Category: Worldwide

Previously on the Ins and Outs of AEW Dynamite: AEW put together 3/4 of a great show, then put it in a bag and dumped it in the river with 31 minutes of Jon Moxley vs. Jake Hager.

If you’d like to keep up with this column and its thinly veiled Best and Worst format, you can keep tabs on the Ins and Outs of AEW Dynamite tag page. You can keep track of all things All Elite here.

Follow With Spandex on Twitter and Facebook. You can also follow me on Twitter, where everything and everyone is terrible.

And now, the Ins and Outs of All Elite Wrestling Dynamite for April 22, 2020.

All In: The TNT Championship Tournament Continues

This week’s Dynamite is book-ended by the two remaining first round matches in the TNT Championship tournament; one playing off an an established rivalry, and one teasing the end of a career, possibly to set up a televised murder in the semi-finals.

Up first is Sammy Guevara vs. Darby Allin, and while it doesn’t reach the heights of their classic from Revolution (and can’t, I don’t think, without a real crowd), it’s more in-ring goodness from two of AEW’s best young, for lack of better phrasing, “homegrown” stars. It’s also the latest installment of Darby Allin’s episodic quest to cripple himself by diving headfirst out of the ring into walls and barricades. It’s like Sin Cara, except he’s doing it on purpose.

Allin wins, both because he’s great and because of course he’s Cody Rhodes’ semi-finals opponent. Can I say really quickly how much I like the Last Supper as a finisher? Not enough American wrestlers choose to use inescapable pinning combinations as ways to end matches. I always dug guys like Super Delfin who had simple, hard-to-escape leverage pins as signature moves. My favorite Daniel Bryan Danielson move will always be the small package.

On the other side of the bracket we’ve got Dustin Rhodes putting his career on the line against Kip Sabian. Sure, putting your career on the line against a guy half your size who needs his girlfriend to help him defeat even the lowest-ranking jobbers is pretty low stakes, but it’s a great way to get people talking about what an incredible 32-year career Dustin’s had so far, and sets up some delightful and terrifying pathos for his semi-finals match. If Dustin vs. Sabian felt like it could’ve ended Dustin’s career, what’s it going to feel like when he’s in there against a 6-foot-8 hollering murderer who wants nothing more than to eliminate Cody Rhodes? That seems like a recipe for both blood and guts. And not in the fun way.

Everyone watching should take a lesson from Dustin here. If you’re wrestling Kip Sabian, bring a lady to the ring with you. Kip could be in there against a cardboard cut-out and Penelope Ford would try to help him win, so find Brandi Rhodes or a rough equivalent to counter it. This is doing the world’s lowest-effort homework.

Student Squashes Of The Week

Here’s AEW Tag Team Champion, AAA Mega Champion, and promotion non-specific Best Bout Machine Kenny Omega having to try way too hard to defeat Alan Angels. After all, this is the same guy Lance Archer put in a grave two weeks ago. One of the strangest things about Omega is that his character completely ignores tier charts and has random difficulty turned on for every match. Not that Kenny shouldn’t devote some of his TV time to making young guys and new stars look like they deserve to be in the ring, but there’s got to be a happy medium between the Kenny Omega who mindlessly no-sells everything to do anime taunts, and the Kenny Omega who’s letting Alan Angels ground-and-pound him. I’m really happy he won with a V-Trigger too, not only because that makes V-Trigger nearfalls in AEW more believable, but means Omega didn’t have to bust out the goddamn One-Winged Alan Angel.

“Justin Law, man. Justin Trouble’s what his name should be.” — Chris Jericho, talking to the “AEW Galaxy”

Justin Law, who definitely interns at Wardlow & Associates, gets bludgeoned by the brother Brodie Lee. After the match, Brodie makes a point to walk over and intimidate Marko Stunt, which seems like another example of a giant AEW monster picking on the smallest guy in the room, but actually makes sense given that Stunt was one of the first guys to turn down a Dark Order mask. The highlight is probably Jericho, a man who has competed off and on in Japan for his entire career and definitely understands the concept of match-ending lariats, incredulously declaring, “He just beat Justin Law … with a CLOTHESLINE!”

In a match that didn’t get a clip on AEW’s YouTube page, Goldberg Brock Lesnar Wardlow defeats Lee Johnson. Johnson, who we recently saw on Dark accidentally busting open his trainer, takes a Goldberg-style military press into a powerslam and two throwing vertical suplexes before hopping up like nothing happened and being like, HAVE THESE TWIRLS AND FOREARMS! There’s got to be somebody better for this gig. At least Lee took the F-10 better than Ryan Piles.

Orange Is The New Black

The only other match on the card is Orange Cassidy vs. Jimmy Havoc, which is fun, but would’ve been ten times better with a crowd. Sure, you could say that for any match happening during quarantine, but I think Orange Cassidy only works when being digested in real-time by a wrestling audience. He’s great no matter what, but his character and presentation’s already a tightrope walk without losing that instant validation.

Highlights:

• Orange winning with what I’m assuming is called the ORANGE CLUTCH, continuing my love of pinning combinations as match-enders, and
• Orange Cassidy winning, just in general
• “LOOK AT PENELOPE WHAT’S SHE GONNA DO …. oh, nothing” — Chris Jericho

Outside The Ring Nonsense Of The Week

Did you watch last week’s episode of The Bubbly Bunch and think, “this would be so much better if they were engaging in a fake TikTok dance contest to win a tiny bottle of hand sanitizer?” If so, what’s wrong with you? Also, you’re a genius and they did the thing. Enjoy FLIM FLAM — “not affiliated with TikTok” — featuring the Inner Circle doing what appears to be a Judas Effect-themed dance with “Don’t Rush Challenge” transition vibes. If this is a real TikTok dance don’t @ me, I don’t want to know.

I didn’t think they’d be able to continually top themselves after adorable dogs chasing a drone while Chris Jericho curses at it and random edits of Grinch close-ups and breakfast spills, but Jericho offering the world’s worst prize to his friends for an imaginary social media platform dance contest, getting mad at Sammy Guevara for upstaging him, and angrily throwing the bottle of sanitizer at his own phone as if he’s “giving it” to Guevara is the funniest shit I’ve ever seen.

Here’s MJF in front of someone else’s house doing a riff on a Randy Orton bit from 20 years ago. I like that not only does he have his scarf tucked under the sling arm, but he got a finger sleeve with the same design. What a wonderfully insufferable human being.

Matt Hardy adds a great layer to his AEW character this week by revealing that he can transmogrify between his “essence” and “vessel” and morph from DAMASCUS into regular old, unkillable Matt Hardy. The ability to switch between characters like this is going to do him a lot of favors when he wants to have serious beefs and feuds that don’t involve magical backyard fights and drone-assisted teleportation. But don’t worry, he stays Damascus long enough to hit a few choice lines, with this one being my favorite:

“Samuel, I welcome you here if you wish to fight Jericho’s fight for him. But be warned, Samuel. If you come to the Hardy compound, I will mash you up into a MOFONGO … and EAT YOU!!“

Mofongo, of course, is both a Puerto Rican dish consisting of garlic mashed plantains, and what you’d call the tag team of Dan Maff and Steve McMichael.

Finally, here’s a great character video on Scorpio Sky to remind you that the rest of the AEW roster still exists, we just don’t ever get to see them.

All In: Top 10 Comments Of The Week

Birdman

Bad scouting by Jimmy Havok not realizing OC gets +50 to all attributes once his hands go in his pockets

Brute Farce

What Dustin really means is “if winning tonight means I have to wrestle Lance Archer, I’d rather retire.”

AshBlue

they should just debut Marty Scrull as a random crowd member but never call attention to it

I hope the payoff to that Roomba shot is that it’s actually a sentient robot sent by Damascus.

Baron

“Help from an Angel…Highway to Heaven…Whatever the hell that show is!”

JERICHO IS A NATIONAL TREASURE!

Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer

A Canadian Destroyer used as finisher, what is this, 2007?

AddMayne

my favorite Luke Harper memory is when he was warning Bray every week that the guy named after a snake was obviously going to turn on them and he never listened

Mr. Bliss

Poor Best Friends, their feud gets downgraded from Death Triangle to Meth Triangle

Clay Quartermain

Scorpio Sky’s segment felt like a Dark Side of the Ring episode where nothing bad happened

TheGreenMiles

Amazing that Jericho is such a brilliant commentator because he just reacts to what’s happening without trying to feed us talking points. Somehow “he hit him hard, that musta hurt!” comes across as refreshing.

Dave M J

…how did Jake Hager get back into his house?

I forgot to mention it, but Cody has a Bat Cave now. [shrug]

That does it for this week’s column. Thanks for reading about Dynamite! If you’re able to leave us a comment below, give the column a share on social media, and make sure you’re back here next week. Here’s what you’ll see:

• Brodie Lee trying to break Lance Archer’s “Beating The Shit Out Of Marko Stunt” record
• Jon Moxley, hopefully staying far away from Jake Hager forever
• Kip Sabian and Jimmy Havoc in a no disqualification match against Best Friends that will probably be more like a six-person tag
• Cody vs. Darby Allin in the TNT Championship tournament
• Lance Archer fridging poor Dustin

See you then!

After turning all the way up with 1TakeJay, going on a five-finger discounted shopping trip with idontknowjeffery, and getting ghoulish with Dana Dentata, UPROXX Sessions goes to “The Gutter” with our latest guest, Ontario, California rapper Eddy Baker.

Active since 2012, the 28-year-old Baker is a former member of the now-defunct buzzing blog era group Raider Klan and one half of the rap duo Healthy Boyz with Chilly Sosa. He’s also a member of Memphis rapper Xavier Wulf’s Seshollowaterboyz quartet, which also consists of Bones and Chris Travis. He’s about as productive as any rapper can be in the modern streaming era, with around 18 projects under his belt since 2012, three of which were released during 2019 (No Rest For The Wicked, I Hope This Helps E.P., and I Got High As F*** & Forgot I Made These Songs (Side A)).

Watch Eddy’s gritty performance of the “The Gutter” above.

UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s new performance show featuring the hottest up-and-coming acts you should keep an eye on. Featuring creative direction from LA promotion collective, Ham On Everything, and taking place on our “bathroom” set designed and painted by Julian Gross, UPROXX Sessions is a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too.

MIAMI – It’s hard to have a trajectory like the one Darius Leonard is on without reflecting on how he got there. The dynamic Colts linebacker had one Division I offer, and that was South Carolina State, about two hours west of his hometown of Lake View, a small town near the South Carolina-North Carolina border with a population right around 800. Leonard has seen extreme highs, from being named a two-time MEAC Defensive Player of the Year to Rookie of the Year honors and a Pro Bowl selection and the birth of his daughter Mia in 2019, and crushing lows, with two of his brothers incarcerated and another brother killed in 2012 during a fight at a club in Mullins, S.C.

Through all that, the imposing 6’2 force remains focused on being as good as he can be. If he’s named to the Pro Bowl, he wants to be MVP. If he’s MVP, he wants to be Super Bowl MVP. There’s drive, and then there’s whatever is driving Leonard, a boulder picking up speed downhill with no signs of stopping.

That doesn’t stop Leonard from enjoying the ride. He’s going to take care of those close to him, his mom, his family, his wife, his teammates. But he’s going to take care of himself, too. He lets himself feel those lows without trivializing them, but makes sure to express the sheer joy that comes from those highs. Otherwise, what’s this all for?

UPROXX Sports chatted with Leonard outside Radio Row during Super Bowl week as he reflected on his journey, how the Colts handled Andrew Luck’s retirement, his sense of style, and more.

Martin Rickman: How have you adjusted to Indianapolis coming from South Carolina, spending college in South Carolina? It’s a different world down there, obviously and I know those first couple of years, you’re trying to play football and compete at the highest level, but you also you’ve got a family.

Wife and kid, yeah. It was, luckily, because I’m from the country, you know? So driving, I’m not used to traffic. So I made sure that I stayed in a neighborhood that takes maybe five to seven minutes to get to work, and made sure that I’m moving where there is no traffic, not around too many people. I’m not used to being around people. So I may be 25 minutes from downtown or anyplace else. So just trying to make sure that I’m safe and that I’m enjoying where I’m staying at.

Yeah. I sent some time with Khalil Mack when he was still at Buffalo. And I know that mindset of kind of not being recruited as heavily as you are, having that chip. Every player tries to create a chip or they’ve got one. And I know you’ve got one. How has that helped fuel you?

Well I mean, it started off in high school, man. I can remember playing JV ball, not getting in. And then when I get in, I make plays, then sit back on the sidelines. Then, not playing on the varsity level until my 11th grade year, then going to college. “Hey, what are you doing? You can’t play linebacker in college.” I had one offer. That was South Carolina State. I want to South Carolina State, and they said, “What position are you going to play?” I said linebacker. “Oh, you’re too small to play linebacker.” So then I go there, I go to South Carolina State, and I do what I’ve got to do there. Then I get drafted.

So I was a second-round draft pick. So I mean, I’m still proving everything wrong. Then last year, I didn’t make the Pro Bowl. So I’m proving that. This year, I’m not first-team All-Pro. So I’ve still got so many things that I’ve got to prove. I want my numbers to be the best, and I want to be considered as the best. I don’t want to be second. I’m a competitor. I want my name at the top of every list until my name is at the top from year to year. Until I retire, I’m not doing anything else.

There is no stop with you. I know that all comes from family. You had to grow up fast.

You know, just being through what I’ve been through, I’ve had two brothers incarcerated. Like you said, I had to grow up early. Brothers, one went in in 1997. I was two years old. Another one when I was probably maybe nine or 10, so I’ve seen that side. And then I’ve seen my brother make it out [Ed. Note: former Chargers and Saints linebacker Anthony Waters] seen him go to the college. I see him make it to the NFL. So I’ve seen both sides, seen momma cry, seen momma happy. So I knew that I wanted to make momma happy. I didn’t have nothing growing up, so I started my first job at 13, just wanting to make my own money. I didn’t want nobody to say, “Hey, here you go.” I don’t want anybody to hand me nothing. I want to go out and just make everything on my own, because I don’t want anybody to hold anything over my head at any point.

We’re in a really interesting situation right now with athletes where guys are allowed to express emotions, they’re allowed to be themselves. You’re not just a football player on a poster. You’re allowed to talk about things that matter to you.

It’s amazing, because there’s so many teams I hear of, it’s their way or nothing else. And I love being with the Colts because it allows me to be who I am. I’m a happy person. I love to give back. I love to have fun, and when I’m on the field, I can express my feelings. I’m not out here saying, “Okay, I’m doing a job.” No, I’m having fun. This is my dream, and they allow me to live out my dream a the highest level and how so many emotions, because then once I get off the field, I’m that same guy.

I’m still that same happy guy. And then you know, back in the day, it was everybody had to be a mean looking guy. Everybody was so scared to go say hey to a guy that they looked up to, because from what they seen, how they carried themselves on the field, and how everybody said that he was. But now, when they come to me, I’m a happy guy. They see I’m happy on the field. They see I’m happy off the field. So when they come up and say, “Hey, Darius, can I take a picture?” “Yeah, sure. Why not? I mean, I’m one of you.” You know what I’m saying? Everybody say you a celebrity. I’m not a celebrity. I’m the same person, the same little boy from Lake View, South Carolina. I’ve got the same heart. That would never change.

Who’s helped you get acclimated to the NFL?

I’d say my first year, me and Najee Goode, we was tight. He showed me all the ropes. He showed me everything, him and then Anthony Walker, you know, he’s so smart at Mike linebacker, and he don’t get enough credit of being a great ball player. And just them two, you know? They brought me up under their wing, and teaching me the game, teaching me the ropes, and then you’re having a great guy who has similar things of upbringing or going to a small school like Robert Mathis, having him in my corner as well.

Everything he’s proven.

So it’s easy to talk to Robert, because he’s been through the same thing that I’ve been through, so he knows how to get out of it.

With regards to the Pro Bowl, they mic you up and it seems like a really good experience. I think some people got a little bit more about you, like you were saying, with just how much passion you play with, which emotion you played. What’s that experience like? And is that something you want people to know about you?

Oh yeah. I mean, it was a great experience. I loved it. I enjoyed it. I mean, the game was a little weird. That was my first one there, my first time there.

It’s football, but it’s not football, right?

It’s not football. You’re not tackling. I took the ground one time, and that wasn’t even because I made a tackle. So it was just a different vibe on the field, but I mean, I was still having fun. I mean, I was enjoying every single moment because you don’t ever know when life is going to hit you. You never know when this thing can end, so I’m going to live in the moment, and I’m going to go have fun no matter what, and it’s going to be very rare to see me look down. Even on my worst days, I put on that mask, because you don’t ever know. Like if I walk by someone who’s having a terrible day, and I could just say hey to them or put a smile on their face, and they change their whole demeanor, that’s the type of person I am, and that’s what I want to live by.

You mentioned the Colts and kind of how that organization is a little bit different. They handled Andrew Luck’s retirement so different too. What did that teach you about them? You’d already learned a lot about who they were at that point.

Yeah. I mean, it just comes to show that they’re behind you no matter what it is. He stepped away from the game, and that’s their franchise quarterback, and they treated him so well. They still said great things about him. They didn’t bash him. They didn’t do anything, and that’s one thing that I love. And they’re always in your corner. No matter if you’re wrong or you’re right, they’re going to stand up for you, because I mean, we’re a big family, and that organization no matter if I look good, they look good. I look bad, they look bad. They know that, and if anything happens between the family, the family’s going to take it up for the family, and they showed that with Andrew’s retirement.

I know style’s important to you too. Where do you take your cues?

You want to swag out a little bit.

Yeah. But you’ve got to learn. It takes time as you grow into yourself.

Oh you definitely got to learn, yeah. It was crazy, because I mean, growing up, my brother that got killed, he was big into fashion. And me, I was just all right, I’m going to wear some basketball shorts, just straight hand-me-downs. So yeah. After he died, I wanted to kind of keep him with me, so that’s when I kind of looked into fashion, like how to dress, like what looks good, what don’t look good? And then just come in on game days man. It’s just whatever vibe that I’m thinking, like what type of game that I want to go in. All black, because I’m looking to go out there and hurting someone, or Michael Jordan thing, having a Michael Jordan shirt on. He’s the best. I mean, you know you’ve got to walk in, you’ve got to channel your inner thoughts, you know what I’m saying?

So it’s just different things to me man, I want to prove. Like if I’m on an away game, oh, I’m dressing up, you know what I’m saying? I’m suited and booted. So I let them know, “Hey listen, I’m about to clock in,” and no matter what. I had this one that I was going to. LA. And I had this sparkly tuxedo top on. Everybody’s like “What’s up man? You’re too dressy.” No. I’m letting them know that hey, I’m coming to clock in.

Where do you get inspiration from? Do you have a guy that you work with for that?

No. If I don’t pick out my outfit, I let my wife. I mean, we think together. What do you want to wear this week? Or I just give her the freedom, “Hey, you go and pick me out an outfit, and I’ll run with it.” She knows my style. She knows what I like. Or I go to Tampa, Milano Exchange. That’s where I get all my suits from. But yeah, he’s a great guy. He’s got some great swag there, and I definitely enjoy him.

Nike and Adidas are back in the game this week, snagging all the spots in our top five after a season of tough competition from the likes of Converse, New Balance, and even ASICS. The smaller brands just didn’t stand a chance this week — Adidas dominated with a handful of notable collaborations with high-end streetwear label Extra Butter, skate legend Mark Gonzalez, and Kanye West, who delivered a spring refresh of his YEEZY 700.

On the apparel end, Supreme’s high-profile collaborations caught our eye, as well as an exclusive merch collection from J Balvin and Takashi Murakami. If you have some leftover stimulus money and your bills are all paid up, kiss it goodbye as we dive into this week’s best sneaker and apparel releases.

Extra Butter Adidas Cableknit Collection

Nothing says “Staying-In” like a Cabkleknit, so dive deep into those quarantine vibes with Extra Butter’s Cableknit Adidas Collection. Normally SNX DLX makes a point of avoiding slides, slippers, and other footwear that isn’t you know, sneakers, but we’ll make an exception here because Extra Butter’s collection is pretty clean all around.

Consisting of two SC Premiers in white and royal blue, and a white Adilette slide, the Cableknit collection is equal parts cozy and luxurious. It’s a strange match on paper, but it perfectly captures the equally strange time we’re living in.

The Extra Butter Adidas Cableknit Collection is out now for a retail price of $130 for the sneakers and $60 for the slides. Pick up the Cableknit Collection exclusively at Extra Butter.

Mark Gonzales Adidas Superstar Advanced

Mark Gonzales is putting a playful spin on the classic Adidas Superstar by adding his original Shmoo logo to the sneaker’s smooth leather upper. Made to celebrate the iconic sneaker’s 50th anniversary, the Superstar Shmoo keeps the design as close to the original as possible, with a shell-toe design, and the classic black and white colorway.

The Mark Gonzales Adidas Superstar Shmoo is set to drop on April 24th for a retail price of $106. Pick up a pair through the Adidas UK webstore.

Adidas YEEZY BOOST 700 MNVN Phosphor

After last week’s ultra pious 350 V2 Linens, Ye is returning this week with a colorful changeup of his favorite canvas of the year, the YEEZY BOOST 700 silhouette. This time Ye has dipped a perfect black 700 in some neon green for an outdoorsy spring-appropriate colorway sitting atop an ultra-comfortable BOOST cushioning.

The Adidas YEEZY BOOST 700 MNVN is set to drop on April 25th for a retail price of $220. Pick up a pair through the Adidas webstore.

Nike Air Fear of God Triple Black

Jerry Lorenzo’s latest revamp of the ultra-popular Fear of God 1 sees the sneaker get dressed in a Darth Vader-esque all-black colorway that reflects the designer’s obsession with presenting a futuristic vision of luxury streetwear. The off-black accents of the Triple Black’s lacing cage bring a nice touch of contrast to the ultra-sleek design, it’s not exactly Easter-season appropriate, but it does capture the doom and gloom of our current global situation.

The Nike Air Fear of God Noir is set to drop on April 25th for a retail price of $350. Pick up a pair through the Nike SNKRS app or Foot Locker.

Nike Zoom KD 13 Chill

If you’re looking for a sneaker that’ll make it seem like you’re wearing the season on your feet, look no further than Kevin Durant’s Nike Zoom 13 Chill. The KD Chill features a synthetic upper of pink, green, and yellow panels that overlap in a way that adds a bit of futuristic three-dimensionality to the design. Equipped with Zoom Air cushioning, the KD 13 is designed with court performance in mind, so don’t be afraid to really wear this pair out, even though they look as fragile as Easter eggs.

The Nike Zoom KD 13 Chill is set to drop on April 24th for a retail price of $160. Pick up a pair through the Nike SNKRS app.

Supreme Takashi Murakami Box Logo / My Bloody Valentine Spring 2020 Collection

Takashi Murakami and Supreme are joining forces for a special collaboration to raise money for HELP USA, a charity organization in Brooklyn that provides aid for people facing homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic. 100% of the proceeds of the Supreme Box Logo t-shirt will go directly to HELP USA. The shirt features a simple Box Logo featuring Murakami’s colorful flower motif pattern and will retail for $60.

In addition to the Murakami collaboration, Supreme is also releasing a special capsule collection with legendary shoegaze band My Bloody Valentine. The Supreme My Bloody Valentine collection features artwork from the band’s EPs and albums, notably a Rayon shirt and Hooded Sweatshirt representing the band’s beloved album Loveless. Other highlights of the collection include a trucker jacket that references the band’s EP Feed Me With Your Kiss,as well as a green rayon t-shirt.

The Supreme My Bloody Valentine Spring 2020 collection is set to drop on April 23rd and the Murakami Supreme Charity Box Logo will drop on April 24th. Both releases will be stoppable on Supreme’s online store.

J Balvin Takashi Murakami Smiling-Flower Capsule Collection

At this point in his career, Takashi Murakami is more known for his presence in the world of streetwear than he is for his grandiose paintings, and his second notable drop of the week sees him teaming up once again with J Balvin for a t-shirt and hoodie collection that sports the artist’s iconic flower motif.

Murakami handled the artwork on J Balvin’s latest album Colores, and the pair deliver a simple collection of four hoodies and four t-shirts in white, purple and black. Highlights include the flower motif sweaters, which are simplistic yet loud, a trademark of Murakami’s super flat style.

Shop the full collection on April 25th when it drops exclusively at JOYCE.

Rhude Spring/Summer 2020 Relaunch

Rhude is planning a huge relaunch on April 24th. What will it include? We don’t know, and the brand seems to be keeping things purposely vague. Over the past couple of days, Rhude’s Instagram account has been uploading photos of dimly lit plants, and a few extreme close-ups of pants. So at the least, we know there will be pants!

Whatever it is, it’s bound to be huge, Rhude is quickly becoming one of our favorite brands and while racing toward Supreme-levels of cool on the streetwear scene.

Shop the new Rhude Spring Summer 2020 collection on April 24th at the Rhude webstore. Expect pants!

Lil Miquela walks, talks, and sings like a real person. But really, the perpetual 19-year-old isn’t an actual human. She is an AI influencer taking social media by storm and releasing a handful of upbeat singles. For her latest effort, the digital avatar dropped the “Lil” attached to her moniker and tapped Teyana Taylor for a slow-burning number, “Machine.”

Shimmering synths color the track’s snappy backbeat. Miquela’s feathery vocals harmonize with Taylor’s captivating lyrical delivery. “I’ll be like a machine for you / What you want / Whatever you want / Just don’t fall in love,” Miquela croons.

In a statement, Miquela praised Taylor’s music. “Working with Teyana has been on my vision board for a MINUTE,” Miquela said. “The stars aligned once I found out she was recording in the studio next to mine. She was as perfect and cool as I imagined, and she brought that same energy to ‘Machine.’”

Ahead of the song’s release, Taylor announced that she is hosting a viewing party for her documentary Assembly Required: Teyana Taylor’s House Of Petunia. While the documentary premieres, Taylor will be connecting with fans and answering questions in a live Q&A session on Red Bull’s Instagram account. During the session, Taylor will detail the step-by-step process that went into creating her showstopping House Of Petunia performance.

Listen to “Machine” above.

Teyana Taylor’s Assembly Required viewing party kicks off 4/23 at 9 p.m. EDT. Watch it here.

So far, the coronavirus has resulted in nearly 50,000 deaths in the US. Now, the hip-hop community has suffered a loss due to the pandemic: Fred The Godson, who was a 2011 XXL Freshman, has passed away at 35 years old after he was given a COVID-19 diagnosis. A representative of Fred The Godson confirmed the rapper’s death to Complex.

Fred’s last social media post came on April 6, when he shared a photo of himself in a hospital and wearing a ventilator. He wrote, “I’m in here wit this [COVID-19] sh*t! Please keep me in y’all prayers!!!! #godisgreat.” Days before, he shared a photo of himself wearing a face mask and captioned the post, “Good morning y’all! Through it all we all are still “BLESSED” hope I all have a blessed Wednesday!”

On April 8, Fred’s wife, LeeAnn Jemmott, said a doctor told her Fred might not make it, saying, “It was just like — he’s gone and he’s gonna die, that’s it. I don’t even know how I felt, I just felt like I was going to die.”

The next day, Jemmott told XXL the rapper was “progressing” and believed he was “going to make it.” She said, “Fred is currently in the ICU. He is Cov-19 positive on a ventilator. However, he is progressing! He went in having difficulty breathing on Monday evening (April 6). Tuesday morning (April 7), I received a call he was not going to make it because his lungs were not working. He was then put on a ventilator, and as of today (24 hours later), the doctors already weaned him down from 100 percent support to 40 percent support of ventilation. He is fighting and he is winning. He has no sign of infection. His heart is strong and working well. His kidneys have been affected, but as of today, he has started dialysis to clean the toxins out of his blood. Fred is going to make it. God is good!”

Fred had been productive in 2020. In January, he teamed with former SNL star Jay Pharoah to re-imagine the 2011 Denzel Washington film Training Day on an EP of the same name. In March, he also released a new mixtape, Payback.

No Way Jose was one WWE release among many last week, and not a particularly surprising one. After all, he’d barely done anything since he got called up from NXT to Raw in 2018. He was pretty much limited to comedy spots with his conga line and the occasional meaningless match, and never even won the 24/7 Championship.

In a new interview with Wrestletalk, Levis Valenzuela Jr., the man who was No Way Jose, says that he never wanted to have such a silly name in WWE, but was given it in NXT all the same:

The name itself, ha. I don’t know how the hell it happened, they were like “What do you think of No Way Jose?” and I was like “No.” I thought it was a catchphrase, and I was like “Oh cool”… They saw something in film and somehow it came up… [Matt] Bloom was like “What if you want it as a name?” and I was like “No way.” Then a writer came up to me and was like “Why?” and I was like “It will pigeon hole me, there is a ceiling”, all the real stuff in terms of business. Nobody goes in there and says they want to be a No Way Jose probably, they want to be, for me it was The Rock. When I saw The Rock I wanted to be The Rock… We went into Full Sail and I’m walking in and you shake everyone’s hand and Triple H is right there talking to Eva Marie or someone, I’m like “Hey, sir, how you doing?” And he’s like “No Way, what’s going on?” In my head I’m like “shit, is that a thing?” And he goes “Got it approved today, what do you think?” And I said “I love it, let’s go.”

It’s understandable that being a new NXT guy he wouldn’t want to disagree with Triple H about his name in that moment, even if he had previously objected to the name. And then of course he got called up to Raw and became inseparable from his conga line.

They wanted the conga line with me. In NXT, I only did the conga line for big events. I was like “Alright, whatever. I’ll do the conga line,” and then it stuck. I feel a certain way about the conga line. I love the conga line, I absolutely do, but I think that’s the line that maybe held me back a little bit.
At every step of the way, WWE seems to have insisted on making No Way Jose as silly as possible, even though he’s a big muscular, handsome guy. Then, they

immediately seemed to hold it against him that his character was so silly, and never did anything with him. Hopefully Valenzuela can find opportunities elsewhere.

We’re not going to get a docuseries in the style of “The Last Dance” on the 2018-19 Golden State Warriors, but there is still tons of intrigue about the final season for one of the best teams in NBA history. One moment that was looked back on as the potential beginning of the end was when Kevin Durant and Draymond Green had a blow up early in the season, which featured Green challenging Durant during a game by telling him “we don’t need you” and “leave.”

The importance of that moment in Durant’s eventual decision to leave is unknown, but it was certainly a huge deal when it happened. In recent days, Green has discussed that group’s final year together, first in an appearance on WRTS: After Party where he discussed the circus around last season.

More recently, Green appeared on All The Smoke with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson. As candid as ever, the All-Star forward made it clear that if Durant wanted to stick around, and Green was the problem, all Durant needed to do was make one phone call and Green would have been sent out.

“Being that he’s a great friend and all of that, this is f*cking Kevin Durant we’re talking about,” Green said. “Like, yeah, I’ve done great things here, but let me tell you this: I know [Warriors GM] Bob [Myers], and if it was such a big deal with Kevin being here and me being here, if Kevin really wanted to be here, all he would’ve done is went and said to Bob, like, ‘Yeah, I’ll stay, but Draymond gotta go.’ And guess what? Bob Myers woulda called me and said, ‘Draymond, I love you, and I won’t trade you to a bad team, but where do you wanna go, cause I’ll help you get to where you wanna go.’ And so, to try to point the finger, say, ‘Oh man, I left because of him,’ like, get the f*ck outta here.”

Green stressed that while their relationship may not be the same as it once was, he still has plenty of love for Durant. Still, Green believes that Durant is the kind of player who has the power to influence these kind of decisions, and finds it telling that he did not do this as a condition to stay in the Bay.

“You ain’t leaving cause of me,” Green said. “You’re f*cking Kevin Durant. If you wanted to be here, I woulda been out if I was the issue. I woulda been long gone. And guess who woulda understood that? I understand that, I understand the business of basketball, I understand how this sh*t works. If Kevin Durant wanna be somewhere, and he don’t want me here, I’m out.”

More than anything, Green seems to be pushing back against a narrative than making any swipes at Durant in the brutally honest way that has become one of his trademarks. Still, this is our latest look inside an absolutely fascinating basketball team, one that accomplished a ton but felt like it could have accomplished much more.

Crimes featured heavily in isolation this week! Art crimes, being a fan of crimes, hair crimes, fashion crimes, literal trespassing crimes, spice crimes, political crimes — name a crime and it is probably here (well, not the worst ones, don’t get weird). Is this all just drumming up intrigue to get you to read on, knowing full well all those crimes could not have happened? Not in Self-ISO?

You tell me, when you CSI: Self-ISO and go over the evidence to see what crimes have transpired here this week.

Dejounte Murray

You know, the thing about life during quar-time is that something you might have otherwise enjoyed in passing can instead become the singularity of your day, your week, your conceivable future. For me, that was San Antonio’s Dejounte Murray sharing a story from the Spurs account of him superimposed over the Ozark logo. Below it, in case you thought that was it, is a pull-quote from Murray confessing his love for crime shows, and that for him? It’s gotta be crime. If you thought THAT was it, you’re a fool!! Because Murray wrote over the story with his own, deeply emphatic and pressing demand that if it’s gonna be anything, it had better, so help you, be crime! It’s Gotta Be Crime!!

Rating: IT’S GOTTA BE CRIME!!

Kyle Kuzma

Yes of course, Kuz’s baby bunny of a puppy, Snoh, continues to thrive, but I am asking for you to direct your attention away from her wiggly butt for just a sec to take in the fact that Kyle Kuzma is one among many this week who, in lieu of the court, has taken to the canvas for relief. From what we can see in this subtle reveal is a painting primarily concerned with the moon in a sky on fire. Volcano? A specific circle of Dante’s hell? We’ll have to wait to hear from the artiste on this one.

Rating: Watch your ass Dwyane Wade!

Aaron Gordon

Another budding member of the NBA’s painting renaissance, you’ll know from these hallowed social media scourings, is Aaron Gordon. Confined to his palace in the swamp, Gordon has been working on a piece for weeks now, and it’s finally finished. A grey, disembodied arm hovers in space, reaching for a (real) rose, while around it, solar flares, or maybe blood? blooms.

Rating: Art is subjective, sure, but look how happy this art’s author is!

Otto Porter Jr.

Otto Porter Jr. joined the painterly post ups this week. He was teased a little bit in the process, first, “What are you, some kind of Boss Ross?” before it was revealed that he was, in fact, watching Bob Ross and painting along to the legend. The next time you’re in an anxiety spiral think of Ross calmly encouraging you to put that rock, that tree, that cloud, wherever the hell you want it. Porter Jr. did and look how happy he became!

He fired up the outdoor jacuzzi and then turned the camera on himself, doing a kind of shrugging little jig.

Rating: Art soothes the soul, so do jacuzzis, but art seems more readily accessible.

Bradley Beal (with an assist by Jimmy Butler)

In an effort to shame his friends and coworkers, Jimmy Butler mailed basketball hoops to them. Of course, it’s also a really thoughtful gesture, like a kind of “I’m watching you” thoughtful gesture, but a generous one all the same.

Rating: Is it called tampering when Jimmy Butler does it? Or is it just being himself.

LeBron James

Me too, Bron, me too. But “Sunday” is every day and “grooving” is oscillating between accepting time going by in a mostly chill way and wondering how to deconstruct its very meaning as it continues to slip, warp, and absolutely slam dunk on my rational sense of it as a concept.

Rating: Is that big industrial vent looking thing a speaker that makes it sound like you are inside your favourite instrument, playing just for you?

Patrick Beverley

Bev broke out the big bucks and laid it all on the table in a game that, I’m not sure even in isolation people are willing to play for days and days upon end, losing all respect for their families, themselves.

Rating: Safe to say Patrick Beverly is a fan of a reliable and long overdue high speed rail system.

Jordan Clarkson

Clarkson is a huge fan of taking it easy, and taking advice from the experts with utmost respect and grace. This week we saw examples of him doing both, and reminding us all that it’s possible to make bulldogs (upside-down beer in margarita drink) at home, and that’s probably the only place where they won’t be incredibly overpriced.

Rating: Thank you, Jordan.

D’Angelo Russell

Ok so, we know from the past few weeks that Russell has been out on a yacht a few times, cruising around in the ocean. What we have not yet approached is the possibility that Russell might just be living on a boat, at this point? I mean otherwise, a dock just flooded with late-day sunlight is probably not anywhere close, in a proxial sense, to your quarantine.

Rating: This is one mystery I am in no hurry to solve because it remains soothing as all hell.

Paul Millsap

Good god does Paul Millsap continue to do it. Here we see him attempting to learn to do cartwheels “on the [planet emoji]”, a.k.a. earth. Do I miss his forays into magic and the arcane? And I can’t believe I’m admitting this — yes! But what if the real magic of Paul Millsap is just him being himself?

Rating: There’s a real chance that Paul Millsap has learned how to do a cartwheel before you and I did and you know what? It’s the opposite of being ashamed. I feel a deep, humbling joy.

Tobias Harris and T.J. McConnell

Former teammates Harris and McConnell enjoyed a glass of vino together this week — don’t tell LeBron about FaceTime, Zoom, etc. — toasting to each other’s, I’m assuming, very well-rested looking faces and lasting friendship.

Rating: Heartening for us and for their cardiovascular health, according to medical professionals!

Evan Fournier

Evan Fournier, however you feel about him, has a striking look. He just does! Smoldering, even. But this week he decided to do something drastic and the results, I’m not happy to report, aren’t great! He shaved his head in real-time, half at a time. The whole thing, not just the top.

With just the moustache and a little bit of fuzz on top he looked fine! Serge Ibaka, Marc Gasol, some really handsome guys are going with the ‘stache in ISO and it’s working for them. But the problem is that Fournier didn’t quit.

He shaved his face and seems to have oiled up, showing the final result in a very blinding, very I Wish You Warned Me To Put My Sunglasses On I’ve Been Inside For Weeks Now And Have Not Seen A Light Source This Reflective way.

Rating: It grows back, sure, but will our corneas?

Marco Belinelli

Beli did the cinnamon challenge and I have two hypotheses on it. Either he’s been practicing for eight years when the peak of this challenge hit, or he eats cinnamon by the spoonful all the time because he has literally no reaction. Even going into it, all he gives us is a very cool Allora before taking down the spoon as if it were no more than a refreshing taste of a negroni. You can see the whole video here.

Rating: Now I know why he’s got that fedora tattooed on him, true gangster.

P.J. Tucker

Tucker took a brief break from organizing his sneaker collection and driving around topless in a convertible to take in one of Donald Trump’s deranged press conferences. His reaction, and my hope, is it was proof enough he should get right back in his car and spend his precious time elsewhere, doing what matters.

Rating: What matters, always, is P.J. Tucker driving around topless in a convertible!

Hassan Whiteside

Whiteside has been considerably renovating his home in Portland for some time now, all the way back to the start of the season. I get the sense that now that he is home more, he’s taken a closer interest in the progress, because he spends a lot of time down in a pit that might become a pool and celebrating when landscaping shipments arrive. His bamboo forest came this week, he was stoked.

Rating: Zen and the art of being a big man who’s an even bigger fan of bamboo.

Kelly Oubre Jr.

Oubre is typically a solitary guy. He seems pretty content to go his own way. But this week, he took a couple trips and the takeaways were: a photo of a lonely turtle, a photo of a pair of Canada geese, and this photo of a cactus, also kind of a pair.

Rating: Is he lonely?

Dion Waiters

Taking a breather from rollerskating up and down his hallways and bringing a bouncy castle into the living room for his kids, Waiters either rented or owns and set up one of these football pass practice bobbly things. Is Big Dion Waiters’s favorite movie? Was all his furniture delayed in his move from Miami to L.A.?

Rating: Is staying “permanently playful” some new mindfulness workout regime of the pros?

DeAndre Bembry

Bembry got pretty thoughtful about the sun.

Rating: Excellent PSA for all of us in Self-ISO to remember to get our vitamin D, ten minutes a day is all it takes.

Kevon Looney

Looney got pretty thoughtful about the sun and his view.

Rating: Excellent PSA for all of us in Self-ISO to practice safety at heights.

Jeremy Lin

He might be out of the league but he’s an NBA champion, and Lin used his downtime to get familiar with Instagram’s full range of filters.

Rating: Excellent PSA for all of us in Self-ISO to dress up if we feel like it.

Malcolm Miller

He’s been here a couple seasons now so there’s a chance he’s experienced this, but it could also be the first bad midge season Miller has gone through in Toronto. These tiny, disgusting flies swarm the shores of Lake Ontario in spring and even if you’re on a condo balcony however many stories up, they’ll find you. They swarm when they’re mating, which makes them blanketing your balcony, your car, or the clouds of them you accidentally pass through even grosser.

Rating: Midge city of champions, baby!

Isaiah Thomas

Thomas did a bizarre “challenge” where you put your phone up somewhere high and record yourself shooting it with a nerf gun and knocking it down.

Rating: I mean, he nailed it.

Boris Diaw

Boris Diaw did a hair joke but did not take things too far like Fournier, he left himself a respectable moustache, he left himself something to work with.

Rating: Plan for tomorrow, shave for today.

PAUL PIERCE’S PLACE

Beaches featured heavily for Pierce this week, who seems to keep visiting them alone and maybe some that he shouldn’t? First, he traveled to one he assured viewers was “secret” and started to run down the sand toward the road and beyond it, the ocean.

He panned to a sign that explicitly told him not to be there, but he continued, full tilt. The video cut out before he made it and I was a little bit worried until he recently resurfaced:

He’s still breathless, so he could have also run to this beach, but he assures us that throughout all this you have got to find your peace. Is your peace, like Pierce’s, found beside an ocean that is currently closed? Then I’m sorry but you’ve gotta find it elsewhere. Paul Pierce is gonna get arrested!

Clear your binge-watching queues because Hulu is dumping a ton of quality content this month. Ramy returns for a second season with comedy Ramy Youssef giving us more social commentary mixed with some sharply funny pop-culture jokes. Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult travel back a few centuries for The Great, which follows the absurd, sadistic Emperor of Russia and his new wife (who’s trying to kill him). And the guys behind Ricky and Morty give fans another animated comedy, this time about aliens stranded on Planet Earth.

Here’s everything coming to (and leaving) Hulu this May.

Ramy: Season 2 (Hulu series streaming 5/29)
Hulu’s Golden Globe-winning comedy returns this month with Ramy Youssef returning to dig into his Egyptian-American roots. Last season ended with Ramy taking a trip to visit relatives in Cairo and hooking up with his cousin. Meanwhile, back home in Jersey, his mom and sister were rebelling against their strict Muslim upbringings. Season 2 will continue Ramy’s search for enlightenment, give us more Muslim Tinder jokes, and oh yeah, Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali.

The Great (Hulu series streaming 5/15)
Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult star in this period dramedy that riffs heavily off the vibe of Yorgos Lanthimos’ Oscar-nominated flick, The Favourite. Hoult has a hell of a lot of fun playing a sadistic sociopath who just so happens to be the Emperor of Russia. Fanning is his hopeful bride-to-be who comes to the palace looking for love and ends up launching a coup and a plot to murder her new husband. It’s a deliciously fun show filled with absurd characters and too many memeable quotes to count.

Solar Opposites (Hulu series streaming 5/8)
Rick and Morty fans rejoice because co-creator Justin Roiland is giving you more weird, animated space comedy, this time with actual aliens. The show follows a family of aliens from a better world who must take refuge in middle America and decide whether our planet is worthy enough to put down roots.

Here’s the full list of titles coming to Hulu in May:

Available 5/1
Bloom: Complete Season 2
A Life Less Ordinary (1997)
Aeon Flux (2005)
Assassination Tango (2003)
Batman Begins (2005)
Billy the Kid (2013)
Brick Mansions (2014)
Crooked Hearts (1991)
Demolition Man (1993)
Escape from Alcatraz (1979)
Friday the 13th – Part III (1982)
Friday the 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter (1984)
Gloria (2014)
GoodFellas (1990)
Harry Benson: Shoot First (2016)
House of D (2005)
Megamind (2010)
Men With Brooms (2002)
Molly (1999)
Monster House (2006)
Mutant Species (1995)
Pathology (2008)
Planet 51 (2009)
Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown (1977)
Sands of Iwo Jima (1950)
Slums of Beverly Hills (1998)
Some Kind of Hero (1982)
Soul Food (1997)
Sprung (1997)
Strategic Air Command (1955)
Tamara (2006)
Tank Girl (1995)
The Conjuring (2013)
The Dark Knight (2008)
The Graduate (1967)
The Green Mile (1999)
The Patriot (2000)
The Whistle Blower (1987)
Treasure Hounds (2017)
Universal Soldier (1992)
Walking Tall (1973)

Available 5/5
Vikings: Season 6A

Available 5/8
Solar Opposites: Series Premiere (Hulu Original)
Into the Dark: Delivered (Hulu Original)
Spaceship Earth (2020)

Available 5/12
The Happy Days Of Garry Marshall: Special

Available 5/15
The Great: Series Premiere (Hulu Original)
Beat Bobby Flay: Complete Seasons 8 & 9
Caribbean Life: Complete Season 15
Chopped: Complete Seasons 37 – 39
Fast N’ Loud: Complete Season 15
Gold Rush: Complete Season 8
Murder in the Heartland: Complete Season 2
Property Brothers: Complete Seasons 12 & 13
Street Outlaws: Complete Seasons 8 & 9
The Great Food Truck Race: Complete Seasons 8 & 9
The Little Couple: Complete Seasons 13 & 14
Worst Cooks in America: Complete Season 14
Open Door: Complete Season 2
On the Market: Complete Season 1
Reverse Engineering: Complete Season 1
Molly Tries: Complete Season 1
Andy Explores: Complete Season 1
Handcrafted : Complete Season 1
From the Test Kitchen: Complete Season 1
It’s Alive with Brad: Complete Season 2
Epic Conversations: Complete Season 1
Iconic Characters: Complete Season 2
Drag Me: Complete Season 1
73 Questions: Complete Season 2
Community en Español: Complete Series
t’s a Disaster (2012)

Available 5/19
Story Of The Soaps: Special
Like Crazy (2011)
Trial by Fire (2019)

Available 5/20
Ultimate Tag

Available 5/22
Holey Moley: Season 2 Premiere
To Tell The Truth: Season 5 Premiere
Rocketman (2019)
Premature (2020)
Top End Wedding (2019)
Painter and the Thief (2020)

Available 5/25
The Tracker (2019)

Available 5/26
I Still Believe (2020)

Available 5/28
Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Season 7 Premiere

Available 5/29
Ramy: Complete Season 2 Premiere (Hulu Original)
Disappearance at Clifton Hill (2020)

Here’s What’s Leaving Hulu in May:

50/50 (2011)
Danny Roane: First Time Director (2007)
Deck the Halls (2011)
Eyes of an Angel (1994)
Free Willy (1993)
Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home (1995)
Free Willy 3: The Rescue (1997)
Furry Vengeance (2010)
Gator (1976)
Good Morning, Killer (2011)
Good Will Hunting (1997)
Hide (2011)
Hornet’s Nest (2012)
Innocent (2011)
Kinsey (2004)
Leap Year (2010)
Major League II (1994)
Man on a Ledge (2012)
Megamind (2010)
Misery (1990)
Natural Born Killers (1994)
Night of the Living Dead (2006)
Night of the Living Dead: Resurrection (2012)
Notes On a Scandal (2005)
Richard the Lionheart (2013)
Ricochet (2011)
Righteous Kill (2009)
Silent Tongue (1993)
Silent Witness (2011)
Spider-Man (2002)
Standing in the Shadows of Motown (2002)
Swingers (1996)
Tenderness (2009)
The Book Of Eli (2010)
The Cooler (2003)
The Descent (2005)
The Descent: Part 2 (2010)
Up in the Air (2009)
Waiting to Exhale (1995)
Zombieland (2009)