Greggulator

So who is another country I should root for? Early contenders: 1) England. If I watch any soccer, it's when Premier League games are on at whatever bar I'm at so I assume they will have some people I know. I love British punk and have fond memories of Brit-pop. My friend James is British and a huge Arsenal fan and a good guy. I just became an Episcopalian which has its roots from the Anglican church. I can read the Guardian football section and laugh when they lose. 2) Ghana. I guess I can't really do that until the US loses since they're some weird arch-rival. But one of my roommates from college was from Ghana. The assistant pastor at my church is Ghanian but I have no idea if he likes soccer. 3) Japan/Korea -- I assume they'll have some dudes with dyed blonde hair who play with a certain flair? And is it South Korea or North Korea? If it's North Korea, them in a landslide.

For someone like myself, who doesn't really like soccer, this is a best-case scenario. If they lose, they're supposed to lose and I can just watch baseball like I was planning on doing anyways. If they win, I get the joys of nationalist outbreak without the commitment any of you have.

Is is okay to not pretend to like soccer this summer then?

I'm not a soccer guy but is US soccer now good enough to be in the GROUP OF DEATH? I mean, I know it's not looking good for us. Germany I assume is awesome. Portugal has one of the guys I've heard of. And Ghana beat us last time around. At the same time, I would guess that our4 fiesty team of hustlers and scrappers will make any of those teams really leery of taking on Uncle Sam's Army?

And the Season 2 murder plot in FNL is awful but Jesse Clemons and Adrianne act the hell out of those scenes. I'll give them all the credit in the world for trying to make an awful storyline redeemable. It could have been a disaster but instead was a distraction.

I'm in Season 5 of FNL. I think it's my favorite show of all-time and the best of the "Golden Age" of TV that we've lived in. (Mind you, I haven't seen Breaking Bad.) The reason is simple -- The characters are good people. There are no anti-heroes. We've had some great anti-heroes (Tony Soprano, Don Draper, Jimmy McNulty and I'm assuming the Breaking Bad guy) but there aren't any true heroes. FNL doesn't have anyone close to an anti-hero. Coach and Tami? They're great people in a loving and inspirational marriage who are faced with a slew of challenges. Saracen? Julie? Street? Tyra? Landry? All good kids becoming adults, often times in difficult situations and messing up along the way. Even though Riggins is the bad boy, he's not an anti-hero -- he's just the hot dude who drinks and loafs his way through life but finds out what it means to be a man. Having characters who try and find and execute the right thing is a lot harder than creating a charismatic bad guy. In addition, the most affecting moments of FNL (SPOILERS PROBABLY SO DON'T READ FURTHER) are so completely earned and beautiful. I mean, it was awesome when Stringer finally got got. But the death of a cool villain is easier to pull off than it is to write a high school kid getting into college. The villain's death may be epic. But Tyra getting into school was earned. Also, there was an article on Grantland or somewhere on how they filmed the show. Most shows are blocked for the cameras -- The actor has to hit a mark on the ground somewhere and then deliver a line. They tried to do that as loosely as possible for FNL. They also were very loose with the script; it was almost improvisational in terms of how the cast was given the freedom to find the right words when they were in character. That's why the show feels so incredibly authentic and real. I don't want the show to end.

There's a difference between celebrities and Nelson Mandela. He's one of the handful of most important figures of the 20th Century. There were a lot of awful things that happened during that century. In the final decade, a lot of those narratives were ended. Apartheid was one of them.

Bray's put in more thought about this character than anyone. The stuff is golden. If there's one person I'd love to see a shoot interview with, it's Bray. I don't want to hear about who he rides with or anything like that, but just about how these promos get crafted and written. The dude has obviously watched a LOT of preachers and read up on people like David Koresh and knows his Bible. I wouldn't be surprised if he took a lot of theology classes in college or something along those lines. I know Dusty came up with the character and Dusty no doubt knows that world but how much of this is stuff Bray does on his own? Those first videos had so many Biblical references -- they had some locust at some point briefly, the girl sliding along the tree as Bray leads some sort of mass like a snake, etc. Even his lantern bit has that -- "I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won't have to walk in darkness," is something from John. The arena goes pitch black, Bray controls the light and Harper and Rowan are following him and are the only things visible save for some cell phone lights. His butcher's outfit he was wearing for a while in NXT also has a Biblical tie-in. Bray is the wolf leading the army of sheep. Butchers slaughter lambs. There was also in the intro promos them saying something like "Mary had a little lamb." It sounds like a horror movie and it is but there's more to it. And his theme music is very Christian, too. The original title is "Broken Out In Love." Well, Jesus loves us all. Bray talked about loving Daniel Bryan -- how he REALLY loves him and wants to use him to fight that uphill battle whereas everyone else is putting him on right now. In one of those NXT promo things that leaked, they even had more things with it. Someone somewhere broke it down -- Husky Harris was possessed by a demon named Azrael who forced him to become Bray Wyatt. They haven't gone that far in the WWE but that was one of the NXT deals he did. I've gotten really interested in theology lately. This is why I'm eating this stuff up. It's not just some horror movie imagery.

If you look at Bray's promo, it was very much like his NXT Goodbye promo when they returned like conquering sons and blew the roof off the joint. It was subtly different than his heel work. His heel work is all about him as a Messiah intimidating people and frightening them into surrender as we approach the end of days. But his face stuff is very much about class warfare with him as a redemptive liberator. His NXT Goodbye promo is almost like a motivational speech -- he talks about how some people dream but never get off the couch, he's made it safe for us to dream because he and his family have no fear, and he threatens "world leaders." I mean, he's still delusional but he's still an inspirational person. His introductory promo was less horror movie and had some of the class conflict motif -- "every day working class people like me have lies whispered in their ears" and "what are you going to do when they start walking?" all surrounded by shots of images of the everyday orders the oppressed have to follow. And Harper and Rowan are the first two who are walking upright. That's why I marked the hell out for his Raw promo as much as I did. It was a return to that. Bray may have the same cause as Bryan -- fighting The Authority -- but he's insane. I think maybe they saw the reaction The Wyatt Family vs. Shield stand-off got and were completely blown away by it. Maybe we have Bryan and the Family actually team up? Or maybe Bray's actually serving "The Devil" which is Vince or The Authority or someone? Who knows. Anyways, I wish Bryan won the title and everything. But if second place is "Bryan is involved with my favorite characters in ages and they all get to improve due to Bryan's awesomeness" than I'm all for it.

I just listened to The Return of the Rentals for the first time in ages. Uhm, that album friggin' rules so much. It's one of the best power-pop albums of all-time. I legit mean that. So many great choruses and harmonies and interesting Moog lines and guitar parts and even a cello. There's so much synth-pop of the past few years and absolutely NONE of it touches this album.

I don't want to be that guy but Lana might be the most attractive diva ever.

The So So Glos Kurt Vile Diarrhea Planet The Front Bottoms Pretty much it.

Just if you're interested, NBDL games are broadcast live and free on YouTube. Watching my Delaware 87ers right now.

Rusev always speaks in Bulgarian, and Lana speaks in Russian. I thought she spoke in Russian. However, I know nothing about Bulgarian so I thought there may have been a similar language crossover -- Ukrainian and Russian are essentially interchangeable.

He's an underachiever if he had the potential and the ability to be a 16-time world champion. Ken Griffey Jr. was a guy who achieved a lot in baseball, but at the same time was an underachiever who never reached his full potential. Griffey jr. was massively talented in everything he does. Randy Orton is a good hand wrestler with very little charisma. He has vastly over-achieved. Sixth all-time in HRs, arguably the best defensive CF of all-time -- I'd do absolutely anything to be compared in my professional career to Ken Griffey, Jr.

It's guaranteed that at least one game a night out west will have two very good teams in a good game. There's been five games already I can think of out west that have a "Game Of The Year" vibe, if such a thing existed. The first OKC/GSW game that the Warriors won on Iggy's jumper, the OKC/GSW game the Thunder won on Russ' jumper, the Pacers/Blazers thriller, the GSW comeback last night and tonight's very good Blazers/OKC game. Tonight's game wasn't quite the masterpiece but that was still a really well-played game. I love both those teams so much. The unfortunate part is that for those of us NBA addicts on the east coast it stinks. Professional basketball could end up as a regional niche sport just because of how friggin' bad the Eastern Conference is. It's embarrassing to watch. The Pacers and Heat absolutely rule but every team but Utah and maybe Sacramento and a Brow-less Pelicans is better than anyone in the East. Who is the East's third seed right now? Atlanta? Phoenix and Denver could take the Hawks in a seven game series. The only reason to watch the Eastern Conference right now are the Pacers, Heat, Drummond, MCW in Philly, the chance the Cavs fight each other on the court, Oladipo in Orlando and Jason Kidd being so laughably terrible as a coach. And anything associated with the Knicks and their horror show of a team.

We start off with THE BOSS OF THE WORLD ANTONIO CESARO asked about William Regal. Cesaro does a great awful British accent when threatening Regal when he's interrupted by Leo Kruger. Kruger thanks Cesaro for their match -- Cesaro dominated but Kruger looked like a PROBLEM in how much it took to put him down. He also mentions his upcoming match with Sami Zayn, Cesaro's old foe. Kruger asks to join the Real Americans. The heels whisper. Great, short segment -- it advances the Cesaro/Regal agenda; it advances Kruger's motivations after his loss against Cesro; Cesaro naturally still hates Sami who nearly destroyed his reputation; it adds heat to Kruger/Zayn series that didn't have any reason until now. And more importantly, it shows the purpose of NXT -- these guys want to get to the big leagues. How you go about getting there defines you as a person. Leo Kruger is the type of person who will make a deal with the devil (or Zeb Colter's Swiss henchman) in order to get there. All of this, mind you, happened in 90 seconds. PAIGE VS. NATALYA -- Great Malenko/Guerrero stuff to start. This has a good story that I like -- they start off respectful and then it gets a little nasty as each one realizes how hard it is going to be to win this match. The end sequence is really good, I thought. Natalya gets Paige in the Sharpshooter. Paige reaches for the ropes but Nattie pulls her into the middle of the ring. Paige this times goes to the corner. Right when he's about to tap, she flips Natalya's head into the corner. They both recover. Paige hits the Paige Turner and gets the very big win. This had a lot of good stuff to it. A lot of VERY good stuff. Natty, though, doesn't look like she's wrestling with her facial expressions. It's like you can see her thinking "I have to look like I'm hurt" as opposed to looking hurt. But this was easily her best match in a long time and probably ever. Paige friggin' rules. Her and AJ are going to have a "Steal The Show" type of match within three years. I can't wait for them to finally cross paths. They're made to feud. ALEXANDER RUSEV is in the back with LANA, who is talking in what I assume is Bulgarian but might be Russian gibberish. TYLER BREEZE interrupts to thank Rusev for taking out Ohno the week before. He wants the two of them to go to one of his modelling gigs shortly. "I'll send you the e-vite!" he says after Lana shoes him away. More stuff about crushing Ohno. MOJO RAWLEY is out for an interview. He talks about how he's stayed hype this whole time. He wants to be NXT champ and then he can get on to Raw. Very natural delivery. He's interrupted by SYLVESTER LA FORT and SCOTT DAWSON. Sylvester wants to help Mojo's career so they can all make ze money. Mojo shakes him off and talks about his past with shady NFL agents and how he's been stiffing Dawson. Dawson goes over this in his brain ("I guess the checks are waitin' for me in the bill box") while LeFort gives this great "pleaseohpleaseohplease believe me" face. They've got a match next week. This was really good, simple promo. Mojo came off really well -- nowhere near the energy he has in the ring, which is good because if he acted like that on camera he'd be terrible. Nice read on how to play the character. Dawson and La Fort also ruled in this, too. "Caffeine High." Great stooges. AIDEN ENGLISH VS. -- We don't get to hear the guy's name because Aiden comes out before he's even announced to begin his show tunes. His entrances are spectacular. I also don't know if those are new trunks or not but they're ridiculously great. This is another Aiden squash. Renee talks up his acting/opera accomplishments during the match. He says at one point "To be or not to be!" before hitting some move. CESARO interrupts Aiden's exit. He asks Byron Sexton to come up to the stage so he can offer him an apology -- in FIVE languages nonetheless! This is great heel insincerity. Cesaro then wants Byron to say "WE THE PEOPLE!" He refuses. Cesaro bullies him into saying it and he says it dripping with shame. Cesaro then bullies him some more and looks over his shoulder for Regal, who isn't there. He keeps taunting Byron saying "WHERE'S REGAL?" He doesn't show up so Cesaro slaps Byron and walks back. This was such a great play on the usual trope of heel bullying. He obviously came up with this whole plan to lure Regal into a fight but none was there. Was the old villain up to the ploy and wanted none of it? Or did Regal see this and not want any piece of Cesaro, as he hinted at last week? SO GOOD. They show an interview with Sami from last week talking about losing the number one contendership to Adrian Neville. He's disappointed but accepting of his loss but not giving up. Then Leo Kruger knocks him from the side and taunts him. Aha, they already have something brewing. Did Kruger come up with this idea before -- if I beat up Sami, I can get myself in the good graces of The Real Americans and join them in the big leagues? TYSON KIDD vs. LEO KRUGER -- Alex Riley says Tyson Kidd resembles Eddie Guerrero. A-Ry's been fine tonight (aside from talking about Miley Cyrus during the Paige match) but this... uhm...Kruger attacked Kidd a few months ago when Kidd was injured. Kruger manhandles Kidd and works on his surgically repaired knee. He hooks the Sharpshooter and looks to get the tap-out that way in an awesome bit of dickishness. Sami comes out and catches Leo's eye. Leo gets distracted and Tyson wins with a quick roll-up. Sami makes a great "Ohhh, I didn't mean for that to happen!" mocking face. A-Ry talks about how he sees Bo Dallas' POV that Sami's a sore loser. This didn't feel like that. It felt like a dude who got jumped by this guy for no real reason getting his comeuppance a bit. Kruger works really well in-character as a hunter. It's very methodical and grueling looking. It's a bit slow-paced which might hurt him getting over on a bigger stage but it works well with his persona. HUNICO and CAMACHO are hanging out in some electrical closet apparently and say some things about getting the talents. BO DALLAS vs. ADRIAN NEVILLE -- This was also a very good solid match. Bo started off in control, hitting his offense -- very simple, decently crisp stuff. He at one point was in the corner and the middle turnbuckle came off -- a few weeks back, a similar thing happened to Sami Zayn that cost Sami the match against Bo. Hmm. Anyways, Bo pulls down his knee pad and climbs the ropes and screams "DON'T STOP BO-LIEVING!" before missing a knee drop. Neville works over the leg and also has some kicks. He makes an incredibly dive over the floor onto Bo. He eventually gets Bo into position for The Red Devil, however Bo slips to the floor. Neville cross-bodies Bo on the floor and the ref starts to count. Both men are on the apron at 9. Neville rolls into the ring. Bo drops to the floor. Neville wins via countout. It looks like they're headed in a direction where Bo very cunningly escapes with wins -- a coy pull of the turbnuckle, taking a countout loss like that, etc. That's the PERFECT way for a blowhard like him to win matches and keep the title. NXT, thank you. You are the best.

Portland: America's Next Top America's Team

To change the subject, what do you guys think is the APY rate for a WCW Mastercard credit card these days?

Daniel Bryan is in the main event on Smackdown. His storyline ends the show. This has been like this for him for about five months now. I don't think that's buried at all.

Also: Toronto didn't have a defensive rebound in the fourth quarter. Not one defensive rebound. GSW didn't miss too many shots but still. That's hilariously terrible.

Oh, you know how last night had what was one of the best regular season games of the year? Let's just follow it up with a 27-point comeback led by the most electrifying shooters maybe ever in front of the craziest crowd in the league. You know, just an average Tuesday night game. And also the Sixers/Orlando went to Double OT that saw dude go for 40 and two rookies have triple doubles. And Andre Drummond with 18 boards. Man, the NBA has been really good to start the season. Teams and players really got into it quickly. Good times.

I know nothing about ROH but I assume this would be Chris Hero?

Oh yes. I rescind my hyperbole.

Considering you call every Rhodes/Shield match the greatest match in wrestling history, I just think you're a big fan of hyperbole. Yeah, but it's the best hyperbole in years. Well, when was the last time there was a promo that good? Some of the Heyman stuff was on that level. AJ's Pipebombshell was terrific. But aside from that, I'm hard-pressed to think of anything. Point me to something if I'm missing out but that as a terrific promo and I can't for the life of me think of something that good. ESPECIALLY when it's from someone playing a character not "an extension of themselves" or some such. Punk was awesome with the Straight Edge Society and I can't remember anything in between as compelling, smart and twisted.