The annual Royal Rumble marks the official kick off of WrestleMania season, as plans begin to fall into place on the direction of the WWE ahead of its biggest annual event. Before Jey Uso and Charlotte Flair punched their respective tickets to the main event of WrestleMania 41, Paul “Triple H” Levesque was announced as the first inductee into this year’s Hall of Fame class.
Levesque’s announcement came as a surprise, with Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker partnering with WWE President Nick Khan to break the news unexpectedly at the end of the organization’s Town Hall earlier in the week.
Levesque was asked at the post-Rumble press conference about his reflections on the announcement from US Weekly, where he shared conversations he’d had with Khan about the timing of his Hall of Fame induction, opting to push that out a number of years. Instead, Levesque was on the receiving end of what he calls the “ultimate pay of respect.”
“I’ve had the honor of calling a lot of people to tell them, ‘We’re going to induct you into the Hall of Fame’ or be there in person to say to them ‘we’re going to induct you into the Hall of Fame,’ and watch them cry and get emotional because of our passion for what we do. It hit me way harder than I thought it would,” Levesque said. “When we left there, it was an oddly comical and surreal moment. Taker and Shawn were there. We went to a meeting and as it slowly started to dawn on me, ‘here we go.’ The same moment that I watched everybody else have, that emotional all flooding over you over your career, the people you’ve worked with, what it meant to you, the fans you’ve met around the world, the moments you’ve been able to create and share.”
Levesque admits he’s excited for his induction despite it being at the busiest time of the and spoke to how meaningful the recognition is from the likes of Michaels, Taker, and Khan.
“I wish it wasn’t at WrestleMania so I could focus on it more. But it’s one of the most meaningful things of my career and to have it come from Shawn and Taker, the two guys in the business that I probably respect more than anybody, and to have it set up from Nick, which on one hand is mildly irritating because he fooled me,” Levesque said. “But in business for me outside of the in-ring, there is nobody I respect more than him. He is my partner in all this. Him doing that for me is incredibly meaningful.”
It’s extremely rare for an NBA trade to happen these days without anyone knowing about it other than the owners and few front office personnel directly involved, but that appears to have been the case with the shocking trade that broke late Saturday night that sent Luka Doncic to the Lakers and Anthony Davis to the Mavericks.
By all accounts, none of the players involved or their star teammates were briefed on the trade talks or aware discussions were even going on. Shams Charania of ESPN reported LeBron James learned of the deal when everyone else did while out to dinner in New York after the Lakers beat the Knicks, and that Davis and Doncic both also found out they were getting moved when the trade happened (along with Maxi Kleber, Max Christie, and Jalen Hood-Schifino). Mavs GM Nico Harrison still had not spoken with Doncic directly as of Sunday morning after the star had not returned phone and text messages after the shocking trade went down, per Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News. Kyrie Irving was similarly blindsided to learn he was getting a new star big man and losing his backcourt running mate, with Ramona Shelburna reporting he was mid-training session in Cleveland when the news broke.
The LeBron part was where most people got hung up, because for the last 15-plus years, there has been the assumption by many fans that James was at least included in conversations about roster moves by his teams, if not outright dictating some. However, given there was never even so much as a whisper this trade was going to go down despite it being discussed by Harrison and Rob Pelinka for the last three weeks, I’m inclined to believe James was genuinely not brought into the loop until it was at the finish line.
Players, agents, and front office personnel are notoriously talkative and I really think the Lakers kept the lid on this thing completely to avoid it blowing up if it became public. The backlash in Dallas to even having discussions on Luka would’ve been massive (as evidenced by Mavs fans reaction to the actual trade) and might’ve been enough to scuttle everything — at the least, it would’ve allowed other teams to try and make offers for Doncic that could’ve driven the price up. Instead, after years of Lakers fans begging the front office to make an all-in move, they not only did that but set themselves up for the post-LeBron era. That also might’ve led them to not involving James, as Luka is as much LeBron’s future replacement as the Lakers top star as he is James’ new star teammate.
Now there are real questions about whether the Lakers are done shaking up their foundation and how LeBron feels about the new arrangement. This was a no-brainer from the Lakers organizationally, as they now have their star for the next 10 years, but the roster this year is now wildly imbalanced after trading Davis from a team that was already extremely thin at center. How LeBron will feel about a trade that adds a star but is more a long-term play than a short-term push for this season remains to be seen, and everyone involved has to process a lot after being blindsided by the craziest trade in recent memory (and maybe ever).
Rian Johnson coped with the COVID-19 lockdown the same way a lot of people did: by watching old TV shows. His series of choice was Columbo, the “howcatchem” crime-drama starring Peter Falk.
“It was comfort food. The thing that really hit me was how much it is, at heart, a hangout show with Peter Falk. I wasn’t watching each new episode really for the mystery plot. It was for Falk and the guest star,” The Last Jedi director told Deadline. Johnson’s warm feelings for Columbo inspired him to create a shaggy detective series of his own, Poker Face, starring Natasha Lyonne.
Poker Face season 1 appeared on nearly every list of the best TV shows of 2023, including our own, and Lyonne was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series at the Emmys. Now the Peacock series is coming back for more mysteries, guest stars, and murder. Here’s everything we know.
Plot
The basic premise of Poker Face: Charlie Cale (played by Natasha Lyonne) knows when people are lying, and every episode takes place in a different setting where she uses this unusual skill to help solve — or prevent — a crime.
In the season 1 finale, Charlie brawls with a casino goon using a “dick ring” (it’s a long story) and gets a phone call from Five Families crime syndicate head Beatrix Hasp (Rhea Perlman). Charlie is given two options: work for her mob, or die. Charlie makes her choice by listening to Neil Young, cracking open a beer, and thinking about her next adventure.
peacock
Hell yeah.
There’s no official synopsis for season 2 yet, but following the season 1 finale, then-showrunners Nora Zuckerman and Lilla Zuckerman (they have since been replaced by Tony Tost, although they’re staying on as executive producers) discussed future plans with Entertainment Weekly. “We’re going to keep doing what works,” Lilla said. “I believe that this format is a proven format, this ‘how catch ’em’-style of storytelling. We’re going to continue to stay in that tradition. But, much like we did in season 1, we’re going to continue to innovate within that format, and hopefully find new and fresh ways to surprise the audience as we take them on these case-of-the-week journeys.”
As for whether Perlman’s Beatrix Hasp will be season 2’s Big Bad, Nora teased, “We certainly set her up that way… She’s such an interesting character actor that I cannot wait to see her as the head of the Five Families.”
Same premise + different mysteries + Natasha Lyonne looking impossibly cool + Rhea Perlman = a winning formula. Plus, the guest stars!
Cast
Natasha Lyonne will be back, of course, but there’s a whole new batch of guest stars. The season 2 roster includes John Mulaney, Ego Nwodim, Sam Richardson, Giancarlo Esposito, Katie Holmes, Gaby Hoffmann, Kumail Nanjiani, Sherry Cola, Kevin Corrigan, Ben Marshall, Kathrine Narducci, Cynthia Erivo, BJ Novak, Awkwafina, Corey Hawkins, Simon Rex, Method Man, and Margo Martindale. If BoJack Horseman taught us anything, she’s the criminal.
Release Date
A premiere date hasn’t been announced yet, but PaleyFest LA will have an “exclusive screening” of season 2 in March, so hopefully it’s this spring.
Trailer
If you’re still on the fence about watching Poker Face, just know that there’s an episode where Chloë Sevigny is the singer in a one-hit-wonder metal band named Doxxxology who decides to electrocute her drummer. It’s a good show.
Every single week, our TV and film experts will list the most important ten streaming selections for you to pop into your queues. We’re not strictly operating upon reviews or accrued streaming clicks (although yes, we’ve scoured the streaming site charts) but, instead, upon those selections that are really worth noticing amid the churning sea of content. There’s a lot out there, after all, and your time is valuable.
Cameron Diaz came out of acting retirement, and the streaming audience is here for her and Jamie Foxx as married and retired CIA spies who get drawn back into the game, Godfather III style. As a bonus, Diaz’s Knight And Day is also trending on Netflix with similar vibes and Tom Cruise. You might forget Back In Action in a week, much like everyone (myself included) forgot that Knight And Day existed, but never dismiss the appeal of a popcorn movie, even when that movie streams at home.
Not to be confused with Black Doves, the second season of this Australian crime drama series follows the investigation of a young woman who disappeared at her birthday party, and the chief detective is (as is often the case) also plagued by a case that makes things personal. Dark Winds viewers will (while they wait for the AMC series’ third season) want to hop on this show because the Aussies are doing their part to fuel hunger for mystery shows while spy and superhero shows run rampant. Black Snow, in particular, goes beyond the mystery into an even deeper injustice while never forgetting the names of the victims whose cases lead them down that path.
8. Twin Peaks – Twin Peaks Productions/Spelling Television series streaming on Paramount+
Following David Lynch’s death at age 78, the binging of his phantasmagorical crime series has gone down hard with people climbing back onboard Agent Cooper’s investigation into who killed Laura Palmer. Likewise, Twin Peaks: The Return is receiving an otherworldly amount of visitors to revisit the scene of the crime 25 years later with the help of the thrillingly dulcet tones of “The Nine Inch Nails.” Sure, Mulholland Drive is trending like wildfire, too, but there’s “nothing like a great cup of coffee” to relive this Great’s past.
So, this is a high concept series revolving around a supposed math genius, and of course it’s not going to please staunch mathematicians who desire accuracy. Leo Woodall portrays a postgrad math student who comes together with an NSA agent to unravel fears that his wielding of prime numbers could be used (in the wrong hands) to harness the world’s computers. To drop an out-of-context quote from an Internet famous cycling instructor, “It’s not that deep,” but if you are a Ridley Scott completist (he produces here) and a conspiracy-TV addict, there are worse ways to spend an afternoon.
The never-ending appetite for primetime medical dramas is further fueled by this watchable Noah Wyle series that surely will not mind visits from the ER crowd. The show relies heavily on FOX’s 24 gimmick by delivering an hour-in-the-life episode each week, which adds up to 15-hour shift for Wyle’s attending physician in Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital’s emergency room. For better or worse, this is no soap opera, but it might inspire you to start really watching health habits, not only for obvious, life-extending and money-saving reasons but also to avoid landing in an ER that feels like The Bear. Yikes.
A team of creative minds behind Narcos, The Revenant, and Friday Night Lights have come together for this Neo-Western limited series, in which Taylor Kitsch and Betty Gilpin go through hell on earth. The year is 1857, and they’re fighting through frigid elements amid the Mountain Meadows Massacre, during which Mormon soldiers killed hundreds of pioneers at the behest of Brigham Young (Kim Coates of Sons Of Anarchy). This clash involves Indigenous nationals also rising up to fight for their own survival within the same contested territory, and this ain’t Yellowstone, baby.
Shades of several classic horror titles, including numerous nods to The Ring are pushing viewers toward the comfort onscreen scares in a time when reality isn’t that much better. What’s particular wild about the show’s current trending status is that this French horror series was cancelled five years ago after only one season, but guess what? Stories about writers attempting to vanquish demons through their writing are always timely.
Sterling K. Brown and Dan Fogelman are having a This Is Us reunion over on Hulu for a thriller series that could alternately scratch your escapism itch or feel too close to home. Without spoiling anything for the first three episodes already streaming, Brown portrays a security agent fronting a team that is tasked with protecting the president (James Marsden), but this show isn’t a meat-and-potatoes conspiracy story. Like This Is Us, expect non-linear storytelling that helps build context behind the overriding mystery of the series. A slower burn than many streaming series of the same nature helps this show stand apart, and the test for future seasons will be whether audiences will be patient enough without tidy explanations at every turn.
If you’re a Helly fan and you are feeling conflicted this season, you are not alone. Creator Dan Erickson and director Ben Stiller are having too much fun tugging at heartstrings over the fan favorite character, and thank goodness that the core four (Mark, Irving, and Dylan, too) are back together, even if the job will never be the same as before the Innies explored the Outie world. With that said, this show has managed to deliver a different experience from the first season, which makes the three-year wait almost worth enduring. Now, about those goats?
Peter’s newfound Night Action gig wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be, and every “call is coming from inside the house” variant is on display during this second season, which includes lingering effects, including PTSD, of Rose and Peter’s first adrenaline-filled mission. With Peter’s second-season crisis off the books, the show was able to step back (since he is AWOL and hiding) to reflect upon how they are dealing with their trauma in different ways. They still came together again, though, which makes this season finale hit even harder. Now the wait for the third season (and more or less Rose?) begins.
At 11 p.m. ET, the biggest story of the night involving the Los Angeles Lakers was a big win over the New York Knicks in a national showcase game on ABC. LeBron James had a spectacular showing with 33 points, 12 assists, and 11 rebounds, while the Lakers put forth one of their most inspiring defensive efforts of the seasons despite the absence of Anthony Davis.
After the game, there was optimism about what this Lakers group could look like once Davis is back healthy if they can find that kind of level on both ends of the floor. An hour later, Davis was shipped to Dallas in the most shocking trade arguably in NBA history, with Luka Doncic now suddenly a Laker. The immediate question from everyone was: Why would Dallas do this? After early speculation of a stealth trade request was shut down, we learned the Mavs had simply decided they didn’t want to pay Doncic when he becomes extension eligible this summer for a record-setting supermax deal due to “constant conditioning issues.”
There was less confusion about why the Lakers would do this, as you’d be hard pressed to find many teams that would’ve said no to a similar trade offer that would bring back Doncic. Still, trading Davis is a big deal and the Lakers already thin frontcourt is now even thinner and even if they go find reinforcements by Thursday, they won’t bring back an All-Star and DPOY candidate like Davis. That led to some to posit Davis and James were no longer as close as they once were, with CBS Sports’ Bill Reiter suggesting James had “grown frustrated” with his co-star.
LeBron, who had not said anything about the trade prior, took to Twitter to swiftly shut that down in what is, to this point, the only public statement he’s made about anything regarding the trade.
Twitter
According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, LeBron learned about the trade at the same time everyone else did, which is wild if true, but also might have to be the case given there wasn’t even a peep about this being a possibility before it broke. It is going to be fascinating to see what LeBron’s eventual statement on the actual trade is, as this was both a no-brainer move from the Lakers for their long-term outlook and also a deal that creates even more roster imbalance for this current season. For now, LeBron wanted to shut down any talk that he played a role in the Lakers looking to move Davis. We’ll find out by late Thursday what the Lakers roster will look like for the stretch run and what other moves they have up their sleeve, but there’s no shortage of drama in L.A. and the NBA this week.
It’s not often that a trade happens in the NBA that takes everyone by surprise — and has everyone in the league talking — but that’s what happened on Saturday night when the Mavericks traded Luka Doncic to the Lakers for Anthony Davis in a three-team blockbuster.
The deal came out of seemingly nowhere, with all of the players involved apparently having no heads up about the trade, as Dallas decided to pull the ripcord on their All-NBA star over concerns about his “constant conditioning issues.” Mavs fans (including Patrick Mahomes) were sick upon finding out they had just traded their 25-year-old superstar, and everyone else around the league was left scratching their heads at how and why this trade came about. That included the teams actively playing when the trade broke, as the Portland Trail Blazers continued their strong play of late with a blowout win over the Suns.
However, as the fourth quarter wound to a close, the talk of the Blazers bench was not their performance against a Phoenix team desperate to make a big move, but instead was about the Doncic-Davis trade that they were all learning about.
Matisse Thybulle’s face is incredible and was pretty much the same facial expression most NBA fans made when they saw the news was real. I do love that the Blazers TV broadcast was keeping the players in the loop on the craziest NBA trade maybe ever, and the bench was doing what every NBA fan group chat was doing, just in real life.
On the other sideline, Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Royce O’Neale, and the rest of the Suns were having a similar conversation, with Durant scrolling his phone as the clock wound down late in disbelief (video here).
Patrick Mahomes is looking to make history next week in New Orleans as he tries to lead the Kansas City Chiefs to the first three-peat in the Super Bowl era. However, while Mahomes is trying to focus on the Philadelphia Eagles for work, his favorite NBA team went out and made the most shocking trade of the last decade (and maybe ever).
I can’t blame Mahomes. There’s really no justifying this move from the Mavs perspective in the immediate, as Doncic has been a top-5 player in the NBA and, while Anthony Davis is fantastic, moving your home-grown, still-not-yet-in-his-prime superstar for a guy six years his elder is a really hard sell. The Mavs’ reported reasoning is concern with paying Doncic his next extension given the “constant conditioning issues” he’s had — with his current absence with a calf injury potentially being the final straw. The problem with getting fans to buy in on that line of thinking is the man has career averages of 28.6 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 8.3 assists per game and just led the team to the Finals while, yes, looking a little chunky.
The Chiefs will hope Mahomes can shake off his Mavs-inflicted heartache, and I guess the good thing for Kansas City is it happened on their off-week before the Super Bowl and not the night before, giving him some time to process.
Making a shocking trade even more stunning was the reporting that the Mavs were the team that initiated conversations with the Lakers and did so because they decided they wanted out of the Luka Doncic business. Apparently, the reasoning was Doncic would be up for a supermax extension soon (his current deal runs out after 2026 with a player option for ’26-’27) and the Mavs had long-term concerns about Doncic’s conditioning, as reported by ESPN’s Tim MacMahon.
The Mavs had major concerns about moving forward with Luka Doncic due to his constant conditioning issues and the looming commitment of another supermax contract extension this summer, sources told ESPN.
I don’t know how bad things had gotten behind the scenes, but even with the frustrations that Doncic came into this season not in great shape coming off of the Finals run and the Olympics, it’s really hard to imagine it was bad enough to want to trade a top-5 player in the NBA. However, it is very clear the Mavs have not felt Doncic has done everything he needs to in order to be the best he can be — is fairly terrifying given he’s averaged 28.6 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 8.3 assists for his career over seven seasons — and available enough amid his latest absence with a calf injury.
The Lakers will bank on the fact that Doncic is only 25 (turning 26 this month) and still has time to mature some off the floor while continuing to dominate on it. The Mavs, meanwhile, trade for one of the NBA’s best bigs and should remain a threat in the West in the immediate, but it does raise some eyebrows that they’d point to a lack of reliability from Doncic when targeting a player in Davis who has a checkered injury history of his own. Perhaps the Mavs will end up being prescient in moving off of Doncic now, but you won’t find too many around the NBA who would expect them to look good long-term from this trade. Perhaps the “Michael Finley takes away Luka Doncic’s beer” video from last years Western Conference Finals celebration was a harbinger of things to come.
The biggest trade in recent NBA history went down in the middle of the night on Saturday (at least on the East Coast) when Shams Charania reported the Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks had agreed to a league-shaking deal that would send Anthony Davis to Dallas and Luka Doncic to Los Angeles in a blockbuster three-team trade..
The full details of the trade are:
Lakers get: Luka Doncic, Maxi Kleber, Markieff Morris Mavericks get: Anthony Davis, Max Christie, 2029 LAL 1st Jazz get: Jalen Hood-Schifino, 2025 Clippers 2nd, 2025 Mavericks 2nd
The trade was so stunning everyone thought Shams had been hacked, but Chris Haynes and Dan Woike quickly confirmed the news that two of the league’s top stars were changing teams. The trade took place mere hours after the Lakers polished off an impressive victory over the Knicks in New York, and will send shockwaves across the league as the trade deadline approaches on Thursday. There was no indication either Davis or Doncic were even on the table, but the Lakers and Mavs somehow ended up in a conversation that resulted in two of the league’s best players changing teams.
Doncic was the centerpiece of everything the Mavs have been building and led them to the Finals last year. While the Mavs have sputtered some of late (largely with Doncic out with injury), no one ever expected them to move on from the perennial MVP candidate. He now joins LeBron James in L.A. to play for his former teammate, JJ Redick, as the Lakers finally make the all-in move fans have been hoping for — just one even the biggest Laker believer wouldn’t have imagined.
Davis, meanwhile, had been pushing for the Lakers to bring in reinforcements, making clear he wanted another center to play with, and instead got shipped to Dallas where he’ll join Kyrie Irving and a very talented center rotation. Doncic didn’t issue any kind of stealthy trade request, but instead the Mavs wanted to move him before having to pay him a supermax due to “conditioning concerns”, per ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. Now they are taking a big swing on making Kyrie Irving the leading man in the backcourt and hoping to create one of the most dominant frontcourts in the league with Davis, Daniel Gafford, and Derek Lively III (who is out for a few months with an injury).
It is, legitimately, the most stunning NBA roster move in nearly a decade. I don’t think the league has been this stunned by a player changing teams since Kevin Durant left the Oklahoma City Thunder for the Golden State Warriors in the summer of 2016 as a free agent — and even that had some smoke to it. This came out of nowhere, with Charania reporting it was Dallas, somehow, that initiated the conversations and offered Doncic in a trade proposal.
Jey Uso eliminated John Cena to win the 2025 WWE Men’s Royal Rumble and earn a title shot at WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas.
Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins got tied up in the ropes allowing CM Punk to eliminate them both. Logan Paul followed that up by tossing Punk over the top rope, leaving him, John Cena, and Jey Uso as the final three. After being eliminated, Rollins attacked Punk and Reigns, curb stomping Reigns on the floor and then again on the steel stairs.
In the ring, Cena attacked both Paul and Uso in the corner, then eliminated Paul to stand alone against Uso. The two both went over the top rope and dueled on the apron, with Cena picking Uso up for an Attitude Adjustment that figured to get him the win, before Uso slipped out and pushed Cena to the floor for a stunning clean victory.
In the surprises department, after Akira Tozawa was attacked on his way to the ring, popular streamer Speed took his place and made quick work of Otis. Speed was cut in half from a spear at the hands of Bron Breakker and promptly tossed over the top rope.
Entrance Order
1. Rey Mysterio eliminated by Jacob Fatu
2. Penta eliminated by Finn Balor
3. Chad Gable eliminated by Jacob Fatu
4. Carmelo Hayes eliminated by Bron Breakker
5. Santos Escobar eliminated by Bron Breakker
6. Otis eliminated by Speed
7. Bron Breakker eliminated by Roman Reigns
8. Akira Tozawa, attacked by Carmelo Hayes and replaced by Speed, then eliminated by Bron Breakker
9. Sheamus eliminated by Roman Reigns
10. Jimmy Uso eliminated by Jacob Fatu
11. Andrade eliminated by Jacob Fatu
12. Jacob Fatu eliminated by Braun Strowman
13. Ludwig Kaiser eliminated by Penta
14. The Miz eliminated by Roman Reigns
15. Joe Hendry eliminated by Roman Reigns
16. Roman Reigns eliminated by CM Punk
17. Drew McIntyre eliminated by Damian Priest
18. Finn Balor eliminated by John Cena
19. Shinsuke Nakamura eliminated by Jey Uso
20. Jey Uso
21. AJ Styles eliminated by Logan Paul
22. Braun Strowman eliminated by John Cena
23. John Cena eliminated by Jey Uso
24. CM Punk eliminated by Logan Paul
25. Seth Rollins eliminated by CM Punk
26. Dom Mysterio eliminated by Damian Priest
27. Sami Zayn eliminated by Jey Uso
28. Damian Priest eliminated by LA Knight
29. LA Knight eliminated by AJ Styles
30. Logan Paul eliminated by John Cena
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