Booking a rental home is never easy. You have to actually find one across a plethora of sites, deal with the occasional odd landlord, and sometimes, the house just straight-up tries to murder you and your whole family.
In the new trailer for You Should Have Left from Blumhouse Productions, Kevin Bacon and Amanda Seyfried find themselves trapped inside one particularly creepy piece of architecture that seems hell-bent on terrifying the couple and their young daughter. The house also seems to have a nightmare-ish focus on Bacon’s character as it turns his own secrets against him.
Here’s the official synopsis from Universal:
Theo Conroy (Bacon) is a successful middle-aged man whose marriage to his much younger actress wife, Susanna (Seyfried) is shredding at the seams, frayed by her secretiveness, his jealousy, and the shadow of his past. In an effort to repair their relationship, Theo and Susanna book a vacation at a stunning, remote modern home in the Welsh countryside for themselves and their six-year-old daughter, Ella (Avery Essex). What at first seems like a perfect retreat distorts into a perfect nightmare when Theo’s grasp on reality begins to unravel and he suspects that a sinister force within the house knows more than he or Susanna have revealed, even to each other.
Wu-Tang Clan is of course one of the most highly respected groups in the history of hip-hop (and music in general). Like any group, though, fans have members who are their favorite or who they think are best. Method Man himself has weighed in on this, and if you ask him, Wu-Tang’s most underrated member is Inspectah Deck.
“I think a lot of the appeal to Deck is […] remember back in the day, before videos, and you heard an MC, you had to kind of — you never knew what they looked like, all you could focus on was the words. I think if Deck came in that era right there where all they could focus on was the words and not the spectacle of what’s going on around him, he would have blew up much more than he did. He’s very well respected, but when you think of Wu-Tang, honestly, his name doesn’t come up first. But when you think iconic verses, his name is coming up first.”
He went on to declare Deck one of the best rappers ever, saying, “I’m giving him his roses now. Deck. Top five, dead or alive.”
Up-and-coming singer Dominic Fike launched his career in music when he gained a fanbase following an EP of demos released in 2018. The EP caught the attention of many major labels and the singer eventually signed a multi-million dollar deal with Columbia Records. Fike has been working on his debut album since and was supposed to release its lead single this week. However, in light of the protests happening across the country in response to Minneapolis police’s murder of George Floyd, Fike has opted to delay his release. Instead, the singer shared his own story of experiencing police violence.
Fike made the announcement in a typed letter on social media. “It doesn’t feel right to release music today but it does feel right to continue this conversation,” Fike wrote. The singer added that much of his family has been targeted by police:
“My life has felt cursed since I was a little kid. I’ve watched police, the supposed good guys, beat my mom and take her away. I’ve watched my brothers taken away. Aunts, Uncles. Sh*t, my dad just got 20. It’s like they had a problem with my family. I’ve since realized the real curse is the system we live in is designed fun us to lose, again and again.
After what I witnessed in my upbringing, I’ve made it a point to not be an aggressor with police. Yet somehow, I caught a felony battery on law enforcement charge and did eight months. This was not the reality of what happened. I tried to defuse a situation with the police and my younger brother, I interfered and the cop made up a story to fit his actions. The judge thought I was better off with this sh*t on my record. I’m lucky I could do music, since no one will ever hire me. I can’t tour in the UK. I can’t go to so many places, because of a decision this asshole made out of spite. None of these decisions were based on trying to help us, they wanted us to disappear.”
Fike continued to dispel the narrative that police violence happens because of a few “bad” officers: “Systemic racism and brute, abusive power are issues engrained into this country but things can change.”
At the Oscars, only six black filmmakers have been nominated for Best Director (John Singleton, Lee Daniels, Steve McQueen, Barry Jenkins, Jordan Peele, Spike Lee), and they all lost. Only four black actors (Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker) have won Best Actor, and only one black actress (Halle Berry). And in 2019, “the number [of movies] directed by filmmakers of color fell to 18 percent in 2019,” according to IndieWire. It’s obvious — at least it should be obvious — that something needs to change, and according to Spike Lee, that change needs to come from the top.
When asked by CinemaBlend how the industry can provide more opportunities for filmmakers of color, the Da 5 Bloods director replied, “The answer is very simple. We need to have black and brown people in those lofty positions of the gatekeepers. These are the people who have the green-light votes. And very rarely do any of these studios have people of color in a position where they have a say in what gets made, and what doesn’t get made. I’ve been saying this for years. And that has not happened yet.”
In a separate interview to promote his Netflix movie, this time with British GQ, Lee discussed what would happen if “Agent Orange,” as he calls Donald Trump, served a second term as president. “If this guy wins, the world is in peril. Not just the United States of America. The world,” he said, later calling him the “worst president of the United States of America.” Congratulations to James Buchanan, and no one else.
Da 5 Bloods premieres on Netflix this Friday, June 12.
There’s not necessarily a ton of overlap between indie music and the programming of Cartoon Network. However, hardcore indie-rock fans might be familiar with Craig Of The Creek (created by former Steven Universe writers Matt Burnett and Ben Levin), as Jeff Rosenstock is the show’s composer. The show’s first musical episode, “In The Key Of The Creek,” premieres today, and alongside that, Rosenstock has shared a ten-minute album featuring music he wrote for the episode.
The singing here is reserved for the show’s cast — including former SNL star Noël Wells, Lauren Lapkus, and Phil LaMarr — so there are no Rosenstock vocals here. Still, all of the sub-2-minute tracks have a lot of the rocking characteristics of Rosenstock’s other music, and it’s fun to hear him creating new material in an entirely different context. Terry Crews is a part of the show’s cast, but unfortunately, he is not heard here.
This is the second unexpected dispatch of new Rosenstock music in recent days, as he is fresh off the release of a surprise new album, No Dream. That followed his 2018 record Post-, which was also a surprise release.
Listen to In The Key Of The Creek: A Craig Of The Creek Musical below.
This Sunday at Backlash, Edge and Randy Orton will have their second match since the Rated R Superstar came out of retirement, and according to WWE, it’s going to be “The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever.” Will it actually be the greatest wrestling match ever? In a recent interview with ESPN, Edge says he doesn’t think so.
When asked about the upcoming match’s moniker, Edge replies that what is considered the greatest of any work of any kind of art is subjective:
I’ll preface all of this with saying there’s no such thing as the greatest match ever. You’re not going to be able to say definitively, what is the greatest song of all time? What is the greatest painting of all time? What is the greatest movie of all time? What is the greatest band of all time? It’s impossible because there’s no general consensus. You can have great matches, but what is the greatest is going to be different to almost everybody.
Here’s how Edge describes his initial reaction to finding out how his Backlash match would be promoted:
I just laughed because I didn’t think it was serious. Then I realized fairly quickly it was. Then my reaction was, is this wise, because anytime you say something the greatest ever beforehand, you’re setting yourself up for failure. And I don’t ever want to think that way. I need to think the opposite of that. I can’t control the court of public opinion. I need to do and be proud of the work that I put in.
He later adds, “All I can do is take it as if this is all just a bonus and in a weird way, a compliment. Or it’s a giant rib. I don’t know.” But whether it’s a rib or a compliment, Edge doesn’t think the match should be promoted this way.
This shouldn’t even be happening. Let alone for the company, and let’s call it straight, Vince, to think that he can bill this the ‘Greatest Match Ever.’ Would I have preferred they not billed it as that? Absolutely. But I also know there are times where heels get dug in the sand and there’s no changing it.
Though he has issues with the match’s promotion, Edge is positive about other aspects of his feud with Orton, saying “I’ve been given a lot of freedom, in terms of writing my promos and in terms of storyline.”
The Spurs are among the 22 NBA teams that will convene in Orlando in July for a restarted season, but they will do so without the presence of one of their top stars.
LaMarcus Aldridge averaged 18.9 points and 7.4 rebounds per game for the Spurs this season, but will not be with the team later this summer after he had arthroscopic surgery to repair a rotator cuff injury to his right shoulder on April 24.
The Spurs today announced that LaMarcus Aldridge had a surgical procedure performed on his right shoulder, which will cause him to miss the remainder of the 2019-20 NBA season.
It’s a significant blow to the Spurs, who enter the restarted season at 27-36, four games back of the Grizzlies for the eight seed. Despite having a major gap to makeup to reach the postseason, the Spurs were set to come into Orlando as the team in that group battling for the final playoff spot with the best record this season against above-.500 teams. That is a key distinction for the bubble league, as only playoff teams plus the additional five in the hunt in the West and the Wizards in the East were making the trip. Teams are only going to be playing the best in the NBA, and as such, it might be a war of attrition among those looking to claw their way into the postseason.
The Spurs will have to lean more heavily on the likes of Jakob Poeltl and Rudy Gay to fill the void left by Aldridge — who had become, somewhat improbably, the team’s second best three-point shooter this season from his frontcourt spot.
Previously on the Best and Worst of NXT: Breezango became number one contenders to the Tag Team Championship, serial killer Dexter Lumis did some delightful caricatures, and Drake Maverick somehow earned his real-life job back by doing well at the position he’d just been fired from. It’s a thing.
And now, the Best and Worst of NXT TakeOver: In Your House for June 7, 2020.
Best: Todd-foolery
WWE Network
I think most of us were hoping an NXT TakeOver with an “In Your House” theme would, at the very least, include the classic (and super cheap looking) house set and an appearance from Todd Pettengill. If you’re a younger fan and didn’t grow up watching Todd, he’s the platonic ideal of a Vince McMahon-approved on-screen personality; charismatic, great at reading a full paragraph of corny shills and still sounding like he means it, and as threatening as a cool breeze on a summer afternoon. What I didn’t expect was realizing Todd’s still way better at this than anyone currently employed at WWE in an announce position. He was (and is, apparently) the perfect mix of performative, sincere, and interested slash knowledgeable about the product. Todd hasn’t been around for 25 years but you hear him say, “Io Shirai,” and your brain’s like, “of course Todd Pettengill knows who Io Shirai is, Todd Pettengill gives a shit about ALL of this.”
Best: It’s True, Integrated Conditioning System IS A-boat That
WWE Network
The funny retro commercials throughout the show were hit or miss for me. I popped for Bugenhagen showing up in the ice cream commercial and loved the Lord Alfred Hayes tribute, but if I never see D-X putting themselves over for being confused old codgers on NXT TV again it’ll be too soon.
I DID love the Adam Cole remake of Bret Hart’s old ICOPRO commercial, though. That was hyper, hyper targeted at the exact kind of wrestling fan I am. OF COURSE I remember that commercial, and OF COURSE I’m going to wallow in the sweet, sweet nostalgia of a time when everything that happened wasn’t instantly turned into a meme, and you had to remember the more kitschy memories of your fandom with your actual human brain. After 20 years of watching WWE incessantly jack off the Attitude Era, I don’t think I realized how susceptible I am to New Generation nostalgia. Less D-X invading Monday Nitro while dorks cheer, more Papa Shango lighting jobbers on fire with voodoo magic while children cry.
Mostly Best: Low Stakes Trios Openers
I don’t actually have much to say about the six-woman tag, to the point that I’ve been sitting at my laptop for like 15 minutes trying to think of something broader than, “I liked it!” I liked it. I like that TakeOver gave these six a showcase match, and that they included an under-card match about personal feuds without any stipulations, championships, or “possible future title opportunities” on the line. They kept it simple, and it allowed almost everyone in the match to shine. Tegan Nox and Shotzi Blackheart would be a pretty great tag team, especially in a world where the main roster Women’s Tag Team Division spans three brands despite having a grand total of maybe four teams. It’s a better match than this clip of people taking turns jumping onto the pile makes it look.
Raquel Gonzalez felt like the clumsiest part of the match, but that’s probably an experience thing. Not to mention the ongoing weirdness of Full Sail University going from an independent wrestling show with WWE production to an abandoned minor league hockey arena with a studio audience booing when the sign says “boo” and cheering when it says “cheer.” It’s interesting that Candice LeRae’s team lost — you’d think given their status as the new evil “power couple” or whatever they’d have had Candice or Johnny win at least one of their matches — but maybe Nox getting another win over Kai means Nox and Kai can finally pause their beef and expand their opponent pool. I imagine one or the other would be a solid next challenger for the NXT Women’s Championship, pending NXT picking a side with Shirai’s alignment.
Not the best match, but a perfectly cromulent way to begin the show. High energy, lots of different character flavors, and it didn’t outstay its welcome.
Best: Priest Vs. Demon
Then there’s Finn Bálor vs. Damian Priest, with Finn continuing to write the Prince Devitt page in WWE’s Book of Brothers, and Priest wearing pants that make him look like he’s in the Lingerie Football League. I love this pairing, because the best WWE opponent for Bálor (that we’ve found, at least) is a bigger, surprisingly quick guy who can easily overpower him, but keeps getting taken out of his game by Bálor’s wild swings of momentum. Bálor lives or dies by momentum, and Priest’s clearly going to make the mistake of trying to match him step for step. He’s good enough to do that for a while, but not internally powered by a literal demon, so he can’t do it forever.
I appreciated this being so straight-forward, as well. The story was that Priest wants to make a name for himself at Bálor’s expense, and Bálor — who still has WALTER in the back of his mind — needs to assert his dominance over the larger opponents who saunter in to his yard and assume they can shit wherever they want. Bálor kicking Priest’s ass here in such a competitive way means that when Bálor vs. WALTER finally does happen and jerks like me are like, “WALTER is going to chop him into sludge,” you can respond with, “well, Damian Priest was bigger and stronger than him and surprisingly fast and agile, too, and Bálor took him to the woodshed at In Your House.”
p.s. WALTER is going to chop him into sludge
Best: Keith Lee’s Black Lives Matter Gear
WWE Network
Wanted to make sure I got a picture of this in here. Between Keith’s trunks and entrance gear and Mia Yim showing up in a Central Park 5 t-shirt, it was a surprisingly real night of representation for WWE. I’m really happy they didn’t have Keith wear that to the ring and lose to Gargano, whose only gear statement was, “I wanted to look like The Mandalorian but ended up looking like a BMX racer who missed his jump and landed in the curtains.” There’s no better visualization of the Internet than, “I want to talk about something important” “Maybe later, first let me tell you my opinions about STAR WARS.”
WWE Network
when you wrestle at 9 but have laser tag at 10
(Johnny’s entrance was fun too, don’t get me wrong. It’s funny that on the outside the In Your House house set looks like a backdrop from a bad high school performance of Death of a Salesman, but apparently contains a fully sized, fully furnished house on the inside. It’s like a TARDIS. How did Gargano get the key, though? Does he live there? Is that where he’s been filming his dinner segments? And more importantly, who frames a picture of Dok Hendrix and hangs it by their front door so they see it every time they leave? I guess I shouldn’t expect much from someone who sets the thermostat to 69* and laughs at himself.)
*nice
Best: End Of An Era
WWE
The past three or four years of NXT have been dedicated to a number of ongoing stories — Undisputed Era’s golden prophecy, the women’s division bubbling over with talent to a detrimental degree, and a few others — but the “A-story,” so to speak, has been Tommaso Ciampa vs. Johnny Gargano. To put it another way, the last TakeOver where the main event didn’t involve Ciampa, Gargano, or Adam Cole was NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn III in August of 2017. To illustrate how long ago that was, Drew McIntyre was still NXT Champion, Hideo Itami had a match, and Ember Moon was challenging for the women’s title. Sanity wrestled the Authors of Pain for the tag titles. Doesn’t that seem like it happened 40 years ago?
At NXT TakeOver: Sorry About WrestleMania, the bubble finally burst, I think. The “final beat” between Gargano and Ciampa was the first match in their series to be abjectly bad, as they wrestled nearly a full hour plus commercial breaks in relative silence for the benefit of Triple H and blew off a four-year feud with an evil wife heel turn and a bunch of dick-kicks. Ciampa can kick out of four men beating the dog-shit out of him for an entire main event and start spamming moves like nothing happened, but if Candice LeRae kicks him in the butthole once, he’s toast. It was a lot, especially once they were dedicated to finishing the story whether there were fans around or not.
The “double turn” of sorts has been bad for both characters, I think. Ciampa as a do-gooder who loves his family has never vibed with me, as he calls himself a PSYCHO KILLER and was, by his own admission, responsible for making Johnny’s life a living hell for like three years. Gargano doesn’t seem to know how to be a heel AT ALL, so he’s just being babyface Gargano but like, delivering threatening promos over dinner. It’s like they didn’t know how to end the story or what to do with either of them when it was over, so they’re just, to quote the prophet Big Bear, doin’ thangs.
Now free of their endless feud and working with character alignments that don’t necessarily play to their strengths, NXT TakeOver: In Your House gives us Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa like we haven’t seen them in years: as losers.
Johnny Gargano challenges Keith Lee for the North American Championship, which is a bit like a bird challenging a line drive. Gargano believes his ability to kick out of pretty much goddamn anything will protect him from Keith’s offense, not remembering that he loses his stat buff when Ciampa’s not around. His OVR instantly drops from 98 to like, 85. Keith has tons of momentum from Survivor Series, Royal Rumble, and his spring-long dedication to closing the book on his feuds with Damian Priest and Dominik Dijakovic. That means he can, say, withstand Johnny’s observably lame heel attacks for a while until he’s able to hit a Spirit Bomb, followed by a second powerbomb transitioned into the Big Bang Catastrophe like he created a finisher in Smackdown vs. Raw 2010.
I think it could’ve been better at about half the length, as it felt like a really good 10-minute match stretched out to 20. It’s gotta be hard to come up with a believable, engaging story pitting a tiny heel who doesn’t even seem to know how evil he wants to be against a champion babyface three times his size. It’d be like booking Hulk Hogan to defend the championship against a heel Tito Santana in 1985. It’d be worth watching, sure, but also, LOL, what?
Tommaso Ciampa doesn’t fare any better, as his first TakeOver match of the post-Gargano-feud era sees him get completely gassed the hell out by Karrion Kross in like six minutes. It’s the exact finish I was hoping for. Kross is the scary new monster, who we’ve only seen squash jobbers. Ciampa’s got years of street cred as a crazy killer who kicks out of everything. So having Kross completely shut him down and make him pass out in the night’s shortest match asserts that THIS is the new crazy killer in town, and the torch has been passed. I don’t know what’s next for Ciampa after losing a feud to Adam Cole, losing a feud to Johnny Gargano, and getting browbeaten by a couple of musical theater majors, but I hope it’s a better use of his talent than sitting backstage with his elbows on his knees and obsessing over a championship he hasn’t held since the middle of 2018.
I don’t know what NXT needs to get out of the funk it’s in*, but I’m interested to see what it looks like once we’ve completely removed Adam Cole, Johnny Gargano, and Tommaso Ciampa. The upside to NXT being “developmental” and the top starts getting “call-ups” was that it let NXT tell stories with beginnings, middles, and logical ends. Now they’re being forced to learn how to get from one important story to the next without having their resources taken away, and everything feels a little dispassionate and uncertain. People either disappear without much fanfare, debut without a lot of character depth or explanation, or continue what they’ve been doing successfully for years on loop, possibly forever. So, you know. Main roster.
*live crowds and to stop being positioned as prime-time “main roster” competition against another wrestling show
Side note: I really love Karrion Kross and Scarlett née Bordeaux, and I finally figured out why. They’re basically Ryan and Sharpay from High School Musical if they started working out and got into combat sports. Kross is supposed to be this heartless, merciless assassin and you can just as easily imagine him pulling a production assistant aside and being all, “you have to play the first part in black and white, and when I start screaming you splash in the color! Also, Scarlett wrote a song that she’s going to lip sync. Yes every single time, why do you ask?” I want to see them enter to ‘Bop To The Top.’
Mostly Worst: The NXT FIGHT PARK
Speaking of the Attitude Era, here’s Adam Cole and Velveteen Dream doing a “cinematic,” G-rated remake of John Cena and Eddie Guerrero’s parking lot brawl in what looks like the city that gets blown up at the beginning of every Monday Nitro*.
Cole entering in an Undisputed Era monster truck was great, as my ironic love of Halloween Havoc ’95 has made me highly susceptible to any and all pro wrestling monster truck content, but Dream’s entrance was hilariously out of touch. Which member of Macular Degeneration X told him to dress up as Negan from The Walking Dead in the year of our Lord 2020? It’s not even current Negan, it’s 2016 Halloween costume Negan. What, for his next entrance is he going to be Left Shark? Maybe in a couple of years he’ll get to pretend he’s Jared Leto’s Joker from Suicide Squad.
The match itself was pretty corny, honestly. I think it would’ve benefited a lot from still being aired live (or at least on tape with the impression of being “live”) despite the locale. Pre-taped “cinematic” matches like this run of the risk of being even more over-edited and micromanaged by WWE’s editing team, so every little thing that happens needs three angles and six cuts. If the extent of your match plan is to wrestle a normal match outside except you’re wearing jeans and there are cars nearby, you could get away with a simpler presentation than is afforded you by concepts like “it’s happening entirely inside of Bray Wyatt’s head” or “an egotistical redneck watches his best friends get killed by a necromancer and is then buried alive.” I do think it’s funny that William Regal promised to find them a suitable location for both of their levels of stardom and then gave up looking between his office and his car, though. “THIS PARKING LOT IS PROBABLY FINE.” Maybe it would’ve worked better if the feud had anything to do with cars or parking lots**.
*I know it’s not. It’s filmed right outside of Full Sail, and the exploding Nitro town was part of the Streets of America at Disney Hollywood Studios before it got torn down to make room for part of Star Wars Land. Let me hold on to my dream of one day living in that fake town, and watching a giant projection of Lex Luger flex and scream while my house gets set on fire with wrestling excitement.
**For real though how do you do a match involving cars in the Full Sail parking lot and not tie to the multiple car-based abductions that’ve been happening in the Full Sail parking lot over the past several weeks? You could’ve at least thrown that car into the line-up as an Easter egg. Dexter Lumis stuffing the Undisputed Era into the trunk of a car and driving away with them as a heroic “evening of the odds” only poses further questions. And while we’re on THAT subject, how do you do a match with a monster truck and not get The Big Show involved? If we’re going to bring in Todd Pettengill and do ICOPRO jokes, we could take a minute to have Cole knock Dream off the roof of Cobo Hall and get accosted by Saurav Gurjar in a mummy costume.)
Best (Again, Mostly): Captain Io
First, here’s the good news: the women’s division main-evented TakeOver for the first time since 2015, and Io Shirai is the NXT Women’s Champion. Point point point! Both of those notes are huge positives, as there were clearly times when Asuka or Shayna Baszler and Kairi Sane could’ve (and probably should’ve) gone on last, especially considering that previous note about three guys main-eventing for almost three straight years.
The match is very good, too. Shirai’s been one of the best and most reliable performers in wrestling, anywhere, for years. She’s also not afraid to leap from high places, and when I say leap I mean leap. A lot of people just kinda bend their knees and fall into stunts like that, but Io always gives it a full jump. Here she is living teenage Mick Foley’s dream and jumping off the roof of a house en route to winning her first WWE championship.
WWE Network
Charlotte Flair, jokes about her aggro dominance and apparently omnipresence across three WWE brands aside, is probably the most bulletproof “big match” performer in WWE. She almost always delivers when it comes to important matches, no matter the format or context. Rhea Ripley’s called the “future of the women’s division” for a lot of reasons, one of the primary ones being the level of emotion she brings to matches, and how good she is at communicating that to an audience. It’s a really good combination of talent that accomplishes something way overdue — Shirai as Women’s Champion — and would probably be getting a lot more praise across the board today if it wasn’t for the finish.
The first problem is that per the stipulation, Charlotte Flair didn’t have to be involved in the finish to lose the championship. So, to make it easy on everyone, Charlotte Flair wasn’t involved in the finish. She still managed to kind of “win,” though, as her locking Rhea Ripley in the Figure-Eight is what left Ripley open to a moonsault from Shirai. At least when Ronda Rousey lost the Raw Women’s Championship in a similar set-up, she took the pin. It’s hard to buy NXT as the leading women’s division in wrestling when Charlotte only got involved because someone confronted and challenged her to, won the title, completely dominated everyone, and then lost it without “losing.” Then there’s the actual moonsault, which … whew, you can count on Io to hit it flush something like 90% of the time, but Rhea wasn’t in position when Io started backflipping and came about a kneecap away from getting her spine compressed. Look how close the knee comes to hitting her on the top of her head:
WWE Network
It still look like it hurt like a motherfucker, though. That’s the kind of miscommunication and momentary lapse of timing that can lead to serious injuries, and I really hope her neck’s okay.
All in all, it was a good match with the right winner, even if it didn’t take the best path to get there. It’s also nice that Io actually won the championship here, as without the main event title change, this would’ve been one of the most pointless TakeOvers ever. Adam Cole retained to continue a nearly 400-day run, Keith Lee retained the North American Championship, nobody debuted, nothing switched alliances or whatever, nothing was really “earned” to set up any future shows, and the Tag Team and Cruiserweight Champions didn’t even make the card. Shirai in a bunch of streamers and confetti with the NXT Women’s Championship over her head is a great image to end on, even though I’m not certain when she became a heroic character again. Did her alignment switch because Candice turned out to be evil?
Best: Top 10 Comments Of The Night
Clay Quartermain
And here comes the challenge by Big Show!
mandrew
“Ow! My eye! I’m not supposed to get car keys in it!”
Harry Longabaugh
Got to get Scarlett out of that catsuit. A fine Bordeaux needs to breathe.
The Real Birdman
I think I’d pay extra every month to just get a hard cam only airing of matches
SexCauldron
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Robert Zemeckis, 1988
EvilDucky
Next up: Ric Flair’s Farewell, or: How to Shoehorn Charlotte into yet ANOTHER piece of WWE programming
Baron Von Raschke
HHH: Wow…Lumis…good job throwing them in the trunk. That was a perfect first take.
Lumis: ………
HHH: I mean…It’s almost like you’ve done that before
Lumis: …….
HHH: Okay….um, see you Wednesday.
Lumis: ………..
FreewayKnight
Dexter’s Cab
Mr. Bliss
Lumis not driving a windowless van is a real disappointment
AJ Dusman
The next TakeOver will feature Raw and Smackdown stars being booked logically in entertaining and competitive matches. It’ll be called In Your House: Mind Games.
WWE Network
WAY TO GO, PAUL
As a final treat, here’s Keith Lee pouncing Johnny Gargano through the ringside plexiglass. Finally, something we ALL can enjoy.
That about wraps it up for the Best and Worst of NXT TakeOver, a perfectly watchable show where the crowd approaches the uncanny valley — stop telling the PC people to start chants just because Full Sail does, it’s insincere! Only chant if you feel compelled to chant! Clap for who you like and boo who you don’t! WHEN YOU BUY A TICKET YOU EARN THE RIGHT TO…
…sorry, I blacked out there for a minute. But yeah, it’s a fine show, but definitely in the bottom tier of TakeOvers. It beat the hell out of TakeOver: USA Network, though. Agree? Disagree? Drop a comment down below to let us know what you thought of the show, and consider giving this a share on social media to get more eyeballs on it and keep us in the business of Disney Channel original movie jokes and Dexter Lumis asides. We’ll see you on Wednesday for the regular Best and Worst of NXT with all the fallout from In Your House, and, hopefully, the announcement of NXT TakeOver UK: INSURREXTION.
Thanks again for reading as always, and we’ll see you then.
The coronavirus has aimed a ubiquitous blow to the music industry, with many venues saying they are the first to close and last to open. Nearly every music festival and major tour have been either canceled or postponed in order to ensure the safety of patrons, and some artists are toying with the idea of holding drive-in concerts. One LA design company even created a quasi-hazmat suit to allow music lovers to attend a show, and even vape, without contracting the coronavirus. But a new poll of epidemiologists around the country points to a harsh reality for music lovers, revealing they may have to wait longer than anticipated to return to venues.
A recent study conducted by The New York Times surveyed 511 epidemiologists from around the country. The poll asked professionals to gauge how comfortable they are with doing things like taking an airplane, attending a church service, exercising at a gym, or going to a concert. The survey found that a large majority of epidemiologists — 64 percent, to be exact — plan on waiting more than a year before attending sporting events, plays, and live concerts.
After sending in their responses, some explained their reasoning. “These are some of the highest-risk activities and probably attract more risk-embracing people,” said Vivian Towe, an epidemiologist at Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. “The addition of alcohol or drugs makes these activities too risky for me to consider anytime soon.”
Joseph Wagner, an epidemiologist at US Air Force School Of Aerospace Medicine, echoed Towe’s statement: “To me, this is a luxury and I can wait a long time until people can safely come together to enjoy it. That said, I can and will continue to support arts programs as if I was attending with donations.”
Many of the participants in the poll said their responses could change with the availability of a vaccine. Time will tell how much longer music lovers must wait before once again attending concerts and festivals.
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