Category: Viral

It was just about one year ago when KofiMania officially ran wild. It was April 7, 2019, when Kofi Kingston, a 15-year veteran who had long been viewed as a “good hand” in WWE but was never elevated to the top of the card, finally broke through the glass ceiling and became the first African WWE Champion after pinning Daniel Bryan. In the year since, Kingston had a 180-day championship run, defeating the likes of Randy Orton, Samoa Joe, Kevin Owens and Dolph Ziggler along the way, putting him in the top 20 longest reigns in modern WWE history.

Since losing the championship to Brock Lesnar, Kingston has stayed at or near the top of Smackdown’s tag team division alongside his New Day stablemate Big E. The pair will be competing this weekend at WrestleMania 36 in a tag team triple threat match for the Smackdown tag championships against the Usos and John Morrison and the Miz — well, maybe. Speculation has been running rampant online that this match was changed during the pre-taping of Smackdown and WrestleMania, which we ask Kingston about, among many other topics (such as just who is WWE’s Joe Exotic). Read on, and feel the power!
UPROXX: You’ve competed at nearly every WrestleMania since 24 — you even competed twice at Mania 31. Besides the obvious answer of Daniel Bryan, what’s been your favorite Mania match?

KOFI KINGSTON: You took away the easy answer for me! There’s a couple. My first time really being on the WrestleMania card was the Money In The Bank ladder match at WrestleMania 25. That was really special to me. The standard was set so high with ladder matches, so for us to be able to go and put on a ladder match, and for me to do some things that had never been seen before, I thought was great. It was one of the first times I came back through the curtain and everyone had a standing ovation. It was because we were able to do so many cool things. I take a lot of pride in that.

The first WrestleMania the New Day actually got to compete in was great, because everyone told us we sucked, and here we are, on WrestleMania. We fought so hard to get on TV as a group, and for us to actually be on WrestleMania, it was such a crowning achievement. We made moves because we believed in ourselves, and eventually people came around and started believing in us.

Even this year’s WrestleMania is so unique. You would never plan to have WrestleMania in this way, shape or form, but this is the situation we’re in. When we all get past this whole Coronavirus situation, we’re all gonna look back and be like, “Hey, remember that WrestleMania when we went to Orlando and taped in front of no people at WrestleMania?” It’s gonna be something that’s historic.

When you’re thinking about your old WrestleMania matches, how often do you watch tape of yourself? And when you do, are you looking for mistakes you made as ways to improve yourself, or just as a way to reminisce?

To be honest, I don’t really watch a whole lot of old footage these days. On Twitter, there’s a couple of people who do, “On this day, this happened,” and the day will come up where I wrestled so-and-so, and sometimes I’ll have no recollection of the actual match. But every WrestleMania is so different. I’ve never been in the same kind of match year to year. If I ever go back to watch any kind of footage, it might be, “Okay, we have a ladder match coming up,” and I’ll go back and watch different ladder matches we’ve done just to get the juices flowing — and that’s even rare too. I usually have a pretty good memory as far as what we did. I go a lot more on feeling and how I felt at this WrestleMania or at this ladder match, let’s try to emulate that feeling in this match, or go that route.

I don’t really have a whole lot of time, especially being at home with my family most of the time — my time is very limited. Unfortunately I don’t spend a whole lot of time watching older stuff I’ve done. If I watch older stuff, it’s older stuff other people have done to see how I can emulate the greatness that came before me.

Given that WrestleMania was pre-taped this year, this will be the first time you’ll be able to watch it with your family on your couch in your own home, which is probably pretty surreal. When the show was taping, did you purposely go out of your way to avoid the other matches as to not be spoiled of the outcome?

It was a crazy scene. We didn’t really get to sit around and watch what was going on. Any WrestleMania, before you wrestle, you don’t really watch everybody else’s match because you’re so worried about getting your own match together. It was kind of the same thing this year, because we didn’t know what was being taped from the arena. We were concentrating on our own stuff. I’m excited to see how the other matches went. There’s a lot of results that I don’t know. It’ll be really, really cool to sit down with the family and watch it, because it’s something that’s never happened before, and it probably won’t happen again until I retire.

You’re in Austin right now, which has an amazing food scene. Where are you getting your WrestleMania spread from?

Honestly I haven’t even thought about it! But now that you mention it, we’ll have to see. There’s a lot of great options, Tacodeli being one of my favorites. JuiceLand is great too. There’s a lot!

Reports came out last week that your scheduled WrestleMania match — a triple threat tag title match against the Usos and the Miz and John Morrison — was turned into a ladder match that you were not listed as being involved with. Can you comment on that?

Well that is the greatness of WrestleMania, all the rumors that have been going around. That’s why we watch. We got two special days of jam-packed WrestleMania action, and we’ll all have to watch and see how things unfold and we’ll all find out together. But I’m enjoying all the rumors and the buzz that’s going around, as far as what’s happening and what’s not happening. The one thing about taping these shows in advance is that you do have these rumors. It’s interesting to see just what is true and what is not. Like I said, it’s a long-winded non-answer, but you gotta stay tuned and watch. Smackdown is tonight, and WrestleMania is the next couple of days.

This is by far the most time you’ve had at home in years. How has it been readjusting to not only being home all day, but being a full-time dad with your kids also at home all day?

It’s great! I love it, man. My son is whispering in my ear, “I wanna FaceTime, lemme Facetime!” I literally have one kid on my lap and the other one over my shoulder. I did an episode of [Fox Sports’] First Things First — I woke up real early in the morning and I warned them that my kids would probably come bursting in, and sure enough, three minutes later, my son came bursting in and he was a part of the interview. This is just the life I live.

But I’m loving it. I’m getting to spend so much time, quality time and quantity time, with my kids that I wouldn’t normally get to do. For all the uncertainty and the weirdness that’s going on with everybody being at home, it’s actually giving me a sense of normalcy because I get to be at home like a normal dad spending a lot of time with kids. It’s kind of been a blessing to be able to spend all this time with my family. I love it.

I have to imagine the New Day‘s podcast, Feel The Power, has been a huge help keeping the three of you connected in a physical sense since Xavier Woods has been off the road due to injury. But now the three of you are once again scattered because of the COVID outbreak. How are you handling being apart from your two stablemates?

It definitely helps to see their faces. We’ve been recording the podcast remotely. It’s strange to not see and feel and touch my amigos, but I did see them just last week — it feels like an eternity that we’ve been home for so long.

Being able to have this podcast has been great not only for us but there’s a lot of people who say that listening to the podcast has provided a sense of levity for them throughout these difficult times. That’s really what it’s all about for us, entertaining and putting smiles on peoples’ faces. We’re lucky to be experiencing this chemistry on a different platform, and it’s been successful. I think about what I’m going to do post-WWE, and this podcast has legs.

I loved the two-part episode about the TV show March Madness. So I have to ask you: What is your all-time favorite episode of Nip/Tuck?

Oh my gosh. I thought you were gonna say Dragon Ball Z! How dare you? How dare you? Nip/Tuck?!? I am flabbergasted that you could leave the fate of Game Of Thrones to a coin toss. Are you kidding me? Are you joking? March Madness, indeed.

It made for great entertainment on the podcast, though.

For you guys! I was hot!

Speaking of Game Of Thrones, who was your favorite character? Who did you identify with the most?

I think I identified the most with Jon Snow, but my favorite character was undoubtedly Khaleesi. You were rooting for her, then you were rooting against her. Her frustration in the way her hands were tied and the power she got, and the effort she took to not be like her father but then ended up being just like her father… I thought it was a beautiful story arc for her in particular.

Last question: Have you watched Tiger King yet?

My wife and I just finished the finale yesterday.

Great! I’m going to give you a person from the show, and you tell me who from the WWE locker room best represents that person.

[Laughs.] Okay!

First up: Joe Exotic.

I gotta say Michael Hayes. One hundred percent. The outfits, the blonde hair, the attitude, don’t give a care about nothin’ in the world. Gotta be Michael Hayes.

Carole Baskin.

Woo-hoo, oh boy. I don’t know. Is there a Carol Baskin on our roster? I don’t know. That’s a real accusation to throw at someone.

Doc Antle.

Oh boy. Doc Antle has got to be… maybe Baron Corbin? He’s a little slimy, you know.

How about Joe Exotic’s first husband, John Finlay?

These are difficult, man! Everybody has all their teeth, you know?

Cesaro lost a few.

I was gonna say Cesaro, because he’s got the buzz cut like him too, but he doesn’t have any tattoos. You know what? I’ll say Jamie Noble. They got the same accent.

Last but not least, Jeff Lowe, the guy who stole Joe Exotic’s zoo. Who’s the heel?

I probably should’ve saved Corbin for this one! Maybe Kevin Owens? I know he’s a good guy now, but you can’t forget that Kevin Owens turned on his best friend, Sami Zayn. We welcomed Kevin Owens to be an honorary member of the New Day at one point and he turned on us. Maybe KO.

WrestleMania 36 airs Saturday, April 4 and Sunday, April 5 at 7 p.m. ET on the WWE Network and via pay-per-view.

This year’s WrestleMania is one of the most unique and troubled events in the show’s almost four decades of history. So far we’ve seen top stars drop out of main event matches due to health concerns, the loss of the ability to shoot the show live, and even a complete relocation that ruined the “pirate ship” motif.

In an interview with TV Guide, EVP of Global Talent Strategy and Development and resident gamesman Triple H talked about the “different alternatives” WWE had considered for this year’s Showcase of the Immortals and how the global pandemic moving Mania from Raymond James Stadium in Tampa to the company’s Performance Center in Orlando gave WWE the chance to, “do things differently, shoot them differently, present them differently.” One of those is the Firefly Funhouse match between John Cena and Bray Wyatt, which El Juego declares will be, “different from anything we’ve ever done.”

From the interview:

“I think that given the fact that WrestleMania will expand out, we had the opportunity to expand it out over multiple days and really do things in a way that we’ve never done before. We have Rob Gronkowski hosting with us, which it’s tough to plan around Rob because Rob kind of… you’ve got to just deal with Gronk. It’s Gronk’s world, we’re just all living in it. He’s got his own plan, so that’s unique in and of itself. But [there’s] the ability for us to then, because there are no fans, because we aren’t in the stadium, we can do things a little bit differently. So there are some matches and some components and things that will take place this year like we’ve never done before.

“Bray Wyatt and John Cena will have a Firefly Fun House match, which will be different from anything we’ve ever done in the WWE. The Undertaker and A.J. Styles will have a Bone Yard match, and they will be doing that from an off-site location. So the opportunity to do things differently, shoot them differently, present them differently. Hopefully, we’ll open up this WrestleMania in ways that people have never seen before and give them an opportunity to be entertained in ways they never have before.”

The “Firefly Slaughterhouse” t-shirt made for the match to sell at WrestleMania depicts Cena and Wyatt as hand puppets, so maybe we’ll be getting some abrupt media changes? Maybe they’ll wrestle some of it as people, some of it as puppets, some of it as cartoon characters? Even if they’re just fighting on a haunted children’s show set, it should be interesting.

One thing guaranteed to be less interesting, however? Entrances. Because how can you do WrestleMania-level ring entrances in an empty gym?

“Yeah, obviously some of that has had to be scaled down somewhat. We don’t have a stadium with a much longer ramp way, and the pyro and everything else that we would have. So, we’d have to work within certain parameters of changing what the spectacle is, but still trying to keep this as entertaining and as fresh as possible for fans. We’re going to do the best that we can, and I promise you we’ll be entertaining and it will be a spectacle in and of itself. Different, but still a spectacle.”

We get the feeling next year’s event is going to give everyone a big entrance and enough pyro to burn down a stadium.

Amid the current pandemic, information on whether the general public should wear masks is, well, conflicting at best. Recent CDC advice suggests that community spread could be lessened through widespread use of the devices. Yet given rampant shortages of masks, the leading U.S. public health institute knows that formally advising civilians to wear masks will only further jeopardize access for first responders and medical professionals. However, many people would feel more comfortable wearing some sort of face protection because that’s (probably) better than nothing when it comes to a highly contagious, potentially life-threatening virus that can spread through respiratory droplets. If nothing else, a mask can remind people to stop touching their faces, which is the easiest way to contract the disease.

Enter Colin Hanks, whose parents (Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson), were among the first U.S. celebrities known to have contracted the virus. Colin’s been doing the social distancing thing, and here’s his tutorial on how to fashion a makeshift kerchief mask.

Also important? His advice to watch these kerchiefs regularly, which (again) is more protection than wearing nothing at all while making necessary grocery runs. If you do happen to have any extra N95 masks lying around, the New York Times published guidelines for how to donate them to medical workers. Stay safe out there, everyone.

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

Tagging an artist as “experimental” can often serve as a warning sign, regardless of how accurate it is. It’s a term that connotes difficulty, that alerts the listener to a certain amount of work that needs to be put in to gain enjoyment, if something like “joy” is even possible. But it’s also a term that can feel like a hindrance on certain musicians, something that confines an artist to niche circles rather than placing them within the greater context of popular music that they deserve to be.

So when Yves Tumor told Pitchfork in 2017 that “I only want to make hits,” it may have been a surprising assertion from an artist whose early work hardly felt designed for the masses. “What else would I want to make?” Tumor continued. “I don’t mean in a radio sense. I don’t mean, like, Usher hits. I just mean a track or song that people constantly need to play over and over and over and over again.”

That inclination came into focus on Tumor’s third album, 2018’s Safe In The Hands Of Love, which found the mysterious artist reaching a new level of critical and commercial success. On the album, Tumor’s vocals were often held captive deep in the mix, peeking their head out from behind skittering beats and off-kilter rhythms. Tumor’s galactic talent and charisma were the star of his own work, no doubt, but their blood-pumping, organic core felt at home sharing space with his chaotic musical whims. On “Noid,” the song that most foreshadowed his musical direction, vocal assertion was balanced by batshit percussion where beauty and ugliness danced together on a razor’s edge. It’s a brilliant record, full of ideas that were not completely set on a final direction, provocative and difficult while still strangely inviting.

But on Heaven To A Tortured Mind, Tumor takes another huge step forward, and one that puts him at the forefront of musicians that can stand deftly stand in the worlds of art and pop at the same time. First single, album opener, and one of the best songs of this young year, “Gospel For A New Century” sets the table perfectly, complete with a title that signals the ambition on which the song delivers, that Tumor is out to craft monumental music. The pause during the track’s opening recalls a skipping vinyl but quickly morphs into something more lavish, highlighting the record’s interest in duality, be it the past and future, analog and digital, or peace and chaos. Meanwhile, the yearning lyrics resonate particularly in a time when everyone is isolated from the people and things that they love.

And when Tumor begins to sing, it’s a technicolor leap, captivating and almost primal in how evocative it is. The focus on voice is present throughout the album, sounding as if he heard Tunde Adebimpe’s all-timer vocal performance on “Blues From Down Here” and used it as a jumping-off point. In that same Pitchfork interview, Tumor noted at the time that “a voice is important to me. People can understand it so much more than just a cool groove. Sometimes people want to sing along to some shit.” Tumor has essentially known for years where he wanted the music to end up, and seeing it achieve a fully-realized vision is nothing short of a thrill.

Elsewhere, “Kerosene!” deserves its exclamation mark, a sort of modern take on Dark Side Of The Moon that somehow manages to do such a comparison justice. For as masterful as Tumor’s voice sounds throughout the album, appearances here from Diana Gordon or from Kelsey Lu on “Romanticist” elevate their respective numbers to places that Tumor couldn’t get on his own. Sunflower Bean’s Julia Cumming is also stellar on the highlight “Dream Palette,” a song that underscores the album’s infatuation with juxtaposition, where a sonic fireworks display cascades into competing vocals dead-set on sprawling infinitely.

As much as this is the most accessible album in Tumor’s career, it’s by no means easy. “Medicine Burn” finds the artist still pushing his audience’s buttons, with squeals and hisses and relentless percussive noise assuring listeners remain on their guard. As much as the record is stuffed with “hits,” it also doesn’t sacrifice the abrasive core of what Tumor is interested in. As an artist, Tumor thrives on provocation. And the music is just a jumping-off point for a vivid visual component that appears in music videos and live performances. When the world literally feels apocalyptic, it’s almost surprising how much comfort can be found from an artist that stares into the abyss and laughs just to hear the echo. Tumor knows that there is beauty and unity in the most unexpected places, and Heaven To A Tortured Mind feels like literally what its title suggests. It’s hard to find anything close to heaven right now in the world, but in this ideal album for right now, heaven is in every note, every syllable, and every brilliant idea that Tumor has to share. The experimental has never felt so urgent.

Heaven To A Tortured Mind is out now on Warp. Get it here.

During a time when the world is full of bad news, there was even more of it to be had this morning: Soul legend Bill Withers passed away at 81 years old. His career yielded some of the most memorable songs of all time and his influence spanned genres and eras, as evidenced by the eclectic and large grouping of artists who have paid tribute to Withers following his passing.

Chance The Rapper took to Twitter to reminisce about listening to Withers’ music, writing, “Aw man, Bill Withers was really the greatest. Grandma’s Hands, Ain’t No Sunshine, Lean on Me, Use Me Up, Just The Two Of Us and obviously Lovely Day are some of the best songs of all time. My heart really hurts for him, it reminds me of playing records with at my grandma’s house.”

Cloud Nothings’ Dylan Baldi shared a similar memory, writing, “i lived in northampton, massachusetts for most of 2015 and ‘menagerie’ was the only cd i had in my car for most of that time. some nice memories. bill withers will always be a legend!”

Withers also got some love from classic artists like Charlie Daniels, Foreigner, and Living Colour.

Check out some more reactions to Withers’ passing below.

After the death of Chuck McGill at the end of season three, I didn’t really understand why Better Call Saul needed to keep Harry Hamlin (Patrick Fabian) around anymore, much less allow him to continue on as a series regular. I assumed after Chuck’s death that Hamlin would beat a hasty retreat from the series, just as Chuck’s assistant Ernesto has (where is Ernesto, anyway?)

Hamlin, however, has managed to stick around, and Peter Gould and the writers have quietly played the long game with his character, who has a minor role but an increasingly outsized influence on the storyline. Season four, which came in the wake of Chuck’s death, was basically set-up for what came at the end of this week’s episode, “JMM.” What season four needed to establish, so far as Hamlin was concerned, was two things: (1) To show that Howard blamed himself for Chuck’s death, after having forced him to retire because his insurance premiums went up (never mind that Jimmy was responsible for those increased premiums); (2) To demonstrate that — thanks to a tough love speech from Jimmy — Howard eventually pulled himself out of an emotional black hole, and his firm out of a financial one.

That brings us to season 5, where Hamlin’s appearances have been sporadic but crucial. In season 5, Hamlin is back on his feet and successful, and I think that Hamlin attributes a little of that to Jimmy’s tough-love speech, but also in his own ability to forgive himself for Chuck’s death and move on. But Jimmy doesn’t want Chuck to forgive himself for Chuck’s death, because the only way Jimmy has been able to avoid responsibility for what was clearly more his fault is by allowing himself to believe that Howard was responsible. Jimmy does resent that Howard feels compelled to offer him a job, but Jimmy is more resentful of the fact that Hamlin has managed to move past Chuck’s death.

Crucially, however, Hamlin is also Jimmy’s relief valve at the moment. Jimmy is under an immense amount of strain from Nacho, Lalo, and the cartel, as well as his tumultuous relationship with Kim, and he has no outlet for it. He obviously wants to be honest with Kim now, as a part of their marriage/legal arrangement, but even that feels stressful for Jimmy, who had to interrupt a rare moment of physical affection with Kim to shamefully confess that the cartel has him over a barrel.

Notice how, in that moment, however, that Jimmy was hoping against hope that Kim might surprise him and approve of his relationship with the cartel and the potential money it would bring. He craves approval. He did with Chuck. He does with Kim. Only Howard, his sworn enemy, has really offered it. Howard’s presence, moreover, has allowed Jimmy to be occasionally be Jimmy. Bouncing bowling balls off of Howard’s car, and framing him up with prostitutes are the kinds of scams that Slippin’ Jimmy loves to pull off.

But those moments or relief aren’t enough for Jimmy, and in this week’s episode, Howard’s earnest, nice-guy schtick finally sets Jimmy off, not because the schtick is fake, but because it is genuine. Ultimately, that’s what upsets Jimmy the most: Howard may be a corporate schmuck, but he’s a good person. Jimmy, however, needs for Howard to be a slimy, corporate weasel he can pin Chuck’s demise upon, and the nicer that Howard is to him, the more Jimmy feels guilty not just about his brother’s death, but about putting all the blame on Howard for it.

Indeed, when Howard approaches Jimmy again at the courthouse this week and re-ups the offer, even after knowing what Jimmy did to him, Jimmy loses it.

“Jimmy, I’m sorry you are in pain,” Howard says to him, which is doubly painful for Jimmy because Howard is the only person who sees his pain, including the woman he just married. Jimmy had no other choice but to throw it back at him. “You kill my brother, and you say you’re sorry?”

This is when Jimmy completely loses it. Make no mistake, however. It isn’t about trying to hurt Howard. It isn’t about trying to embarrass Howard. It’s about Jimmy trying to convince himself that Howard is the bad guy, that he really is responsible for Chuck’s death. This is part of a pattern for Jimmy. Whenever he gets too close to acknowledging his own role, he runs from those feelings. The last time, after regaining his bar license by sentimentally acknowledging the influence of Chuck on his legal career, Jimmy ran straight into a new identity. It’s what Jimmy does: He spends much of his time running from Chuck, quieting those memories, chasing away those demons.

I don’t know what role Hamlin has left to play now in Better Call Saul (except possibly as Kim’s future husband), but if Howard has served his purpose, and if he has left the picture, Jimmy will lose his release valve, so that the next time he explodes, it may be Kim — instead of Howard — who becomes his target. Kim already has massive trust issues, dating back to her upbringing. Marriage or not, Jimmy and Kim’s relationship is tenuous and fragile. Kim will not stick around if Jimmy unloads his anger and guilt on her. Howard Hamlin may have been the last shield for their unraveling relationship. With him out of the picture, Jimmy may have no choice but to confront his own feelings. The consequences for his relationship with Kim may be dire.

Playboi Carti was arrested on gun charges in Georgia’s Clayton County Thursday after a traffic stop led to the discovery of three guns, as well as 12 bags of marijuana, codeine, oxycodone, and Xanax, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Carti, whose real name is Jordan Carter, was stopped for expired registration tags, but once the guns and drugs were found inside the Lamborghini, Carter and another man, Jaylon Tucker, were both arrested and taken to the Clayton County jail.

Carti was set to headline Texas’ JMBLYA festival this spring, but the festival was postponed due to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. Carti was most recently in headlines when his and girlfriend Iggy Azalea’s rental house was burglarized for $366,000 worth of jewelry in November.

It’s been around two years since the release of Carti’s last album, Die Lit, but the genre-bending ad-lib genius hasn’t been completely quiet while workin on the heavily anticipated follow-up, Whole Lotta Red. He appeared on one of 2019’s biggest hits, Tyler The Creator’s “Earfquake,” with a verse that even Tyler wasn’t able to completely decipher. He also appeared alongside Solange on “Almeda,” with fellow Atlanta rapper Young Nudy on Nudy’s “Pissy Pamper,” and on Mustard’s Perfect Ten track “Baguettes In The Face” with A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie and Nav.

Read The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s report on Carti’s arrest here.

Lil Baby is one of hip-hop’s hottest rising stars but that isn’t stopping him from kicking himself over missing out on a spot on one of rap’s most viral new releases. Apparently, Drake wanted the My Turn rapper on his new hit “Toosie Slide,” which is already tearing up TikTok thanks to its easy-to-learn dance steps and an early leak that spread the song far and wide before it even got an official release.

Baby explained why he’s not included in an Instagram post sharing a screenshot from Apple Music. The caption reads: “@champagnepapi Sent Me This Song A Month Ago My Dumb Ass Ain’t Send The Verse Bacc!!” However, he didn’t mourn the missed opportunity too much, as “That’s Big Bro We Got Sh*t Comingggggg!!!” Fans of their original collaboration, Lil Baby’s breakout 2018 hit “Yes Indeed,” will likely be on the lookout for that collaboration, especially after their 2020 connection on Future’s “Life Is Good” remix wasn’t quite a full collaboration.

In the meantime, Lil Baby fans seemingly have plenty to look forward to. Despite just dropping his sophomore album a month ago, Baby has already begun teasing future projects, such as his Lamborghini Boys mixtape. He’s also still promoting My Turn with a plethora of videos. Despite missing out on “Toosie Slide,” it seems he’s doing just fine on his own.

Watch the “Toosie Slide” video here.

Around the time that Florida’s governor finally instituted a stay-at-home lockdown order for the entire state, AEW announced that they were moving their tapings from Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, which is now being used for Covid-19 testing, to an undisclosed location. Now a report has come out that they still ran into some complications, although they apparently had all their ducks in a row.

According to Wrestling Inc, the AEW Dynamite tapings happened at QT Marshall’s Gym in Norcross, Georgia. Yesterday, Georgia state authorities showed up during those tapings and tried to shut them down. However, AEW had apparently already done the paperwork and gotten permission for the tapings, so they were able to continue. The Georgia officials stayed for the rest of the tapings to make sure all the rules were being followed. Am I the only one who’s hoping to see a group of awkward state troopers watching the matches on camera when those episodes air?

Georgia’s full stay-at-home order didn’t start until today, and stays in effect until April 13 (although it likely will be extended longer). AEW was reportedly able to finish their tapings yesterday, and apparently got enough matches in the can to keep airing shows through mid-may. We’ll see what happens after that. It seems likely that whatever they were able to shoot at the gym will be supplemented with at-home segments like we saw from Chris Jericho last night, as well as Jake the Snake’s recent promos.

The Rundown is a weekly column that highlights some of the biggest, weirdest, and most notable events of the week in entertainment. The number of items could vary, as could the subject matter. It will not always make a ton of sense. Some items might not even be about entertainment, to be honest, or from this week. The important thing is that it’s Friday, and we are here to have some fun.

ITEM NUMBER ONE — Explain yourself, Gustavo

I usually try to avoid spoiler-heavy discussions of recent episodes of television in the opening section of this column, but there’s no way around it this week. There is an important issue that needs to be discussed. It happened on Monday’s episode of Better Call Saul. I will attempt to explain it in a way that non-viewers will understand, but if you have yet to see the episode and plan to see it, go do that and then come back here.

Okay. For reasons relating to ongoing drug wars and subterfuge, Gus Fring — the ice-cold Chilean drug kingpin introduced in Breaking Bad who runs a chain of fried chicken restaurants as a cover — trashes and blows up one of his locations. The way he did it was wild and involved a kind of Rube Goldberg set-up with a frozen chicken on a sheet pan that was angled down toward a bubbling deep fryer in a kitchen that was filling up with gas rapidly. It was genius and kind of funny and until a few people reached out to me on Twitter about it, I did not see any issue.

But.

BUT.

Let’s jump back to the first episode of this season when Gus was discussing the construction of an industrial refrigerator for his restaurants as a cover for the actual construction of a drug-making superlab. Someone makes the mistake of referring to it as “a freezer.” This offends Gus Fring deeply, for reasons explained in this screencap, which I am including as evidence.

It will never not delight me that Gus takes such pride in the food at his restaurants even though their primary purpose is to give him cover to transport a massive amount of drugs through the American Southwest. He probably earns, what, five percent as much at these restaurants as he makes moving drugs for the cartel? Less? I am not joking when I tell you that I think about this as much as I think about, like, planning for my retirement.

Anyway, you see where this is going, right? Gus says his chickens are never frozen. And yet, when it came time to blow up his restaurant, he marched right into his cooler and pulled out a frosty bird. More evidence.

There are, as far as I can tell, three possibilities at play here.

• Possibility Number One: Gus Fring is a damn liar.
• Possibility Number Two: Gus Fring is not a liar and he froze this chicken special and by itself for the sole purpose of blowing up his restaurant, which is backed up by the fact that there is clearly only one chicken on a cling-wrapped sheet pan on the shelf.
• Possibility Number Three: I am thinking too much about this, by a lot.

Right now, after almost a full week of thought, I’m leaning toward a combination of numbers two and three. Part of my reasoning is the thing about the chicken being alone on the individually wrapped sheet pan. If he was freezing all of his chickens, he could have just pulled one out of the pile. No, this was planned out very deliberately. I like to think he spent no less than 25 minutes selecting the chicken he would use for the arson. The man is nothing if not meticulous.

The other part of my reasoning is that, for some reason, I don’t believe that Gus — a notorious drug dealer and murderer who may or may not have committed a number of war crimes in his native country before fleeing to America — would lie about or take shortcuts with the preparation of the food at the restaurant he runs to hide his lucrative narcotics business. Is that weird? Is it weird that I’m willing to accept him as a cold-blooded killer and criminal but not as a man who tries to pass off frozen chicken as fresh? I don’t think it is, which is itself pretty weird. Gus Fring has respect for a quality product. It’s the same with his meth and his chicken. It’s why he eventually brings in Walter White. The man demands the best and there are consequences for failing him.

Still, though. The chickens are “never” frozen? That’s been proven false. A more accurate statement would be “our product is never frozen unless I need to stage an explosion to blow up the restaurant as part of ruse involving my hated partner and nemesis in the drug cartel that employs me.” I guess that’s a bit of a mouthful, though. I’ll cut him a little slack, mostly because I’m terrified of him.

Look at this guy. Come on.

Freeze all the chickens you want, buddy. Just please do not hurt me.

ITEM NUMBER TWO — A perfect song

Adam Schlesinger passed away this week from complications related to the coronavirus. I’ll leave the eulogies to the people who were more familiar with his entire body of work, but it is important to note here and everywhere that the Fountains of Wayne frontman wrote the titular song from That Thing You Do!, a perfect little song in a mostly perfect little movie. It’s not just that the song was relentlessly catchy on its own, in the way that timeless pop songs often are. It was that the entire movie hinged on the song being relentlessly catchy. No pressure or anything.

My colleague Josh Kurp wrote a lovely tribute to the song this week that said all of this better than I have or can. Let’s blockquote him:

The drums! The harmonies! The hook! The bridge! Every time I hear it, I turn into Liv Tyler running down the street, losing her mind when she hears the song on the radio. “That Thing You Do!” sounds effortless, but it’s not like “I Want to Hold Your Hand”-level bops come out of nowhere; Schlesinger had to write a song from another era that you hear multiple times in its near-entirety, and if it wasn’t instantly irresistible and you didn’t believe it was the biggest song in the world, the entire movie would fall apart. (It’s one of the reasons, among many, that Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip failed: the in-show sketches were supposed to be funny; they weren’t. Unlike 30 Rock, where “Fart Doctor” is intentionally awful, and therefore, hilarious.) “That Thing You Do!” was a 1960s song written for a 1990s movie that still sounds great in the 2020s. It’s timeless.

This is all correct. Let’s play this song all weekend. And a bunch of Schlesinger’s other songs. And let’s also try to remember to be better about honoring people while they’re alive, too. While they’re around to hear it. Tributes are great. Celebrations are better. I know it’s hard to think about that now, but try letting someone you admire know how important their work has been to you. Do it this weekend. Do it today. You never know, you know?

ITEM NUMBER THREE — Please kneel before the Queen of America

Ina Garten is the greatest. This much we knew already, although the video embedded above is a nice little refresher. Just the Barefoot Contessa quarantined at home in the Hamptons and mixing up a cocktail as big as her entire head. It’s perfect and beautiful. She’s one part Queen of America and one part everyone’s fun aunt, which I believe makes all of us second-tier princes and princesses, the kind that have money and jewels and castles but no actual responsibilities. The best kind. Queen Aunt Ina rules the land with her giant cocktails. The people love her and she loves the people.

This also gives us a great excuse to go back and read Choire Sicha’s wonderful profile of her from 2015. Does it give you some background on her rise to fame? It does. Does it feature hilariously alpha quotes from Martha Stewart? Yes, plenty of them. Does it include a number of paragraphs about her husband Jeffrey, a fascinating man who may or may not have secrets? I am pleased to report that it does. Here, look:

Jeffrey appears in the show as comic relief, a bumbling Jew doing big shtick. Ina likes to use the hashtag #drunkhubby to describe him on Instagram. In the season eight premiere, they’ve rented a house in Napa, so that, ostensibly, Ina can get away and Jeffrey can write a book. There is a whole subplot in one episode that amounts to absolutely nothing, in which Jeffrey, having flown in for Friday night chicken dinner, is filmed driving through the Napa roads. “I hope I can find the rental house,” he says, in an example of how people say everyday, totally acceptable things which then come off on the show — or, to be fair, on all such shows — as flat and deranged and even a little Lynchian. He really hopes he can find that rental house!

Haha, what a silly man. Who is also an extremely successful financial wizard. And again, may or may not have secrets.

Jeffrey Garten is not a bumbling idiot. He finds the house in Napa without difficulty. After all, any reasonably close reading of his resume suggests that he certainly either was, or equally likely was not, working for the CIA in Asia and Latin America for decades.

What a fascinating couple. I want to live in their guest house and observe them for weeks on end. Months, perhaps. Not even for a profile or a documentary. Just for my own curiosity. Especially when you consider this…

“Personally, I’m a big vegetable fan and I have to be very cautious of what I eat and how much I eat of it. And yes, have they had to come up to me and say ‘Chef, you’ve got two more locations today. You cannot have all the enchiladas’? And have they taken them out of my hands? Yes, they have.”

Ahhh, whoops. It appears I have accidentally included a quote from another Food Network icon, Guy Fieri, from a piece in Variety this week. I wonder how that happened? I guess we’ll never know. Or we will know because I will tell you: It happened because the visual of a producer yoinking an enchilada out of Guy Fieri’s hands has been cracking me up for days. Picture his face. He must have been so sad. Let Guy have his enchiladas!

I would pay top-tier boxing title fight PPV prices for a three-hour special where Guy and Ina criss-cross America in a Winnebago.

ITEM NUMBER FOUR — “Ba-wubb-ah bayyyyy-eth”

Two things that are true:

• Maya Rudolph’s pronunciation of the phrase “bubble bath” in character as Connie the Hormone Monstress on Big Mouth is one of the truly great things in the world and we should stop to remember that from time to time
• I have always wanted to see her say it in real life because — like all of the other voice actors on the show — she appears to be having an absolute blast with it

That wish was granted during the Big Mouth quarantine live-read that took place last weekend. Behold, a champion.

You know what? It’s exactly like I pictured it, right down to the puffed lips as she blasts out air on every hard b. I’m so happy and grateful I got to experience this. Dreams do come true.

ITEM NUMBER FIVE — I feel like this will help

Hey, do you like fun things that are probably good? Great, me too. That’s what I am happy to inform you that John Mulaney and Nick Kroll are embarking on a new project: a weekly podcast, in character as the maniacs from Oh, Hello, George St. Geegland and Gil Faison, who they played on Broadway and in a Netflix special and in the above clip, in which Mulaney, as St. Geegland, sets up a prank involving O.J. Simpson prosecutor Marcia Clark and an absolutely mammoth tuna sandwich by saying “You’re about to get the second biggest surprise of your life.”

It’s a good bit. And that’s before you even get to the description of the podcast.

She was the People’s Princess and they were two men who hung out at Duane Reade. But now worlds have collided. From the stars of “Oh Hello, on Broadway” and the video taped version of “Oh, Hello on Broadway” comes a podcast on the life and death of Princess Diana.

Yes, this will do. This will do nicely. We’ve all earned this. Let’s enjoy.

READER MAIL

If you have questions about television, movies, food, local news, weather, or whatever you want, shoot them to me on Twitter or at [email protected] (put “RUNDOWN” in the subject line). I am the first writer to ever answer reader mail in a column. Do not look up this last part.

From Danny:

I was looking for something to watch last week and for some reason your years-old recommendation of The Wine Show on Hulu popped into my head. I have now watched the entire first season of The Wine Show. It’s like televised Xanax. I would be fine with a version of heaven that is nothing but wine experts talking to Matthew Rhys and Matthew Goode about wine gadgets. This is me saying thank you for that.

Yo.

Yes.

YES.

I had forgotten about The Wine Show until I saw Danny’s email. I have now also watched multiple episodes of the show since then. “Televised Xanax” hits the nail on the head. Just two very charming British actors bouncing around Italy tasting wines and cracking jokes and doing poor James Bond accents whenever they try out a new gadget. It is especially wild to see Matthew Rhys in this if you only know him as the perpetually sad Russian spy he played on The Americans. He’s bearded and giggling and having the best time throughout the entire show. Total goofball, complete 180 from Philip Jennings.

Highest possible recommendation. Watch The Wine Show.

AND NOW, THE NEWS

To the Northwest!

A man was arrested Sunday after leading troopers on a high-speed chase with his dog sitting in the driver’s seat, a spokeswoman for the Washington State Patrol said.

Hmm. Go on.

The suspect was driving “absolutely recklessly,” and a pursuit ensued at 109 miles an hour, she said. One of the troopers attempted to corner the suspect’s car, looked inside and realized a pit bull was sitting in the driver’s seat while the suspect steered, Axtman said.

More. Tell me more.

Eventually troopers were able to use spike strips to end the pursuit. During the arrest, Axtman said the suspect gave them one explanation: He was “trying to teach his dog how to drive.”

If I were this guy’s lawyer, and if he is reading this please consider this an official offer, like I would blow the inch of dust off my decade-old law degree and fill out the mountain of paperwork to get active, I would make two arguments here: One, how can you charge my client with any traffic offense when the dog was the one driving? Two, how is the dog supposed to get good at driving if we don’t let him practice?

If neither of those work, I’ll start flinging around phrases like “in this economy” and “in these troubled times” until I see one member of the jury start nodding along. I’ve seen every episode of both Law & Order and Franklin & Bash. I can get a hung jury at least on this one. Probably an acquittal. I guarantee it.