Tonight on the WWE Friday Night Smackdown open discussion thread:

In the first round of the Intercontinental Championship Tournament, Jeff Hardy proved his unending perseverance, and Daniel Bryan exhibited his incredible technical prowess. Now the two former Intercontinental Champions will put their skills to the test with a finals opportunity on the line.

The Charismatic Enigma shocked The Celtic Warrior when he pulled out a victory, despite a confident Sheamus controlling long stretches of the match. Bryan was tested by his training partner, but the veteran Superstar outlasted Drew Gulak in a display of grappling ability.

Will Hardy keep his comeback moving forward? Or will Bryan’s in-ring polish be too much to overcome? (via WWE.com)

Daniel Bryan vs. Jeff Hardy, Elias vs. AJ Styles (in another tournament match), Lacey Evans vs. Sonya Deville, and A Moment Of Bliss with the New Day have all been announced for the show.

As always, give a thumbs up to any comments from tonight’s open thread you enjoy and we’ll include 10 of the best in tomorrow’s Best and Worst of Friday Night Smackdown on Fox report. Make sure to flip your comments to “newest” in the drop down menu under “discussion,” and enjoy the show!

When same-sex marriage was legalized in the United States in 2015, a lot of conservatives and religious folks predicted it would be the end of the world.

In fact, on the day same-sex marriage was made legal, searches on the popular website Bible Gateway for “end times” reached an all-time high. Evangelical preacher Pat Robertson claimed that after the decision we’d all be having relations with animals.

“Watch what happens, love affairs between men and animals are going to be absolutely permitted. Polygamy, without question, is going to be permitted. And it will be called a right,” Robertson said.

Well, the world didn’t end and no one has married their cat … yet. But what did happen was a surge of economic activity.

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via Jose Antonio Navas / Flickr

A new study by the The Williams Institute found that since same-sex marriage was legalized nationwide in the United States in 2015, LGBT weddings have boosted state and local economies by an estimated $3.8 billion.

“Marriage equality has changed the lives of same-sex couples and their families,” the study’s lead author Christy Mallory, said in a statement. “It has also provided a sizable benefit to business and state and local governments.”

Since Massachusetts first legalized gay marriage in 2004, more than half a million same-sex couples have married in America.

The economic impact of same-sex marriage has created more than 45,000 jobs and generated an additional $244 million in state and local taxes. Over $500 million in revenue has been generated by friends and family members traveling to and from same-sex weddings.

Anyone who’s throwing a wedding in the past 20 years knows the costs for a wedding, straight gay or otherwise, is incredible. The average cost for a wedding in 2020 is $31,000.

The findings by The Williams Institute are part of a lager economic trend suggesting the LGBT inclusion mainstream society has tremendous economic benefits for all.

A 2018 study noted that LGBTQ inclusion “increases economic performance, measured as GDP per capita,” and provided “significant support for linkages between LGBT inclusion and stronger economies at the macroeconomic level.”

The Williams Institute says its findings suggest that “passing laws to recognize the rights of LGBT people in participation in the marketplace, families, and important institutions may have positive effects on the economy. Also, efforts to improve public attitudes toward LGBT people may have positive effects on the economy, either alone or in combination with legal rights.”

So it looks like same-sex marriage and LGBT includion, in general, is great for the economy. Unless, of course, you’re one of those cake companies who refused to bake cakes for same-sex couples.Those folks really missed out on the big gay pay day.

For the past few months, the world has been rightfully praising the nurses, doctors, and other medical workers serving on the front line of the coronavirus pandemic. And now, nurses in Minneapolis have taken heroism to the next level.

A video shared by Joshua Potash on Twitter shows nurses in scrubs helping administer aid to protesters calling for justice for George Floyd, who was killed by police in Minneapolis this week.

“This is amazing,” Potash wrote. “Nurses have been going straight to protests after long COVID shifts to help treat people hit with tear gas and rubber bullets.”

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This week, we saw protests in Minneapolis erupt over Floyd’s murder, with some protesters being met with tear gas and rubber bullets.

In the video Potash shared, nurses in blue scrubs are shown with bottles of what appears to be milk, which helps relieve the sting of tear gas.

Commenters responding on Twitter praised the nurses for volunteering their time and energy:

“Stunningly beautiful act of kindness. Nurses deserve more than what we give them in salary and in attitude.”

“Nurses are the greatest thing in humanity.”

“Pre-Covid, nurses were always left out of Hometown Heroes praise, at least here on Long Island. It was always about teachers, cops and firemen. Maybe its time to add in nurses.”

“If the @TIME person of the year isn’t the American nurse throw the whole damn magazine away.”

Mister Rogers told us to look for the helpers in tough times. From a novel virus pandemic to the impact of civil unrest, nurses are there as the helpers, soothing wounds and saving lives. These are the heroes of our era, and they deserve all the gratitude and praise we can throw at them.

Every time a video emerges of police killing an unarmed civilian, debates rage over whether or not the use of force was justified. Tempers flare. Accusations fly.

Law enforcement is often publicly quiet about these cases. Maybe it’s a matter of not wanting to interfere with an investigation. Maybe, as a police officer friend once explained to me, it’s because it’s difficult to explain to the untrained eye why an unarmed suspect can sometimes still be considered a deadly threat. Or maybe it’s a desire to uphold some kind of “blue code” loyalty, no matter what has actually happened.

But the George Floyd killing in Minneapolis was egregious enough to have many police officers speaking out. In fact, Chattanooga Chief of Police David Roddy shared a blunt statement on Twitter that leaves no room for doubt on where he stands.

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“There is no need to see more video,” he wrote. “There no need to wait to see how ‘it plays out’. There is no need to put a knee on someone’s neck for NINE minutes. There IS a need to DO something. If you wear a badge and you don’t have an issue with this…turn it in.”

According to CBS affiliate WCCO News, George Floyd was compliant with Minneapolis police when he was handcuffed and taken into custody, but complained of claustrophobia when police tried to place him in the police vehicle. He went to the ground next to the vehicle, where police officers pinned him down. Officer Derek Chauvin then sat with his knee on Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds—nearly 3 minutes of which took place after Floyd had become unresponsive. The incident was captured on film by bystanders, who repeatedly asked the officers involved to help Floyd when he said he he couldn’t breathe and after he stopped moving and talking. Floyd was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Today, nearly four days later, Chauvin was taken into custody.

Floyd’s family and lawyer have released a statement on the arrest of Chauvin, who is currently charged with 3rd degree murder and manslaughter. In part, it reads:

“Today, George Floyd’s family is having to explain to his children why their father was executed by police on video. It’s essential that the City closely examines and changes its policing policies and training procedures to correct for the lack of proper field supervision; the use of appropriate, non-lethal restraint techniques; the ability to recognize medical signs associated with the restriction of airflow, and the legal duty to seek emergency medical care and stop a civil rights violation.”

All activists want is for the police to stop killing black people with impunity, and the more police officers and police chiefs take an active role in effecting real change in their departments, the better. As the unrest in Minneapolis shows, we can’t keep living like this.

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The music world has gotten some rough news in recent months in the death of a number of influential artists. The latest name to that sad list is Bob Kulick, a guitarist with a long list of credits to his name including one of the most beloved songs in the history of cartoons.

Consequence of Sound reported Friday that Kulick died at the age of 70, a note confirmed by his brother Bruce in a Facebook post.

Kulick was a veteran session guitarist who actually auditioned to be in KISS in 1972, missing out on the gig to Ace Frehley. He’d performed with a number of musical legends over his career, working with Lou Reed, Meat Loaf and others like Diana Ross. He was also reportedly the brains and bars behind the SpongeBob SquarePants song “Sweet Victory.”

Over the years, Bob also did session work for Diana Ross, Michael Bolton, and W.A.S.P., and produced Motörhead’s Grammy Award-winning song “Whiplash”. More recently, he composed, produced, and performed the SpongeBob SquarePants song “Sweet Victory”, which appeared in the episode “Band Geeks”.

The song actually had a bit of a resurgence in 2019 when fans created a groundswell of support to make it part of the Super Bowl halftime show. Despite SpongeBob not actually performing, the song did make its way into the show as an introduction for Travis Scott’s “Sicko Mode.”

That, in turn, made the song even more popular on streaming services in the wake of its use. Kulick’s career has a number of achievements more notable and influential than a song from Season 2 of SpongeBob SquarePants, but it’s yet another part of music history lost in what’s already been a strange and difficult year.

[via Consequence of Sound]

The NBA is gearing up to join other leagues with an official restart plan next week. According to reports from ESPN on Friday, the league is expected to have its ownership vote on a potential plan to restart and finish the season that’s been on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic since mid-March.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that owners are set to vote on the plan on Thursday, and as details leak out about the potential plan we now know that 20 or 22 teams in playoff contention are expected to restart an abbreviated regular season before deciding playoff seeding and which teams will make the traditional 16-team cut.

The 20 or 22-team restart would keep teams already out of postseason contention at home, which was a topic that got some considerable coverage earlier in the week when some players publicly spoke against potentially joining the bubble league with little to play for.

The important note in the reporting is that owners are largely expected to approve of the measure, which means the vote is merely a formality and basketball will, indeed, return to play later this summer as long as the health and safety of players, coaches and essential staff can be maintained amid the still-ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

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Unless you’ve been deep down in the wrestling cave, you already know what’s going on in Minneapolis, Minnesota. George Floyd was brutally, unjustifiably murdered by police, trapped on the ground with a knee to his neck. That has led to massive protests in the city, which the police have escalated to violence that the protestors are now being blamed for. Meanwhile similar protests are happening in Louisville, Kentucky, in the name of Breonna Taylor, a black woman who was murdered by police who invaded her home.

All over the United States and the world, people are speaking out against police violence, and in support of the communities that disproportionately face it. Quite a few WWE Superstars, as well as wrestlers from AEW, Impact, and elsewhere are making their voices heard on the subject.

WWE Superstar turned Hollywood actor Dave Bautista expressed his feelings in a no-holds-barred Instagram video:

Titus O’Neil, who consistently seems like one of the best people in WWE (despite the fact that we never see him on WWE TV), also had a lot to say.

But plenty more in the wrestling community spoke out in support of Floyd, Taylor, and other victims of racist violence:

And many have also shown support for the protests that are being demonized by the President and much of the media:

Sami Zayn also posted this video of the great James Baldwin speaking on the slow march of “progress”:

While NXT Manager Malcolm Bivens offered some words from Malcolm X:

Bivens, Liv Morgan, and others also shared their financial support of the Minnesota Freedom Fund, who are bailing out protestors, and encouraged others to give as well.

It’s important to note that this isn’t a complete list of wrestlers who are on the right side of this issue. A lot of people are RTing other people’s posts (particularly Naomi’s), or posting the same few images without additional text, and obviously those weren’t included here. Wrestling can feel like a pretty sketchy business sometimes, and it’s honestly encouraging in a dark time like this to see so many of the performers we admire standing up for justice.

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