GoneTrending

During their time in WCW together, Diamond Dallas Page developed a special relationship with “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes. He refers to Dream as a big brother figure and a mentor as part of his A&E “Biography: WWE Legends” episode. And because of that bond, he also developed a close relationship with the Grandson of a Plumber, Cody Rhodes, early on.

Page followed the younger Rhodes’ journey from playing football to reaching great heights in high school wrestling, and eventually making his way to professional wrestling. Rhodes’ path to the top has been well documented, from struggling to find his footing in WWE, leaving for the independent scene, helping launch AEW, and eventually returning to a main event spot in WWE.

“He left because no one saw him here. But he did, and he knew I did,” Page tells Uproxx Sports. “I’ve seen him up there — it’s the only spot I ever saw and no one else saw it. So he left and he proved he was right.”

After Rhodes’ return back to WWE two years ago at WrestleMania 38, the “American Nightmare” has continued to cross new barriers in his superstardom. After tearing his pectoral muscle, he recovered in time for the Royal Rumble, and appeared on track to ending Roman Reigns’ historic Undisputed WWE Universal Championship reign at WrestleMania 39.

Instead, he took the loss on a pinfall to Reigns and spent much of 2023 in side quest feuds with the likes of Brock Lesnar, The Judgement Day, and Shinsuke Nakamura. At the same time, we watched as the Bloodline story unfolded, with Jey Uso leaving the faction to go out on his own, a WrestleMania match developing between the Uso brothers, and The Rock returning in a significant capacity.

Losing to Reigns at WrestleMania 39, Page says, has allowed Rhodes to build momentum and has made the chase to finishing his story even better than it could have been otherwise.

“If he would have won at WrestleMania last year, I don’t think he’d be anywhere near as over as he is right now,” Page continues. “You learn from losing. What’s the positive side of this? Oh, millions of people that might even been on the fence are now so pro-Cody, for The Rock to be involved, Roman Reigns, he’s the man and he’s had that world title for so long. The Rock is on different level than all of us because he’s the biggest star in the world.”

At a time when any misstep could completely derail things, the story has reached what many assume is the end of this chapter while at the perfect intersection of wrestling being as hot as ever. WWE has correctly pivoted to keeping things moving in the direction this story seemed destined to go, with Rhodes and Seth Rollins slated to face off against The Rock and Roman Reigns on Night 1 of WrestleMania on Saturday, while Rhodes will wrestle Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship on Night 2 of WrestleMania.

“This is the most interesting time in professional wrestling. It reminds me so much of the late nineties. I mean, wrestling was so hot,” Page says.

“There’s so many different platforms now, you can’t really see it in the ratings, but it’s the hottest it may have ever been right now. And the storylines of WWE have gone back to reality based. That’s when wrestling works on a different level. You blur the lines so you don’t know what’s real or what’s predetermined. And that’s the beauty of the business in general.”

After 24 years on HBO, Curb Your Enthusiasm is finally coming to an end. For real this time. Creator and comedian Larry David has made good on his repeated promises/threats to end the show, which will drop its series finale this week as season 12 comes to a close.

Of course, the big question is will David deliver a closer on par with the infamous Seinfeld finale. The ending to the hit NBC sitcom rankled fans by ending with the show’s characters going to jail for being the awful, self-absorbed people they’ve been throughout the show’s entire run.

Hilariously, David’s character on Curb is currently working his way through the court system, and fans have been picking up on clues that David could be working towards an epic troll by repeating the Seinfeld ending that everyone hated. We’re talking about a guy who attacked Elmo on live TV, so anything is possible.

As for when you can watch series finale, we got you covered.

What Time Does ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ Season 12 Finale Come Out?

The Curb Your Enthusiasm season 12 finale premieres on HBO and Max this Sunday, April 5, at 10 p.m. ET.

Here’s the official synopsis for the final season:

Starring Larry David as an over-the-top version of himself, Curb Your Enthusiasm offers a tongue-in-cheek depiction of the writer/producer/comedian’s fictionalized life. The comedy series continues to prove how seemingly trivial details of one’s day-to-day life can precipitate a catastrophic chain of events.

Curb Your Enthusiasm season 12 is available to stream on Max.

The deluxe version of Doja Cat’s album Scarlet, Scarlet 2 Claude, has arrived, bringing seven new tracks to the project including “URRRGE!!!!!!!!!!” featuring ASAP Rocky and “MASC” with Teezo Touchdown. The latter gets an avant-garde music video, with Doja and Teezo singing their respective verses in some haute couture ensembles as Doja casts creepy shadows and directors Doja and Jamal Peters have some fun with camera angles, lighting, and lens distortions.

“MASC” finds Doja Cat admonishing a lover as his combative behaviors make her question their relationship. “You gave me the dick, then gave the dick without the D,” she raps. Teezo inhabits the role of the scorned beau as he takes stock and realizes, “I’m not that tough, I need your love, I need your touch.”

Scarlet 2 Claude had a bit of a bumpy rollout. After Doja teased she was planning to release a deluxe edition of Scarlet in January, the fan frenzy for it backfired as it leaked online days before the release date. Doja played it cool, though, writing, “its definitely messed up cuz i wanted to put it out myself but theres nothing i can do about it!! thats just how its gonna be but at least i can just keep being creative and look forward to the awesome things i have coming up!!”

She also shut down some fans’ assumptions that she took shots at Cardi B on one of the leaked songs, telling one fan to “get a life” in response to being asked directly about any beef between the two stars.

Watch Doja Cat’s “MASC” video with Teezo Touchdown above.

Scarlet 2 Claude is out now via Kemosabe Records/RCA.

[This post contains spoilers for the Invincible season 2 finale]

Heading into Invincible season 2, series creator Robert Kirkman teased that Mark/Invincible would finally win a fight. What he didn’t mention were the dire implications of that fight. Invincible fans were tired of seeing Mark getting his butt handed to him, particularly in episode 7 when the Viltrumite warrior Anissa easily schooled him. That all changed in episode 8.

After learning that the multi-dimensional villain Angstrom Levy (voiced by Sterling K. Brown) has his mom Debbie (Sandra Oh) and baby brother Oliver hostage, Mark (Steven Yeun) speeds to his house for what he hopes will be just another super-villain confrontation. However, Angstrom proves to be exceedingly cunning as he keeps Debbie and Oliver in constant peril while tossing Mark through dimension after dimension to torment the young hero. (Although, he does get to meet “Spider-Man” and “Batman,” or the closest thing to those characters without Amazon getting sued.)

However, those silly cameos were quickly washed away as the situation took a dark and brutal turn. After viciously snapping Debbie’s arm, Angstrom finally gets Mark angry enough to power through his portal blasts and get his hands on the deformed villain. What Mark doesn’t know is that this was Angstrom’s plan all along. His body has been enhanced by the scientists that put him back together and quickly begins landing blows on Mark. The inter-dimensional hijinks were to soften him up so Angstrom could kill Mark with his own hands and then finish off Oliver and Debbie.

What Angstrom did not prepare for was Mark full-on snapping. With his family threatened and Angstrom boasting about his strength, Mark finally stops holding back. It was something his father Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons) had chided him for during their Viltrumite fight earlier in the season. Well, Mark did not have that problem now as he became his father’s son more than he’s ever been.

In a brutal fury of blows, Mark absolutely unloads on Angstrom until he’s standing in nothing but a pile of blood. Mark won the fight, but the reality of the situation immediately kicks in leaving the poor kid reeling what from he’s done. Despite repeatedly telling everyone that he’s not like his father, Mark actually killed someone and gave into his full Viltrumite rage.

While Mark unravels throughout the rest of the finale at what he’s become, Invincible fans on Twitter were absolutely losing their minds. Even the fans who read the comics and knew what was coming were stunned at seeing the shocking moment happen on screen.

You can see the reactions below:

Invincible Seasons 1 and 2 are available for streaming on Prime Video.

April Fool’s Day is typically one of the worst days of the year (it’s tough enough to know what’s real and what’s fake online, and now we have to deal with this?), but not in 2024. Adult Swim made April 1st slightly less terrible than usual by airing puppet versions of three episodes from season one of the delightful animated series Smiling Friends, as well as the season two premiere.

When can we expect the rest of season two of Smiling Friends? Here’s everything you need to know, including the release date, plot details, and whether a trailer has been released.

Plot

Smiling Friends follows the employees, including Pim (voiced by co-creator Michael Cusack) and Charlie (co-creator Zach Hadel), of a company who try to help people find happiness in their lives. In season two, Pim and Charlie, as well as Zongo, Allan, and Glep “continue their mission to bring happiness to the world, whether it’s a washed-up retro video game character, a troubled marriage, or even the president of the United States,” according to Adult Swim’s official synopsis. In a statement, Cusack and Hadel wrote that season two is “GOING TO BE SOOOOO COOL AND FUN AND HOPE YOU WATCH!!!!!!!”

You can catch up on season one on Max or Adult Swim’s website.

Cast

In a very Venture Bros. move, most of the characters on Smiling Friends are voiced by the creators, Michael Cusack and Zach Hadel (they’re credited on the wiki for a combined 33 characters). But there have been a few guest stars, including the late Gilbert Gottfried as God, Stranger Things star Finn Wolfhard, and David Firth, who made the “Salad Fingers” web series. This takes me back.

Release Date

Smiling Friends season two premieres on May 12 at midnight EST.

Trailer

This isn’t technically a trailer, but everyone say hi to Gwimbly. Hi Gwimbly!

Here’s an exercise: Hop on social media and look for a post about Cardi B or Nicki Minaj. Go to the comments of the post, and the odds are that you will see a comment disparaging one or both of the two rappers. Cardi and Minaj’s beef, and that between their fans, is one of the strongest in music, but GloRilla wishes it wasn’t so.

On “Aite,” from her new mixtape Ehhthang Ehhthang, GloRilla envisions a world where the two would put their differences aside and make a banger together. On the song’s second verse, Glo raps, “I just pray one day the bad b*tches would come together / ‘Cause Cardi and Nicki on a track would break some f*ckin’ records.” Later in the verse, she raps, “They treat this sh*t like competition, I see it as art / Sh*t’ll be platinum in the hood but it won’t see the charts” (“they” referring to people in general, not Cardi and Nicki specifically).

Speaking of big-time collaborations, Ehhthang Ehhthang sees GloRilla work with Megan Thee Stallion on “Wanna Be.”

Listen to “Aite” above.

Ehhthang Ehhthang is out now via CMG/Interscope Records. Find more information here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Kendrick Lamar had perhaps the musical headline of March with his featured appearance on Future and Metro Boomin’s We Don’t Trust You song “Like That.” On the track, he raps, “Motherf*ck the big three, n****, it’s just big me,” an apparent reference to Drake and J. Cole’s 2023 single “First Person Shooter.”

Since then, fans have been waiting for a response from either of the targeted rappers. Last night/this morning (April 5), Cole delivered one on his surprise new mixtape, Might Delete Later. The track of note here is “7 Minute Drill,” which features these lyrics seemingly alluding to Lamar:

“He still doin’ shows, but fell off like The Simpsons / Your first sh*t was classic, your last sh*t was tragic / Your second sh*t put [people] to sleep but they gassed it / Your third sh*t was massive and that was your prime / I was trailin’ right behind and I just now hit mine / Now I’m front of the line with a comfortable lead / How ironic, now that I got it he want somethin’ with me / Well he caught me at the perfect time, jump up and see / Boy, I got here off of bars, not no controversy / Funny thing about it, b*tch, I don’t even want the prestige / F*ck the Grammy’s ’cause them crackers ain’t never done nothin’ for me, ho.”

That still leaves one question:

What Is J. Cole’s “7 Minute Drill?” The Meaning Behind The Title Of His Kendrick Lamar Diss

Ibrahim Hamad, Cole’s longtime manager and Dreamville co-founder, explained on the Say Less Podcast (as Complex notes). Hamad said of Cole, “He does these seven-minute drills […] where he’ll just be like, ‘You got seven minutes.’ It’s basically his way of breaking out of overthinking. Like, ‘Don’t even think about it, start a verse. What are we going to talk about?’ He’ll be like, ‘Yo, Cozz, write a verse about… pizza,’ I don’t know. And then they got seven minutes, and then they put the timer on, and then it’s like, ‘Alright, what you got?’”

Might Delete Later is out now via Cole World/Interscope. Find more information here.

Enjoy using someone else’s Disney+ account to watch WALL-E while you still can. On Thursday, Disney head honcho Bob Iger confirmed that the crackdown on password sharing for the company’s streaming service will begin in “a few countries in a few markets” in June, followed by a wider rollout in September.

Earlier this year, Disney CFO Hugh Johnston told investors, “As it relates to the opportunity we see on paid sharing, beginning this summer Disney+ accounts suspected of improper sharing will be presented with new capabilities to allow their borrowers to start their own subscriptions.” He added that subscribers who want to allow access to individuals outside of where the main account is located will be able to do so for an additional fee.

Iger also discussed the recently-introduced Hulu On Disney+ feature. “We feel great about the engagement of those Disney subs who are not getting Hulu who are now watching more programs that were on Hulu, including Shogun,” he told CNBC. “We have to increase engagement. We need the technological tools to lower churn, create more stickiness. It’s things like recommendation engines, getting to know our customers better.”

If Disney promises to not jack up the price of Disney+ (again), I vow to “increase engagement” by telling everyone I know to watch Shogun. Hey, you, yes you: do you like good shows? Then you should watch Shogun. There, I’ve held up my side of the bargain. It’s your turn, Disney.

(Via The Verge)

Billie Eilish took over the internet starting yesterday (April 4) afternoon with a relatively simple move: She added all of her Instagram followers to her “close friends” list. Normally, this status is reserved for, well, close friends, with whom you would share posts, perhaps more personal or intimate in nature, that the general public wouldn’t get to see.

So, this whole thing has made some Eilish fans feel like they’ve reached a new level of access to the singer. Another effect this stunt has had is that Eilish has gained a bunch of Instagram followers from it.

As of our initial report that was published at 1:23 p.m. ET yesterday, Eilish had about 110 million followers. As of this post, at 8:05 a.m. ET on April 5, that number has risen to 115 million (this tool indicates that number is more specifically at over 115.78 million). Therefore, in the past approximately 19 hours, Eilish has gained something like 5 million followers, give or take.

So far, Eilish has shared two Story posts with her “close friends” list. One is a grainy photo showing a hand (Eilish’s, presumably) in front of what looks like a night sky. The other post is of a photo showing off Eilish’s midsection and thighs, which notably reveals a tattoo, only some of which had been seen previously. The whole thing appears to say “hard & soft.”

This week’s episode opens with Steven and Ian remembering the old Pitchfork “stunt” review of Jet’s 2006 album Shine On, which was dissected this week in an article by The Ringer. While stunt reviews are kind of dumb, Steven and Ian still miss them a little. The guys also explore the indie-rock guest stars on Beyoncé’s new blockbuster album Cowboy Carter, including Adam Granduciel, Jonathan Rado, and some dude from The Stills.

From there, they review the great new Vampire Weekend album, Only God Was Above Us, which manages to change the band’s just enough while retrenching with some classic themes. They also look back at Modest Mouse’s Good News For People Who Love Bad News, which turns 20 this week, a crucial album in the mainstreaming of indie rock in the aughts that might also be… not that great?

In Recommendation Corner, Ian talks about the band Cindy Lee while Steven stumps for the latest from Phosphorescent and the Philly band A Country Western.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 183 here and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [email protected], and make sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.