Month: August 2023

Seth Rollins retained the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Finn Bálor at SummerSlam in Detroit.

Bálor’s showdown with Rollins comes seven years after he was forced to relinquish the WWE Universal championship the night after winning it at SummerSlam, and neither would let fans forget that. Rollins came to the ring wearing the same vest he did when he injured Bálor, while the former champion had “seven” written across his previously-injured shoulder.

Rollins held the advantage early in the match and eventually busted open Bálor’s lip. Bálor turned the table on Rollins, landing the barricade powerbomb that once injured him. Bálor missed two-consecutive Coup de Graces before Rollins laid him out with a pedigree, and after a two-count, Damian Priest made his way to the ring with the Money in the Bank briefcase. Priest hit Rollins while the referee was down, and Bálor landed a pedigree for the two-count.

After an errant distraction from Priest, Rollins hit the Curb Stomp on Bálor for two. Rollins took out Priest and Dominik Mysterio before Bálor knocked out Rollins and hit the Coup de Grace for two. After Priest attempted to distract the referee, Rollins landed the Curb Stomp on Bálor on to the Money in the Bank briefcase.

Rollins had won the belt after defeating AJ Styles in the WWE World Heavyweight Championship tournament finals. He beat Bálor in his first title defense at Money in the Bank after Priest teased cashing in his Money in the Bank contract.

In their third — and what ultimately could be their final — encounter this year, Cody Rhodes pinned Brock Lesnar in Detroit at SummerSlam.

Rhodes jumped on Lesnar right out of the gate, but was met with a quick trip to suplex city. Lesnar continued to suplex Rhodes around the ring while taunting him. Lesnar knocked Rhodes to the outside twice and yelled at him to stay down, but he continued to beat the referee’s count. Lesnar threw Rhodes through the announce table, but he still refused to stay down.

Rhodes pulled off the turnbuckle protector as Lesnar suplexed him, then grabbed the stairs on the outside, but was stopped. Rhodes reversed Lesnar, pushed him into the steel post, then hit him with the stairs before hitting the Disaster Kick and two Cody Cutters.

Lesnar then locked in the Kimura, but Rhodes was able to reach the ropes. Lesnar hoisted Rhodes up for an F-5, but Rhodes reversed and pushed him chest-first into the exposed turnbuckle before then locking in a Kimura of his own, which Lesnar broke. Back on their feet, Rhodes hit three consecutive Cross Rhodes to earn the pinfall.

Rhodes and Lesnar traded wins in the WrestleMania fallout, with the latter turning on the former just a day after he fell short in his attempt to win the WWE Universal Championship from Roman Reigns. Rhodes earned a pinfall victory over Lesnar at Backlash with his arm stuck in the Kimura. Later at Night of Champions, Lesnar beat Rhodes thanks to a referee stoppage after passing out while locked in the Kimura.

Baseball brawls normally don’t escalate too terribly much, as they usually feature some pushing and shoving, the benches clearing out, guys getting separated, and the game getting back underway pretty quickly. That decidedly did not happen during the sixth inning of Saturday night’s game between the Chicago White Sox and the Cleveland Guardians, as there was plenty of pushing and shoving but only after Jose Ramirez and Tim Anderson squared up and threw some bombs.

Ramirez slid into second base and appeared to take exception to Anderson standing over the him and the bag, all while keeping a tag on him. After Ramirez convinced Anderson to move, he got up and pointed directly at his face while the two jawed at one another. Anderson dropped his glove, the two squared up, both guys threw a few punches, and eventually, Ramirez was able to land one that connected cleanly and led to Anderson hitting the deck.

That is about as clean of a right hand as you’ll see in a non-boxing or MMA fight, and Anderson is probably going to want to throw a bag of ice on that as soon as possible. Unsurprisingly, both Anderson and Ramirez got ejected for this.

Last week brought sad and unexpected news: Angus Cloud, one of the young stars of Euphoria, had died. He was only 25. Details of his passing have not yet been made public. All is known is that he died while at his family’s home in Oakland, California. He was also grieving the death of his father. However, in a new social media post, Cloud’s mother denied rumors that he died by suicide.

“Friends, I want you all to know I appreciate your love for my family at this shattered time. I also want you to know that although my son was in deep grief about his father’s untimely death from mesothelioma, his last day was a joyful one,” Lisa Cloud, Angus’ mother, wrote in a Facebook post, as per Deadline.

She went into details about how he spent what turned out to be his last day: cleaning and reorganizing his room, helping family members with college. She then described what proved his final moments.

“I don’t know if or what he may have put in his body after that. I only know that he put his head on the desk where he was working on art project’s, fell asleep and didn’t wake up. We may find out that he overdosed accidentally and tragically, but it’s abundantly clear that he did not intend to check out of this world.

“Social media posts have suggested his death was intentional. I want you to know that is not the case,” she clarified. “To honor his memory, please make random acts of kindness part of your daily life.”

After news of Cloud’s passing broke, tributes from colleagues and fans poured in. Before his passing, he’d finished filming on two movies.

(Via Deadline)

Roman Reigns appeared on First Take this week ahead of his Undisputed WWE Universal Championship match against Jey Uso at SummerSlam on Saturday night in Detroit. It was, apparently, supposed to be a standard promotional appearance ahead of WWE’s second biggest live event of the year, and then, Stephen A. Smith walked backstage and saw that Paul Heyman was there.

According to Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated, Smith was the driving force behind Heyman appearing on set. This was because once Smith found out Heyman was in the building, he made it a point to get him involved.

Smith saw Heyman when he greeted Reigns. That led to a discussion with his producer, and the decision was quickly reached that Heyman should also appear on the show.

Smith’s producer made that request to Reigns, who approved of the addition. That ultimately led to Heyman’s ingenious insults of Bobby “The Brain” Heenan and the “Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart on First Take.

It ended up being an excellent idea by Smith, in large part Heyman appearing alongside Reigns just felt right. It helps, of course, that Heyman knocked his appearance out of the park, calling himself the “greatest of all time” while a 100 percent captivated Smith egged him on.

Whether or not this was all a means to an end for Smith so he can achieve his well-documented goal of appearing at WrestleMania remains to be seen, but we have to give it to him: this was very good television.

Dominican pop singer Natti Natasha has always been unapologetic in regards to her sexuality. This is evidenced by her new single, “No Pare,” on which, she lays out her fantasies over a scorching reggaeton beat.

From the very beginning of the song, Natasha makes it known she is not one to mince words

“Ме dеѕреrté реnѕаndо еn tоdo lо quе mе hасíа / Тu lеnguа роr mі bоса, соrrіеndо роr lа míа / Yо buѕсаndо сrееr еn аlgо у tú рrоmеtíа,” she sings on the song’s opening verse, which translates to, “I woke up thinking about everything you did to me / You’re tongue in my mouth running all over my tongue / I’ve been looking for something to put my faith in, and you promised.”

The seductive lyrics of the song are very much suggestive, but the single cover leaves little to the imagination. On the cover, Natasha is seen sitting on top of a sink in the nude, with her phone in hand, taking a mirror selfie. According to PopCrave, Unique News Online, and Marca, this photo is actually a nude that reportedly leaked recently.

In the video, for “No Pare,” she is seen dancing around on the beach and in a luxury resort, and later reclaims her power by sending a similar photograph to a mysterious suitor.

You can see the video for “No Pare” above.

With Saquon Barkley and Tony Pollard’s short-term futures all sorted out, the final major domino that needs to fall in the NFL’s running back market is Las Vegas Raiders standout Josh Jacobs. While the team extended the franchise tag, Jacobs has not signed it, and is instead holding out after the two sides could not agree to a long-term extension.

As Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk explained, there are five potential ways that this could go right now. The nuclear option for the Raiders would be to rescind the franchise tag, which would let Jacobs immediately hit free agency. If that were to happen, and Florio reports that Jacobs understands it’s one of the potential outcomes here, a pair of AFC West rivals were mentioned as potential landing spots.

But he would still have a plan. He would be inclined to take the best deal he could get from a contending team, starting with the Chiefs.

Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the Chiefs and Broncos are among the teams interested in Jacobs. And while the Broncos could be a considerable way from contender status, they’d be an option at the right price.

It’s extremely fun to imagine Jacobs — a first-team All-Pro who led the league in rushing yards and touchdowns last season — joining Kansas City and serving as the bell cow back lining up behind Patrick Mahomes. Last year, rookie running back Isiah Pacheco led the team with 830 yards and five touchdowns on 170 carries.

Jacobs would get a 1-year deal worth a little more than $10 million if he signed the franchise tender, but that comes with the caveat that Las Vegas could franchise him next season.

When being arraigned for a third time last week, Donald Trump vowed not to post threatening messages about his case, which he’s done before. It didn’t take long for him to break his promise. On Friday the former president dropped an all-caps post vowing revenge upon those who “go after me.” It didn’t take long for Special counsel Jack Smith, who gifted Trump with his third indictment, to divine that he was referring to his case and take action. And it didn’t take long after that for the judge assigned it to do the same.

As per Newsweek, on Saturday Judge Tanya Chutkan — the Obama-appointed, Jan. 6 rioter-hating judge randomly assigned his latest case — filed a motion ordering the Trump team to respond to Smith’s call for a protective order, which would limit the amount of information Trump is allowed to publicly share about the case.

It is hereby ORDERED that by 5:00 PM on August 7, 2023, Defendant shall file a response to the government’s 10 Motion for Protective Order, stating Defendant’s position on the Motion,” read Chutkan’s filing.

Trump then did what he does best: He delayed. His lawyers responded by asking that they move the due date from Monday to Thursday, August 10th, “to ensure counsel has adequate time to prepare a fulsome response.”

The inciting Truth Social post found the ex-president writing, “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!”

After the post was widely read as being about Jack Smith and any other prosecutors looking to prosecute him, Trump’s campaign issued a statement, claiming his vague threats were about completely different people.

“The Truth post cited is the definition of political speech, and was in response to the RINO, China-loving, dishonest special interest groups and Super PACs, like the ones funded by the Koch brothers and the Club for No Growth,” read the Trump campaign’s statement.

After all, who wouldn’t assume that Trump, mere days after being arraigned a third time, was really worked up into an all-caps frenzy by special interest groups. It all makes sense.

In any case, by now Trump’s latest batch of lawyers ought to have realized why he’s lost so, so many others. Soon enough they might have to deal with his BS while he’s running for president from prison.

(Via Newsweek)

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York is honoring East Coast rappers in a very special way. In conjunction of hip-hop’s 50th anniversary, the MTA is issuing special edition cards featuring rappers who hail from New York City — the birthplace of hip-hop.

On different versions of the Metro Cards are rappers LL Cool J, Pop Smoke, Rakim, and Cam’Ron. The cards arrive as part of a partnership with Universal Music Group.

The LL Cool J and Pop Smoke cards are available beginning today, at stations in their respective neighborhoods. LL Cool J’s will be available to purchase at Forest Hills-71 Av and Pop’s Canarsie-Rockaway Pkwy (L) & New Lots Av (3)

Cam and Rakim’s will be available for purchase later this month, throughout the entire MTA system.

“From standing on top of the Empire State Building to grabbing a slice at the corner pizza shop, NYC creates iconic moments that are recognized around the world,” said Rakim in a statement. “But it doesn’t get closer to real city life than swiping a metro card and standing clear of the closing doors. It’s an honor to be celebrating the 50th Anniversary on the streets…and now below them…of the city where hip-hop was born.”

In similar New York-related news, the Brooklyn Public Library also recently announced that it would be offering a selection of Jay-Z inspired library cards, as part of its ongoing The Book Of Hov exhibition, honoring the rapper’s inspiring career.

You can see some of the Metro Cards above.

Nine years ago, rapper ILoveMakonnen dropped his breakthrough single, “Tuesday.” The song proved to be a viral hit for Makonnen, especially on platforms like the six-second video-sharing network, Vine, and resulted in him signing to Drake’s OVO imprint. But Makonnen was eventually dropped from OVO when he couldn’t recreate the success of “Tuesday.”

Last week, Makonnen and rapper Youngboy Never Broke Again dropped “Parasites,” a collab that’s already proving buzzy. So much so, that Metro Boomin’ — who co-produced “Tuesday” with Sonny Digital — reached out to him via Instagram DM. Swae Lee and Post Malone also reached out, however, it appears Makonnen wasn’t really thrilled about them hopping on the bandwagon.

Makonnen shared a carousel on Instagram, which featured screenshots of conversations he had previously had with the three. In the conversations, it appears Makonnen had reached out to the artists over the years, only to be ignored.

“I’m HIM and I Been HERE!,” said Makonnen. “I ain’t do sh*t to yall! Y’all turned y’all back on me and held hands together, unfollowed me and everything, now y’all see me with YB…and start hitting me up like it’s all good. Damn, That sh*t painful to see, especially after we came up together in Atlanta in 2014.”

At the time of writing, only Swae has responded to the post. He took to the comments to express disappointment in the fact that Makonnen chose to address the situation publically.

“We can chop it up anytime you see me though,” said Swae. “I don’t do the public drama sh*t, stay up.”

Makonnen then insisted that there is no beef, and that he still maintains admiration for Swae, Post, and Metro.

“well chop it up, it’s love it’s just a conversation,” said Makonnen, “dont be mad that the only way I get support is if some drama going on, u know the music fire, and u know everybody been tryna deny it. It ain’t no beef. U stay up too.”

Youngboy Never Broke Again is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.