Kevin Wilson

The interesting part as always is to find out if Diggs skills are declined or if he was just checked out. From November onward he only had two TDs and never had over 90 yards in a single game. That covers 11 games, including playoffs. He wasn't getting the separation he used to and things were just "off." I have no ill will towards him, I hope he plays well in Houston, I just don't know if he had a drop off in skill which can happen or was letting his emotions impact his play.

Yea that's the shitty part and why some thought they wouldn't do it. They'll be fine since the cap hit was only minus ~4 mil net but its not ideal when already cap strapped.

I feel about sports the same way I do about wrestling - if someone is actively unhappy and openly disgruntled, just let them go (as reasonably as possible). It hurts the chemistry and lockerroom to hold people hostage, this isn't overly shocking to anyone that follows the Bills closely. The only surprising aspect is some thought he couldn't be traded due to the cap reasons, not because they didn't want to do it. But it was a sign when Diggs wasn't restructured for cap relief this year, we knew either he was being traded or he was gone next offseason.

I'm so old, WWF Wrestlemania on NES was my first wrestling game. It wasn't good, I have no positives to report.

Current "official" list of those released: The Boys Dasha Kuret Jose The Assistant Jora Johl Anthony Henry Gravity Stu Grayson Parker Boudreaux Slim J

Its interesting these are coming out as 'releases' as TK has historically not released wrestlers but rather let their contracts run out. Not to say these aren't early contract releases but I wonder if they are wrestlers that were on per-appearance deals or if he is changing his thought process.

Unless there was a witness that can ID him at the scene as the driver, I assume right now he is finding a good friend that will take the fall. So I imagine he'll be "fine" as far as the NFL goes unless more comes out. I say that not just because he's famous, but unless someone saw the driver its a really hard case to prove as it just being his car can only go so far to proving he was the one driving it. Still, a shitty situation.

It was touched on in the weekly thread but as far as Adam Copeland goes, I hope he doesn't have a super long title reign as there are just too many younger wrestlers that could use the title as a stepping stone to move up the card/get a more regular schedule on TV. The whole reason he wanted the belt was to hurt Christian, and now he has, holding the belt for 6+ months just isn't necessary for the story. I know someone at his "legend" level you don't want losing on a random Collision, it'll probably have to be at least a mini-feud leading to a PPV match, but I hope they have a plan and didn't just plan everything up to the title win and now its just treading water while they figure out the next step. I don't know if there was a plan past his initial feud, or maybe now he will pull a Bryan Danielson and the plan is just "have entertaining matches against wrestlers he always wanted to face on a weekly basis." Which isn't a bad idea, I enjoy his matches and I know he wants to stay active while his health allows it, it just doesn't need a belt long term.

Can't express how much I hate this, the Dodgers now have $915.5M in deferred payments. Doing these tactics to "get around" or minimally manipulate the tax shouldn't be allowed as not all teams have the means to defer payments like that into an escrow account. It was allowed/ignored before as teams (if they did it) were deferring smaller amounts or not out to 2044 like the Dodgers have. I wonder if LA thinks the loophole will be closed now that they've exploited it so they are signing as many people as they can using it. By closed I mean, the next CBA could have it set so team can still defer payments but the luxury tax amount isn't impacted and all that matters is the AAV regardless of deferments for the length of the contract. I assume that's possible anyway. I don't have an issue with adding years to get the AAV down, that seems like smart business in a twisted way, but all those deferred payments they are doing just feels icky.

I hope TK isn't putting the world title in a holding pattern so that two injured wrestlers with unknown return times can feud for it. I'm sure there is some temptation there if that was the original plan but there are too many talented and popular wrestlers to pause everything. Just keep it going and let Cole/MJF settle their beef one day in the distant future even if the belt isn't involved.

Its way too early to judge but at the moment I don't love what they are doing with Mercedes. I'm a big fan of Mercedes but I don't think they are playing to her strengths. She's a great wrestler and solid as a heel on the mic, but babyface talking to me is her weakest area. Its fine if she is a babyface, I get that part, but focusing on just talking the last three weeks runs the risk of some fans losing that initial big spark. I've love for them to actually book her in a match since that is what I think her fans want to see, even if its a warm-up type match against a Deeb/Riho/Rose/Riot/Statlander level wrestler. Someone that won't suffer by losing to her but can put on a good, competitive match to show Mercedes' abilities. Its way too early to judge her AEW run of course, and I'm not doing that, but I do think she could have had a more interesting first three weeks. I hope she doesn't have a contract with limited matches but too early to know that for sure, they may just feel the slow burn is the way to go. I prefer the Adam Copeland method where he wrestled a singles match soon after debuting to take advantage of everyone paying attention to something new and fresh.

That was a fun enough walk down memory lane that I researched it. On the 2/19 RAW, he was still called The Ringmaster but Vince referred to him as a "Stone Cold" person during his walk down. But otherwise they called him The Ringmaster on commentary. On the 3/11 RAW, his introduction name says "Stone Cold". Vince on commentary says something to the gist of "he is known as The Ringmaster but from the look on his face, I'd say he is more 'Stone Cold' than anything" with King following with "Stone Cold Steve Austin, I love it!" which is what they proceeded to call him (repeatedly). So it may have been on that show they officially changed it.

I haven't played overwatch in years but those look like literal overwatch maps.

It does look fun but like you, I have a backlog to get through (and may have just ordered Dragon's Dogma 2 anyway). My thinking is by the end of the year it'll be discounted and updated, sounds like a good Christmas gift game.

So the NFL approved the kickoff style that the XFL used last year. Honestly I'm surprised, it feels like the most significant on-field change they've made in quite awhile and will take fans some time to get used to. Its not complicated in the grand scheme of things, just very different. I just hope the commentators understand it, nothing worse then when people explaining the game on the field don't know the rules.

That was fun to watch. I kept yelling HARD CAM in my head, I guess that wasn't a thing back then. Also, I forgot Austin used to wear an earring.

Another good basketball day, only one upset based on seeding (barely) but can't complain about two OT games. Course it is the late game that goes to 2OT, wonder how many casual watchers tapped out before the conclusion.

Slightly off topic but to me its been beyond crazy seeing all the major leagues go from "betting is bad, absolutely not" to sponsoring gambling, talking about the lines and having players advertise for gambling sites. They couldn't prevent it from being legalized in some states but there is a big difference between "its legal" and "its legal and now you can bet in the stadium during the game with ads on how to do so." It all happened so much faster than I expected.

Stardom has confirmed the five departures.

Watching Kentucky lose in hilariously early fashion will always bring a smile to my face.

That's a less impressive list then Rossy/Fumi was hinting at last month (or whenever it was he did the podcast). That's only three main eventers (by their definition), although we all assume Mayu will be going. Suzu is also still a question mark as I believe she signed a different month than everyone else so she may be going later like Mayu. That would at least give them to the "five" number. I never expected a WRESTLE-1 or NOAH level of defection, that seems about right. Their roster is so stacked I don't see them missing a beat, they still have plenty of stars. Will be interesting to see what direction Rossy ends up going in regards to scheduling and if he tries to sign more Freelancers to contracts or just uses his core with guest wrestlers coming in for shows. I wish there wasn't bad blood as it would be fun to do an occasional cross supershow down the road but I don't think that's likely for the time being.

You could buy a shit ton of my silence for $335 mil, in fact I would literally never speak again. So I can't blame them.

One thing I find fascinating about this time period of free agency is teams just seem to be swapping bit players. A backup DT from one team will sign with another for 2 mil, the team they came from will sign one for 2 mil, its like everyone is trading backups. I say this as the Bills just signed a couple rotational/backup guys and it just feels likely the teams they left will do the same to replace them, like everyone just needed a change of scenery. Course the hope is to find that "diamond in the rough" but most the time they end up being inactive or camp fodder.

I played it, beat it, and enjoyed it but I think the main issue people had with it (as a generalization) is the hype/expectations of the "space" aspect didn't meet reality. On their end, I think it was a mistake to tout how many planets there would be and emphasizing space travel at all. And on the expectations end, I think people unrealistically expected something more like No Man's Sky when it came to the 'space' part. It just didn't have that same feel when you could be on one planet and without taking off fast travel to another planet surface, I think in my last 50 hours I spent very little time in space. The planets were too uninteresting to get me to even explore them so it really just felt like very similar set pieces for battles on different islands over and over. I say all that, I liked the game a lot. But I think it just didn't deliver on the "space travel/space exploration" aspect that people thought/were hoping for and that was a big part of what was complained about.

Joey Gallo and Mike Zunino put in some serious work on that list.