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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

🏀 Dickie V gets a new deal. Dick Vitale had plenty to celebrate on Monday. In addition to it being the college basketball analyst’s 86th birthday, ESPN announced that it has signed Dickie V to a new contract through the 2027-28 college basketball season, with plans to launch the Dick Vitale Invitational event later this year.

⚽️ USMNT greats at odds. After Landon Donovan seemingly took issue with Christian Pulisic’s plans to sit out the Gold Cup (without him mentioning Pulisic by name), the father of the USMNT winger has responded to the Fox analyst. Summoning help from ChatGPT — as one does in 2025 — Mark Pulisic pointed out that Donovan was no stranger to sabbaticals of his own during his playing days.

🤼 WWE touts historic stream. Less than two months after announcing its purchase of AAA, WWE held its first co-branded event with the Mexico-based lucha libre promotion. And it appears that Saturday’s Worlds Collide event was nothing short of a success, with WWE touting the show as its largest audience ever for a live YouTube stream.

🚨LEADING OFF 🚨

What does WBD’s split mean for sports fans?

After months of reporting and speculation, Warner Bro. Discovery made it official on Monday, announcing plans to split itself into two separate companies by the middle of 2026.

One company will tentatively be called “Streaming and Studios,” while consisting of properties including Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, DC Studios, HBO and HBO Max. The other company — and perhaps most pertinent to sports fans — is currently known as “Global Networks” and will include WBD’s legacy cable networks such as TNT and TBS, TNT Sports and digital products, as well as free-to-air channels in Europe.

Streaming and Studios will be headed by current WBD CEO David Zaslav while WBD CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels will oversee Global Networks. So what does that mean for sports fans?

While it appears that HBO Max will continue to license sports for its existing rights deals, all indications are that the future of WBD’s sports properties will be with Global Networks. To that end, it’s worth noting that Zaslav took the bulk of the blame for WBD losing its NBA rights, and doesn’t appear to be interested in using sports to help anchor HBO Max past its current deals.

“Inside the U.S., sports have been less critical,” Zaslav told investors during a call on Monday according to CNBC’s Alex Sherman. “It’s viewed, but it hasn’t been a real driver for us. So it will continue to be on HBO Max, but the Global Networks business will evaluate over time where the best place for that is.”

Meanwhile, Wiedenfels confirmed that WBD’s sports rights will be a part of Global Networks, although it has yet to be determined how the company will proceed in that regard. Sherman noted that its possible that Global Networks could lease such rights to Streaming and Studios — or another entity — or even partner with a separate company such as Comcast’s upcoming spinout, Versant.

For now, the only thing that appears certain is that Zaslav will no longer oversee WBD’s sports rights, which is notable considering his track record in the arena. And while there isn’t much on Wiedenfels’ resume that can tell us much about his own sports preferences, the former Discovery executive now appears well positioned to be a major player in the industry moving forward.

👀 AROUND AA 📰 

TNT Sports is now on life support

Awful Announcing senior writer/editor/sports business extraordinaire Drew Lerner has a much stronger take on this whole ordeal. In a column for AA, Lerner explains why WBD’s split means that TNT Sports is now effectively on life support.

🎤 MEDIA MOMENTS ✍️ 

• Ben Stiller is still mourning the New York Knicks’ loss to the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals. That much was clear during the Tony Awards on Sunday night, as the Zoolander star hilariously alluded to his beloved Knicks’ playoff exit.

• If you’re looking for an NBA analyst to weigh in on the remainder of the 2025 NBA Finals, you might want to find someone other than Shaquille O’Neal. Signing off from his NBA TV duties following Game 2 on Sunday night, the Hall of Fame center made it clear he won’t be watching the remainder of the league’s championship round as he enjoys the start of his own offseason with a trip to the Bahamas.

• During an appearance with NPR, Dave Portnoy reflected on the 2019 controversy that resulted in him reaching a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board. And while the Barstool Sports founder downplayed the entire ordeal, he also insisted that his company “definitely shouldn’t have a union.”

🔥 THE CLOSER 🔥 

Is it a work or a shoot?

Pro wrestling is at its best when it blends reality with fiction.

And that appeared to be WWE’s thinking with the twist in the main event of the Money In The Bank premium live event this past Saturday night.

For the uninitiated, WWE recently informed longtime superstar R-Truth that it wouldn’t be renewing his contract. The news sent shockwaves through the company’s fanbase and resulted in audible “we want Truth!” chants at shows throughout the past week.

Then, in the final moments of the MITB main event tag team match that saw Cody Rhodes and Jey Uso take on John Cena and Logan Paul, Cena was attacked by a masked figure, who ultimately revealed himself to be R-Truth. Many fans were quick to surmise that WWE had listened to its feedback and reversed course, not only re-signing R-Truth but featuring him in a main event spot.

WWE chief content officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque — the company’s head of creative — claimed otherwise.

"I love the question. You enjoying the show?" Levesque responded to a reporter during his post-show press conference when asked whether R-Truth had actually been let go and what factors went into bringing him back if so. "It's all part of the show, man."

The only problem? All indications appear to be that R-Truth actually was let go.

That included reporting in the aftermath of Saturday’s show and press conference from Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp, who revealed that WWE president Nick Khan was directly involved in the negotiations to re-sign R-Truth following the news of his impending departure. Truth’s son also took to social media to dispute Levesque’s claim that this was all pat of an elaborate storyline, furthering the notion that the 53-year-old wrestler was set to part ways with the company.

As I pondered why Triple H would attempt to portray the situation as something it seemingly wasn’t, I was reminded of his comments in the days leading up to WrestleMania 41 this past April. Speaking to Peter Rosenberg for an extended interview that was posted to WWE’s YouTube page, the 14-time world champion took issue with those who report on the company’s backstage dealings.

“They try to tell you the sh*t that’s going on, it just ruins it for people,” he said. “The business that feeds you, you’re now ruining it for people and lessening their enjoyment of it to a large degree. Because you’re telling them all this sh*t, right or wrong, that is going to happen.”

It appears that in Levesque’s eyes, if it happens on-screen, then it’s “it’s all part of the show.” But while that might be true to a certain extent, the reality is that WWE’s audience is much smarter than that these days.

Whether Levesque likes it or not — and it’s clear he doesn’t — the audience is more looped into the company’s backstage happenings than ever before, which is something the company’s creative clearly considers with its storylines. And while WWE deserves credit for listening to its audience and bringing back a beloved figure like R-Truth, it remains curious why decision-makers like Levesque feel the need to downplay the impact that reality can clearly have on its own product.

Ultimately, pro wrestling isn’t quite real sports, but it also isn’t just scripted drama; it exists somewhere in-between. And the product is typically at its best when it leans into those shades of gray, regardless of how many fans are actually clued into what’s really going on.