Category: Entertainment

A WrestleMania so big, it required two nights!

With everyone busy social distancing and staying inside amid the coronavirus pandemic, WrestleMania 36 proved to be the perfect distraction this weekend. As we previously reported, rather than cancel the beloved wrestling event, the WWE declared that they would make WrestleMania a mega, two-night live stream event.

Although the WWE’s best and brightest didn’t have fans cheering in the audience, they still put on one heck of a show from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, FL. From The Undertaker and AJ Styles‘ epic boneyard match to John Cena‘s wild face-off against “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt, WrestleMania was jam-packed with some major moments.

Oh and we can’t forget to mention Brock Lesnar and Drew McIntyre‘s intense match. (More on that later!)

But those weren’t the only highlights from this year’s show. Scroll down to see our top 5 major WrestleMania 36 moments!

1. Becky Lynch Retains Her Title

Heading into WrestleMania, Lynch (also referred to as The Man) was the longest reigning Raw Women’s Champion. She nabbed the title from Ronda Rousey during WrestleMania 35 and has held onto it ever since.

Yet, many wondered if she’d be dethroned by the ferocious Shayna Baszler, who infamously bit Lynch in the neck during one match.

Thus, it wasn’t surprising when the Lynch vs. Baszler match turned out to be quite the slugfest. Even though Baszler had Lynch in her signature Kirifuda Clutch, The Man found a way to escape it. In fact, Lynch reversed the move and pinned a shocked Baszler.

We can’t say we’re surprised that Lynch kept her title, she is The Man after all.

2. Braun Strowman Is the New Universal Champion

Goldberg has been stripped of his title following his face-off against the 6′ 8″ Braun Strowman. This was definitely shocking since Strowman wasn’t originally supposed to wrestle the WWE legend.

As WWE fans surely know, Goldberg was slated to go up against Roman Reigns. However, since Reigns is immunocompromised following his past battles with leukemia, he had to walk away from the showdown.

Nonetheless, the Goldberg vs. Strowman match was one to remember. Why? Even after four spears from Goldberg, Strowman didn’t falter. He responded with four powerslams of his own and, in turn, won the Universal Champion title.

3. One of the Best WrestleMania Matches of All Time

WrestleMania 36’s boneyard match between The Undertaker and AJ Styles was dramatic, unique and cinematic. The brains behind this showdown certainly used the lack of audience to their advantage as they had the wrestlers face off on a closed set.

The bout, which featured a spooky abandoned farmhouse, a shovel, an empty grave, sneak attacks and so much more, could easily be described as a masterpiece.

At first, it seemed that Styles would take the match as he was on the verge of burying his opponent alive. Yet, The Undertaker teleported onto the roof of the farmhouse and choke-slammed Styles from the high ground.

Well played, sir. Well played.

4. John Cena Goes Against The Fiend—and Loses!

Heroes don’t always win.

We learned this the hard way as we watched WWE legend Cena get defeated by Wyatt’s The Fiend. While we really thought Cena would come out on top in this good vs. evil match, The Fiend proved to be a formidable opponent (as well as highly entertaining).

So, how did Cena end up defeated at WrestleMania? After entering the Show of Shows to his standard entrance, The Fiend took control of the broadcast and lured Cena into a fun house. It was called the “Firefly Fun House Match” after all.

Upon entering the trippy fun house, Cena was met by a puppet version of Vince McMahon and was subsequently forced to relive the many stages of his WWE career. Yes, even Doctor of Thuganomics.

As this wild introspective attack came to an end, The Fiend grabbed Cena by the face using his signature move, the Mandible Claw.

5. The Beast Is Defeated by the Chosen One

In what was a shockingly short match, Drew McIntyre fulfilled “the Chose One” prophecy by defeating the beastly Brock Lesnar. The Scottish Terminator earned the chance to face off against the WWE Champion as he was the winner of the 2020 Men’s Royal Rumble.

McIntyre left the WWE back in 2014, only to return in 2017 with one goal in mind: a WrestleMania championship title. Even though McIntyre was more determined than ever to defeat Lesnar, his victory wasn’t a shoo-in.

Regardless, thanks to a series of Claymore Kicks, he earned the pinfall victory.

What was your favorite WrestleMania moment?

There’s a revenge dress and there’s a breakup dress…

It’s safe to say that Bachelorette star Clare Crawley had one of the most memorable breakup dresses in Bachelor Nation history.

When she was a contestant on The Bachelor in 2014, the 39-year-old star made jaws drop when she called things off with Juan Pablo Galavis. 

As many fans will remember, Crawley stood up for herself and told the 38-year-old lead exactly how she felt during the finale.

“Do you know how I feel? Do you know when I made my decision?” the soccer star asked the blonde beauty. 

“It doesn’t matter to me,” she responded, as she started to walk away from him. “I lost respect for you. Because, I’ll tell you what, I thought I knew what kind of man you were, what you just made me go through, I would never want my children having a father like you.”

While many assumed The Bachelorette star would’ve gotten rid of her famous asymmetrical teal dress, she recently shared that wasn’t the case.

Taking to Instagram Stories, Clare revealed that she still had her cocktail number, which still had its lavish beading.

“Cleaning out closets today… look familiar?!,” she captioned her post, which has now expired, but has been shared by her fans. “Fun fact: the entire zipper is shredded and unusable because I ripped this dress off as soon as I got into the car.”

Despite the circumstances, she explained the main reasons for holding onto the stylish piece.

“2 reasons I kept it: 1) Cary hand-beaded this and it meant the world to me,” she wrote. “2) It was the most empowering moment of my life.”

Interestingly enough, Clare recently clapped back at Juan Pablo once again… after he tried throwing shade at her upcoming season of The Bachelorette.

“I just SAW the GUYS for @Clare_Crawley Bachelorette season and its gonna be INTERESTING seeing HER get hit on by KIDS on their 20s…,” the soccer star said in March. “I think this MIGHT be the 3rd SEASON Im gonna watch.”

Within hours, Clare responded.

“And yet here you are, older than 99% of them and still cant practice compassion and kindness…,” she remarked.

At this time, it’s unclear when the upcoming season of The Bachelorette will air after production was postponed due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Carrie Underwood virtually performing “Drinking Alone” while sitting on the couch with a glass of wine in one hand is a whole mood. 

The country superstar performed on the ACM Presents: Our Country special on Sunday night and told fans that although “we can’t all be together in person tonight, I’m glad can still find ways to be connected and to celebrate community and the healing power of music.”

Tonight’s country special airs in place of the Academy of Country Music Awards which was recently postponed as a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The show’s new date is Wednesday, Sept. 16. 

“So let’s continue to support each other and stay strong until we can all be together again,” the 37-year-old “Jesus, Take the Wheel” singer said, as she held on to her glass full of red wine. “But right now we have to find things to do while we’re alone together, right?”

She went on, “I have an idea. So this song actually seems to be striking a chord, uh, more than ever with a lot of you these days, especially while so many of us are riding things out at home—uh, just remember though, we’re not really alone. We are alone together and that is exactly how we’re gonna get through this mess.” 

ACM Presents: Our Country airs on Sunday April 5 at 8 p.m. PT/ET/7 p.m. CT on CBS. 

Note: The following story contains sensitive information that may not be suitable to all readers.

Duffy is speaking her truth.

Back in February, the 35-year-old songstress shared the heartbreaking news that she had been drugged, kidnapped and raped. At the time, Duffy didn’t explain when those events occurred, but she expressed that she was ready to open up about her experience.

On Sunday, she wrote a detailed blog post about her survivor story. “It troubles me that this story contains sorrow, when so many need the opposite of that at this time. I can only hope that my words serve as a momentary distraction or maybe even some comfort that one can come out of darkness,” she began her essay.

“If you are reading this, I must warn you it contains information some may find upsetting,” she continued, while also noting the current climate surrounding the Coronavirus pandemic. “If you are not able to take on someone else’s suffering or the recounting of such, I recommend you do not read on.”

Earlier this year, Duffy took to social media to reveal that she recused herself from her career and the limelight as the result of trauma from being kidnapped and raped. The U.K. singer had been inactive for the better part of a decade — in the late 2000s, she seemed poised for the kind of massive neo-soul career that Adele has enjoyed in her wake.

Now the singer reveals in a 3,600-word post on her website the horrific details of the assault and of the long road to recovery from the trauma. She also explains her absence from music and estrangement from friends and family which caused her to isolate out of fear and mental torment.

She writes, “I posted the words I wrote, a few weeks ago, because I was tired of hiding. Never feeling free or burden free. I had become enmeshed with my story like a dark secret. It made me alone and feel alone. What is also hard to explain is that, in hiding, in not talking, I was allowing the rape to become a companion. Me and it living in my being, I no longer wanted to feel that intimacy with it, a decade of that intimacy has been destructive. I had to set myself free. I have been hurt and it would have been dangerous to talk from that hurt place in the past, prior to feeling ready.”

Duffy explained that after her kidnapping and rape occurred, she considered exploring human rights laws to change her name and “disappear to another country” in order to put the past behind her and “not trouble anyone else with it.” 

Although she cites that talking openly about her traumatic experience seemed “frightening” and that it made her worry about what would follow once she decided to speak her truth. “I would also worry about coming back to music and the risk of constantly facing the question of ‘what happened,’ ‘where did you disappear to,’ ‘why did you vanish,’ ‘what have you been up to for so many years,'” she continued.

Ultimately, she admits she could not imagine “fabricating some story” even though she felt the “public disclosure of my story would utterly destroy my life, emotionally, while hiding my story was destroying my life so much more.” So, she realized that she had to have “faith in the outcome” of opening up about her experience. 

While recounting her rape, Duffy writes, “Rape stripped me of my human rights, to experience a life with autonomy from fear. It has already stolen one third of my life.” 

The singer then went on to recount the details of her kidnapping that happened on her birthday after she was drugged at a restaurant.

“I was drugged then for four weeks and traveled to a foreign country,” she wrote. “I can’t remember getting on the plane and came round in the back of a travelling vehicle. I was put into a hotel room and the perpetrator returned and raped me. I remember the pain and trying to stay conscious in the room after it happened. I was stuck with him for another day, he didn’t look at me.”

Duffy also wrote that she contemplated running away but was afraid her abuser “would call the police on me, for running away, and maybe they would track me down as a missing person.” She also detailed that the drugging and abuse continued in her “own home in the four weeks.” 

She went on to write that the first person she ever told of her kidnapping and rape was a psychologist months after it happened. 

“I have no idea how I was so lucky to find her all those years ago, her beautiful blue eyes, pink sofa, huge library, amazing brain and skill. Without her I may not have made it through. I was high risk of suicide in the aftermath. She got to know me, saw me as a person, learned about me and navigated me,” she explained. “She did it very gently. I could not look her in the eyes for the first eight or so sessions, eye contact was something I struggled with. The thought of recovering was almost impossible.”

She concluded her essay, writing, “I really don’t know what’s next for me. I would like to experience me being who I really am, for the first time, privately. To feel a peace that I have been, until now, only half feeling […] I can now leave this decade behind. Where the past belongs. Hopefully no more ‘what happened to Duffy questions,’ now you know … and I am free.” 

To read Duffy’s full post, go here. 

The reunion long-time Law & Order: SVU fans have been waiting for is one step closer to happening.

Christopher Meloni will return to the Law & Order fold as Elliot Stabler in a new series that has a 13-episode order from NBC, marking this the first time he’s playing the iconic character since the season 12 finale in 2011. The new Law & Order show will be set in New York and feature Stabler leading the organized crime unit. That means that, yes, Meloni’s Stabler and Mariska Hargitay‘s Olivia Benson are set to cross paths once again.

Meloni exited the show between seasons 12 and 13. In the season 12 finale, Meloni’s character was involved in a shooting in the precinct. The season 13 premiere explained his character decided to retire after the required leave of absence. Viewers never saw a farewell between the two fan-favorite partners.

Now, the reunion is inevitable.

Law & Order: SVU showrunner Warren Leight brought back a number of faces for the show’s history-making season 21, and ahead of the premiere said a Stabler return was out of his hands.

“I don’t know how, I don’t know when, but, yeah, that’s kind of, I think the fans and Benson and Stabler are owed that,” Leight said about a reunion. But he’s just talking about a reunion on screen. Hargitay and Meloni have kept in touch since his exit and regularly treat fans to selfies when they get together.

See some of those moments below.

Law & Order: SVU airs Thursdays, 10 p.m. on NBC. The series was recently renewed through season 24 by NBC.

(E! and NBC are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)