Bleacher Report - Front Page

WWE Extreme Rules 2013 Results: Brock Lesnar Beats Triple H Inside Steel Cage

Big Nasty — 2013-05-19 22:50:37 -0400

Triple H jumped Brock Lesnar during his entrance and knocked out Paul Heyman for his troubles.

Lesnar quickly took over, tossing Triple H into the cage like a rag doll. as the announcers gushed about his physical and career accolades.

Lesnar answered Triple H's brief offense with a German Suplex, then threw him into another side of the cage.

Lesnar missed a flying knee as he banged into the cage. He sold the injury as Triple H went to the top rope, but Lesnar picked him up and hit a running power slam.

Triple H hit a face buster as Lesnar's knee became more of a story. Triple H went after Lesnar's bum knee but Brock came back with a clothesline. Heyman demanded that the referee open the door as Brock limped to the door.

Triple H took Brock out with a chop block as he continued selling the knee. Triple H went for the door but Heyman slammed it into his face. Triple H walked into an F5 for a nearfall. Heyman threw a chair into the cage and locked the door.

Lesnar went to town on Triple H with a chair. Lesnar complained to Heyman about his knee and Heyman told him to "shake it off." Lesnar picked Triple H up for another F5 but his knee buckled. Triple H took over with the chair as he went after Lesnar's knee.

Triple H continued going after Lesnar's knee as Lesnar temporarily slapped on the Kimura. Triple H shrugged him off and locked in the Figure Four leg lock.

Lesnar began climbing the cage but Triple H hit him in the knee with a chair. Triple H stood on the top turnbuckle and smiled mischievously. He pulled out a camouflaged sledgehammer.

Lesnar tried hitting Triple H with the sledgehammer but Triple H countered with the sharpshooter. Heyman entered the cage and received a Pedigree. Triple H then Pedigreed Lesnar who was trying again to hit Triple H with a sledgehammer. Nearfall.

Heyman hit a low blow on Triple H, followed by a stiff sledgehammer shot by Lesnar. Lesnar hit a second F5 on Triple H for the win.

Winner: Brock Lesnar

This Match as an ECW Wrestler: Lance Storm

WWE Extreme Rules 2013 Results: Top 5 Questions Left Unanswered

Seth M. Guttenplan — Sun, 19 May 2013 23:16:27 -0400

WWE’s most hardcore pay-per-view of the year, Extreme Rules, provided fans with quality matches, logical booking and even some surprises. While The Shield and Brock Lesnar’s victories were certainly expected, a number of questions remain unanswered after Sunday night’s event.

Why did Fandango lose to Chris Jericho?

What was the purpose of the backstage segment involving AJ Lee and Kaitlyn?

And what was WWE thinking with Wade Barrett on the pre-show?

Here, I will address each of these situations in what I consider to be the top five questions left unanswered after WWE Extreme Rules 2013.

Begin Slideshow

WWE Extreme Rules 2013: What We Learned from Randy Orton's Win

Sharon Glencross — Sun, 19 May 2013 23:03:51 -0400

At WWE's Extreme Rules pay-per-view, Randy Orton defeated The Big Show via a powerful punt kick.

The match itself was packed full of drama and action, serving as one of the better undercard bouts on an otherwise-patchy show. That Orton finished things with the (rarely used) punt kick was a nice touch, too. It made the bout feel extra special and important.

Unsurprisingly, the packed crowd at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis went absolutely crazy for its hometown hero's win. It was a nice heartwarming moment.

In all honestly, the muddled The Big Show vs. Orton feud hasn't exactly set the world on fire. Generally, it's come off as pure time-filler and little else.

It doesn't help that for someone who's supposed to be a heel, Big Show has come off as very sympathetic, with his gripes against Orton seeming very justified.

Orton hasn't seemed terribly into the material either, coming off as rather bored and indifferent (this is a problem he's had for the past year now).

But this compelling bout went some way to redeeming their floundering feud.

Essentially, the result of this match told us that WWE are, to a degree anyway, still behind "The Viper."

Which isn't really a surprise. He does have a movie, WWE Studios' 12 Rounds 2: Reloaded, coming out next month (never mind Iron Man 3 or Star Trek Into Darkness, this is the real big movie of the summer!). This may also explain why he's yet to turn heel.

Sure, he had a difficult 2012, most notably when he failed his second drug test in May and was suspended for 60 days.

After the suspension, his stock in the company seemed to plummet. Maybe management felt he couldn't be trusted again: Per the policy, he fails one more time and he'll have to be fired, which explains why they can't push him to the moon like they used to.

But, despite this, he's still one of the few younger, over guys they have left. Despite seemingly being around forever, Orton is just 33.

He can do a lot more in WWE, especially if his much-talked-about heel turn ever comes to fruition. And, hey, for all the (deserved) criticism of his dull babyface character, he can still go in the ring, as Sunday night illustrated.

With CM Punk out, Rock injured and Triple H and Brock Lesnar being part-timers, he's more valuable than ever.

That Sheamus hasn't really gotten over as a top babyface may also help his cause.

As for The Big Show? Well, he's ultimately in the same position he's always been. Sometimes he gets pushed like a main eventer; sometimes he doesn't.

His status seems to depend on what mood WWE creative is in, or how short it is on wrestlers at any given time.

Nothing changed for him at Extreme Rules. Not really.

WWE Extreme Rules 2013 Results: Winners, Twitter Reaction and Highlights

Tim Keeney — Sun, 19 May 2013 23:02:52 -0400

The idea that Extreme Rules is simply PPV-filler following WrestleMania is no more.

Action from the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Mo., Sunday night was not only enthralling, but unique thanks to an array of uncommon stipulations that epitomize this pay-per-view.

While John Cena vs. Ryback and Triple-H vs. Brock Lesnar controlled the headlines heading into this anticipated event, but The Shield had a truly memorable night while several other superstars put on entertaining shows.

Let's take a look at how it all went down.

Quick Results

Note: (c) denotes champion heading into match

Pre-show: The Miz defeats Cody Rhodes via submission (figure four)
Chris Jericho defeats Fandango via pinfall
United States Championship: Dean Ambrose defeats Kofi Kingston (c) via pinfall
Strap Match: Sheamus defeats Mark Henry
No. 1 Contender "I Quit" Match: Alberto Del Rio defeats Jack Swagger via submission
Tag Team Championship: Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins defeat Team Hell No (c)
Extreme Rules Match: Randy Orton defeats Big Show via pinfall
WWE Championship Last man Standing Match: John Cena (c) and Ryback end in no finish
Brock Lesnar defeats Triple-H via pinfall

John Cena Retains

The WWE championship absurdly didn't serve as the main event, and Cena and Ryback put on a classic battle that suggested they took offense to that fact.

Mr. Feed Me More got things started by showcasing some jaw-dropping strength (via Bleacher Report's Brian Mazique):

But that was only the beginning.

The duo would go on to produce countless more unbelievable moments.

First Ryback slammed Cena through a table. Cena responded with a massive powerbomb before sending Ryback through a table of his own with an AA. Then they moved outside the ring, where Cena would spear the challenger through the barricade into the crowd.

As they got behind the audience, Ryback took apart a section of the wall and slammed it into Cena, only for the champion to respond by jumping off the railing onto Ryback, who was set up on a table. After Cena hit Ryback with the fire extinguisher, the big man came back and hit a monstrous slam on the champ through the electrical light fixture wall. The match ended as Cena was taken away on a stretcher.

There were a few too many (and a few unbelievable) nine-counts, but the amount of insane spots littered throughout the arena coupled with the crowd excitement had this feeling like an old-school instant classic.

Bleacher Report's Mike Chiari summed it up pretty well:

Brock Lesnar Wins the Rubber Match

Following up Cena and Ryback wasn't going to be easy, but Lesnar and Triple H were up to the task. There were slow moments to their steel-cage match, but things really heated up as the fight wore on.

Helmsley controlled a majority of the match, showcasing a lot of good in-ring offense, including a Pedigree to both Lesnar and Paul Heyman. But after Heyman landed a low blow on The Game, Lesnar was able to turn things around with a mammoth sledgehammer shot and F5 for the pin to end the terrific match.

This should subsequently end the three-match feud between these part-timers. Lesnar's knee injury was played up a lot during the match, and it will likely be used as a way to give him a significant break.

The Shield Hogs the Gold

Dean Ambrose got The Shield's eventful night started when he knocked off Kofi Kingston in an entertaining, tactically sound match to capture United States gold.

While his teammates weren't even ringside for the match—only adding to the validity of the victory—they were quick to celebrate with the new champ:

As someone who is certainly no stranger to gold himself, Hall of Famer Mick Foley sees a bright future for Ambrose:

With the push that he and his teammates have been getting, it's hard to argue with that fact. As someone with a beard, I was disappointed to see Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins make it 2-for-2 later in the night. As was Oakland Athletics outfielder Josh Reddick:

Still, Reigns and Rollins' win over Team Hell No was an absolutely fantastic match, and an argument could easily be made that it was the best of the night.

That's not something that could be said about the tag team division six months ago.

Sheamus Touches All Four Corners

When two heavyweights are locked together, it's not easy to put on a match that keeps the crowd interest high. Unfortunately for Sheamus and Mark Henry, the only thing they get an "A" for is "effort":

Still, despite the underwhelming match, it was at least interesting watching the different strategies each would employ to attempt to touch all four corners in succession. From Sheamus attempting to run around on the outside of the ropes to Henry simply carrying the Celtic Warrior from corner to corner, this match wasn't short on innovation.

In the end, Sheamus delivered the Brogue Kick to touch the fourth corner for the win. It's safe to say he was happy with himself:

Nevertheless, after the crawling-paced match, it's clear that most fans will hope to see each wrestler move to a new feud in the future.

Jack Swagger Quits

This match between Swagger and Del Rio, which lasted a healthy 11 minutes, featured many entertaining spots and unique offense:

The ending, on the other hand, was, well, odd.

When Swagger had Del Rio in the Patriot Lock, Ricardo Rodriguez was ready to throw in the towel. Zeb Colter quickly interfered, and with the referee distracted, threw in the towel himself.

The ref, thinking Rodriguez had conceded, ended the match and awarded the win for Swagger. After a few moments of discussion, however, he went to the announcers' table and actually watched the replay to overturn the decision.

Probably not the best idea (via Goldust):

After the match was restarted, Del Rio got Swagger into the cross armbreaker and forced his opponent to quit. This means Del Rio will take on world heavyweight champion Dolph Ziggler at WWE Payback, while Swagger is just a sad Swagger:

The Real American has been arrested and concussed Ziggler in the very recent past, and a downfall will likely ensue.

Randy Orton defeats Big Show

Thanks to an inconsistent buildup, not many were excited for this match. But it turned out to be a pleasant surprise—a captivating match featuring several moments that had the crowd going bonkers.

Some of the highlights include Big Show crashing through a ladder (that was set up on two chairs) from the top ropes, Orton connecting on a draping DDT from the ropes, Show hitting a monstrous spear, and Orton hitting two RKO's, including one on a chair.

And then the most important move of the match: the punt kick.

Not only did the thundering, chill-inducing kick get the win for Orton, who put forth a memorable performance, but it could very well signal a transition that a majority of the wrestling universe has been itching for:

Not too bad for a match no one wanted in the first place.

Follow @t_keen

7 Best Offseason College Football Instagram Photos

Lafe Peavler — Sun, 19 May 2013 22:58:38 -0400

College football is still some time away, but at least we have things like Instagram to help us pass the time.

True, not everyone has an Instagram account, and many don't post nearly often enough. However, there are some that have a lot of fun sharing pictures with us fans as we all wait for the 2013 season together.

So, what are the best Instagram pictures of the offseason? Read on.

Begin Slideshow

Phil Jackson Once Dreamt About Spanking Kobe Bryant

Jesse Dorsey — Sun, 19 May 2013 22:53:34 -0400

The new book by Phil Jackson, Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success, answers a ton of questions about the past 30 years of professional basketball and gives us a bit of insight into Phil Jackson's coaching career, including the fact that he once dreamt about spanking Kobe Bryant.

It's not in a masochistic way or anything creepy; it's just Jackson reminiscing about the early days of coaching Shaquille O'Neal and Bryant before the Los Angeles Lakers picked up the first of three championships together.

ESPN got its hands on an excerpt from Jackson's book, which is set for release on May 21 and explains the tribulations of coaching a player like Bryant and getting him to fit into a system.

Throughout there are interesting observations and anecdotes from Jackson, most notably the first meeting between Michael Jordan and Bryant, which went awkwardly to say the least: "After they shook hands, the first words out of Kobe's mouth were 'You know I can kick your ass one on one.'"

The incident in question came following a February loss to the San Antonio Spurs, Los Angeles falling in a beatdown, 105 to 81.

It was the Lakers' worst loss of the season, smack dab in the middle of a cold patch for the Lakers, in which the team lost four out of five games.

"You can't be a selfish player and make this offense work for the team's good. Period." When I opened the floor to comments, there was complete silence, and I was about to adjourn the meeting when Shaq spoke up. He got right to the point, saying, "I think Kobe is playing too selfishly for us to win." That got everyone fired up. Some of the players nodded in support of Shaq, including Rick Fox, who said, "How many times have we been through this?" No one in that room came to Kobe's defense. I asked him if he had anything to say. Kobe finally addressed the group, and in a calm, quiet voice he said he cared about everyone and just wanted to be part of a winning team.

I wasn't pleased with the meeting. I worried that having everyone's complaints on the table without any resolution would have a negative effect on team harmony. In the days that followed, we lost four out of five games, including a 105-81 "massacre" by the Spurs in the Alamodome. One night that week I had a dream about spanking Kobe and giving Shaq a smack. "Shaq needs and Kobe wants -- the mystery of the Lakers," I wrote in my journal.

Weird, sure. But more than anything, there's a huge revelation into the Lakers' early troubles, and that's just two paragraphs worth of material.

Jackson goes on to run down how he was able to resolve the situation, turn Shaq into more of a leader and get Kobe to sign on as more of a follower throughout the season.

The Lakers won 27 of their next 28 games.

This addresses one of the most important issues of the past 15 years in the NBA that was never really resolved.

Bryant was always accused of being an outsider in the Lakers locker room as a young player, while Shaq was accused of not doing enough to welcome him in as a part of the team.

To hear Jackson tell the story, both are true and had an impact on the way the team came together.

Jackson's new book is sure to delve deep into the psyche of Kobe and Jordan, along with how Jackson handled the two players differently.

There's no doubt that it seems like a good read for the summer.

Grading Every WWE Extreme Rules Match

Riley Kontek — Sun, 19 May 2013 22:52:51 -0400

There had been a long buildup going into Extreme Rules, but the first pay-per-view following WrestleMania finally took place. The card was headlined by a WWE Championship match between John Cena and Ryback, as well as Triple H vs. Brock Lesnar.

With Extreme Rules came matches with, well, extreme rules. Between Last Man Standing and I Quit matches, the card was not shallow on gimmicks.

Here is a recap and letter-grade for each match on the card.

Begin Slideshow

Figuring out What Went Wrong in OKC Thunder's Second-Round Loss

Kyle Ramos — Sun, 19 May 2013 22:52:14 -0400

It's easy to think that Russell Westbrook's injury is really what went wrong for the Oklahoma City Thunder in their second-round defeat against the Memphis Grizzlies, but there's a whole lot more to it.

Sure, not having their second-best player and emotional leader on the floor was a big hit to this Thunder team. However, knowing that Kevin Durant was still suiting up had many people reasonably believing that this series and possibly even the next one after it was still winnable.

It was a weird experience for KD, who'd never been in this type of situation before. No one doubts that Durant is a bona fide superstar, but he's really never been in this type of position where he has to pretty much single-handedly carry his team. Ever since Durant's been in OKC, Westbrook's been right there by his side.

That changed for the first time when Westbrook tore his meniscus in Game 2 of the Thunder's first-round series against the Houston Rockets. It was time for KD to answer the call, and he gave it all he had to keep this team hanging around while missing one of their key components.

During the series against Memphis, Durant averaged 28.8 points, 6.6 assists and 10.4 rebounds which demonstrated that he was doing plenty to fill the void that Westbrook left statistically in all of those categories.

After Game 1, all looked to be going well for the Thunder. They managed to erase a nine-point deficit at the beginning of the fourth quarter to come back and claim the first game of the series thanks to a smooth Kevin Durant jumper with just 11.1 seconds remaining.

Oklahoma City did a great job of playing good defense and hitting important down the stretch of this game, factors that would prove to be the Thunder's undoing later in the series as they struggled to repeat these efforts.

Closing out games in the playoffs is huge. Letting one slip away from your grasp in the regular season is usually forgetting about in a few games. When something like that happens in the postseason, though, you don't have much time to recover mentally and it could cost your team a lot of vital momentum.

OKC definitely had a great chance at winning this series, even if the odds were against them. The absence of Westbrook and his ability to close out games was sorely missed, though, as the Thunder had a lot of crucial mistakes down the stretch in games that swung the series in the Grizzlies' favor.

After winning Game 1, the Thunder dropped four straight games to the Grizz, losing all of these games by six points or less. This really shows how winning this series was very much within reason for Oklahoma City, but it was a lack of execution in crunch time that really hurt the team.

Westbrook's replacement, Reggie Jackson, was definitely a lot better than most people expected him to be. He showed off his athleticism and explosiveness during his first taste of major playing time, but there's still plenty for the second-year guard to learn. It's sometimes tough to pinpoint plays that can negatively shift a series, but not in this case.

Jackson played a lot like Westbrook, but we saw the bad side of that when he was flying down the court on a fast break, out of control, which lead to an offensive foul.

With just 1:31 remaining in a tied game and a tied series, this was a bad and selfish decision on Jackson, who had a cutting Derek Fisher and trailing Thabo Sefolosha as passing options. Memphis ultimately took this game after taking one at home from Oklahoma City, also. So instead of the series being 2-1 in the Thunder's favor, Jackson's play swung it the other way.

It was just one bad play, right? Wrong. Jackson had a similar situation in a very important Game 4. During the overtime period and the Thunder trailing by just one point and 1:21 remaining, Jackson again was too aggressive in attacking the basket and was called for another offensive foul. OKC ended up losing this game as well, increasing its series deficit to 3-1.

I'm not here to attack Jackson or say that he was directly and solely responsible for losing these games. However, he did make crucial mistakes during critical points of two playoff games. It wasn't just Jackson, though. Oklahoma City as a team performed well late in the games of this series. There was time to make up for these bad plays by Jackson, but the Thunder simply couldn't convert on their offensive opportunities or get defensive stops when necessary.

I may have spotlighted Jackson here, but this boils down to an overall team effort here. Durant was doing everything he could individually, but seeing the guys around him struggle may have led to him putting a bit too much pressure on himself which could strain his game mentally. That may have explained Durant missing a shot that is normally automatic.

Whatever it was that caused Durant to miss that shot, he missed it. Plain and simple. There's still plenty of evidence to back up the truth that KD is a great clutch player. However, I think the responsibilities burdened on him by Westbrook's absence really hurt his game this series and with no real second option to defer to, he was forced to take some shots that may have been questionable at best.

Even as great as he is, Durant is but one man. It was the Thunder as a whole that was not executing and not getting stops to close out these games. If they had, this whole series could have very well been taken by OKC in five games. Oklahoma City did not play well late in games, however, and it cost the Thunder the chance at another NBA Finals run.

The silver lining here is that the Thunder team we saw in this postseason had to make a lot of adjustments on the fly and was playing a whole different style of basketball than they're used to. Fortunately, Westbrook will be back and this team is still very much alive as a contender.

The wait will be long this summer, though, as OKC will have to begin the long road once again to the NBA playoffs and to its eventual goal of becoming NBA champions.

WWE Extreme Rules 2013 Results: Brock Lesnar Defeats Triple H in Cage Match

Donald Wood — Sun, 19 May 2013 22:51:30 -0400

In a vicious steel cage match at Extreme Rules 2013 between bona fide wrestling superstars, Brock Lesnar defeated Triple H by a clean pin in the middle of the ring.

After watching Lesnar and Triple H’s previous two matches over the last year—at SummerSlam 2012 and WrestleMania 29—it was clear that this battle would be a glorified street fight, and the duo did not disappoint.

Triple H always knows how to put on a great show for a pay-per-view crowd, and the inclusion of a cage only played into The Game’s skill set Sunday night.

Lesnar, on the other hand, brought a raw brutality to this match, and with the ability to showcase it on the Extreme Rules stage, Brock proved why WWE views him as such a valuable commodity.

Allowing Lesnar to win this brutal in-ring war was the right move.

This is a huge victory for the former UFC champion, especially after taking a devastating loss to Triple H at WrestleMania. While Lesnar never should have lost to begin with, allowing him to gain the edge in this long-term feud was the right booking decision.

Triple H doesn’t need to win anymore—he’s already a huge star and a fan favorite—but Lesnar could be valuable to WWE as a top heel. If the company wants to make current stars look strong by beating Lesnar, it must let him beat the older stars like The Rock and Triple H.

Now that nothing extra was on the line in this bout (no retirement clause, etc.), this will be dubbed the rubber match. The hope now is that the feud will be over.

Triple H got his chances to shine Sunday, but Extreme Rules was all about Lesnar.

Now that Lesnar has finely vanquished Triple H, the hope is that there is something much bigger planned for the former world champion—maybe even the world championship.

There is likely nothing off the table for Lesnar and WWE as both The Rock and CM Punk are dealing with injuries and The Undertaker is not expected back for awhile. If WWE wants to keep pay-per-view buys up, paying Lesnar to stick around would be the best bet.

Whether Lesnar goes after the World Heavyweight Championship, attacks a face superstar like Sheamus or even starts another feud with John Cena, WWE must do everything in its power to get more dates on Brock’s contract.

Lesnar and Heyman are great for WWE TV.

For more wrestling talk, listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot topics or catch the latest episode in the player below (some language NSFW.)

Follow @Donald_Wood

Follow @RingRustRadio

John Cena Injury: Updates on WWE Star's Status After Extreme Rules

Maxwell Ogden — Sun, 19 May 2013 22:48:05 -0400

WWE Extreme Rules took center stage on Sunday, May 19, with multiple titles on the line and danger at a premium. At the center of the pandemonium was the WWE Championship match between John Cena and Ryback.

As for how extreme this match was, Cena and Ryback were both stretchered out of the building.

Both of these men put it all on the line, with the match eventually ending in a no contest.

As for what was wrong with Cena, it appears as if he's sustained a neck injury. While the severity is unknown, Cena needed a neck brace as he was stretchered out.

A scary sight, to say the least.

After countless superstars have seen their careers cut short by neck injuries, one can't help but hope Cena will make a full recovery.

Superstars with notable neck injuries include Edge, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Hardcore Holly and Droz. The nature of these neck injuries varies with each wrestler, but all suffered similar fates as they simply could not recover from their respective neck ailments.

Updates will be provided as they become available, but we collectively hope Cena makes a full recovery.

Indiana Basketball: Ranking the 5 Most Hyped Recruits in Hoosiers History

Scott Henry — Sun, 19 May 2013 22:45:35 -0400

Every Indiana fan knows the ball-handler in this picture.

His name is Calbert Cheaney, and he's only the school's—and Big Ten's—all-time scoring leader.

When he was recruited, his class was considered one of the best of all time, but Cheaney was far from the jewel of the group. He was overshadowed by a pair of McDonald's All-Americans and another hyped prospect who arrived with some baggage.

So, as we know, recruiting is a very inexact science. The excitement of landing a well-known prospect can often give way to profound disappointment, even anger when a player doesn't live up to his potential.

The players in this list mostly played well in college, even if they didn't do so in an Indiana uniform. Still, they all found it hard to live up to the expectations that heralded their arrivals.

Begin Slideshow

Ranking the Hardest Hitting Teams Left in the NHL Playoffs

Brad Kurtzberg — Sun, 19 May 2013 22:44:19 -0400

The ability to be more physical than your opponent is one way to win in the NHL. If you can do it consistently, it is also often a recipe for playoff success.

Look at the last two Stanley Cup winners. Both the Los Angeles Kings and the Boston Bruins won their final series in large part because they were more physical than the New Jersey Devils and Vancouver Canucks.

This article ranks the remaining eight teams in the playoffs based on which team is the hardest hitting and most physical. Keep in mind that ranking a team eighth doesn't mean they are incapable of playing a tough, physical game. Few teams can advance to the second round of the NHL playoffs on finesse alone.

But the remaining teams are ranked here on the basis of their overall physicality and how important hitting and physicality is to their strategy and success.

Feel free to comment on why you feel a team should be higher or lower on this list, but please say why when you add your comments.

Begin Slideshow

Bo Pelini's Biggest Challenges for the Cornhuskers in 2013

Patrick Runge — Sun, 19 May 2013 22:40:59 -0400

“I got 99 problems but a solid wide receiver corps ain’t one.”

Jay-Z, “99 Problems” (sort of)

Coming into 2013, Nebraska football head coach Bo Pelini has a number of challenges facing him to get the Cornhuskers to a conference (and national) title. While 99 is probably a little high, it’s not difficult to pinpoint five challenges Pelini will have to overcome next season.

Begin Slideshow

New York Jets: What to Watch for at OTAs

Aidan Mackie — Sun, 19 May 2013 22:37:25 -0400

The New York Jets have already had a tumultuous and eventful offseason, and organized team activities (OTA) have not even begun.

The Jets have already seen their two highest-profile free agents retire and be arrested, and the team released celebrity Tim Tebow last month.

With a quarterback controversy in the works, a head coach on the hot seat and a whole new depth chart at hand, OTAs are sure to be entertaining.

Here are five things to watch at Gang Green's OTAs in 2013.

Begin Slideshow

Mosley vs. Cano: Sugar Shane Should Head Back to Retirement After Unanimous Win

Dan Talintyre — Sun, 19 May 2013 22:35:40 -0400

After announcing his retirement from the sport almost 12 months ago, "Sugar Shane" Mosley stepped back into the ring this weekend and emerged with a unanimous points decision over Pablo Cano.

Now, the 41-year-old Mosley needs to step back out and into retirement once more.

He's ended his four-year losing streak and seemingly justified himself once more as a boxing winner. And should he head back into retirement now, he can bow out a winner—which is probably what the legendary boxer wanted from the moment he first stepped into the ring 19 years ago.

A former champion in three divisions, Sugar Shane made quick work of the 23-year-old. Cano controlled the opening few rounds of the fight, but with his experience and strengths kicking in, Mosley started to up the tempo and pull away from his opponent in the final few rounds of the fight.

All three judges scored the fight 115-113 for Mosley.

The win marked the first time that Mosley had won a fight since defeating Antonio Margarito in 2009, with heavy losses to Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao and Saul Alvarez in recent years crippling his status in boxing's elite and eventually bringing him to the point of retirement.

After all, he is 41 years old.

It's definitely understandable that he wants to come back and end that losing streak and finish his career on a positive note given all the success he's had before.

However, it's time for Mosley to give it up for good.

His best years are well behind him, and as Sports Illustrated's Bryan Armen Graham highlights, that's shown most clearly in the demise of his professional record.

Sugar Shane's reflexes aren't the same, and his skills have slipped also.

His mentality might be the same and his durability still strong, but there comes a point when Father Time starts to catch up with every boxer, and that time has seemingly come for Mosley.

He is but a shadow of what he once was, and in order to protect the great legacy that he built for himself over the years, he needs to give it all up now.

After all, what would he rather be remembered for?

Would he rather his reputation remained as one of the most talented lightweights of all time and a superstar who won multiple world titles in three weight classes?

Or would he rather be remembered as they guy who couldn't let go?

It's for Sugar Shane to make that call.

Hit me up on Twitter for more sports goodness: Follow @dantalintyre

Comparing Miami Heat to Indiana Pacers at Every Position: Who Has the Edge?

Ethan Skolnick — Sun, 19 May 2013 22:35:09 -0400

LeBron James has repeatedly resisted calling the Indiana Pacers one of his chief rivals.

James has some standards before an opponent meets that classification, and facing that opponent in more than one playoff series is a start.

Talk alone won't suffice.

Listen to what James said earlier this season, after a shootaround in Indianapolis, about the teams' second-round series last spring:

“Chris (Bosh) got hurt, they took a 2-1 lead and (were) really excited about what was going on and were talking a lot. They felt they were the better team, and we took control of the series. … But they’ve been talking a lot. I read a lot of clips that they’ve had before the season that said they were better than us, and they should have beat us, so we’ll be ready.”

That was prior to a regular-season game, one that James and the Heat still lost. Miami then won the teams' only meeting in Miami, to finish the season series at 1-2.

"We felt all year we were in the top two in the East," Pacers forward David West said. "Things have been building toward this."

Indiana clearly feels good about its chances, even with its leading scorer from last season and postseason, Danny Granger, sidelined the rest of the way after knee surgery.

What can we make of the rest of the matchups?

(All quotes for this piece were collected through the course of the author's coverage of the Miami Heat for the Palm Beach Post.)

Begin Slideshow

Pittsburgh Penguins' 5 Most Impressive Players During 2013 Playoffs

Steve Rodenbaugh — Sun, 19 May 2013 22:33:28 -0400

After a surviving a hard-fought series against the New York Islanders, the Pittsburgh Penguins advanced to face the Ottawa Senators in the second round.

While some Penguin players have disappointed with their performance, most notably goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, others have risen to the occasion and been instrumental in the Penguins' success thus far.

While there is still a lot of hockey left to be played and plenty of time for new heroes to emerge, here is a countdown of the five most impressive Penguins players during the playoffs so far.

Begin Slideshow

Will Muschamp's 5 Biggest Challenges for Florida in 2013

Tyler Piccotti — Sun, 19 May 2013 22:32:58 -0400

In his second year as head coach of the Florida Gators, Will Muschamp was already on the hot seat in the eyes of Gators fans. The main reason was a 7-6 campaign in 2011 that was full of struggles.

Although many of those struggles carried over into 2012, Muschamp was able to work his magic and lead the Gators to the Sugar Bowl.

Now that expectations are through the roof in Gainesville, Muschamp is entering this season with more pressure on him than ever before. With a returning quarterback and a loaded recruiting class, he and his staff are expected to compete for the SEC title.

If he wants to do that, however, there are still issues he needs to resolve.

Here are the five biggest challenges on Will Muschamp's agenda.

Begin Slideshow

NHL Playoffs 2013: Which Superstars Haven't Met Expectations During Postseason?

Jerry Bonkowski — Sun, 19 May 2013 22:28:21 -0400

As the NHL has moved past its first round and is in the middle of its conference semifinals, many of the league's superstars are doing exactly what they're known for: scoring lots of goals and having a big impact.

But, there are a few superstars that, to date, have been anything but super. For whatever reason, they've struggled unmercifully in both rounds.

Let's take a look at six of those less-than-super stars that have not met expectations thus far during the postseason.

Begin Slideshow

WWE Extreme Rules 2013 Results: John Cena vs. Ryback Ends in Draw

Mike Chiari — Sun, 19 May 2013 22:27:50 -0400

John Cena retained his WWE Championship after his Last Man Standing match with Ryback at Extreme Rules was halted when both men went through the stage wall and were deemed unfit to continue by the referee.

The wild finish was the most memorable part of the brutal match, but both men put on a solid show throughout this bout and proved their worth as two of the top dogs in the company.

Due to Cena's Achilles injury, kayfabe or not, there was some thought that Ryback would be able to capitalize and win the Last Man Standing match.

That didn't happen, so Ryback has failed to win at each and every pay-per-view since Hell in a Cell.

The creative team put itself in an interesting conundrum heading into Extreme Rules. Ryback needed a pay-per-view win, but at the same time it wouldn't have made much sense to end Cena's run with the belt after he just beat The Rock for it at WrestleMania XXIX less than two months ago.

Cena was searching for redemption for an entire year, and he got it when he defeated The Rock. Having him lose the title so quickly would have undermined that victory to some degree, so keeping the strap on Cena for now was probably the right decision.

It will be interesting to see where Ryback goes at this point. A rematch against Cena is certainly possible and almost likely since there aren't exactly any other challengers lining up to take a shot at Cena's title.

Ryback is reaching the point where fans are having a hard time taking him seriously as a main-event contender, though.

Ryback is dominant in between pay-per-views, but he always manages to come up short on the big stage. It all started when the WWE gave him too much too soon and had him face CM Punk for the WWE Championship at Extreme Rules. Ryback lost that match due to interference from Brad Maddox and was never the same.

The writers even booked Ryback to lose to Mark Henry at WrestleMania, which is a perplexing decision to this day. It can be said that the loss aided his heel turn, but he turned because Cena didn't save him from attacks by The Shield. It had absolutely nothing to do with losing to Henry, so Ryback should have won that match in order to gain some measure of legitimacy.

It seems like Extreme Rules was simply used as a vehicle to keep the status quo intact when it comes to the WWE Championship scene. The WWE is likely loading up for SummerSlam in August, so it will be interesting to see what happens at Payback and Money in the Bank over the next couple months.

Cena is still the champion for now out of necessity, as there isn't really anyone else worthy of wearing the title at the moment. That may change moving forward with Punk returning and others emerging, but the belt is where it belongs right now regardless of how the fans feel about it.

It's tough to say exactly how long Cena's championship reign will last, but he was able to preserve it in his first defense against Ryback. Next time it's possible that Cena won't be so lucky.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter

For more wrestling talk, listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot topics or catch the latest episode in the player below (some language NSFW.)

The Final Days of Randy 'Macho Man' Savage

Keith Elliot Greenberg — Sun, 19 May 2013 22:23:53 -0400

From the driver’s seat of his 2009 Jeep Wrangler, just before the turn off Florida State Road 694 into the Seminole Mall, Randy “Macho Man” Savage stared through the windshield at the sun-washed commercial strip, and sensed that something bad was about to occur.

“I think I’m going to pass to pass out,” he muttered to his wife, Lynn, in the characteristic rasp wrestling fans knew from his promos, building up matches with Hulk Hogan, “Nature Boy” Ric Flair and Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat.

Earlier that morning, the two-time World Wrestling Federation (currently World Wrestling Entertainment, or WWE) champion had mentioned that he wasn’t feeling well. To his wife, this was nothing new. Randy seemed older than his 58 years; his body ached constantly, from decades of crashing into the mat while delivering his finisher, the flying elbow, from the top rope, among other physical stresses. Perhaps, Lynn suggested, he just needed to eat. So the two went to a Perkins Family Restaurant, where Randy ordered his usual, an egg white vegetable omelet. Still, Lynn wasn’t convinced that he was better.

“Why don’t I drive?” she offered.

Randy shook his head. After decades of piloting a colorful but controversial career, and a lifestyle that shielded him from suspicious sycophants and unwanted intrusions, he didn’t give up the wheel. And so, they returned to their previous positions in the jeep. At around 9:25 a.m., they were just west of 113^th Street North in the city of Seminole, on a four-lane road, passing the traffic light by Regions Bank, when Randy suddenly lost consciousness. With his foot clamped down on the accelerator, the jeep crossed the raised concrete median into eastbound traffic. Lynn frantically looked at Randy, then out the front window at the motorcycle and bus moving in their direction. Reaching over her husband’s limbs with her long arms, the woman who first met the Macho Man when he was a catcher with the Gulf Coast League’s Sarasota Cardinals swerved to avoid the other vehicles, deliberately slamming the jeep into a tree, across from a Publix Super Market and animal hospital.

The impact was so slight that the airbags didn’t activate. Lynn, 56, sustained minor injuries. Randy was pronounced dead at Largo Medical Center.

Since that day, two years ago on May 20, 2011, the real-life Randy Mario Poffo has been depicted as a recluse at the end of his life, a former celebrity who let his beard grow white, kept a registered gun in his glove compartment, and sequestered himself in a home surrounded by security fences and patrolled by guard dogs. But his family says that he was always accessible to them, and spent his final months contemplating his legacy–personally, professionally and financially–and making up for time lost to fame.

“When Ang left the business,” says Randy’s 86-year-old mother, Judy of her husband, Angelo Poffo, a wrestler who once worked under a yellow mask with a dollar sign as The Miser, “he’d never developed any hobbies, except going to the gym twice a day and watching the stock market. There was all this energy and no place to put it. Randy was different. He worked on his house, he was busy with his animals, he married again, and he took us to our doctor’s appointments–things he missed all those years when he was wrestling.”

Randy lived near his mother’s development in Largo, FL, down a bumpy, palm-shaded, dirt road. Within the perimeter of the non-climbable fence, two dogs patrolled the acre-and-a-half surrounding his dark wooden home, built in a style more representative of the Old West than the modern Gulf Coast. On the brick pillars on each side of the front gate, cameras surveilled possible visitors. “You needed an engraved invitation to get in there,” notes Judy. “Tired of people, I guess.”

“Randy used to own a condo on the beach,” points out his brother, Lanny, another wrestler who worked, alternatively, as “Leaping” Lanny Poffo and The Genius. “But he couldn’t go out on the balcony without 1,000 people screaming, ‘Macho Man.’ He needed quiet.”

Ten days before his death, the family gathered on Randy’s property for Mother’s Day. Before their arrival, Randy called his mother with an unusual request: the ashes of his dog, Hercules, a German shepherd from a litter owned by the late wrestler, Hercules Hernandez. Judy brought the ashes to Randy’s home in an urn. The Macho Man marched the family to a designated spot, and asked his brother to pour the animal’s remains.

“Why should I do it?” Lanny protested. “It’s not my dog.”

“I want you to do it. If anything happens, I want you to do the same thing with my ashes, the same way, the same place. If it’s good enough for Hercules, it’s good enough for me.”

In another family, a 58-year-old, retired athlete might be beseeched not to speak in such morose terms. But Randy talked like this often. “I didn’t think too much of it because he always spoke fatalistically,” says Lanny. “He spoke fatalistically since our dad died.”

The Miser

More than wrestling, more than baseball, more than the women he romanced on and off camera, Randy loved his father. While the wrestling icon inherited his mother’s facial structure and penetrating blue eyes, he lived by the guideposts Angelo set, taking the older man’s codes of honor and loyalty to sometimes militant lengths, and accepting nothing less than perfection from physical challenges.

In 1945, while serving in the US Navy, Angelo broke the world sit-up record. The story about him taxing himself to the point that his tailbone protruded from his skin is an exaggeration. But Angelo did develop some form of friction burn, and bled on the mat. His clenched fingers were swollen, and temporarily sealed together. Then, he played baseball that night.

Officially, Angelo completed 6,000 sit-ups in just over four hours. He followed up with another 33—for every year he believed that Jesus lived.

That last detail became a complication in his marriage to Judy, a swimmer and diver who’d received a scholarship to the American College of Physical Education in Chicago. In 1946, the school was absorbed by DePaul University, the largest Catholic university in the nation. Not long afterwards, she met Angelo, home from the Navy, a catcher on the school’s baseball team and competitive chess player.

When the couple wed in 1949, neither family was pleased. “What have you done?” Angelo’s mother pronounced after the ceremony in her native tongue. Although she didn’t speak Italian, Judy—the descendent of Jews from Lithuania and Belarus—knew exactly what her mother-in-law meant.

Exhibiting the defiance that became the essence of Randy “Macho Man” Savage, Angelo stayed married to Judy for 61 years.

Randy would do anything for Angelo, sending his parents on trips to Japan and Europe and Israel until they told him they were too tired to travel. On Angelo’s 70^th birthday, Randy paid $50,000 to buy his father a yellow, high-finned Cadillac—the same car the elder Poffo had purchased in 1959 and drove around the wrestling circuit for 200,000 miles. The former World Wrestling Federation champion restocked and refurbished the weight room at Admiral Farragut Academy, a St. Petersburg prep school, on the condition that the facility was named for his father. Later, when Angelo was sick, Randy installed an invalid toilet and walk-in bathtub in his parents’ home.

Angelo had a mantra he impressed on his son’s “S.Y.M.”—Save Your Money. Randy was thrifty, too. Although never to his face, Randy’s detractors occasionally attributed the trait to his mother’s ethnicity. Clarifies Judy, “The whole family’s like that.”

Despite Angelo’s career choice, Randy’s initial goal wasn’t wrestling, but baseball, a vocation his father encouraged, building a winterized batting cage and pitching machine next to the family’s home in Downer’s Grove, IL. Naturally a righty, Randy taught himself how to throw with his left hand in the event of an injury. As a high school senior, he hit .525 for the Downer’s Grove Trojans. When no team picked him up in the 1971 amateur draft, Angelo drove his son five hours to an open tryout at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Randy went home with a minor league contract. In four seasons in the Cardinals, Reds and White Sox organizations, Randy hit .254 with 16 home runs, playing catcher, outfield and first base.

It was during this period that Randy met his future, wife, Barbara Lynn Payne, while walking on Lido Beach in Sarasota. Starting in 1972, they dated for three years before veering in separate directions. “She never knew him as the Macho Man,” says Lanny. “She never knew him as a wrestler. She only knew him as a failed baseball player.”

His final attempt to play in the Major Leagues ended when the White Sox organization cut him in 1975, before the end of spring training. “When Randy got released, he broke all his bats and got rid of all his equipment,” Judy remembers. “It was horrible. But The Sheik saved him.”

The Sheik was Ed Farhat, a Lebanese-American US Army vet whose wrestling gimmick included bloodying rivals with a hidden pencil, throwing fire and jabbering incomprehensible phrases fans took to be Arabic. He was also the promoter in Detroit, where Angelo and Lanny were wrestling at the time. “It was Christmas,” Judy says, “and they brought Randy along. Randy wrestled The Sheik, and he got over real good.”

It was The Sheik who taught Randy a concept he’d later impart to younger wrestlers: “Be the main event, even if you’re on first.” Randy admired the Sheik with the zealousness he usually reserved for Angelo.

“He even cooked for The Sheik,” Judy says. “He made him cabbage soup.”

Family Business

When Angelo was wrestling in Hawaii in 1967, his sons were exposed to King Curtis Iaukea and Pampero Firpo, performers Lanny calls “the two best promos in the business.” Iaukea began his interviews in a near whisper, slowly building intrigue and his decibel level until his voice was piercing the speakers. Firpo ended his interviews with a signature, “Ooooh, yyyyeah.”

Randy brazenly stole from both. The other touches—the head tics, sucking in his bottom lip, twirling his fingers above his head—were all his.

Observing Randy’s feral ring style, Georgia promoter Ole Anderson changed the wrestler’s surname to “Savage.” As his character developed, Randy phoned his mother and asked her to mail a compilation of nicknames. “I saw the term ‘Macho Man’ in a magazine, and just put it on the list,” she recounts. “A few days later, Randy called me from Macon, Georgia, and said, ‘What’s a Macho Man?’ I said, ‘I have no idea.’”

Not long afterwards, Angelo opened his own promotion, International Championship Wrestling (ICW), based in Lexington, KY, using his sons as talent, along with a rotating cast that included Rugged Ronnie Garvin, Bob Orton, Jr.—father of current WWE star Randy Orton—Ox Baker, Bob Roop and Crusher Broomfield, later known as the One Man Gang. While other promoters attempted peaceful coexistence with established territories, the Poffos–even Judy was involved with the group, as a bookkeeper, and Randy’s future wife, Elizabeth, would work under her maiden name, Liz Hulette, as an on-camera host—ran an “outlaw” league that competed with the entrenched organizations. Angelo promoted his wrestlers as legitimate tough guys, as opposed to showmen, offering to bet $20,000 of his own cash at one point—against a donut—that Randy and his partner, Rip Rogers, could defeat a tag team from the rival Southeastern group in an actual fight.

It wasn’t as funny as it seemed. Randy and other ICW performers began showing up at opposition shows, threatening to disrupt matches and frightening their adversaries to the point that some began arming themselves. During a confrontation outside a diner, Memphis Wrestling’s Superstar Bill Dundee pulled a gun on the Macho Man. Savage grappled it away and pistol-whipped him.

“I hated that stuff,” Lanny says.

Manager Jimmy “The Mouth of the South” Hart was a staple in Memphis, but would monitor the ICW shows on Channel 24. “I couldn’t tell anybody I was watching it,” he says. “That’s how tense it was. But I’d never seen anybody wrestle like Randy, the way he’d come down off the top rope. And he was colorful.”

Eventually, Hart helped persuade current WWE announcer, Jerry “The King” Lawler, the star and partial owner of Memphis Wrestling, to reconcile with his enemies, and a talent exchange was brokered. Feeding off the legitimate animosity, the Poffos began appearing on the Memphis promotion’s cards, with Savage in the main events. In wrestling circles, the Macho Man suddenly had national exposure.

“Randy was destined to be the greatest wrestler no one ever heard of, if Jimmy Hart hadn’t extended the olive branch,” Lanny says.

Although ICW folded in 1984, the Poffos’ renegade efforts were fondly remembered not only by fans, but Randy himself. In 2009, the family gathered at an Olive Garden to celebrate Angelo’s final birthday. Angelo had dementia by this point, and his functions were failing quickly. As Randy watched Judy tend to his father, the Macho Man declared that the entire clan belonged in the WWE Hall of Fame.

“How about that? The Von Erichs all get in,” he sneered, referring to the Von Erich family’s recent induction. “Even Chris.”

Like the Poffos, the Von Erichs were a multi-generational wrestling family. Father Fritz began his career playing a Nazi heel, but later, as a promoter in Dallas, depicted himself as a tough, devout Texan, while building storylines around his sons. Of these, David, Kevin and Kerry were exceptional athletes, and bona fide stars. Mike was apparently forced into the game, and performed accordingly. Chris loved the business, but he was small, sickly and injury prone.

The Von Erichs were also professional wrestling’s most tragic family. David was 25 when he died during a Japanese tour. While some suspected an overdose, the family contended that David suffered a heart attack caused by ruptured intestines linked to enteritis. Kerry, Mike and Chris all committed suicide.

“It isn’t fair,” Randy continued. “If they ever want me in the Hall of Fame, we’re all going in together, as the Poffo family.”

Macho Madness

In 1984, as Vince McMahon was cherry picking the best talent in the industry, Jimmy Hart was hired by the World Wrestling Federation. Not long afterwards, he was told that the group was also interested in Randy, and wanted Jimmy to facilitate the introduction.

“I couldn’t just call down to Memphis and say, ‘Hey, Vince wants to hire Randy,’” Jimmy recollects. “Everybody down there hated Vince because he was taking all the good wrestlers, and putting the territories out of business.”

As Jimmy strategized, he remembered that the Poffo brothers generated extra income by selling Herbalife products. “So I called Mr. Coffee”—Guy Coffee, a backstage figure on the Memphis circuit—“and told him that I had a guy who wanted to buy $500 worth of Herbalife,” Hart says.

“Randy calls back and says, ‘What’s this about Herbalife?’ And I said, ‘This isn’t about Herbalife.’”

The next Saturday morning, Hart met Randy and his wife, Elizabeth, outside a Memphis gym. “Randy pats me down, as if I’m wearing a wire,” Jimmy says. “He was paranoid. Then, he says, ‘My car. Not your car.’

“When I laid everything out for him, he had one question. ‘Will you take Lanny?’”

Almost immediately, Randy propelled himself to stardom. An early storyline involved the various managers in the World Wrestling Federation competing for his services. After several weeks, he revealed that he was choosing to go with the unknown Miss Elizabeth—his real-life wife—instead.

“What’s wrong with Lou Albano?” Roddy Piper asked the Macho Man on a segment of “Piper’s Pit.”

“Lou Albano doesn’t have the same pizzazz,” a twitching Randy replied, drawing out the final word.

Elizabeth was unlike any female wrestling personality before or since. A demure, soft-spoken brunette with a subtle southern accent, she exuded a vulnerability that added to her beauty. Although Randy seemed to control and sometimes bully her, he also appeared co-dependent, which led to some interesting scenarios: George “The Animal” Steele “rescuing” Elizabeth and taking her into “protective custody,” a bloody Ric Flair forcibly kissing Elizabeth after losing to Savage, Randy breaking up his tag team, the Mega-Powers, with Hulk Hogan after accusing the Hulkster of having improper intentions.

“Yeah, and I see a shark,” Savage told announcer Mean Gene Okerlund, “a shark with teeth, a shark with lust and lust and lust for Elizabeth.”

Although they’d actually been married for seven years, the pair “wed” in the ring in Madison Square Garden at the SummerSlam pay-per-view in 1991. At a “reception” later shown on television, Elizabeth opened a box to discover a deadly cobra, compliments of Jake “The Snake” Roberts. A feud with Roberts quickly followed.

“We were driving to Indianapolis, and I was in the backseat, pretending to be asleep, when Randy and Elizabeth started fighting,” Lanny says. “Elizabeth didn’t want Randy to get bitten by a King Cobra that night at the Market Square Arena. And Randy said the snake was de-venomized—Jake had told him so—and he was going to let the snake bite him because it was good business.”

The next day, Randy had a 103-degree fever. He blamed the snake bite.

Macho Man and Ricky Steamboat

Randy’s finest moment with the company occurred at WrestleMania III, where he had a match with Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat that was considered the best encounter ever seen on a World Wrestling Federation pay-per-view. Randy obsessed over the match, charting it move for move with Steamboat beforehand. Even for fans who knew that the action was predetermined, it was easy to suspend disbelief. There was a backstory involving Randy crushing Steamboat’s neck with the ring bell. In the ring, the two traded a series of thrilling near-falls—with the referee counting to two before one combatant dramatically raised his shoulder—before the official was knocked down and Randy snatched the bell to aggravate the injury. From ringside, George “The Animal” Steele pulled the weapon away. Randy turned to inflict more damage. But as he scooped Steamboat up for a bodyslam, The Dragon grabbed Savage’s left leg, rolling him to the canvas and pinning him with a small package.

As Randy and Elizabeth were transported back to the dressing room in a cart designed like a small ring, the Macho Man appeared to be crying.

“Randy was a real pro, one of the closest brothers I had in wrestling,” says fellow second generation wrestler, and five-time World Wrestling Federation champion, Bret “Hit Man” Hart. “Great timing. Great athlete. He was always very safe. He’d never do anything careless that would hurt you. I’d let Randy do anything to me in the ring.”

He was also a dynamic entertainer, a valuable asset as McMahon began making deals with licensees and advertisers. One iconic commercial featured the Macho Man asking, “Need a little excitement?” then, raising his voice like King Curtis Iaukea: “Snap into a Slim Jim!”

But Randy could also harbor a grudge, particularly when the slight was directed at his father. In 1987, the World Wrestling Federation booked an oldtimers’ battle royal at New Jersey’s Meadowlands. Angelo was still in good shape at the time, and wanted to participate. Randy lobbied for his father. But when Lou Thesz, Nick Bockwinkle, Bobo Brazil, Ray Stevens and the other retired wrestlers entered the building, they learned that Angelo had never been invited.

“Randy really loved Vince until the battle royal,” Lanny says. “He felt really bad when Al Costello, who was one of Dad’s best friends in wrestling, said, ‘Where’s your father? He should be here.’ Randy never forgot about the battle royal. He felt guilty, like he should have done more. He’d belabor the point.”

Nacho Man

Still, Randy stayed with the company and, by 1994, was appearing less in the ring and more at the announcer’s table. “What frustrated Randy was he felt he never had a match as good as the Steamboat match,” Lanny says. “He was bored with announcing, and thought Shawn Michaels could have that kind of match with him. Randy wanted to do a two-year program building up to a match with Shawn at WrestleMania. Randy would lose, retire and go back to the announcer’s table.”

Randy was just short of 42 when he presented his proposal, but still felt capable of using his physicality to enrapture a crowd. But, his brother claims, the Macho Man was informed that the World Wrestling Federation was in the midst of a “youth movement.” “So he said, ‘I think I’ll get a second opinion,’” Lanny says. “He went to WCW (World Championship Wrestling, the company’s primary rival at the time), and he took Slim Jim with him.”

Subsidized by Ted Turner, WCW had become as aggressive as the World Wrestling Federation a decade earlier, recruiting not only Randy, but Hogan, Flair, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Lex Luger and other top names. The World Wrestling Federation fought back with vignettes depicting Savage as “Nacho Man,” a geriatric has-been.

“He didn’t find any humor in his bald spot or his divorce from Elizabeth,” Lanny says. “He saw those as deliberate attempts to tarnish his brand.”

Randy held the WCW championship four times, and–despite his 1992 split with Elizabeth–brought his ex-wife in as his valet. As part of the storyline, she turned on him, and boasted about taking his money in their divorce settlement. In real life, Elizabeth eventually moved in with Luger. In 2003, her fans were shocked to learn that she’d been found dead in the Marietta, GA home they shared. Cause of death: a toxic mixture of painkillers and vodka.

By then, WCW was defunct, having been purchased and absorbed into WWE in 2001. With the exception of a brief series of appearances with TNA (Total Nonstop Action)—the closest American rival to WWE today—in 2005, Randy was finished with the wrestling business.

Injured on the Spider-Man set

Interestingly, the ailment that distressed Randy the most in retirement was incurred not in a wrestling ring, but a movie set. He’d insisted on doing his own stunts while playing Bonesaw McGraw, a wrestler who battles protagonist Peter Parker, in the 2002 movie, Spider-Man. Toward the end of the cinematic match, Randy’s character was monkey-flipped on his head. According to Lanny, the stunt took numerous takes. “He needed a lot of physical therapy,” Lanny says. “But he was never the same. Instead of turning his neck to see you, he turned his torso.”

Randy could have maintained his ties with the wrestling community by attending autograph signings and fan conventions. But he preferred limiting his interactions. Bret Hart attempted to contact Randy several times, but Lanny wasn’t allowed to give out his brother’s phone number. “Even if I had it,” Bret says, “I knew he wouldn’t call me back.

“He chose to isolate himself. And I understand that because I went through it myself. When you leave the business, all your friends are scattered all over the world. Some are wrestling. Some aren’t. On the road, you love them as brothers. But when you walk away from the business, it’s not the same kind of friendship. You’re used to seeing these guys every day. Then, you never see them at all.”

One day, Randy walked into his parents’ house and noticed that Lanny was wearing a suit.

“Where are you going?” Randy asked.

“Jack Brisco’s funeral.” Brisco, the first Native American to win an NCAA national wrestling championship, was a two-time National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) titlist and a WWE Hall of Famer. “Want to go with me?”

Randy nodded. “Maybe I would.”

“Well, come on. Let’s go.”

Randy’s eyes sparkled and a grin crept across his face. “Just kidding.”

Explains Lanny, “Randy didn’t like funerals. He didn’t even want anyone to attend his funeral.”

Although Angelo had appeared on many of the same cards as Brisco in the early 1970s, the elder Poffo’s dementia had progressed to the point that he was unaware of the latest fatality in the wrestling fraternity. Randy monitored his father’s disintegration, shuttling Angelo to virtually every doctor’s appointment.

On March 4, 2010, at Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater, the family was told that Angelo had a heartbeat, but no pulse. “I don’t want my dad to have a heartbeat with no pulse,” Randy said. “Let him go.”

“Randy prayed for Ang to die because he suffered so much,” Judy says. “But when he did die, Randy went home and punched holes in the walls. His wife’s still fixing up those holes. He was pretty good with his temper.”

Despite the sorrow, Lanny tried to find something positive to which the family could cling. “Dad lived a good life,” Lanny told his brother. “I hope I get to live to be one month shy of 85.”

“I don’t,” Randy shot back. “Do you think he enjoyed the last years of his life?”

Much of the hair above Randy’s ears had fallen out, but he’d been careful to hide it. When he walked into St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Downer’s Grove for Angelo’s funeral, though, Lanny noticed that his brother wasn’t wearing a hat. “After that,” Lanny says, “he started accepting his hair loss.”

Judy realized that Randy had also stopped coloring his beard: “What used to happen was he’d dye it and, a few hours later, the white would be coming out. It was hard to keep the beard dark.”

There was one other benefit to exposing his aging process. “He thought no one would recognize him with the white beard,” Judy says. “But they did.”

Tired of Being Angry

With Angelo gone, Randy made it a point to take Judy to breakfast four mornings a week, and openly discussed the way his body hurt each day. “If you could do it again,” she asked, “would you still pick wrestling?”

Randy didn’t hesitate when he responded, “I have no regrets.”

One of the bright parts of his life was his marriage to Lynn. He’d been in the gym about a decade earlier when a stranger approached and mentioned that she knew his girlfriend from his minor league days. Randy and Lynn quickly rekindled their romance, and moved in together. On May 10, 2010, the couple finally married—on the same spot of beach they’d first met in 1972.

Yet, even this decision was colored by Randy’s premonition that he wasn’t going to live long. “He was afraid that, when he died, we’d get everything, and Lynn wouldn’t even have a home,” Judy says. “He wanted to protect her financially.”

Notes Lanny, “He was getting closure for everything.”

For several years, Randy had not spoken to Hulk Hogan. “It was a series of misunderstandings,” Jimmy Hart says, “mountains being made out of molehills.” Hogan had mocked Randy on the radio. Following Angelo’s ICW tradition, Randy challenged Hogan to an actual fight.

The tension showed no sign of dissipating when Randy took his mother for an electrocardiogram exam one day, and a nurse informed him that Hogan was also in the office. Randy rushed out of the room. “He came up and grabbed Hulk from behind,” Judy says. “Hulk turned around and he was so happy. Randy wasn’t angry anymore.”

Adds Lanny, “He was tired of being mad all the time.”

In fact, Randy was planning a rare public appearance. In 1989, he’d been a guest announcer on a Cincinnati Reds radio broadcast, and remembered the experience fondly–especially the moment when he stood up and did a muscle shot for the crowd, and center fielder Eric Davis stepped out of the dugout and gave the Macho Man the same pose. When Lanny met Reds first baseman Joey Votto at a charity event, the incident came up, and the 2010 National League MVP invited Randy to a June, 2011 game against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Among the incentives: VIP batting practice privileges.

Randy agreed to go. But he died five weeks before the game.

Never Yielding

The night before he died, Randy invited his brother over the house. Randy wanted beer– Miller Lite–and Lanny stopped at a Publix along the route. The store was out of Miller Lite, so Lanny settled for Miller Genuine Draft. At the house, Randy grabbed the beer and examined the label.

“Son of a bitch,” he grumbled. “I send you for Miller Lite, and you can’t even get that right. Jesus Christ.” He looked at his brother and smiled.

Observes Lanny, “If he didn’t screw with you, he didn’t love you.”

Randy hadn’t talked about Angelo’s exclusion from the 1987 battle royal for several years. But recently, the subject had come up again. In Randy’s fantasy, he’d taken a hard stand on behalf of his father. Now, as he sipped on his beer, Randy told Lanny, “I handled it like Martin Luther King, and I should have handled it like Malcom X. By any means necessary.”

Lanny could anticipate the next topic of conversation: the WWE Hall of Fame. He’d never go in by himself, Randy reiterated. It was the Poffo family, or nobody at all. Since Randy spoke about his mortality so often, Lanny took this to mean that it would be his responsibility to reject the overture, if he managed to outlive the Macho Man.

“You understand what I’m talking about?” Randy emphasized.

Lanny all but rolled his eyes. “Got it the first time.”

Two years later, Lanny admits the possibility of a Hall of Fame offer causes him stress: “On the one hand, I’m so appreciative of Vince McMahon for everything he did for me. I mean, when I was The Genius, managing Mr. Perfect, I was in main events and on the Regis show–me, a career jabroni. That’s because of Vince. And the fans deserve to see Randy in the Hall of Fame. But I have to support my brother. I just think it’s absolutely insane that I’m stuck in the middle. This is the quandary I’m in.

“So here’s the way I feel about WWE. If you think the Von Erichs were better than the Poffos, that’s your prerogative. If you want Randy in against his wishes, you have my permission to do it without my permission. But don’t invite me because I won’t attend. I don’t need the 30 pieces of silver.”

Behind the security walls of Randy’s property, a feeling of melancholy pervaded the room. Randy grew pensive, but appreciative of the people with whom he’d chosen to surround himself over the last several months. “The best thing about you, Lanny,” he said, “was you always took care of Mom, and I know you always will.”

He contemplated his brother, and the irony that Lanny–who spent much of his time in the World Wrestling Federation staring up at the arena lights–seemed to have maintained his health: “I can’t believe how you survived the business and I didn’t. Every inch of me aches.”

According to the Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner’s office, Randy “Macho Man” Savage died of heart disease—an enlarged heart with severe atherosclerosis of his coronary arteries—rather than the car accident at State Road 694 and 113^th Street North. He was simply unfortunate to be driving when he suffered some type of arrhythmia that caused his heart to stop beating.

To find the site where his car came to a halt, one can park on the grounds of the Bay Pines Evangelical Lutheran Church and cut across a sun-bleached patch of grass, toward 113^th Street North. A stucco home overlooks a battered, aging tree, lined with cloth flowers and affixed with plastic wrapped signs. The lettering is starting to fade, but the messages are consistent. “Dear Poffo Family,” one notice reads. “Your Randy will be missed and remembered always.”

Lanny is asked if it feels strange to visit. “Not really,” he replies, as a crane lounges on the grass nearby. “Elvis died on the toilet.”

After his death, the family placed Randy in an open casket at a local funeral home. The only guests were Lynn and her two daughters, along with Lanny and Judy. “That’s the way Randy wanted it,” his brother says. After the Macho Man’s cremation, the same group converged on his property, and Lanny poured the ashes on the spot Randy had specified some two weeks before.

Because Randy only sustained mild abrasions in the accident, the family’s final memory of the Macho Man soothes rather than haunts. “He had a look,” Lanny says. “Even in the casket, he had that look. He looked like he was just resting until he could get up and kick your ass.

“I’ll tell you what. He had his life. And he did not yield.”

Keith Elliot Greenberg, a New York Times bestselling author and television producer, wrote for WWE’s publications for more than 20 years.

Stock Up, Stock Down for Cincinnati Reds' Top 10 Prospects for Week of May 13

Kyle Newport — Sun, 19 May 2013 22:20:59 -0400

Just over six weeks into the 2013 Major League Baseball season have gone by, and Cincinnati Reds prospects like Tony Cingrani have been able to prove what they are worth early on.

Cingrani is the only one of the top prospects to make it to the majors so far in 2013, but some of the other prospects aren't far behind.

It's still extremely early on, so prospects are still adjusting to the challenges of playing at higher levels than they are used to. As they begin to adjust to their surroundings, the team will be able to evaluate how soon they may be ready to get the call.

All eyes are on Billy Hamilton, but the rest of these prospects could be making an impact in the big leagues soon.

Here are how the top prospects in the Reds organization are doing.

*All stats are courtesy of MiLB.com unless otherwise noted

Begin Slideshow

Will Dwight Howard Spurn Logic, Lakers for Houston or Dallas?

Grant Hughes — Sun, 19 May 2013 22:15:20 -0400

The money, power and attention Dwight Howard so desperately wants are all there for the taking if he re-signs with the Los Angeles Lakers. So why isn't he shouting from the rooftops that L.A., and not Houston or Dallas, is where he longs to be?

According to Ken Berger of CBSSports.com, Howard is in no rush to commit to a Lakers return, and in fact, he's apparently giving some serious thought to a few other teams, particularly the Houston Rockets and Dallas Mavericks.

Though Howard is adamant his free agency not be marred by the circus-like environment that surrounded his departure from Orlando last summer, word already has spread to multiple levels of his support staff that Howard re-signing with the Lakers is far from a done deal.

Howard can talk about avoiding a circus all he wants, but if we've learned anything from the way he's handled virtually every public decision of his basketball life over the past couple of years, it's that he craves the attention that comes with situations like this one.

If we step back and look at the situation logically, it seems like Howard can't possibly be serious about leaving Los Angeles, can he?

For starters, Howard can make about $118 million on a five-year deal if he re-signs with his current team. Moving to another team as a free agent or as part of a sign-and-trade deal would limit Howard to "just" $88 million on a deal that could only span four years.

The NBA set up its collective bargaining agreement to encourage star players to remain with their teams, and by looking at Howard's situation as an example, it's pretty clear that there are some serious financial incentives to staying put.

And in theory, Howard's Los Angeles income wouldn't just be limited to his salary. Everyone knows that the endorsement dollars are bigger where the market is more robust, and L.A. gives D12 the opportunity to make a mint away from the basketball court.

In addition, Howard loves the bright lights and attention in Los Angeles. A place like Houston hardly provides the media exposure Howard seems to prize so highly.

Finally, we learned during the year that Howard and Kobe Bryant clashed more than once over the alpha-dog issue in L.A. The two of them never got along because both believed they were the Lakers' best player. Well, that was one issue. The other one had to do with Howard's apparent inability to conduct himself like an adult.

With Bryant recovering from a ruptured Achilles, Howard should be free to take control of the team. (God help them.)

The dollars and the attention are in Los Angeles. That's beyond doubt.

But there are a couple of positives about leaving L.A. that we've got to mention for the sake of objectivity. For one thing, there's a case to be made that wins might not be so easy to come by if Howard sticks around in Los Angeles.

With a high profile, a championship legacy and an apparent willingness to laugh as the luxury-tax threshold recedes in the rear view, the Lakers have the ability to turn things around in a hurry. But Mike D'Antoni certainly hasn't proved that he's capable of leading a winner, and based on some of his recent personnel decisions, GM Mitch Kupchak may have lost his touch.

The problem with that line of thinking, though, is that we've never seen any evidence to support the notion that Howard actually cares about winning. Sure, there were a few crocodile tears after L.A. bowed out of the playoffs, but we've seen far too much selfish behavior from D12 to believe that he was really all that distraught over being eliminated.

The case for the Rockets is pretty simple: They've got more young talent, lots of cap flexibility and a home state whose tax situation would ease the blow of the $30 million Howard would leave on the table by abandoning L.A. And for what it's worth, it seems as though at least one current member of the Rockets is interested in the idea of luring the big man to the Lone Star state.

Dallas has Dirk Nowitzki and the same tax break, but Howard has already tried his hand at joining up with an aging star in L.A., and that turned out to be an unqualified disaster.

Logically, it's difficult to imagine what Howard could want that the Lakers couldn't provide. But maybe, what Howard really wants—attention—is at the heart of this latest report.

So if you're sickened by the idea of dealing with yet another offseason in which D12 is a daily news item, you're going to need something to distract you. Well, either that, or you could take more drastic measures.

Look, Howard hasn't handled a single public relations move or career decision well since leaving Orlando. So it shouldn't be a shock that he's already mucking this one up. If reason prevails, Howard will be back in a Lakers uniform next season.

I guess the only problem with that thinking is that Howard hasn't done much lately to prove that he's a reasonable guy.

Big Ten Basketball: Ranking the Top 5 Players at Every Position

Thad Novak — Sun, 19 May 2013 22:12:06 -0400

The Big Ten was college basketball’s best conference last season, and while it may not run away with that title in 2013-14, it’s going to be awfully impressive once again. One of the striking advantages the league will again boast is a remarkable balance of elite players all over the lineup, not just in its traditional frontcourt power base.

Of course, that’s not to neglect the value of bruising big men such as Michigan star Mitch McGary. The Wolverines center could easily have declared for the NBA draft after a dazzling postseason performance, but instead he’s back to help the Maize and Blue try to climb back towards a B1G title.

Read on for more on McGary and the rest of the best players in the conference, position by position. These rankings do take potential into account, but proven performance counts for a lot more (especially in this grueling league).

Begin Slideshow

NHL Playoffs 2013: Predicting Final Outcomes of Conference Semifinals Series

Matt Fitzgerald — Sun, 19 May 2013 22:11:15 -0400

Eight teams are still in the running for the Stanley Cup in the 2013 NHL playoffs, and while a couple of the conference semifinals series seem to be one-sided, there is still ample time for the underdogs to make a rally.

Meanwhile, two of the other clashes have been more competitive to date and are anyone's for the taking. The defending champion Los Angeles Kings are still alive, and as a No. 8 seed last season, fortified the notion that any club could capture hockey's ultimate prize if it got hot at the right time.

The second and third seeds from each conference were knocked out in Round 1, making the Cup even more up for grabs thanks to the play of the upstart underdogs that defeated them.

Below is a breakdown of the current matchups in the postseason, including predictions as to what their final outcomes will be.

Note: All statistics, information and video, unless otherwise indicated, are courtesy of NHL.com.

(1) Pittsburgh Penguins vs. (7) Ottawa Senators

Sunday evening's game holds a lot of weight in the series, and as of the second intermission, the Penguins have a 1-0 lead.

It's a battle of strengths—Pittsburgh's high-octane offense against the Senators' stout defense, which gave up the second-fewest goals in the regular season and also sported the league's top penalty killing unit at 88 percent.

Thus far, the Penguins have notched four goals in the first two contests, deeming it rather meaningless whether the struggling Marc-Andre Fleury or veteran fill-in Tomas Vokoun is minding the net.

Sidney Crosby's hat trick in Game 2 confirmed his brilliance and return to form after suffering yet another injury setback during the season when he took a puck to the face.

SportsCenter tweeted the significance of Crosby's prolific display, which happened within the first 22 minutes of the game:

There is simply too much firepower in Pittsburgh for the Sens to handle. Unless Ottawa gets far more production out of their beloved captain Daniel Alfredsson—who was brilliant in the five-game disposal of Montreal—this series will be over in short order.

Retirement may be in the cards for Alfredsson, so expect him to rise to the occasion. However, it's hard to envision the Senators nabbing more than one game from the red-hot Pens.

Prediction: Penguins in five games.

(5) Los Angeles Kings vs. (6) San Jose Sharks

This series is destined to go the full seven games because it features the two teams with the worst road records in the league remaining in the playoffs.

In that context, everything has gone according to plan—even if it took the Kings two goals in 22 seconds to steal Game 2 in the Staples Center:

The two home wins preceded a crushing 2-1 overtime loss on Saturday. It was a missed opportunity to take optimal control and wasted a marvelous effort from reigning Conn Smythe Trophy winner Jonathan Quick, who denied 38 of 40 Sharks shots.

As resilient as this Kings' nucleus was in winning it all last year, San Jose showed its own mettle by pulling out a gutsy win in the face of a basically insurmountable 0-3 deficit.

Logan Couture scored the game-winning power-play goal in the extra period, despite being hobbled by a left leg injury early in the second period, per Pierre LeBrun of ESPN.

As LeBrun documents, veteran defenseman Brad Stuart went as far to call the 24-year-old Couture the leader of the team:

In my opinion, [Couture]’s probably the leader of this team. Throughout the season, he’s kind of taken that role, I think, especially on the ice. So to have him come back was huge. It’s just a boost to the guys mentally, if nothing else.

It's the type of grit that Couture displayed that can inspire a team to turn things around—especially with the season hanging in the balance. That's precisely what should happen in this instance.

The hosts will win every game of this California semifinals showdown. As a result, Los Angeles scraps its way to within four wins of representing the Western Conference in the Stanley Cup Finals once again.

Prediction: Kings in seven games.

(4) Boston Bruins vs. (6) New York Rangers

Henrik Lundqvist is one of the premier goaltenders in the NHL, which made his allowance of five goals on 32 shots in Sunday's 5-2 loss in Boston rather shocking.

Cause for alarm in that regard is illogical, considering how brilliant Lundqvist typically is, and how he stopped 45 shots in the team's 3-2 overtime loss in Game 1.

On the other hand, the NHL's Twitter page highlighted the most disturbing trend of the postseason for the Rangers thus far—Rick Nash's lack of production:

Nash was the leading goal scorer for New York during the regular campaign. This is only his second trip to the postseason, and after toiling away on horrible Columbus Blue Jackets teams for years, it's not going so well.

There needs to be more support for Lundqvist if the Rangers are meant to dig themselves out of this 2-0 hole, but that's easier said than done in some respects.

The Bruins are riding a wave of momentum after a stirring comeback in Game 7 of the quarterfinals to stun the Toronto Maple Leafs, and simply haven't looked back since. Assuming Nash gets his act together, the Rangers are capable of pulling off two wins in Madison Square Garden.

Claude Julien's club, though, seems destined to make a significant run and is playing with such emotion that it's hard to dismiss the Bruins, especially with this big of an advantage.

New York is a putrid 2-of-36 on the power play during these playoffs, and unless that substantially changes, it's simply not good enough to continue playing this late in the season.

Prediction: Bruins in seven games.

(1) Chicago Blackhawks vs. (7) Detroit Red Wings

The word underdog and the Red Wings' franchise aren't typically associated with each other. However, this isn't a Detroit team with the status of a perpetual Stanley Cup contender, as it was in the prior two decades.

It was impressive nevertheless that Mike Babcock's bunch rallied to win the final two games against the Anaheim Ducks just to get to this stage.

After looking over-matched in the opener, the Red Wings delivered a statement victory, beating the President's Trophy-winning Blackhawks by the same 4-1 margin they were pummeled by in Game 1.

Babcock commented on the leadership of his veteran stars in Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk—while also praising Chicago captain Jonathan Toews—and how it's been crucial to the Wings' success thus far, per Nina Falcone of CSNChicago.com:

That's what makes (Blackhawks captain Jonathan) Toews, Datsyuk and Zetterberg different. Those guys, that's what they do...They just compete. When it doesn't go their way, they dig down and find a way to go harder and that's why you want them around. That's a great example for the rest of your team.

With such a strong, star-studded team across the board, it's hard to believe Chicago is in this precarious of a position entering the hostile environment of Hockeytown.

Toews and Patrick Kane possess the championship experience to get it done, though, along with veteran Marian Hossa. The magnificent play of Patrick Sharp is also significantly helping the cause.

Combine that with a rock-solid defense keyed by two-way threat Duncan Keith and the wonderful play of Corey Crawford, and this team has all the pieces for a second hoisting of Lord Stanley's Cup in four years.

The Red Wings are proving to be a formidable foe, but the Blackhawks should steal one of the next two in Joe Louis Arena. In fact, considering their 18-4-2 record away from home in the lockout-shortened season, they should close it out on the road thereafter in Game 6.

Prediction: Blackhawks in six games.

Frank Beamer's 4 Biggest Challenges for the Hokies in 2013

Bryan Manning — Sun, 19 May 2013 22:06:06 -0400

The Virginia Tech Hokies are coming off an embarrassing 2012. The Hokies finished their worst season in 20 years with a 7-6 record.

The Hokies' biggest issue last season was an offense which finished No. 81 in total offense. As a result, Hokies head coach Frank Beamer reassigned former coordinator Bryan Stinespring and hired Scot Loeffler, who spent last season at Auburn, as the team's new leader on offense.

The Hokies have failed to solve Clemson recently, losing the last three meetings, and in order for them to compete with the Tigers and Florida State, Beamer knew he had put more points on the board. Virginia Tech fans hope Loeffler is the guy to take the Hokies to the next level.

Since entering the ACC in 2004, the Hokies have won the league four times and competed in the conference championship on two other occasions. However, in order to get there in 2013, the Hokies must improve.

Here are four areas that should concern Beamer the most as we stand just over three months away from the season opener against Alabama.

Begin Slideshow

Jacksonville Jaguars: What to Watch for at OTAs

Jon Shumake — Sun, 19 May 2013 22:03:34 -0400

With the craziness of free agency and the draft growing distant in the rearview mirror, the Jacksonville Jaguars can get their offseason workouts underway.

Although the team has already held several organized team activities, the majority of the workouts still lie ahead. Jacksonville has offseason workouts in two of the next three weeks, per ESPN's Paul Kuharsky.

OTAs will play a vital role for the Jaguars this season. Not only will veterans shake off rust while rookies get acclimated to life in the NFL, but the players also have to get accustomed to the new culture instilled by new head coach Gus Bradley.

The players will also get their first chances to impress the coaching staff. With Bradley preaching competition, per Alfie Crow of Big Cat Country, positive first impressions could help players make the final roster.

Here is what to watch for during the Jaguars OTAs.

Begin Slideshow

Arizona Cardinals: What to Watch for at OTAs

Shaun Church — Sun, 19 May 2013 22:00:00 -0400

The first week of voluntary organized team activities has come and gone at Arizona Cardinals camp, and already there have been players to impress head coach Bruce Arians.

He ended OTAs last week with a passionate speech in which he urged his players to “build a résumé” by showing up and working hard at the practices. He also called upon them to “state your case to be a Cardinal," according to AZCardinals.com.

Players young and old have stood out early on, and more should begin to shine over the next couple weeks.

Here is what to watch for as the Cardinals continue OTA practices, which run May 21-23 and June 3-6.

Begin Slideshow

Rafael Nadal Proves He's Still Best in the World with Rome Masters Victory

Maxwell Ogden — Sun, 19 May 2013 21:55:31 -0400

In the final of the 2013 Rome Masters, Rafael Nadal continued his clay-court dominance by decimating Roger Federer in straight sets. With the 6-1, 6-3 win, Nadal moves to 37-2 since returning from a seven-month injury layoff and earns his fifth tournament win in seven tries.

Most importantly, Nadal proves that he's still the best in the world.

As Nadal has battled injuries and thus missed an extended period of time, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray have risen to the top of the tennis world. Since Nadal has returned, however, the balance of power has returned to it's proper place.

With Nadal on top.

To truly reclaim that No. 1 ranking, it's imperative that Nadal maintains this dominance throughout the course of the season. It's of equal importance that he manages to take down Djokovic in head-to-head clashes as he regains he strength.

As for why, those same folks that said Federer was better than Nadal as the Spaniard dominated their head-to-head battles will call Djokovic's win a sign of superiority—the hypocrisy of biased analysis.

Fortunately for Nadal, he's in prime position to solidify his status as the greatest clay-court performer to ever live. That next test will come at the 2013 French Open, which is an event Nadal has dominated.

Dominance that appears replicable in 2013.

Prepping for the French Open

Rafael Nadal has won three consecutive tournaments, dominating the Barcelona Open, Madrid Open and the Rome Masters. In that time, he has defeated the likes of Roger Federer, David Ferrer, Tomas Berdych and Stanislas Wawrinka.

All of this success sets the stage for continued dominance of the French Open.

Nadal has won seven of the past eight French Open events, including the 2012 event on battered legs. During the 2012 event, he lost just one set and proved to be the greatest French Open champion in the history of the sport.

A win in 2013 would tie the all-time record of eight held by Max Decugis, who played when it was a French-only event.

With the rust officially shaken off, Nadal is in prime position to continue his dominance and win his 12th career grand slam event. With 11 titles to his name—including four not at the French Open—Nadal is more decorated than any active player not named Federer.

By comparison, Djokovic—just one year younger than Nadal—has six Grand Slam titles.

All About Success

When it comes to the elite players of the world, the group is limited to four players. That, of course, is Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, in whichever order you'd like to rank them.

Due to the tight nature of their greatness, it all comes down to two factors—who is the most accomplished and which player is the hottest?

The latter means of evaluation may seem lackluster, but it's the only way to truly determine who the best is. Abilities will always shine through, but success is the only way to measure which player is above their competition.

With Murray still having something to prove and Federer past his prime, it now comes down to Nadal and Djokovic.

Djokovic owns the head-to-head victory against Nadal this season, but has seen early exits in consecutive tournaments. He also lost to Tommy Haas in the fourth round of the Sony Open, which suggests one of two things:

Either the world has figured out how to play Djokovic, or he's hit a dry spell.

Nadal, meanwhile, is picking up where he left off, winning as many titles in 2013—five—as Djokovic and Murray have won combined. It certainly doesn't hurt that Nadal and Federer own the career Grand Slam, while Murray and Djokovic are still in pursuit.

When it comes right down to it, the only player that's even close to as successful as Nadal is the more decorated Federer—the aging legend.

When it comes right down to it, Djokovic is beginning his tenure of dominance, while Nadal is picking up where he left off on his road to legendary status. With Nadal dominating every tournament he plays in, one thing is perfectly clear.

Nadal is still the best in the world, and he couldn't have come back soon enough.

Norwich City: What the Canaries Must Do in Summer Transfer Window

James Kent — Sun, 19 May 2013 21:54:45 -0400

There is no doubt that this season has been rather touch-and-go for Norwich City fans.

Obviously, the last two results against West Brom and Man City have put a slightly different spin on things. They have certainly been encouraging with the performances showing the quality in the squad, but also the bravery to play attacking football.

However, it’s important to remember that the club has had a relatively poor second half of the season, and it’s important we analyse the reasons why that happened. I think we all know that a chronic lack of goals has been the main problem, and Norwich City will be looking to add quality to ensure the club aren’t involved in a relegation fight next season.

Manager Chris Hughton has already addressed the goalscoring issue to a certain extent by securing the signing of Ricky van Wolfswinkel. It has also been confirmed that on-loan defender Javier Garrido will be joining the club on a permanent basis; both of these deals have been confirmed via the official club website (canaries.co.uk).

Hughton suggested after the Man City win that they would try to strengthen the squad, but it’s very difficult. Clearly, this was simply a ploy to control the expectations of fans. The signing of van Wolfswinkel has shown that the Canaries are clearly playing a bit of a different ball game than they have previously been in.

No one really knows what kind of transfer budget we are working with this summer, and I wouldn’t want to even try to speculate on that. But we do know that’s it’s the biggest transfer budget that any Norwich manager has had, and we are now able to pay the sort of wages that will attract top talent to Carrow Road.

However, there is a 25-man Premier League squad issue to fit into this, so the number of players that come in is largely a matter of how many go out. Therefore, it’s unlikely we will be seeing a dozen or so new arrivals in the summer. Realistically, we are probably looking at four of five new players with the focus on quality rather than quantity.

The Norwich boss has pointed out that he is very happy with the quality of the squad that he currently has available to him. But at the same time, he will know that there are a number of players on the fringes of things that will go out if the right replacements can be acquired.

I think we all know that a few more players of the quality of Sebastien Bassong, Robert Snodgrass and van Wolfswinkel would make an amazing difference to this team and should mean that the Canaries can aim for European football rather than fighting relegation.

But it’s important to remember that there is another side to this, and that’s maintaining the squad that we already have here. I think we all know that Ruddy’s injury was a big blow to the season, and his presence has been important in the last two wins. Holding on to the England goalkeeper is arguably going to be Hughton’s biggest job during the summer.

It’s also fair to say that Anthony Pilkington has his admirers, and plenty of people would have been impressed with what they have seen from Bassong and Snodgrass this season.

Therefore, the Canaries have a busy summer ahead in those two main tasks. But if we start the 2013-14 season with the squad we have now plus a few quality additions, then I will be delighted. If that means that a few fringe players get more regular first-team football elsewhere, then that will probably benefit them as well.

Obviously, this has also been a very successful season for the youth team, after they won the Youth Cup this season. Some fans will be wondering if any of those players will be drafted into the first-team picture for next season. The youth system here is something that is being invested into, and there is the hope of unearthing the odd gem here and there.

If members of this season’s youth team are involved in the first team next season, then that is a great situation for the club. However, I do just worry that we will try to fill gaps in the first-team squad with untried teenage starlets.

There is no doubt that we need to invest in the team and then see if our young stars can force their way in or not. I want to see young players involved in the team because they have earned that right on merit, not because the injuries have hit and we don’t have anyone else.

I think most of us are fairly happy with the defensive options that are available, and we have seen an improvement on both goals conceded and clean sheets this season. Ryan Bennett in particular has shown his ability over the last few weeks, and we all know about the exploits of Bassong and Michael Turner. But I think one more central defender would be good, especially if Leon Barnett makes an expected summer exit.

It’s further forward in the midfield area that Hughton is likely to focus his attention. A midfielder who can keep calm possession of the football is likely to be wanted; I would have also added a goalscoring midfielder into the mix, but Jonny Howson is showing signs that he could solve that problem.

It will be interesting to see if it’s decided to add something in the wide positions. It is likely that Andrew Surman will be another player out of the door, so Hughton will want to bring a replacement in at the very least. It’s also important that we have enough options in the striking area; I think we can agree that Grant Holt and van Wolfswinkel are two players who are likely to score.

But can the same sort of faith be put in the likes of Wesley Hoolahan, Simeon Jackson and Luciano Becchio? That much is unclear, but throw another striker into the mix and things could get interesting. Either way, it should be a good and entertaining summer to be a Norwich City fan.

I maintain that if the club can do the sort of business they want to and keep the current squad together, then a top-half finish with possible European qualification should be the target for next season. It’s fair to say that it’s that level of ambition that will attract those potential summer signings in the first place.

On a final note, I think the majority of the business will be done in the foreign marketplace. Some top quality international players will take the club to the next level. However, I would expect that the focus will be in Europe rather than a total worldwide search.

Nevertheless, don’t necessarily think that it’s about finding a bargain. The signing of that Dutch striker proves that the club is possibly starting to flex its financial muscles.

James Kent works for BSports, a big Norwich City fan and a freelance writer. You can follow @bsportsfootball via Twitter and James via Twitter and Facebook.

The 5 Biggest Storylines to Follow During Tampa Bay Lightning's Offseason

Eric Steitz — Sun, 19 May 2013 21:50:40 -0400

The Tampa Bay Lightning entered the 2012 NHL offseason with some interesting storylines. Almost a year later, they remain the same, but another year of struggle makes this year’s stories even bigger.

The Bolts are going on three years removed from their trip to the Eastern Conference Finals (2010-11). Unfortunately, that playoff success was an exception to the general rule of playoff misses.

The Lightning will look to turn things around in 2013-14 and get back to the success of the early 2000s. Here are the biggest storylines to follow during the Tampa Bay offseason.

Begin Slideshow