olds in the middle of a June WWE pay-per-view in the middle of a global pandemic. I guess the honesty of, “a watchable match, God willing, and Edge doesn’t hurt himself,” doesn’t put butts in seats. Although right now there are no butts, and even if they were, WWE’s not giving them seats.
Edge is a guest on Christian’s Peep Show, as WWE has brought Christian peep shows out of Lynchburg Virginia weekends and into your home. Christian gives Edge the kind of tough love pep talk you can only get from your best friend and pretend brother who used to be in a vampire cult with you and spent the prime of his career smushing your head between two chairs. They’re interrupted by Randy Orton, who appears on the video screen despite a pre-commercial interview where he asks how many guests are on The Peep Show and twice openly implies that he’s going to go out there and physically interrupt them. I guess 15 promo interruptions instead of 14 would’ve been overkill.
As a positive, it’s always good to see Christian. I was always more of a Christian fan than an Edge fan. I just preferred his wrestling and his whole vibe. I’m not confident in Backlash — can you blame me? — but the perverse novelty of “greatest wrestling match ever” promotion at the expense of everything else on the card, which includes WWE and Universal Championship matches and happens two days after a Daniel Bryan vs. AJ Styles Intercontinental Championship tournament final, makes it worth checking out. They’ve got to have SOMETHING planned to keep pushing the match concept like this, don’t they? Would they just bait-and-switch us with hyperbole because the only booking idea they have right now is, “say it’s better than it is?” Why am I asking questions I already know the answers to?
Anyway, here’s another vote for, “Orton opens the match by smashing Edge in the face with a chair, causing a disqualification in the opening seconds.” There’s no way in God’s green Hell Randy Orton says he’s going to have a great wrestling match, means it, and then goes out and does it.
Best: Top 10 Comments Of The Week
cyniclone
The Charlotte Hornets, in a last-gasp effort to be included when the NBA season resumes, have changed their name to the Charlotte Flairs. They’ve already been given a NBA Finals series against the Lakers.
Birdman
Christian gently shoving over the chair to convey anger was the most Canadian thing ever
Mr. Bliss
Vince trying decide who will take the title off Asuka:
Jae-Su
Here’s your problem…
EvilDucky
An open letter to WWE: PUT CHRISTIAN IN THE HALL OF FAME YOU COWARDS
Arrdub
Who knew flipping that tire was going to be the turning point in Lashley’s career?
troi
I feel like the WWE Womens Division is single highhandedly keeping the Orlando leather pants industry alive
favoritenobody
I know people have to have monikers and whatnot, but shouldn’t they stop calling Nia Jax an irresistible force seeing as she’s been resisted quite a few times?
AJ Dusman
WWE programming has more Flair than an employee at Chotchkie’s.
notJames
We in the WWF think that you, the audience, are quite frankly tired of having your intelligence insulted — Vince McMahon, 1997
WWE
IIconics under glass
New pitch: instead of “Raw Talk,” do a Raw post-show that’s just the same, entire episode of Raw from the crowd’s perspective. At least put an alternate version with picture-in-picture on the Network. Do I want to see Edge and Randy Orton argue among themselves about who will or won’t have the greatest match ever, or do I want to hea what the IIconics are saying and then go watch Eric Bugenhagen and Shotzi Blackheart dance to Asuka’s music?
WWE
That’s what I thought.
Anyway, that does it for another episode of The Best and Worst of Quarantine Raw. Thanks as always for reading and supporting us. You can help us out tremendously right now by sharing the column on social media, as well as dropping down into our comments section to let us know what you thought of the show. Oh, and make sure you’re here this weekend for our Backlash open discussion thread, live results, news, and more. I will keep trying to watch these and say something constructive about them, and I can’t wait to write 4,000 words on why I was wrong to doubt the Greatest Wrestling Match Ever.
As more and more athletes and musicians add their voices to the chorus calling for change this week, one of those voices falls under both categories. NBA star Damian Lillard — also known as Dame D.O.L.L.A. when he’s on the mic — shared a new song, titled “Blacklist,” addressing the ongoing calls for police reform and denouncing white supremacy. The song appeared today on his SoundCloud, as Dame continued to speak out against injustice on his social media.
“As a brother with a good heart, I say, ‘F ck You’ if you racist / Or you white and you quiet, you disabling the changes,” he snaps to begin the track. However, he isn’t shy about facing the consequences his rhymes could bring. “F*ck being famous, tired of watching us complaining.” As the track builds, he continues to point out the hypocrisy of police who protect the “bad apples,” calls out Donald Trump for his inflammatory rhetoric, and compares himself to Muhammad Ali and Tommy Smith — Black athletes who voiced their concerns despite backlash.
Dame already experienced something of a backlash himself after declaring that he wouldn’t play in a truncated season should the NBA return post COVID-19 because his team wouldn’t have a chance to play for a title.
DaBaby is on top of the world right now, as his Roddy Ricch-featuring single “Rockstar” has climbed to the top of the Billboard Hot 100. This is DaBaby’s first time having a No. 1 song, and in light of that, he has taken a moment to reflect on where he came from to get to this point.
Sharing the top ten of the chart he currently leads, DaBaby offered a simple, “I came from nothing.” He then elaborated in a follow-up tweet, “Nah fr, I really came from nothing. I’m not perfect at all but look, I done been through it all, and still got PLENTY more to go through. If you willing to go through it with me, grab my hand let’s go. If not, F*CK YA. I wish you the best.”
He shared a similarly spirited message before the news that he went No. 1, tweeting, “I love being the under dog, something about climbing up out the mud make them victory’s bigger.” After that, he offered a peek at his future plans: “Ima finish this run off successfully, reach another milestone & take some much needed time off to work on self-discipline, mental health, physical health, loving on my kids/family & becoming a better person overall. Im only tweeting this so I can look back n say ‘I did dat!’
I love being the under dog, something about climbing up out the mud make them victory’s bigger.
Ima finish this run off successfully, reach another milestone & take some much needed time off to work on self-discipline, mental health, physical health, loving on my kids/family & becoming a better person overall.
Im only tweeting this so I can look back n say “I did dat!”
This past weekend, NASCAR’s fanless season continued in Atlanta, but prior to the race they made a rare statement in the realm of social issues, as they played a video featuring a number of their high profile drivers speaking on the need to listen and learn about racial inequality and police brutality.
That message was prompted by the week-plus of protests that have been going on nationwide since the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor by police in Minneapolis and Louisville. For a sport like NASCAR to feel it necessary to make such a video message shows the impact the Black Lives Matter movement is having, but there is still a long way for the sport to go in terms of embracing diversity.
There is one Black driver in NASCAR, Bubba Wallace, and as such he has been quite busy over the last week with interviews and questions about what it’s like to be the lone Black man in a sport that has long lacked much in the way of diversity. Wallace has handled that responsibility with incredible tact, speaking with numerous outlets on the matter and NASCAR’s response in recent days. On Monday, he joined CNN’s Don Lemon for one of those discussions, and noted that he’s felt NASCAR’s leadership has done well and been very willing to listen to him. However, he hopes that continues and, when asked what the next step he thinks the sport should take is, he pointed out that confederate flags should no longer be allowed to fly at races.
“My next step would be to get rid of all Confederate flags,” says NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace after throwing his support behind the nationwide protests against police brutality. “Get them out of here.” https://t.co/Kf4CrMLLGhpic.twitter.com/wSSBhByguS
Wallace makes the point that no one should come to races and feel uncomfortable or like they don’t belong, and for Black Americans, the confederate flag is a symbol of exactly that, exclusion and a place they don’t belong and aren’t wanted. While there were plenty of NASCAR fans that appreciated the message on Sunday, there was also backlash from, what is very possibly, just a vocal minority. What happens next will be fascinating as NASCAR will either move forward without putting more into action, alienating those like Wallace who feel they’re committed to making real change and want to help with the net steps, or their message will actually mean what they said and they’ll listen and implement policies like what Bubba expresses here. If they do the latter, there will be more backlash and anger from some, but if NASCAR is serious about expanding its footprint and becoming more progressive on issues of race, they’ll have to leave some folks behind to do so.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
by 
, loving on my kids/family & becoming a better person overall. 