Look around. It feels like the world is finally waking up. Protests spurred by the murder of yet another person of color by the police seem to have finally shaken the U.S. from its long racist slumber. Charges were filed, then upgraded. The Minneapolis PD is being de-funded. A global uprising is underway.

Never has there been a clearer metaphor for this movement than statues with bloody, painful histories being graffitied and torn from their plinths. Usually, these removals happen after years, sometimes decades of debate by city councils. No more. The people are taking power into their own hands. Chopping off Columbus’s head and casting slave traders into the sea. Rapidly unlearning their long-held reverence for the people who helped create our institutionally racist system.

Is this dramatic, direct action going to solve everything? No. But it sure sends a strong message. And it just may signal a larger sea change. Symbolism matters, after all. If it didn’t, the statues being torn down would have never been erected in the first place.

I’ve called for the removal of statues of racist colonizers in the past. I’ll call for it as long as they’re still standing. For me, it’s very simple. Revering people who we know were monsters is objectively awful. We have the gift of hindsight, so let’s use it. Our history is real, has real consequences, and hurts entire communities to this very day. And yes, most cultures have darkness in their history but most have the sense not to celebrate those people. Just try to find an enshrined statue celebrating the Nazi era in Germany. There aren’t any. You don’t have the Fox News-style contrarians saying, “But they built good roads!” The Germans built memorials to that era’s victims instead.

Let’s be clear: Saying Christopher Columbus was a great navigator isn’t enough anymore. We know he was a genocidal despot and one outweighs the fact that he was good at sailing. Not only did Columbus set in motion the greatest mass death and destruction of cultures in known world history with the colonization of the Americas and Caribbean, but he also helped bring about the Transatlantic African slave trade, which led to millions more deaths and the destruction of entire African cultures. That’s three continents worth of mayhem and generations of pain just so that churches in Rome or Madrid could have statues of Jesus made of gold. (I’m not even going to get into the brutality the man carried out himself.)

As the Bostoners who beheaded a Columbus statue in North End Park knew, there’s no valid reason left to celebrate a man who discovered the “new world” by irrevocably damaging the old one. Off with his head! Taking down a statue is the perfect symbolic start to the reformation our society needs to go through. They represent the proverbial tip of the miseducation iceberg that we’ve all been living atop for centuries. But for these dramatic actions to have a lasting effect will require us to go deeper.

Reeducating societies about their racist or even genocidal pasts isn’t anything new. Germans (and a lot of other Europeans) had to go through Denazification after World War II. South Africa has a program of Decolonization. This is something that’s recognized as a way to move forward in the spirit of reconciliation. It’s a way to deal with the painful pieces of the past that fester in the present. What we’re seeing now in the U.K. with the removal of statues of slave traders like Edward Colston is the foundation of that Decolonization education. Colston was responsible for over 80,000 slaves being shipped to the Americas and the deaths of nearly 20,000 at sea. And the wealth he created through the slave trade was pumped back into British society, which benefitted immeasurably. Meaning that as seaweed grows on the drowned statue, we also need to begin a fundamental shift in how we teach history, practice laws, and run the economy from top to bottom.

It’ll be interesting to see how far the British people are willing to dive into self-reflection about their horrifically brutal colonial past in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. Will it include the crimes against humanity they inflicted upon the Irish for centuries? Outside of the UK, will the message of decolonization translate to societies like Portugal, Spain, Netherlands, and Belgium — who all have deeply rooted and horrific colonial histories of their own? Are the Lakota, Incas, Congolese, Hawaiians, and hundreds of other Indigenous nations going to get back the gold and silver that was stolen from them? How about long-overdue payments to Indigenous communities for the ore, timber, minerals, oil, fruits, land, and people that built European empires?

You want kids to learn history? Good. Me too. This is the ultimate teachable moment. They’re living through history. The new history books will write about this as a revolution of philosophy — when the old fables of European heroism were rewritten completely. The toppling of Columbus and his cohorts should be part of curriculae worldwide.

What does this process look like in the U.S.? Once the statues are gone and the streets have been renamed, we have to do the work to decolonize the American mindset. That’s harder than sawing the head off a statue. The myth of “America” is what protects systemic racism. The cops, politicians, and racists opposing this movement learned those behaviors — in no small part because of the education they received in the “greatest country in the world” taught them that they were the heroes over and over and over again for centuries.

Is it still their fault? Of course. But standard American history education and the entirety of pop culture sold them a lie about who we are as a nation. How far this movement can extend depends on how far the American public is ready to decolonize their mindsets. Would you be willing to give Tȟuŋkášila Šákpe (colonially known as Mount Rushmore) back to the Lakota? Can you look in the mirror at your history and recognize that “yes, some of the people I’ve been taught to revere were, in the end, the bad guys?” Because, spoiler alert, every face on the mountain was a bad guy, even in their own time. Moreover, that sacred mountain was stolen from the Lakota because it was sacred and therefore used to bolster American supremacy over Indigenous people (and built by an actual white supremacist).

If you can applaud the Belgians taking down King Leopold or Bostonians taking down Columbus but not see how Rushmore needs to come down too, then we’re not there yet. But if we can truly empathize with the pain that mountain causes people, there may be a chance to move forward together.

At a press conference in 2017, Donald Trump was asked about the removal of statues. He turned the question back on the reporters in the room. “What about Thomas Jefferson … What do you think of Thomas Jefferson? Do you like him?” To which an off-screen reporter answered, “I do love Thomas Jefferson.” Trump replied, “Okay, good. Are we going to take down the statue … because he was a major slave owner? Now, are we gonna take down his statue?”

If the people of this nation are taught their history, the answer will become a resounding “Yes!” because not only was Jefferson a slave owner who openly raped his slaves, but he’s also responsible for the “Extermination” policy against the Indigenous Nations the United States employed during their western expansion. He was a racist in action and philosophy. Weirdly enough, Trump actually made a ham-fisted point at that presser: Where are you, woke allies, willing to draw the line?

In my opinion, that line probably shouldn’t be at the old, rich, long-dead slave-owning genocidal leaders who helped create the broken system that’s killing us today. Maybe it’s time to replace those faces with people from our more progressive corners of history like Frederick Douglass, Laura Cornelius Kellogg, Lucy Stone, Malcolm X, Russell Means, Marsha P. Johnson, Yuji Ichioka, Jeannette Rankin, and so many others who put their lives on the line to make this country a better place.

Will that be hard? For some. Will it meet resistance? Absolutely. Progress isn’t easy. But it’s not impossible either. And that “long arc toward justice” we hear so much about? Perhaps this recontextualizing of history will prove to be another sign that it’s finally starting to curve.

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You can reach Zach Johnston on Twitter or Instagram. You can also follow his work on Indigenous issues on Uproxx here.

Since as far back as December, there have been rumors that Iggy Azalea is pregnant. She never announced a pregnancy, but she has confirmed now that the rumors were true: Today, she revealed that she has given birth to a baby boy.

She wrote in an Instagram Story this afternoon, “I have a son. I kept waiting for the right time to say something but it feels like the more time passes the more I realize I’m always going to feel anxious to share news that giant with the world. I want to keep his life private but wanted to make it clear he is not a secret & I love him beyond words.”

Azalea, who has been romantically linked to Playboi Carti over the past year or so, was reportedly six months pregnant in December. In late April, it was reported that she gave birth to her son, although that news remained unconfirmed by Azalea until now. It’s possibly also worth noting that Azalea stopped posting on Instagram in December (when the pregnancy rumors began) and resumed in early May (after she reportedly had the baby).

Meanwhile, Azalea appears to have some new music in the works: When asked by a fan on Twitter in May if she was in Los Angeles and working on her third album, she responded, “Yes & Yes.”

Remember when Modern Family won the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series five years in a row? The Peabodys would never.

The Peabody Awards are given to “the most compelling and empowering stories released in broadcasting and digital media,” and unlike many other award voting bodies, the jurors usually pick the worthiest programs. This year’s winners include Watchmen, Fleabag, Succession, Ramy, Stranger Things, When They See Us, and Chernobyl in the Entertainment category, and Apollo 11 and Surviving R. Kelly for Documentaries. The Simpsons also won an Institutional Award for finding new “ways to remain funny, fresh, and insightful while trusting and respecting its audience’s intelligence.”

“Of the 30 winners, PBS leads with seven, followed by HBO and Netflix with four each; and CNN and NBC with two. First-time winners, AppleTV+ and OWN, join Amazon Prime, Lifetime, and Hulu with one award each,” the Peabodys wrote in a statement. “Additional winning platforms include APM, BBC Sounds, Montana Public Radio, Newsday, WBBM Chicago, and WNYC Studios.” Congratulations to farting Jeremy Irons and “you can’t make a Tomlette without breaking some Greggs” for winning a Peabody.

Here’s the complete list of winners:

Entertainment

“Chernobyl” (HBO)
“David Makes Man” (OWN)
“Dickinson” (Apple TV+)
“Fleabag” (Prime Video)
“Ramy” (Hulu)
“Stranger Things” (Netflix)
“Succession” (HBO)
“Unbelievable” (Netflix)
“Watchmen” (HBO)
“When They See Us” (Netflix)

Documentaries

“Apollo 11” (CNN)
“For Sama” (PBS)
“Independent Lens: Hale County This Morning, This Evening” (PBS)
“POV: Inventing Tomorrow” (PBS)
“POV: Midnight Traveler” (PBS)
“POV: The Distant Barking of Dogs” (PBS)
“POV: The Silence of Others” (PBS)
“Surviving R. Kelly” (Lifetime)
“The Edge of Democracy” (Netflix)
“True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality”

Podcast/Radio

“Dolly Parton’s America” (WNYC)
“Have You Heard George’s Podcast?” (BBC Sounds)
“In the Dark: The Path Home” (APM Reports)
“Threshold: The Refuge” (Auricle Productions)

News

“A Different Kind of Force: Policing Mental Illness” (NBC News)
“American Betrayal” (NBC/MSNBC)
“Long Island Divided” (Newsday)
“The Hidden Workforce: Undocumented in America” (CNN)
“Unwarranted” (WBBM-TV)

Children’s & Youth

“Molly of Denali” (PBS Kids)

WWE Backlash 2020 airs this Sunday, June 14, live on WWE Network. The event features matches for the WWE, Universal, Raw Women’s, Women’s Tag Team, and United States Championships, as well as The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever between Edge and Randy Orton. Here’s the complete card as of publication, not taking into consideration that they’re definitely going to add two more matches between Friday afternoon and Sunday night..

WWE Backlash 2020 card:

1. The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever: Randy Orton vs. Edge
2. Handicap Match for the Universal Championship: Braun Strowman (c) vs. The Miz and John Morrison
3. WWE Championship Match: Drew McIntyre (c) vs. Bobby Lashley
4. Women’s Tag Team Championship Match: Bayley and Sasha Banks (c) vs. Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross vs. The IIconics
5. Raw Women’s Championship Match: Asuka (c) vs. Nia Jax
6. United States Championship Match: Apollo Crews (c) vs. Andrade
7. Jeff Hardy vs. Sheamus

As always, we’ve got your complete rundown of the card and analysis below, featuring predictions for all seven matches. Make sure to drop a comment and let us know who you think’s winning, and be here on Sunday night to see if you’re correct.

Here’s what we think will go down at Backlashley.

Jeff Hardy vs. Sheamus

What You Need To Know: In May of last year, Jeff Hardy got put on the disabled list by a knee surgery and spent his time away from work getting arrested for public intoxication and arrested for driving while intoxicated. Sheamus missed a lot of time as well thanks to spinal stenosis, but used his time away to obsessively work out and lose a bunch of weight. Sheamus returned without a lot of fanfare, just in time to watch Smackdown glorify Jeff Hardy with a series of inspirational vignettes. Feeling rightfully ignored, Sheamus decided to handle his rage the only way he knows how: by purportedly framing Hardy for DUI, getting Hardy thrown in jail for roughly an hour, and killing Elias.

What Will Happen: … unless he didn’t! The specifics of Hardy saying an eye witness saw someone with “red hair and red beard” fleeing the scene of the crime suggests Sheamus, but it could also suggest Sami Zayn, or a returning Erick Rowan with his hair grown out a little, or Rowan’s doppelganger from the Roman Reigns assault angle. Regardless, Hardy’s kind of owned all of their physical confrontations up until this point, sneak attacks aside, so I imagine he’ll ALMOST win — maybe a visual pin or something with the ref knocked out — but ultimately lose to give Ice Ice Sheamy a little love. He needs it. Sheamus, The Miz, and Kofi Kingston need to form a posse of 2000s-era guys who have done literally everything you can do in WWE but are still treated like mid-carders.

Staff Picks

Emily Pratt – This storyline sucks and I can’t care about this match on any level. I’ll guess that Hardy wins, but this angle continues.

Raj Prashad – Picking Hardy to earn the win and get some form of comeuppance after getting set up by Sheamus.

Scott Heisel – I have Sling TV, which used to get along with Fox but not anymore, so now I don’t get to DVR Smackdown. The past two Fridays I’ve tuned in late due to factors beyond my control and missed the opening segments, so I’ve accidentally missed all the story beats in this apparent shitshow of an angle. (Thankfully I always manage to turn Smackdown on in time to see my beloved beef boy Otis and his sweet peach Mandy — Brandon be damned, these segments are *gold*, Jerry! Gold!) Anyway, stories involving Sheamus and automobiles usually suck (see also: stealing Alberto Del Rio’s car), but he is Triple H’s workout buddy, so I guess I’ll pick him to win even though I will literally be using this match to make popcorn in a wok on my stove. (Hot tip: Add the salt before popping, then coat the whole thing in nutritional yeast afterwards — thank me later!)

Elle Collins – f Sheamus really faked Jeff’s car accident, it would be nice to see Jeff get revenge and win here. It would be nice, but I don’t think it’s happening. I think Sheamus takes it.

United States Championship Match: Apollo Crews (c) vs. Andrade

What You Need To Know: Apollo Crews recently leveraged a friendship with Kevin Owens to put him into position to win the United States Championship from Andrade, and followed through with it. Now he’s being forced to defend his newly won championship against the previous champion in a rematch, which will be hard considering (1) winning a championship didn’t give him a character or personality yet, and (2) he just kinda hung KO up to dry on Monday and is probably getting pop-up powerbombed about it.

What Will Happen: Assumptions about where TV stories are going aside, this feels like one of those hastily thrown-together matches for pay-per-view mid-cards where you think there’s some hook to it, but there isn’t. It’ll just be a normal match with a normal Raw finish. Maybe Angel Garza shows up and costs Andrade the match, confirming that he’s the absolute last person you want on a team where people are supposed to get along. Picking Crews to retain, unless they really and truly don’t give a shit about him.

Staff Picks

Emily Pratt – These two have had good matches before despite screwiness like Angel Garza explaining sex in the middle of one of them, so I’m guessing this will be the best match of the show. I’m hoping Crews retains and gets a longer moment in the sun and I’m about 80 percent sure that will happen.

Raj Prashad – There was a time when I fully expected Crews to be bundled into one of the waves of releases, but what a comeback he’s made over the last six months or so. I’ve got Crews keeping the belt here and hopefully Andrade finds his way into the main title picture.

Scott Heisel – Did Apollo Crews have new music on Monday? I could’ve sworn there were lyrics playing when the show came back from commercial and he was in the ring. You’re not gonna give the guy a new theme song only to have him job out on his first defense. Crews can’t lose!

Elle Collins – Even though this is Backlash, and it’s certainly possible that no titles change hands at all, I’m going to predict Andrade to win this match, because Apollo is honestly the only Champion that I think might lose. I could see these guys trading the belt back and forth, and I’m also not sure that Apollo has proven himself as a champion. I’d like it if he did, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll get the chance to.

Raw Women’s Championship Match: Asuka (c) vs. Nia Jax

What You Need To Know: Asuka won the Raw Women’s Championship by retrieving the Money in the Bank briefcase in a match where a dozen wrestlers were asked to simultaneously fight their way up to the roof of an office building, get into a ring on top of the building, and climb up a ladder in the center of a ring on top of a building. Nia Jax, who was in that match but didn’t win it and can’t seem to wrestle anybody these days without endangering their real-life safety, believes (somehow) that this was the “easy way.” To show her frustrations, she beat up Asuka’s tag team partner during a recorder celebration and then genetically bonded that partner’s face to the ringside steps.

What Will Happen: I don’t actually think it will happen, don’t get me wrong, but my brain can’t stop guessing that Asuka loses the Raw Women’s Championship in the opener, but somehow ends up teaming with Charlotte Flair as a surprise fourth team in the Women’s Tag Team Championship match and winning to become the most recent of WWE’s beloved BUT CAN THEY CO-EXIST tag team champs that hate each other. In a better world where things go right sometimes and God’s not dead, Asuka just wins fairly easily and we pair her up with Ruby Riott, or Bianca Belair, or any of the number of talented women on the Raw roster who don’t come with the vibe and baggage of Jax’s character’s whole thing.

Staff Picks

Emily Pratt – All the matches these two had in NXT were alright, so I think this one will also be alright and Asuka will retain.

Raj Prashad – Well, Asuka’s title reign isn’t off to the best start with another loss to Charlotte on Raw. Hopefully this isn’t representative of what’s to come. Regardless, picking Asuka to snag the win.

Scott Heisel – I suffer from Never Nia syndrome, which renders me completely unable to root for Nia Jax, even in total solitude. It is not recognized by the DSM-IV yet, but I have hope. Annual conferences are held for those affected.

Elle Collins – After Raw this week, it’s hard to believe Nia is Asuka’s opponent this weekend, rather than Charlotte. And honestly, that makes it seem impossible that Nia might win. If anybody takes that belt off of Asuka in the next few weeks, it’ll be Charlotte Flair (and hopefully she doesn’t either).

Women’s Tag Team Championship Match: Bayley and Sasha Banks (c) vs. Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross vs. The IIconics

What You Need To Know: Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross, who are good friends who had an iffy start to their relationship but nurtured each other and helped each other grow, lost the Women’s Tag Team Championship to Bayley and Sasha Banks, who are “good friends” in quotation marks whose entire relationship is defined by their early rivalries with one another and always seem like they’re a Malfunction at the Junction away from one betraying the other. Instead of a straight rematch, WWE blessed us by adding the IIconics, who are lifelong soulmates connected at the hearts by a shared love of over-the-top Australian obnoxiousness.

What Will Happen: See above. Can WWE resist randomly adding Asuka and Charlotte Flair to the match? I hope they do, and that the point of this is to put the Women’s Tag Team Championship belts back on Billie Kay and Peyton Royce as an apology for completely forgetting about them during their first title reign and then forgetting they even worked here for like a year.

Staff Picks

Emily Pratt – I’ve been predicting Bayley retaining in order for us to eventually get Bayley vs. Banks Main Roster Edition for a while now, and now I’ll predict that Bayley and Sasha retain to make for a better breakup down the road. I think this is the second most promising match on the card behind the US title one.

Raj Prashad – Really loving Bayley two belts, but yet again just waiting for their fallout. Expecting them to hold onto the titles through Backlash though, at the very least.

Scott Heisel – Honestly, I’d be happy with any outcome in this match, as I think all three teams have been doing great work. Let’s give it to the IIconics, though, so they can start appearing on Wednesday nights as well. Maybe we can get the belts defended in NXT for once!

Elle Collins – While it would be sort of darkly funny if the IIconics won the titles in a multi-team match from Sasha and Bayley who’ve barely had a run with them AGAIN, I don’t see that actually happening. And Alexa and Nikki winning them back right after losing them would be even more ridiculous. The Sasha and Bayley story clearly has a ways to go, and for now they’re keeping those belts.

WWE Championship Match: Drew McIntyre (c) vs. Bobby Lashley

What You Need To Know: Bobby Lashley is a soft spoken, emotionally stunted weirdo in the body of a Super Soldier. Drew McIntyre used to be that, but learned that he’d be a lot better off if he worked out all the time and got really confidently aggressive about everything. Drew wants to bring out that same thing in Bobby, if only to have a good match with him and experience some kind of challenge. Meanwhile, Bobby’s trying to decide if he’d rather spend his 3-hour work week in the presence of a player-coach he likes, or a hot wife he hates.

What Will Happen: 3, 2, 1, Claymore. As much as the broken, nihilistic side of me wants to see MVP cause a distraction to set up McIntyre for a spear, there’d be no reasonable explanation for building a Drew McIntyre WWE Championship win around a two-night WrestleMania and then beginning and ending his first-ever title reign without ever letting him be champ in front of fans. I have surprisingly high hopes for this one, though, because Lashley needs to be portrayed like an elite assassin like a starving person needs a sandwich.

Staff Picks

Emily Pratt – With Jinder on the shelf, what is there for Drew do to as champ? NOT have a 3MB themed feud? Not interested! Put the belt on Lashley and see how it goes.

Raj Prashad – Happy for Lashley to make his way back into the main event picture, but can’t imagine anyone taking the belt off McIntyre this early in his run. Going with the champ to retain.

Scott Heisel – Does anyone else find it weird that WWE brass think enough of Drew McIntyre to pull the trigger on him in both NXT and on the main roster, but that he’s never main evented a pay-per-view as champion? I know it’s a small sample size, but he only had one PPV defense in NXT and it wasn’t the main event, he didn’t main event Money In The Bank and he’s sure as shit not main eventing this card either with Orton/Edge at the top of it. Is Drew Mac becoming a new CM Punk, a champ that remains lodged in the upper mid-card while eras of Attitude and Ruthless Aggression continue to clog up the mains? Maybe I’m wrong. Anyway, I think Drew wins here but not without some really close near-falls that will set up Mac-Lash II at Extreme Rules next month. Maybe in a submissions-only match? Book that title change for July, Vince!

Elle Collins – Does anybody really think Bobby Lashley might win this? If anything, the goal of a match like this is to get Lashley to a point where maybe the next time he’s in a title match, the thought of him winning won’t seem laughable. But this time, Drew definitely retains.

Handicap Match for the Universal Championship: Braun Strowman (c) vs. The Miz and John Morrison

What You Need To Know: Braun Strowman made it into a WrestleMania main-event and won the Universal Championship on a random, last minute card change and then defended it against a haunted children’s show host who tried to brainwash him with a plastic sheep mask. He’s following up that story with the next logical feud: a handicap match against a couple of mildly successful Hollywood types who won’t stop trying to dunk on him and prank him.

What Will Happen: Brother, all I want from this pay-per-view is for John Morrison to steal the pin from Miz, become Universal Champion, refuse to share the Universal Championship like he’s apparently supposed to, and motivate Miz to get his shit together, hero up again, and stop him. I’d also be fine with them switching roles and having Miz be the one to go full chaotic evil, but what I’m getting at is that any combination of Miz and Morrison at the top of the card is better than the big, momentum-allergic sassbilly who thinks you could win the Universal Championship if you just got a better job and stopped complaining.

Sigh, Braun is winning. Of course he is. He’ll probably powerslam them both at the same time and pin them in a pile.

Staff Picks

Emily Pratt – As with every handicap match I’ve ever watched, the true loser here will be me. The actual kayfabe losers will be Miz and Morrison because WWE is too cowardly to do LayCool But Men.

Raj Prashad – The last time Strowman was in a handicap title match, he lost the belt. While I’d imagine he handles Miz and Morrison with ease, I love to concept of Otis being involved here somehow. Going with Strowman to keep the belt, but who knows how this one ends.

Scott Heisel – Pulling for the heir to the Mr, Hero fortune and his ab-bedazzling buddy, only so WWE can reboot LayCool for a new audience. Miz-Mo, fo’ sho.

Elle Collins – I suppose you could have the tag team win the singles title, and then they could turn on each other and fight over it. I just don’t see it happening, though. Braun’s going to beat both of these guys and retain.

The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever: Randy Orton vs. Edge

What You Need To Know: There have been a lot of wrestling matches in WWE’s storied, 40-60 year existence. Legendary names like Bret Hart, Ricky Steamboat, Macho Man Randy Savage, Daniel Bryan, and others have worked to continuously redefine the sport, and remind us that the technical brilliance of wrestling is the thing that keeps human beings returning to the concept of staged, organized combat as an endless fountain of art, emotion, and possibility. At Backlash, a snake man who has had maybe five good matches total in 20 years goes head-to-head with a guy who hasn’t had a straight-up one-on-one wrestling match in nine years, and it must be The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever.

What Will Happen: Who cares, I’m just lucky to be alive during the era that experiences the greatest wrestling match ever. We’re going to drop B.C. and A.D. and start classifying historical events as having happened before Randy Orton vs. Edge, and after Randy Orton vs. Edge.

In all seriousness, I hope they give them 20 minute introductions, the bell rings, and Orton just immediately hits Edge in the face with a chair. Or kicks him in the dick. Something like that. The only justification for a month of incessantly promoting a Randy Orton match as THE GREATEST WRESTLING MATCH EVER, especially after their previous match was a 45 minute hardcore match at WrestleMania that ended with MASCULINE TEARS, is booking the payoff to be 10 whole seconds of condescending nonsense. This is setting itself up to be a real cultural event.

Staff Picks

Emily Pratt – Time limit draw.

Raj Prashad – Ignoring the weird marketing for this match, Edge versus Orton is just fine and presumably can’t get as weird as their ‘Mania match. I’ve got Orton going over in this one as The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever Winner.

Scott Heisel – There we are, 59 minutes into what appears to be going to a 60-minute Broadway. Both men are physically spent, having wrestled the kind of match that makes Steamboat/Savage look like Melina/Alicia Fox. The PC crowd has been built into a true frenzy, ignoring Kevin Dunn-ordered responses to simply chant, “THIS IS AWESOME!” as Edge and Orton lay motionless on the mat, each trying to beat a 10-count before the ref calls the match. The two gladiators pull each other to their feet, delivering blow after blow in what feels like slow motion, winding up and connecting more with each strike. Tom Phillips has completely lost his voice calling every move, and has resorted to yipping like a dog at each connection of fist to face. Just then, Brock Lesnar hits the ring with a kendo stick and whacks both of them repeatedly, drawing blood early and not stopping until both men lay motionless, face down in the center of the ring. The match is thrown out. PC recruits are crying. Somehow, Brock Lesnar Guy is in the audience, but he’s on his phone and misses his close-up. Paul Heyman looks into the hard cam and deadpans, “You wanted Backlash, huh? That sure looks like a lot of backlashes to me.” Brock winks. FIN.

Elle Collins – I think Edge has to win here. What’s the point of bringing him back if you’re not going to have Randy Orton put him over? And anyway, no match that Randy Orton wins could ever be called the Greatest Wrestling Match Ever.

That’s what we think will happen when backs come to lashes at WWE Backlash pay-per-view®. Agree? Disagree? You know what to do. Drop down into the comments and let us know, and then make sure you’re here on Sunday night to find out if King Corbin still finds a way to throw a couple of dudes off the roof of the Performance Center. It could happen. See you then.

Most weeks, Las Vegas Aces guard Sydney Colson speaks for just one minute on her social media talk show, 60 Seconds With Sydney. This time, that wouldn’t suffice. Instead, Colson brought together nearly every Black WNBA player to put forth what Colson called a “statement of fact:” Their lives matter.

“We were never trying to convince you, this was always a statement of fact,” Colson says in the intro, “that black lives matter.”

Dozens of players from around the WNBA then joined Colson to reiterate the message: “My life matters.”

youtube.com/watch?v=nUOhmINjLKE&feature=youtu.be

The league has boosted the 90-second video on its social channels throughout the week. The league is also donating portions of the proceeds from its “Bigger than Ball” apparel line to organizations fighting for racial justice after urging from the Players Association. At the same time, the Players Association is in talks with the league on a plan to play out the season, possibly at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.

While other major American sports leagues plot out how to speak on police brutality and racism when they next take the field or court, women’s basketball has often been at the forefront of public displays of protest. The Notre Dame women’s basketball team wore “I Can’t Breathe” warmup shirts back in 2014, and in 2016, the Minnesota Lynx donned shirts at a postgame press conference that said “Change Starts With Us.” Back then, the league was not nearly as supportive of public demonstrations by players, but has since softened its stance.

Sharing Colson’s powerful video is a step, but the recent history of the WNBA shows the players often lead the way against the instincts of the league, and this moment has been no different.

“Trollz” isn’t just the name of an ill-fated, millennial update of the long-running doll franchise, it’s also the title of Nicki Minaj‘s upcoming reunion with Tekashi 69. It’s certainly apt — over the past couple of years, both rappers have become better known for attention-baiting antics than their music, but the former often seems to drive consumption of the latter. Since their last collaboration, “Fefe,” went multi-platinum, reached No. 3 on the Hot 100, and became one of the most successful singles for both artists, they’ve apparently decided to go back to the well with “Trollz,” which they announced releases this Friday, June 12. Proceeds of the song will reportedly be donated to The Bail Project.

Just as with their previous collaboration, the announcement drew a massive reaction from fans online. Nicki previously drew criticism for working with Tekashi on “Fefe” because of his trolling shenanigans and his past sexual misconduct case. That was before Tekashi was arrested as a part of a racketeering sweep of the Nine Trey Bloods gang who backed his rise to fame by lending him legitimacy and muscle — and before Tekashi agreed to testify against them in exchange for a shorter sentence.

This time around, the Barbz stepped up to defend their queen once again, but had a much harder hill to defend from critics. While some pointed out Tekashi’s upcoming collaboration with Akon based on Akon’s hit single “Locked Up” in an attempt to deflect, others noted that it’d still be a hit thanks to all the buzz surrounding it, based on the success of “Fefe.”

However, plenty of people expressed disappointment in Nicki for reuniting with 69 in light of the latest round of hip-hop rules he’s supposedly violated.

As usual, it appears that controversy is the best promotion — for a while, at least. We’ll see how things turn out for Nicki and Tekashi on Friday. For now, you can check out the reactions to her latest collaboration above.

Since Lil Peep’s death in 2017, the rapper’s mother, Liza Womack, has pushed tirelessly to honor his music. Womack and a team of producers have released several posthumous projects by Lil Peep, as well as the documentary Everybody’s Everything. Now, to celebrate its fourth anniversary, Lil Peep’s 2016 mixtape Crybaby is available on streaming services for the first time.

The mixtape was remastered by Joe LaPorta, who worked on the rapper’s posthumous Everybody’s Everything, Vertigo, and Come Over When You’re Sober, Pt. 2. While LaPorta lent a hand on Crybaby, Womack told Pitchfork that the mixtape was only “slightly” mastered but otherwise is “totally untouched.” “So it’s the same thing that he made, and that matters to me…. I’m very proud of that,” Womack said.

While Crybaby is seeing its first digital release four years later, Womack has worked incessantly to clear the array of samples Lil Peep used. The rapper pulled from Oasis’ “Wonderwall” for his track “Yesterday” and the Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights” for “White Tee.” The only sample Womack wasn’t able to clear was Radiohead’s OK Computer song “Climbing Up the Walls,” which appeared on Lil Peep’s “Falling 4 Me.” But Womack says she plans on leaving a black space on any future vinyl pressings in the track’s honor.

Speaking further to Pitchfork about Lil Peep’s mixtape, Womack said Crybaby was a highly prolific era for the young rapper:

“I think he was really kind of hitting his stride. This is the first time he was working with producers live, human, physically. So that was a turning point where he actually met his producers in person. I think an important thing about this mixtape was that he was feeling a sense of power, as somebody who had positive social feedback for his work. He had a group of people to work with, and there were all these people doing videos and writing music and producing music, and all this intense creativity. That must have been very nice for him.”

Crybaby is out now via Lil Peep/AUTNMY. Get it here.

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Social media has given everyone a platform. Unfortunately, not everyone uses their platform responsibly. That goes double for those with massive followings. Over the past several years we’ve watched one celebrity after another put their proverbial feet in their mouths by either misunderstanding or misusing the newfound power of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other virtual soapboxes. However, if there’s one person who does understand her power, it’s Cardi B. The outspoken Bronx rapper has become the voice of reason for a generation of music fans, using her social channels to address current events in a way that is insightful, informative, and most importantly, relatable for the average person.

How did the rambunctious, wine-throwing loudmouth from Love & Hip-Hop: New York become the mouthpiece of the zeitgeist — especially as imperfect as her own approach to social media has been? Perhaps it’s because Cardi is willing to be so authentic to herself, owning her own humanity. While many stars fight back against backlashes to their faux pas, or issue boilerplate Notes App apologies before falling silent on important issues, Cardi accepts the criticism, correcting it where it’s wrong, acknowledging where it’s right, and growing up right before our eyes. Controversies regarding her use of racially insensitive insults, her admittedly criminal past, or feuds with other entertainers have all given Cardi the chance to learn on the job and she’s risen to the occasion every time.

While her controversies have drawn more and more eyes to her platform, her willingness to learn and grow while continuing to keep it real has lent her a hard-won aura of empathy. So when she goes on a “rant” decrying Donald Trump’s government shutdown, it not only goes viral, but it also reflects the way the average person might feel about them as well. While Cardi is a self-described history and politics buff — a characterization backed up by her school teachers and high-profile political associations — she is plain-spoken, foregoing the confusing mouthfuls of sociological jargon favored by many social critics on blogs, Tumblr, and Twitter. Her Bronx accent and liberal use of vernacular are more readily accessible than the complex terminology that sometimes gets employed to address complicated topics like systemic racism. It helps that Cardi maintains her blunt sense of humor, which works as the spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down.

That’s why Cardi could float a wild conspiracy theory about the spread of coronavirus, then use the resulting attention to call scrutiny to inconsistent testing practices. “If a celebrity is saying, ‘Hey listen, I don’t have no symptoms, I’m feeling good, I feel healthy, I don’t feel like nothing, but I went and got tested and I’m positive for the coronavirus,’ that causes confusion,” she said in one of her recent videos, pointing out how the gap between the test and the results could cause much more harm for the average person. “So it’s like if you’re sending me home and I have the corona-f*cking-virus, I’m most likely going to give it to my spouse, my kid, anybody that’s around me.”

When her original post on the virus became a hit song thanks to an enterprising producer, Cardi ensured that her share of the proceeds went to charity, showing her awareness of the moment and her place in it. Rather than pouting about being the butt of a joke, she turned the joke into an opportunity to help. She used the curiosity resulting from her original rant — which became Instagram’s most-watched video for that month — to call out anti-Asian bigotry stemming from the virus’ origin and the insensitive remarks from the White House.

The White House, of course, provides Cardi with much of her ammunition. As protests against police brutality continued across the nation, Cardi again used her platform to give voice to the emotions being felt by the general populace. However, she also offered a set of possible solutions for the current situation. Rather than paternalistic admonitions to “stop burning down your own neighborhood,” she acknowledged that peaceful protests had been ignored. She then urged her followers to vote for change, clarifying that it comes from the local level, “We can vote for mayors, we can vote for judges, and we can also vote for D.A.s (district attorneys)… They have the power to prosecute these cops.”

While no celebrity should be the sole source of hope, inspiration, or information for anyone, seeing a star — one who has made history, one whose career is far from solidified, with only one hit album to her name — risking their status to speak their mind is inspiring, or at least, it should be. It says that someone is finally putting people above profit. It sets that example, that maybe there are more important things to talk about than when your next album is coming out. It shows us that we don’t all need to have PhDs in sociology to join these complex discussions about equality and justice — and that we don’t always need to “sound smart,” so long as we demonstrate empathy for people and understanding of the topics. Cardi B isn’t perfect — nobody is — but she’s become a great example of how we can have these much-needed discussions and take action to bring about much-needed change.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Indie developers have grown used to fielding a standard set of questions from eager fans as they bring games to market. The first two are simple: When will the game come out? And on what platform? After that, things get a bit more specific: When will the game be released for the Nintendo Switch?

Steam and Itch.io are often go-to platforms for indies developing on PC and Mac, getting access to millions of dedicated gamers in the process. For game makers, computer gaming is the place to start. But even today, the console market is an easier way to play for millions more in a decidedly varied market. And the Switch, in particular, is a quick way for a lot of new and casual gamers to enter the market. There’s a reason stock of the console ran out as the COVID-19 pandemic kept people inside looking for things to do, and it’s not just Nintendo’s notorious supply issues.

While Sony and Microsoft plan the next phase of their hardware war, the Switch remains a popular and decidedly different device. It’s also become particularly suited for indie gamers to explore the console market and tailor their games to its unique features. In the process, it’s become the destination for a lot of smaller titles searching for a place in the console market.

“We knew from the beginning that the Switch would be a very, very good match for us,” said Rune Drewsen, co-founder of Dutch gaming company Triband. The company’s physics sim What The Golf? hit PC and the Apple Arcade in 2019, and an announce trailer for Nintendo’s versatile console hit the web in August. But it took nearly another year for a console version to come out, which meant the company dealt with plenty of questions.

“It’s very hard to juggle development time and pleasing the audience at the same time,” Drewsen said. “Because as soon as you say you’re going to do a Switch launch you get those emails instantly that say ‘When is it going to launch on the Switch?’

The Switch has a variety of advantages as an indie console, starting with the fact that its portability means gamers can take full-scale titles with them anywhere. Its storage is also expandable, and SD card prices have gradually fallen to the point that it’s now possible to bring every title you own with you in your backpack. Some gaming computers can say the same, sure, but there are other attributes the Switch has that also offer developers the chance to go the extra mile with Switch games.

What The Golf, for example, uses the Switch’s motion controls to bring a set of 3D-style levels to play independent of the standard console’s television dock. A very different golf title — 2017’s brilliant Golf Story — uses the console’s HD rumble feature to make golf shots out of the rough feel tougher. Tumbleseed is another game that deftly uses that often-overlooked feature of the console, and not every developer makes the most of its unique features. Ports are inevitable that miss the mark, but it’s another example of a way the console becomes more attractive to indie developers.

Drewsen was careful not to speak for the entire market, of course, but the Switch was “the easy match” for his game after the success it had on the Apple Arcade.

“We had to go on that console because that just seems like the perfect console for What the Golf. The game is light, the game is funny. The game is easy to pick up and it’s actually a game that you really want to show your friends,” he said. “But you also want to show your mom or your dad or something like that, and I think it’s one of those consoles that people understand the most.”

Drewsen noted that Nintendo has a history of accessibility — even going back to the Nintendo Wii — that can invite new gamers into the fold.

“From a perspective of age, at least, that’s definitely the Switch. Because you just pick it up and you get it,” he said. “You don’t have to fiddle around with a bunch of stuff and you don’t need to sit on a couch. You can give it to your mom in the kitchen, you can give it to your dad on the golf course or whatever. And I think that was so appealing to us.”

The evolution of the console has made for an interesting dynamic. While many AAA titles and bigger titles reach and are largely preferred on the Xbox and PlayStation, gamers often choose the Switch when it comes to indie titles available on multiple platforms. The Outer Wilds, for example, took a few extra months to land on the Switch after a fall 2019 launch, but for developers of smaller games, it’s often the place where their work can truly shine.

“We really felt like we had to do that extra thing for the Switch,” Drewsen said. “Because that kind of competitive two-player mode were just fit like a hand in a glove.”

Developing a versus mode for the Switch took some extra time, and some hurdles to clear with Nintendo approval are always an issue for any developer. The console has certain rules developers must adhere to when it comes to using JoyCons properly that can make multiplayer games a challenge for small indies. But multiple indies have explained the extra effort is worth it, and the console’s features have made it the recipient of some truly innovative titles. Drewsen said What The Golf tried to poke fun at gaming in general, but also try something very new.

“In a way we’re just trying to show what computer games have done in 20 years but also by exploring unknown country,” Drewsen said. “On the edge of the map, that’s not been explored where there might be dragons.”

It’s tough to occupy space that’s both on the edge of that map while staying accessible for a wide market, but the Switch is certainly the closest console to date to succeed at both.