Monday Morning Pick-Me-Up: Daniel Bryan's Emotional Goodbye
STILL THE CHAMP
How do you get an arena full of people to cry about a fake sport? Give a speech worthy of their tears. At the end last week's episode of Monday Night Raw (broadcast from KeyArena), former WWE champion and Aberdeen native Daniel Bryan (real name: Bryan Danielson) announced his early retirement from professional wrestling at the age of 34 for medical reasons.
The originator of the superpopular "Yes!" chant soaked in the adulation of the hometown crowd, explained his concussion issues, and expressed his gratitude for all the business had given to him. (Can you imagine the NFL giving a superstar who is retiring because of concussions time on its biggest weekly platform to say, "A week and a half ago I took a test that said maybe my brain wasn’t as okay as I thought it was"?) It was the funeral for a superstar career, and the eulogy Bryan delivered was pitch perfect.
While the WWE has released partial clips of the speech online, it's hard to get its full impact when chopped up. Thankfully, a fan in KeyArena captured the whole thing...
THEY KEEP GO-ING, AND GO-ING, AND GO-ING...
Hot take: OK Go is pretty good at this making music videos thing. Last week, the band once again proved why they're the best in the business at high concept choreography by releasing the clip for "Upside Down and Inside Out." This time OK Go defied the laws of gravity by filming in an S7 Airline plane capable of achieving zero gravity for short, 27 second intervals (Stereogum posted a cool little behind-the-scenes video showing just how difficult it was to shoot the video). In those little burst they manage to cram in weightless flips, an onslaught of floating balls, spinning flight attendants, busting piñatas, and exploding paint balloons. It's pure frenetic bliss.
OK Go - Upside Down & Inside OutHello, Dear Ones. Please enjoy our new video for "Upside Down & Inside Out". A million thanks to S7 Airlines. #GravitysJustAHabit
Posted by OK Go on Thursday, February 11, 2016
BOOMSHAKALAKA
In recent years, it has become hip to talk trash about the NBA Dunk Contest. People bemoaned that nobody was rising to the level of past champs like Michael Jordan and Vince Carter. Bothell High School's own Zach LaVine made waves last year with his championship winning performance, but on Saturday night he and Aaron Gordon upped the stakes and put on one of the best dunking displays ever. If the Dunk Contest had faded, it's certainly back now.
While LaVine and Gordon "warmed up" with some terrific jams in the first round, things went nuclear when the pair squared off in the final. Gordon opened up by grabbing the ball from the Orlando Magic mascot—who was spinning on a hoverboard—and throwing down a huge scoop slam. Just the timing alone on that is unreal. It was on. From there, Gordon and LaVine continued to match dunks that received perfect scores (50), with LaVine eventually triumphing in the third bonus dunk-off. Many immediately called it the best Dunk Contest of all time (I'm partial to the game-changing performance by Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady in 2000). While LaVine has the hometown connection, it needs to be pointed out that Gordon was robbed. There is no way that LaVine's first dunk in the final round was a 50 on par with the hoverboard scoop. Also, Gordon's final dunk should've absolutely received a perfect score. He took it behind his head, down as low as he could, and then back behind his head. And all that's not even mentioning that Gordon's second dunk in the final round, where he jumped high enough to basically sit on the mascot and still get the ball underneath his posterior, might be the most impressive jam ever. (That said, we're all really winners getting to witness this.)THE BEE'S KNEES
For the love of all that is good, please watch Full Frontal with Samantha Bee. Beyond supporting the only female host on late night television, the show is great. The new once a week news comedy program debuted last Monday on TBS, and delivered immediately. It's like The Daily Show and Last Week Tonight had a delightfully cranky baby. Bee opened the premiere talking about the presidential campaign and came out of the gate with viciously cutting wit: mocking Hilary Clinton's insincere pandering, Marco Rubio's robotic nature, and Ted Cruz's documented unlikability, and more.
Full Frontal airs on Mondays at 10:30pm on TBS.
