Though he’d probably never admit it, and what pisses him off most is that MJF knows it (MJF’s whole character is knowing the things you don’t want to talk about), Tony Khan would tell you with no one else around that MJF is absolutely the heart of AEW. It’s why he brought him back after he completely shit all over the company, whether in kayfabe or not. It’s why he’s immediately back in the main event scene. It’s why AEW is at its best when MJF is at the center of it.

Or at least, MJF is one-half of the company’s soul. He’s the dark half. Whether Jon Moxley or Hangman Page is the light side, we may never truly know (there have been some whispers that Hangman was supposed to go over last night before his completely deflating and scary injury, but thankfully it sounds like he’ll be okay in time). Either is a fine choice. Mox is the first big import from the other side, the one who follows the true nature of the industry and especially AEW, brawling and jawing his way to the top of the business. There is no fight Mox won’t accept, no length he won’t go to, as far as what he’ll put his body through. He is the dignity.

Which means MJF is the brains. There is no length MJF won’t go to to be at the top, but in his case, it means no corner he won’t cut, no dastardly maneuver beneath him. If Moxley will walk through hell to get what he wants, MJF will find a side door no matter who or what is in the way or who or what has to be bought.

This is what the business is all about, and no great moment in any company has come without the two extremes facing off at each other. Hulk and Andre, Rock and Austin, Bryan and The Authority. AEW has been a lot of things the past year or so, but MJF last night is bringing it back to what it does best and what it will be going forward.

If you missed it, or just want to see it again, last night’s excellent Dynamite was centered on a promo segment between MJF and William Regal, the manager/inspiration for the Blackpool Combat Club faction. MJF recounted the story of auditioning for Regal at WWE seven years ago, how Regal pulled him aside and assured him he’d have a job if only he was old enough (MJF was 19 at the time), to stay in touch for when the time came, and how Regal eventually spurned him only a few months in.

To merely put the timeline on a screen doesn’t do the promo anywhere near justice. It was yet another Joker-origin story from MJF, to match his work with CM Punk (the fact that MJF has competition for his best promo at this level tells you everything). The heartache Regal’s dismissal caused, the sense that all was lost and nothing mattered, the spite that MJF let become his driving force, the bile it caused to toss out any sense of decency or morality in his rise to the top, it was basically wrestling pathos distilled to its essence. And best. Watch it if you have any time today. Much like MJF laid the blame at Punk’s feet for his nihilism, he was ready to cast his entire persona and actions as the result of Regal. Nothing is ever MJF’s fault, of course, because that’s how heels see the world.

Regal is hardly a slouch on the mic either, and there are few who could stand in that right after MJF’s promo and be his equal. Regal is one, and he informed MJF that he blew him off those years ago to inspire him, to make him what he saw he could be. But MJF had cut every corner and schemed his way to the top instead of fighting like Moxley had, and now Regal wondered which path he would take. It set up gargantuan stakes for their match later set for Full Gear in a month. Will MJF rise to the occasion and turn face and actually fight through hell to be where he’s always seen himself, to be what Regal saw then? Or will the glimpse of the peak cause him to sink more deeply into what got him here in the first place and pull off something ungodly evil and cheap? Who can wait to find out?

And this is MJF taking AEW to what it has always done best — long-term storytelling. It’s not that AEW or Tony Khan lost itself in the past year or 18 months. Being the “big buzz” company where there was a new arrival seemingly every week was necessary to establish itself as a real alternative and destination. With every Miro, Malakai, Punk, Cole, or Danielson that showed up on AEW, the more it looked like the place to be. Not just a flashy alternative but something with a true foundation that would last. The pops and buzz are a big reason it looks set for the long haul and has such a dedicated fanbase.

But it’s easy to get lost in that, and as Khan collected more and more toys it all got a bit jumbled. Hey, it’s a new company; it’s allowed some stumbles. The roster got a little bloated, too many had to get on TV, and there was less and less time to do what made the company truly special, and that’s build slowly into and through feuds with cathartic payoffs.

AEW’s most memorable matches or moments are things like Hangman overcoming his lack of belief and seeing his “friends” for what they truly were as he defeated Kenny Omega for the title. It’s MJF laying out what Punk truly is and how Punk created him. It’s Mox and Jericho being the company’s first Light vs. Dark feud with Mox coming out on top. It’s last week when Orange Cassidy paid off a years-long run with PAC and won the All-Atlantic title, showing PAC he’s more than a gimmick and can be as serious as The Bastard is and be better at it. These things take time, and the patience to cite history and to let the wrestlers paint the picture. That’s harder to do when you’re trying to cram so much onto TV.

AEW got the mileage out of being the new guy, being the hot new club, and now it has to find the next chapter. And sometimes that’s going back to what came before, what made you the place everyone wanted to come to originally. Cyclically, as is always the case with wrestling, it’s WWE that’s trying to gas itself up recently on new appearances, even if it’s just recently released or constantly underused wrestlers now getting big exposure like Johnny Gargano or Mustafa Ali or Tommaso Ciampa in the recent past.

So AEW will go back to textured storytelling. MJF is its best at it. You saw more seeds of Jamie Hayter and Britt Baker last night splitting. Swerve In Our Glory may be working their way back to The Acclaimed for Full Gear.

It’s not perfect. The company needs Eddie Kingston in something. What is going on with the TNT Title now? Why isn’t Samoa Joe threatening someone’s life every week goddammit? Toni Storm could use something like this. But this feels pickier than it did two weeks ago.

MJF’s darkness has been built throughout AEW’s entire existence. So has Mox’s righteousness. The show and company have an anchor now, the heaviest kind. The soul of the company is at stake with all sorts of strands and twists possible.

AEW’s ethos has always been that what is simple is what’s usually best. Great matches, invigorating characters, and clean stories. When you let them simmer to just the right temp, there’s nothing better. Back to basics, and AEW is back to its best. 

I heard your collective sighs when reading the headline and kicker to this story. Great, the most dominant conference in the country only hoards a bigger portion of the most exclusive quartet in college football. How could that be good for the sport? Calm down, Tommy. (what I’m choosing to call the people who groaned without reading a word). The College Football Playoff’s expansion is on its way in a few years and that problem will be solved. For now, it’s not the Southeastern Conference’s strongest squads’ faults that the rest of America can’t keep up.

The SEC has four strong options to make the CFP, by far the most for any league in America. If Ole Miss, Tennessee, Georgia, or one-loss Alabama win out, they’re in, no questions about it. The Crimson Tide and Rebels still have to play and a loss for Alabama would knock it out of title contention. The de-facto SEC East championship game between the Bulldogs and Vols will be Nov. 5 in Athens. A one-loss UGA or UT team, with their only defeat coming the first Saturday in November, would look awfully tempting to the committee. That’s exactly what happened to Alabama in the 2018 playoff. After being left out of the SEC title game, it earned the No. 4 seed, beat No. 1 overall Clemson, and won the natty over Georgia in Tua Tagovailoa’s star-making moment. I don’t think Ole Miss would be given the same second chance at a championship in the same vein Texas A&M didn’t get one in 2020.

Let’s narrow the options of invaders to this nightmare for some, pipe dream for others. Let’s throw each Group of Five hopeful off the boat first. Cincinnati was nice last year, but nothing close exists in 2022. The Big 12 has three options left, with none looking too promising. TCU is the league’s lone undefeated team left, with Kansas State and Oklahoma State as its pair of one-loss teams. The Wildcats played the Horned Frogs and Cowboys over the next two weeks. By the time November rolls around the Big 12 will have a maximum of two teams with CFP dreams alive. Too many good, but not great, teams exist in the Big 12, and TCU will get knocked from its perch eventually. The league isn’t getting into the CFP this season. Sorry to point out what should be obvious.

The Pac-12 is the next closest to be wholesale shoved out of the CFP picture, but its options look better than the Big 12, also with three teams still in contention — Big Ten-bound UCLA and USC, alongside Oregon, whose only loss was getting demolished by Georgia. The Bruins still have to go through the Trojans and Ducks as the Pac-12’s remaining undefeated team, and then win the conference championship game. It’s an unlikely trio of victories and will shoot down their chances of making it to the CFP. Despite losing to Utah, USC is the conference’s best chance to make it into the playoff, but running the table is necessary. Oregon’s opening-week defeat will be a tough pill to swallow for the committee, unless it runs the table and looks dominant, which I think has minuscule odds.

A foreshadowed 75 percent SEC CFP’s biggest roadblock is Clemson, as the Big Ten will get at least one team and there’s no changing that. Ohio State and Michigan as a pair are too good for both to be denied. Whoever wins that matchup in Columbus later this year will destroy the Big Ten West winner and head into the playoff. I’m not going out on a ledge in making that prediction at all. But, anyway, back to the ACC, which hasn’t had a non-Clemson team in the CFP since its inaugural competition if you discount the changes that made a Notre Dame appearance count under the conference’s banner two years ago. Yeah, Syracuse looks strong now, and Wake Forest and North Carolina do have paths to the promised land, but it won’t happen. Can anyone really envision a scenario where one of those three makes it? They’d all get demolished by one of the SEC’s best. Clemson’s silver-platter schedule compared to its national-title-hopeful contemporaries will lead to a spot in the CFP if it wins out. The Tigers are better than they were a year ago. Even as a one-loss conference champion, they’d make it in over a third SEC team.

The three-team SEC scenario has to be both Georgia and Tennessee, as well as either Alabama or Ole Miss. There’s no way two teams from the SEC West and one of the Volunteers or Bulldogs can be plugged in. A one-loss Rebels team that doesn’t get in the SEC Championship game would make the New Year’s Six, but wouldn’t have enough quality wins to make the playoff. If either Tennessee or Georgia trip up before or after their clash, this scenario goes out the window. It’s due to the strength of Josh Heupel’s team that this scenario isn’t laughed out of any discussion immediately.

Is this scenario likely? No. The diverse selection committee wouldn’t put three teams from the same conference together unless they had no other move. A lot of dominos have to fall the SEC’s way for it to occur, but a lot of unlikely scenarios, such as Oklahoma already having three losses, have already fallen Greg Sankey’s league’s way. Two teams from the same conference getting into the playoff has happened in three of the last five editions, including each of the last two years. A slippery slope exists giving the SEC a trio. Now back to your collective groaning until we get an expanded playoff. 

The Golden State Warriors collected their NBA championship rings on opening night before smashing the Los Angeles Lakers, 123-109. After watching this game, it looks like we could experience déjà vu this time next year. It’s only one game, but there isn’t a team in the NBA that can contain this offense once the postseason rolls around.

This version of the Warriors might not be as dominant as the version with Kevin Durant. They’re just as good all around, though, because of depth and the ability to defend at a high level. In fact, this version could surpass the 2016-19 version because they’ve meshed the old and the new together and already proved you can win a championship while building for the future. After watching that performance against the Lakers, the Warriors are clearly hungry for more.

Stephen Curry didn’t have a great shooting night but still led all scorers with 33 points. Golden State has so many ways it can dismantle a team that it’s almost unfair. On any night, Klay Thompson could be the one to make you pay. The next night, it might be Andrew Wiggins, then Jordan Poole. Now James Wiseman is back in the fold, and in his first game back, he contributed eight points, seven rebounds, and a blocked shot.

A little drama never hurts

Draymond Green is still Draymond Green and posted his usual triple-single while leading the effort on defense. As bad as the Green-Poole punch incident was made out to be, that seems to have been put behind them and now the goal is winning back-to-back titles. Golden State held LA to 43 percent from the field and a despicable 25 percent from three-point range. We’ll give more credit to the Lakers than the Warriors for the horrible shooting from deep because they couldn’t shoot it last year either, and it seems not much has changed in that regard.

One thing you look for in a team’s first couple of games after winning a championship the previous season is how hungry they are. Are they still going to make that extra pass, close out hard on that shooter in the corner, or fight on the glass for rebounds? The Warriors checked all those boxes in game one, and it feels like we’re headed down the same road as last year, only this time, there are more believers onboard the Golden State train headed to Kingsville.

Deeper than most

Depth is a killer, and when you add quality minutes to that, it’s a lethal combination. The Warriors had 10 players that logged at least 13 minutes on the floor last night. As expected, Curry, Thompson, Poole, and Wiggins all scored double-figures. The bench is where Golden State has a massive advantage over most teams, and that was no different on Tuesday night.

Golden State’s bench outscored LA’s 41-24, and there’s your ball game, folks. The bench was outscored by 17, and the Lakers lost this game by 14, 123-109. While the stars usually shine bright for the Warriors, what separates them is their bench and how easily they plug guys in. Donte DiVincenzo came over to Golden State in the offseason and, in his first game, shot 50 percent overall and from three-point land. JaMychal Green, another offseason acquisition, shot 50 percent from the field and over 66 percent on his threes.

No competition

There aren’t many teams in the Western Conference who can match the Warriors. The Clippers might have the best opportunity based on their personnel and depth, but in a clutch situation in the postseason, the Warriors have proven to be head and shoulders above the rest too many times. Some have picked the Denver Nuggets to storm the West and capture the No. 1 seed.

That could happen, as it isn’t about regular-season success for the Warriors at this point. There will be points in the season where they don’t look quite like themselves, just like last season. But when it counts, they’ll be there in the end because they know what it takes to win and know they need to set a steady pace through the regular season.

As for the Lakers. Just pray. Much prayer will be needed to put this team in a position to compete for a championship. Competing to make the playoffs might be a big enough battle for LeBron James’ crew. There will be lots of stat sheet stuffing in L.A. this year as James chases Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time scoring record.

There had to be a reason that there doesn’t appear to be a significant movement by NFL team owners to try and do something to get Dan Snyder out of the league. It was one thing when he simply was spending money in all of the wrong places and gradually eroding all of the passion in one of the NFL’s top markets. However, in recent years, reports have been released about the Washington football franchise that would lead a reasonable person to believe it’s as toxic as fracking wastewater.

According to a recent ESPN report, many NFL team owners do want Snyder out but they want no part of his vengeful side. Snyder allegedly has hired private investigators to gather damaging information about the other team owners. Well, one member of the NFL’s 32 leaders has clearly had enough and doesn’t care what information Snyder’s private investigators may or may not have. That person is Indianapolis Colts team owner Jim Irsay, and hopefully, it opens the door for more NFL team owners to speak.

“I believe that there is merit to remove him as owner of the [former racial slur nickname],” Irsay said to the media in New York on Wednesday.

Merit, there certainly is that. There was the cheerleader trip of 2013 in which sex trafficking techniques allegedly were used, the slew of employees that were fired for allegedly sexually harassing female employees and media, and a 2009 sexual assault accusation against Snyder by a woman who received a $1.6 million payout, which he and his attorney’s claim he agreed to only to avoid the hassle of court. Another former employee accused him earlier this year of inappropriate sexual contact in 2008. Snyder has denied all allegations of wrongdoing.

This toxic workplace culture is currently being investigated by the United States Congress, and even NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was called before the congressional committee to testify. An NFL investigation has already revealed that Washington’s workplace was indeed toxic and Snyder was fined $10 million and suspended. The situation almost sounds similar to an NBA owner who was forced to sell recently. Robert Sarver’s workplace was toxic and hostile towards women — as was he — and he was also fined $10 million and told to step away from day-to-day operations.

The main difference between the two is Sarver used racial slurs, while Snyder instead allowed them to be painted in the end zone, and also none of the women accused Sarver of sexual misconduct. The NFL had the results from their independent investigator presented orally, as opposed to the NBA, who released theirs publicly. Don’t expect the House Oversight Committee to act similarly to Goodell.

Sarver decided to walk away shortly after he received his punishment. Snyder is still hanging on, even though ESPN’s Seth Wickersham tweeted out that Goodell confirmed that his status hasn’t changed when it comes to his involvement with the team, while Snyder’s lawyers said that his “punishment” was over in the ESPN report. In response to Irsay’s comments, Snyder released a statement that, for a second time, denied the ESPN report, and was adamant that the franchise will not be sold.

For whatever reason, the NFL has taken no swift action to try and get rid of Snyder. Finally, at least one of the people in charge spoke up. Snyder is facing decades of allegations of sexual harassment by his franchise, by many different people, and in two different countries. Sports Illustrated released a report about former Carolina Panthers team owner Jerry Richardson’s alleged sexual harassment and use of a racial slur in 2017 and his team was up for sale in less than 12 hours. A man with a statue of himself outside of the Panthers’ home stadium bailed in a hurry.

Irsay told the media he’s not scared of any information that Snyder might have on him. His battle with alcoholism and prescription painkiller addiction has been public for decades. He has even spoken on the record about it.

A lot of times the whistleblowers, and other people who speak out, aren’t the most pristine figures. Yet, it’s their words that can lead to change or justice. At least we know in advance that Irsay is flawed, and it’s not some team owner whose history we don’t know that Snyder might reveal.

Irsay was right, what is alleged to have happened in Washington shouldn’t be tolerated, and allegedly, it has been tolerated for far too long, up to the point where Snyder is supposed to not have had any say in how his franchise runs for more than a year. Irsay said the loud part out loud, and now the ball is in the court of the rest of the team owners.

For once there is some pressure on them to give an account of how they feel about one of their own bringing shame to the shield.