WWE Comes to the US Open w/ Daniil Medvedev playing the Tennis Heel role

Pro Wrestling has come to The US Open:

Places listening - Australia in 2nd place, followed by Brazil, UK, Mexico, Vietnam, amongst others.

#1 City this week, Gosnells Australia which is a suburb of Perth out there in Western Australia.

The introductions of the players on the main court — they now dim the lights and play music when players come out

Star Singles players are now pairing up for doubles and playing before sellout crowds - like Tag Teams

Andy Murray is playing - Coco Gauff is teamed with Katie McNally - they’re 15 and 17 respectively

Kristie Ahn is a local kid born 2 miles away in Flushing hospital. This is storybook stuff.

Naomi Osaka brought Coco out for post match interview - going for the Tear Jerking moment on live TV - whether spontaneous or planned - it was both authentic and made for TV.

Djokovic gets booed because he has to withdraw from the match against Stan Wawrinka. “Joker” is in the midst of a run in which he’s won 4 of the past 5 majors and injury bug finally catches him.

People Booed because they wanted a longer match — but he handled it great.

13th mid-match retirement for Djokovic, 6th in a major

Now openly stating his goal to break Federer’s record - this has got to be killing him.

Stan Wawrinka seeded 23 - finally seeded again after a few rough years of injuries. Two knee surgeries. He’s just 6-19 against Joker but has now won 2 in a row including when he won the US Open against Joker. Stan is a 3 time major champion and the crowd is going to be ALL IN on him in his next match.

Because Stan’s next match is against the guy who we’re actually here to talk about today.

#5 Seed, Daniil Medvedev of Russia. Perfect wrestling heel behavior. He was rude to a ball boy in public. He gave a thinly veiled middle finger during his 3rd round match.

Crowd started booing him and in his post match press conference.

He basically went all Ravishing Rick Rude on them.

Told them in a very sarcastic / mocking tone that the energy they gave him motivated him to keep pushing, and that if they keep that same level of energy for him, he’d have enough energy to win 5 more matches and take the title.

He followed that up against a German Qualifier, Dominik Koepfer, who played at Tulane. Crowd was literally chanting “Let’s Go Koepfer” in unison like it was a Yankees Game.

He got down a set - and then came back to win the match in 4 sets. He again mocked the crowd in sarcastic fashion and essentially is “DRINKING IN THE BOOS”.

But. this is genius. The guy is #5 seed in tournament and nobody outside of tennis circles knew him or was talking about him before this. In a world in which everybody is talking about the Big Three and Serena… he’s a top five player in the world toiling in anonymity.

My take is, he’s seen how much attention Nick Kygrios (sp?) gets for his antics, and he’s like - I’m way more consistent than that guy - I’m as good as pretty much anybody. If they won’t love me, and if they won’t acknowledge me as a really good player… i’m going to brand myself as the heel.

And that’s working this week. The interesting part will be if he embraces this long-term and how that plays out if he does.

Luke warm take - if he wins the US Open - I bet the President congratulates him on twitter, and might even invite Medvedev to White House.

But Stan Wawrinka looks like he’s all the way back - so we’ll see if he even gets to the Quarterfinals. NYC loves a hero, but they also love a villain.

Last thing, How about Nadal and Federer have never met each other in the US Open ever, in any round of the tournament.

HBO's "The Night Of" episode 1 & 2 recap and predictions w/ Dan Ruttle

"The Night Of" HBO Series Premier and episode 2

Unofficial Sponsors of the Week - Pokemon GO, A Workman’s Friend in Charlotte (Home of the Bloody Jimmy) and  Square Space - where you can find us at www.filibusterfreestyle.com

Outlandish theory of the week — outlandish question of the week — Why doesn’t the NRA seem to ever be around when the police get attacked? 

Pokemon GO - dude at Trader Joe’s asked me if if was playing it in line today — we will be digging into this during our Republican National Convention coverage ( RNC   

UFC Misha Tate lost her belt — The UFC needs Ronda Rousey back in a big way

Episode 2 notes

James gandolfini is credited as an executive producer — what’s that back story?

The Cops who apprehended Nas are speaking to investigators

Torturro - the lawyer with flip slops and exema. John Torturro doesn’t want to know the truth. 

Nas’ parents are heading to manhattan to see him in jail. 

Detective guy - seems to be calling the dead girl’s father. Her Apartment has blood way up on the taxidermy mounted deer. She really got brutally stabbed blood is everywhere. “Box” is the detective guy’s name. Nas’ inhaled is still at the scene and is an exhibit of evidence. 

Body is going to the morgue - The dude who plays Tom Yates on "House of Cards" is on this show. Solid cast. The dead girl is his step daughter. I’m very much dubious of him already. The way he answered the phone with disdain for her, the way he didn’t want to look at the body

Torturro’s character weird dude

The step father “ Mr Taylor” is his name. The detective guy, Box stops him for a talk/ cigarette.  Girls name is Andrea — her mom is dead and her biological dad is dead. Step dad lives in Queens — i’m feeling like a motive is under the surface, i’m sure that’s what they want me to think.

Box is back and he’s gonna let Nas see his parents — he’s listening in. Nas wisely switches to Pakistani. 

Box and Torturro (Name is John Stone) having a little snack machine face off - Stone feels good that Nas hasn’t been charged yet

Who’s more in over their head. Nas or the lady cop and the dude cop who puked.

Box - is laying it on pretty thick on this buddy buddy - wholesome cop stuff — brings Nas his inhaler. Really working those mind games, bringing God into it, etc — Nas stone walls him and Box decides to charge him with Murder officially

Stone takes the subway everywhere - true New Yorker. Was in a Harvard t-shirt is a little heavy handed in the paddy wagon

Being a cop who drives the paddy wagon seems about as lackluster as possible. 

Dude has a cell phone up his rear end - a pretty grave picture is being painted.

Who is the kid at Torturro’s house - guessing a son - guessing he’s got an ex-wife — answer on that is yes

Cops are dusting the entire car - then go to Nas’ parents house with a court order/ search warrant.

Box is talking the DA i guess - she seems like a tough tough lady

Arraignment - Judge denies bail - Nas is in tough shape - he’s going to like real jail - Rikers Island — yikes

Scenes from the next - probably gonna get darker

Serial Podcast parallels

Episode 1 Notes

Main Character is in Jackson Height Queens — seems to be really likeable kid, really wants to fit in with his Ball buddies.

Looks like he might be taking the family “cab” - he does

Cops help hm get two stoners out of the cab

I cryptic chick jumps in the cab — clearly she’s having a bad night

Clearly he’s love struck

Surveillance cams are clearly a big deal / Hearse driver seems pretty interesting

They are chilling on the hudson river under the GW bridge - Taking pills from cryptic strange white girls, that ain’t the move homie, this girl seems pretty suicidal at first blush 

Parked in front of a hydrant / dudes are making “terrorist jokes”/ he’s allergic to cats, she’s making tequila shots - he’s not a drinker — and between the promos and the eery music and doing shots — there’s a lot going on. And now we’re doing coke? Big first night in Manhattan

This girl has a death wish - we’re 24 mins in, and she’s rubbing her bloody hand from the knife on his body - poor guy needed an inhaler prior to boone time. Fade to black and he’s passed out on her kitchen counter with the frig door open - he goes back up stairs and she is brutally murdered

Locks his keys in her apt - breaks into her house to get them back - he’s got a parking ticket - neighbors watches him run away — this ain’t gonna go well, but we knew that — an the cops pull him over with a bloody knife in his car. I feel really bad for this guy. The cops literally bring him back to the scene of his transgressions. Interesting wrinkle

The guy from Veep is on this show. Michael McKeon is involved - or is it him — it’s not - jail’s just don’t look a lot of fun

the witness guy is there the kid has the knife on him, 

The character actor who played Bodie on "the Wire" from earlier comes back and now HE gets picked up by the cops for questioning - perfect storm is brewing - he almost got out of there. Oh man, this is a pretty crazy first episode

very good use of minimalism - compared to a game of thrones - this poor dude

Torturro shows up - clearly a low rent attorney — and he’s on to something - ps no idea this was gonna be 90 mins long

When the dad realizes his taxi is gone / fade to black/ i’m feeling very optimist that this is going to be a very interest show