Sports
What’s Next for Roman Reigns After Beating Drew McIntyre at WWE Clash at the Castle?
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And still your undisputed WWE champion, Roman Reigns! (Credit: WWE)
By the skin of his teeth—and with some help from Solo Sikoa—Roman Reigns remains your undisputed WWE universal champion, successfully retaining over Drew McIntyre in Cardiff.
Clash at the Castle was a major hurdle to overcome, particularly with Austin Theory’s Money in the Bank cash-in an extra looming threat, but The Tribal Chief has both titles firmly in his possession and a new ally to help back him up in The Bloodline.
Effectively, while beaten up, Reigns is coming out of this stronger than ever.
But when you’re at the top of the food chain, everyone beneath you is still looking at you as their ultimate goal. Reigns has no shortage of challengers eager to take those belts from him.
So what’s next for The Head of the Table?
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The next immediate thing will be taking a step back to address what happened in Cardiff. WWE usually gets part of, if not a full episode, out of recapping those events and promos about the champion successfully retaining his title.
Much of the focus will be on McIntyre explaining his loss and reiterating his promise to not stop vying for the title, how he blames Sikoa for interfering and will be seeking payback.
Reigns will be there as a presence, but not the main player. The Usos and Sami Zayn will be much more active and hands-on with Sikoa, wrestling in any tag team matches that may come out of this, in particular.
The Tribal Chief will take a back seat. Even if his next challenger is declared, significant attention will still need to be on Sikoa so he doesn’t get lost in the shuffle. That will also allow WWE some breathing room to not overexpose Reigns before the next title match.
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It is highly unlikely Reigns will be wrestling any time sooner than October 8 at Extreme Rules.
Though Friday Night SmackDown has its fair share of important matches here and there, Reigns typically doesn’t wrestle at all on television, let alone in a title defense with a pay-per-view just around the corner.
If he wrestles at all, it will be in a tag team match or something that limits him.
There’s even a chance he sits out Extreme Rules, after skipping a few premium live events earlier this year. However, with Paul Heyman being the spokesperson for this show’s advertisements, WWE is at least marketing The Bloodline’s involvement.
Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia is two months away, set to take place November 5. Since those are paid shows that require the biggest names to appear, Reigns will definitely compete there.
Extreme Rules could be headlined with McIntyre against Karrion Kross in a No. 1 contender’s match or McIntyre with some teammates against The Bloodline in a gimmick match, rather than Reigns defending the title. It would be a cop out, but WWE’s done similar things this year.
At the very least, Reigns isn’t going two full months without putting his belt up for grabs. Either at Extreme Rules, Crown Jewel or both shows, he’ll need a challenger.
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Credit: WWE
Deciding who gets the next match against Reigns will take up the next few weeks of SmackDown, if not stretch past Extreme Rules.
A rematch with McIntyre isn’t outside the realm of possibility, but The Scottish Warrior would need to first plead his case that he deserves it due to the interference, then likely win some sort of contender’s match to officially re-earn the opportunity.
Kross is counting down the days—literally—to when he can take his shot. He won’t sit by idly and let others cut in front of him in line.
The only other Superstars hovering the title scene and interacting with The Bloodline are Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. The latter is still sucking up to the faction and hasn’t quite realized how low on the totem pole he is, but his best friend is starting to open his eyes.
There’s always a chance WWE surprises audiences with a shocking return like Bray Wyatt or Braun Strowman, who could go straight for Reigns and fight him at Extreme Rules, but the safer bet is on McIntyre, Kross, Owens or, to a lesser extent, Zayn, being the next challenger.
To avoid having two heels against each other, WWE might set up a Triple Threat with Reigns against McIntyre and Kross at Extreme Rules, before moving on to a special attraction guest challenger for Crown Jewel who comes in for one night only or returns to action later in October.
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Credit: WWE
WWE might not have everything up until WrestleMania 39 planned out for Reigns at this particular moment, but there at least should be a general idea of what he’s doing for the next tentpole “Big Four” show, Survivor Series.
Judging by the graphics, the Raw vs. SmackDown brand warfare is set to continue, but with a few twists.
Normally, on top of the Team Raw vs. Team SmackDown men’s and women’s elimination matches, each brand’s champions goes up against their equivalent title-holder. Intercontinental champion Gunther will fight United States champion Bobby Lashley and so on.
While holding both sets of titles, Reigns and The Usos have no parallel champions. They’ll either not be having those types of matches or will just have regular challengers like any other event.
Whoever hasn’t already been used between McIntyre, Kross, Owens and Zayn will have the title shot, lose, and allow Reigns to stand tall above both rosters, assuming Theory hasn’t messed things up in the meantime.
Finishing out this year will be a break for part of December while WWE sets up whoever challenges Reigns for Day 1, tying that into Royal Rumble and kicking off The Road to WrestleMania 39, which all seems to be building toward a match with The Rock.
Anthony Mango is the owner of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment and the host of the podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, Spotify and everywhere you find podcasts. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A jury in U.S. District Court ordered the NFL to pay nearly $4.8 billion in damages Thursday after ruling that the league violated antitrust laws in distributing out-of-market Sunday afternoon games on a premium subscription service.
The jury awarded $4.7 billion in damages to the residential class and $96 million in damages to the commercial class. Since damages can be tripled under federal antitrust laws, the NFL could end up being liable for $14.39 billion.
The lawsuit covered 2.4 million residential subscribers and 48,000 businesses in the United States who paid for the package of out-of-market games from the 2011 through 2022 seasons on DirecTV. The lawsuit claimed the league broke antitrust laws by selling its package of Sunday games at an inflated price. The subscribers also say the league restricted competition by offering “Sunday Ticket” only on a satellite provider.
The NFL said it would appeal the verdict. That appeal would go to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and then possibly the Supreme Court.
Should the NFL end up paying damages, it could cost each of the 32 teams approximately $449.6 million.
“We are disappointed with the jury’s verdict today in the NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit,” the league said in a statement. “We continue to believe that our media distribution strategy, which features all NFL games broadcast on free over-the-air television in the markets of the participating teams and national distribution of our most popular games, supplemented by many additional choices including RedZone, Sunday Ticket and NFL+, is by far the most fan friendly distribution model in all of sports and entertainment.
“We will certainly contest this decision as we believe that the class action claims in this case are baseless and without merit.”
The trial lasted three weeks and featured testimony from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
“Justice was done. The verdict upholds protection for the consumers in our class. It was a great day for consumers,” plaintiffs attorney Bill Carmody said.
During his closing remarks, Carmody showed an April, 2017, NFL memo that showed the league was exploring a world without “Sunday Ticket” in 2017, where cable channels would air Sunday afternoon out-of-market games not shown on Fox or CBS.
The jury of five men and three women deliberated for nearly five hours before reaching its decision.
Judge Philip S. Gutierrez is scheduled to hear post-trial motions on July 31, including the NFL’s request to have him rule in favor of the league because the judge determined the plaintiffs did not prove their case.
Payment of damages, any changes to the “Sunday Ticket” package and/or the ways the NFL carries its Sunday afternoon games would be stayed until all appeals have been concluded.
The league maintained it had the right to sell “Sunday Ticket” under its antitrust exemption for broadcasting. The plaintiffs said that only covers over-the-air broadcasts and not pay TV.
Other professional sports leagues were also keeping an eye on this case since they also offer out-of-market packages. A major difference though is that MLB, the NBA and the NHL market their packages on multiple distributors and share in the revenue per subscriber instead of receiving an outright rights fee.
DirecTV had “Sunday Ticket” from its inception in 1994 through 2022. The league signed a seven-year deal with Google’s YouTube TV that began with the 2023 season.
The lawsuit was originally filed in 2015 by the Mucky Duck sports bar in San Francisco but was dismissed in 2017. Two years later, the 9th Circuit, which has jurisdiction over California and eight other states, reinstated the case. Gutierrez ruled last year the case could proceed as a class action.
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — The U.S. Olympic team is one of a handful that will supply air conditioners for their athletes at the Paris Games in a move that undercuts organizers’ plans to cut carbon emissions.
U.S. Olympic and Paralympic CEO Sarah Hirshland said Friday that while the U.S. team appreciates efforts aimed at sustainability, the federation would be supplying AC units for what is typically the largest contingent of athletes at the Summer Games.
“As you can imagine, this is a period of time in which consistency and predictability is critical for Team USA’s performance,” Hirshland said. “In our conversations with athletes, this was a very high priority and something that the athletes felt was a critical component in their performance capability.”
The Washington Post reported earlier this month that Germany, Australia, Italy, Canada and Britain were among the other countries with plans to bring air conditioners to France.
Olympic organizers have touted plans to cool rooms in the Athletes Village, which will house more than 15,000 Olympians and sports officials over the course of the games, using a system of cooling pipes underneath the floors.
The average high in Paris on Aug. 1 is 26 degrees Celsius (79 degrees Fahrenheit). The objective is to keep the rooms between 23-26 degrees (73-79 degrees Fahrenheit). The rooms will also be equipped with fans.
“I want the Paris Games to be exemplary from an environmental point of view,” Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has said about the plans for the Olympics.
According to the International Energy Agency, fewer than 1 in 10 households in Europe has air conditioning, and the numbers in Paris are lower than that. The study said that of the 1.6 billion AC units in use across the globe in 2016, more than half were in China (570 million) and the United States (375 million). The entire European Union had around 100 million.
The Olympics mark the most important stop on the athletic careers of the 10,500-plus athletes who will descend on Paris, which has led some high-profile countries to undercut environmental efforts for the sake of comfort.
“It’s a high-performance environment,” Australian Olympic Committee spokesman Strath Gordon explained to The Post.
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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers seemed determined to keep playing. And playing. And playing.
The teams opened their Eastern Conference final playoff series with Florida’s 3-2 victory in four overtimes early Friday, with the game ranking as the sixth-longest game in NHL history.
Matthew Tkachuk’s goal came at the 19:47 mark of the fourth OT to end this one, which marked the 15th four-overtime game in NHL history and the longest game in franchise history for each team.
The longest game in NHL history came on March 24, 1936, when the Detroit Red Wings beat the Montreal Maroons 1-0 in the sixth overtime on Mud Bruneteau’s goal at 116 minutes, 30 seconds of extra play.
Florida’s previous record for longest game was 104:31 in Game 4 of the 1996 Stanley Cup final against Colorado. Carolina’s previous record was 114:47 for Game 3 of the 2002 Stanley Cup final.
The only good news for the teams is they had an extended break before this series began. Carolina closed out New Jersey exactly a week earlier, while Florida eliminated Toronto a day later.
But this game ended roughly six hours after Thursday night’s puck drop, and the teams have a Game 2 in less than 48 hours.
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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
