NEW INFO 5 Results from share redemption are posted. Less than .2% redeemed. Very bullish as investors are showing extreme confidence in the future of PLBY.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/playboy-mountain-crest-acquisition-corp-120000721.html
NEW INFO 4 Definitive Agreement to purchase 100% of Lovers brand stores announced 2/1.
https://www.streetinsider.com/Corporate+News/Playboy+%28MCAC%29+Confirms+Deal+to+Acquire+Lovers/17892359.html
NEW INFO 3 I bought more on the dip today. 5081 total. Price rose AH to $12.38 (2.15%)
NEW INFO 2 Here is the full webinar.
https://icrinc.zoom.us/rec/play/9GWKdmOYumjWfZuufW3QXpe_FW_g--qeNbg6PnTjTMbnNTgLmCbWjeRFpQga1iPc-elpGap8dnDv8Zww.yD7DjUwuPmapeEdP?continueMode=true&tk=lEYc4F_FkKlgsmCIs6w0gtGHT2kbgVGbUju3cIRBSjk.DQIAAAAV8NK49xZWdldRM2xNSFNQcTBmcE00UzM3bXh3AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA&uuid=WN_GKWqbHkeSyuWetJmLFkj4g&_x_zm_rtaid=kR45-uuqRE-L65AxLjpbQw.1611967079119.2c054e3d3f8d8e63339273d9175939ed&_x_zm_rhtaid=866
NEW INFO 1 Live merger webinar with PLBY and MCAC on Friday January 29, 2021 at 12:00 NOON EST link below
https://mcacquisition.com/investor-relations/press-release-details/2021/Playboy-Enterprises-Inc.-and-Mountain-Crest-Acquisition-Corp-Participate-in-SPACInsider-ICR-Webinar-on-January-29th-at-12pm-ET/default.aspx
Playboy going public: Porn, Gambling, and Cannabis
!!!WARNING READING AHEAD!!! TL;DR at the end. It will take some time to sort through all the links and read/watch everything, but you should.
In the next couple weeks, Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp is taking Playboy public. The existing ticker MCAC will become PLBY. Special purpose acquisition companies have taken private companies public in recent months with great success. I believe this will be no exception. Notably, Playboy is profitable and has skyrocketing revenue going into a transformational growth phase.
Porn - First and foremost, let's talk about porn. I know what you guys are thinking. “Porno mags are dead. Why would I want to invest in something like that? I can get porn for free online.” Guess what? You are absolutely right. And that’s exactly why Playboy doesn’t do that anymore. That’s right, they eliminated their print division. And yet they somehow STILL make money from porn that people (see: boomers) pay for on their website through PlayboyTV, Playboy Plus, and iPlayboy. Here’s the thing: Playboy has international, multi-generational name recognition from porn. They have content available in 180 countries. It will be the only publicly traded adult entertainment (porn) company. But that is not where this company is going. It will help support them along the way. You can see every Playboy magazine through iPlayboy if you’re interested. NSFW links below:
https://www.playboy.com/
https://www.playboytv.com/
https://www.playboyplus.com/
https://www.iplayboy.com/
Gambling - Some of you might recognize the Playboy brand from gambling trips to places like Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Cancun, London or Macau. They’ve been in the gambling biz for decades through their casinos, clubs, and licensed gaming products. They see the writing on the wall. COVID is accelerating the transition to digital, application based GAMBLING. That’s right. What we are doing on Robinhood with risky options is gambling, and the only reason regulators might give a shit anymore is because we are making too much money. There may be some restrictions put in place, but gambling from your phone on your couch is not going anywhere. More and more states are allowing things like Draftkings, poker, state ‘lottery” apps, hell - even political betting. Michigan and Virginia just ok’d gambling apps. They won’t be the last. This is all from your couch and any 18 year old with a cracked iphone can access it. Wouldn’t it be cool if Playboy was going to do something like that? They’re already working on it. As per CEO Ben Kohn who we will get to later, “...the company’s casino-style digital gaming products with Scientific Games and Microgaming continue to see significant global growth.” Honestly, I stopped researching Scientific Games' sports betting segment when I saw the word ‘omni-channel’. That told me all I needed to know about it’s success.
“Our SG Sports™ platform is an enhanced, omni-channel solution for online, self-service and retail fixed odds sports betting – from soccer to tennis, basketball, football, baseball, hockey, motor sports, racing and more.”
https://www.scientificgames.com/
https://www.microgaming.co.uk/
“This latter segment has become increasingly enticing for Playboy, and it said last week that it is considering new tie-ups that could include gaming operators like PointsBet and 888Holdings.”
https://calvinayre.com/2020/10/05/business/playboys-gaming-ops-could-get-a-boost-from-spac-purchase/
As per their SEC filing:
“Significant consumer engagement and spend with Playboy-branded gaming properties around the world, including with leading partners such as Microgaming, Scientific Games, and Caesar’s Entertainment, steers our investment in digital gaming, sports betting and other digital offerings to further support our commercial strategy to expand consumer spend with minimal marginal cost, and gain consumer data to inform go-to-market plans across categories.”
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921005986/tm2034213-12_defm14a.htm#tMDAA1
They are expanding into more areas of gaming/gambling, working with international players in the digital gaming/gambling arena, and a Playboy sportsbook is on the horizon.
https://www.playboy.com/read/the-pleasure-of-playing-with-yourself-mobile-gaming-in-the-covid-era
Cannabis - If you’ve ever read through a Playboy magazine, you know they’ve had a positive relationship with cannabis for many years. As of September 2020, Playboy has made a major shift into the cannabis space. Too good to be true you say? Check their website. Playboy currently sells a range of CBD products. This is a good sign. Federal hemp products, which these most likely are, can be mailed across state lines and most importantly for a company like Playboy, can operate through a traditional banking institution. CBD products are usually the first step towards the cannabis space for large companies. Playboy didn’t make these products themselves meaning they are working with a processor in the cannabis industry. Another good sign for future expansion. What else do they have for sale? Pipes, grinders, ashtrays, rolling trays, joint holders. Hmm. Ok. So it looks like they want to sell some shit. They probably don’t have an active interest in cannabis right? Think again:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/javierhasse/2020/09/24/playboy-gets-serious-about-cannabis-law-reform-advocacy-with-new-partnership-grants/?sh=62f044a65cea
“Taking yet another step into the cannabis space, Playboy will be announcing later on Thursday (September, 2020) that it is launching a cannabis law reform and advocacy campaign in partnership with National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), Last Prisoner Project, Marijuana Policy Project, the Veterans Cannabis Project, and the Eaze Momentum Program.”
“According to information procured exclusively, the three-pronged campaign will focus on calling for federal legalization. The program also includes the creation of a mentorship plan, through which the Playboy Foundation will support entrepreneurs from groups that are underrepresented in the industry.” Remember that CEO Kohn from earlier? He wrote this recently:
https://medium.com/naked-open-letters-from-playboy/congress-must-pass-the-more-act-c867c35239ae
Seems like he really wants weed to be legal? Hmm wonder why? The writing's on the wall my friends. Playboy wants into the cannabis industry, they are making steps towards this end, and we have favorable conditions for legislative progress.
Don’t think branding your own cannabis line is profitable or worthwhile? Tell me why these 41 celebrity millionaires and billionaires are dummies. I’ll wait.
https://www.celebstoner.com/news/celebstoner-news/2019/07/12/top-celebrity-cannabis-brands/
Confirmation: I hear you. “This all seems pretty speculative. It would be wildly profitable if they pull this shift off. But how do we really know?” Watch this whole video:
https://finance.yahoo.com/video/playboy-ceo-telling-story-female-154907068.html
Man - this interview just gets my juices flowing. And highlights one of my favorite reasons for this play. They have so many different business avenues from which a catalyst could appear. I think paying attention, holding shares, and options on these staggered announcements over the next year is the way I am going to go about it. "There's definitely been a shift to direct-to-consumer," he (Kohn) said. "About 50 percent of our revenue today is direct-to-consumer, and that will continue to grow going forward.” “Kohn touted Playboy's portfolio of both digital and consumer products, with casino-style gaming, in particular, serving a crucial role under the company's new business model. Playboy also has its sights on the emerging cannabis market, from CBD products to marijuana products geared toward sexual health and pleasure.” "If THC does become legal in the United States, we have developed certain strains to enhance your sex life that we will launch," Kohn said. https://cheddar.com/media/playboy-goes-public-health-gaming-lifestyle-focus Oh? The CEO actually said it? Ok then. “We have developed certain strains…” They’re already working with growers on strains and genetics? Ok. There are several legal cannabis markets for those products right now, international and stateside. I expect Playboy licensed hemp and THC pre-rolls by EOY. Something like this: https://www.etsy.com/listing/842996758/10-playboy-pre-roll-tubes-limited?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=pre+roll+playboy&ref=sr_gallery-1-2&organic_search_click=1 Maintaining cannabis operations can be costly and a regulatory headache. Playboy’s licensing strategy allows them to pick successful, established partners and sidestep traditional barriers to entry. You know what I like about these new markets? They’re expanding. Worldwide. And they are going to be a bigger deal than they already are with or without Playboy. Who thinks weed and gambling are going away? Too many people like that stuff. These are easy markets. And Playboy is early enough to carve out their spot in each. Fuck it, read this too: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimosman/2020/10/20/playboy-could-be-the-king-of-spacs-here-are-three-picks/?sh=2e13dcaa3e05
Numbers: You want numbers? I got numbers. As per the company’s most recent SEC filing:
“For the year ended December 31, 2019, and the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s historical consolidated revenue was $78.1 million and $101.3 million, respectively, historical consolidated net income (loss) was $(23.6) million and $(4.8) million, respectively, and Adjusted EBITDA was $13.1 million and $21.8 million, respectively.”
“In the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s Licensing segment contributed $44.2 million in revenue and $31.1 million in net income.”
“In the ninth months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s Direct-to-Consumer segment contributed $40.2 million in revenue and net income of $0.1 million.”
“In the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s Digital Subscriptions and Content segment contributed $15.4 million in revenue and net income of $7.4 million.”
They are profitable across all three of their current business segments.
“Playboy’s return to the public markets presents a transformed, streamlined and high-growth business. The Company has over $400 million in cash flows contracted through 2029, sexual wellness products available for sale online and in over 10,000 major retail stores in the US, and a growing variety of clothing and branded lifestyle and digital gaming products.”
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921005986/tm2034213-12_defm14a.htm#tSHCF
Growth: Playboy has massive growth in China and massive growth potential in India. “In China, where Playboy has spent more than 25 years building its business, our licensees have an enormous footprint of nearly 2,500 brick and mortar stores and 1,000 ecommerce stores selling high quality, Playboy-branded men’s casual wear, shoes/footwear, sleepwear, swimwear, formal suits, leather & non-leather goods, sweaters, active wear, and accessories. We have achieved significant growth in China licensing revenues over the past several years in partnership with strong licensees and high-quality manufacturers, and we are planning for increased growth through updates to our men’s fashion lines and expansion into adjacent categories in men’s skincare and grooming, sexual wellness, and women’s fashion, a category where recent launches have been well received.” The men’s market in China is about the same size as the entire population of the United States and European Union combined. Playboy is a leading brand in this market. They are expanding into the women’s market too. Did you know CBD toothpaste is huge in China? China loves CBD products and has hemp fields that dwarf those in the US. If Playboy expands their CBD line China it will be huge. Did you know the gambling money in Macau absolutely puts Las Vegas to shame? Technically, it's illegal on the mainland, but in reality, there is a lot of gambling going on in China. https://www.forbes.com/sites/javierhasse/2020/10/19/magic-johnson-and-uncle-buds-cbd-brand-enter-china-via-tmall-partnership/?sh=271776ca411e “In India, Playboy today has a presence through select apparel licensees and hospitality establishments. Consumer research suggests significant growth opportunities in the territory with Playboy’s brand and categories of focus.” “Playboy Enterprises has announced the expansion of its global consumer products business into India as part of a partnership with Jay Jay Iconic Brands, a leading fashion and lifestyle Company in India.” “The Indian market today is dominated by consumers under the age of 35, who represent more than 65 percent of the country’s total population and are driving India’s significant online shopping growth. The Playboy brand’s core values of playfulness and exploration resonate strongly with the expressed desires of today’s younger millennial consumers. For us, Playboy was the perfect fit.” “The Playboy international portfolio has been flourishing for more than 25 years in several South Asian markets such as China and Japan. In particular, it has strategically targeted the millennial and gen-Z audiences across categories such as apparel, footwear, home textiles, eyewear and watches.” https://www.licenseglobal.com/industry-news/playboy-expands-global-footprint-india It looks like they gave COVID the heisman in terms of net damage sustained: “Although Playboy has not suffered any material adverse consequences to date from the COVID-19 pandemic, the business has been impacted both negatively and positively. The remote working and stay-at-home orders resulted in the closure of the London Playboy Club and retail stores of Playboy’s licensees, decreasing licensing revenues in the second quarter, as well as causing supply chain disruption and less efficient product development thereby slowing the launch of new products. However, these negative impacts were offset by an increase in Yandy’s direct-to-consumer sales, which have benefited in part from overall increases in online retail sales so far during the pandemic.” Looks like the positives are long term (Yandy acquisition) and the negatives are temporary (stay-at-home orders).
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921006093/tm213766-1_defa14a.htm
This speaks to their ability to maintain a financially solvent company throughout the transition phase to the aforementioned areas. They’d say some fancy shit like “expanded business model to encompass four key revenue streams: Sexual Wellness, Style & Apparel, Gaming & Lifestyle, and Beauty & Grooming.” I hear “we’re just biding our time with these trinkets until those dollar dollar bill y’all markets are fully up and running.” But the truth is these existing revenue streams are profitable, scalable, and rapidly expanding Playboy’s e-commerce segment around the world.
"Even in the face of COVID this year, we've been able to grow EBITDA over 100 percent and revenue over 68 percent, and I expect that to accelerate going into 2021," he said. “Playboy is accelerating its growth in company-owned and branded consumer products in attractive and expanding markets in which it has a proven history of brand affinity and consumer spend.”
Also in the SEC filing, the Time Frame:
“As we detailed in the definitive proxy statement, the SPAC stockholder meeting to vote on the transaction has been set for February 9th, and, subject to stockholder approval and satisfaction of the other closing conditions, we expect to complete the merger and begin trading on NASDAQ under ticker PLBY shortly thereafter,” concluded Kohn.
The Players: Suhail “The Whale” Rizvi (HMFIC), Ben “The Bridge” Kohn (CEO), “lil” Suying Liu & “Big” Dong Liu (Young-gun China gang). I encourage you to look these folks up. The real OG here is Suhail Rizvi. He’s from India originally and Chairman of the Board for the new PLBY company. He was an early investor in Twitter, Square, Facebook and others. His firm, Rizvi Traverse, currently invests in Instacart, Pinterest, Snapchat, Playboy, and SpaceX. Maybe you’ve heard of them. “Rizvi, who owns a sprawling three-home compound in Greenwich, Connecticut, and a 1.65-acre estate in Palm Beach, Florida, near Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg, moved to Iowa Falls when he was five. His father was a professor of psychology at Iowa. Along with his older brother Ashraf, a hedge fund manager, Rizvi graduated from Wharton business school.” “Suhail Rizvi: the 47-year-old 'unsocial' social media baron: When Twitter goes public in the coming weeks (2013), one of the biggest winners will be a 47-year-old financier who guards his secrecy so zealously that he employs a person to take down his Wikipedia entry and scrub his photos from the internet. In IPO, Twitter seeks to be 'anti-FB'” “Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia looks like a big Twitter winner. So do the moneyed clients of Jamie Dimon. But as you’ve-got-to-be-joking wealth washed over Twitter on Thursday — a company that didn’t exist eight years ago was worth $31.7 billion after its first day on the stock market — the non-boldface name of the moment is Suhail R. Rizvi. Mr. Rizvi, 47, runs a private investment company that is the largest outside investor in Twitter with a 15.6 percent stake worth $3.8 billion at the end of trading on Thursday (November, 2013). Using a web of connections in the tech industry and in finance, as well as a hearty dose of good timing, he brought many prominent names in at the ground floor, including the Saudi prince and some of JPMorgan’s wealthiest clients.” https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/08/technology/at-twitter-working-behind-the-scenes-toward-a-billion-dollar-payday.html Y’all like that Arab money? How about a dude that can call up Saudi Princes and convince them to spend? Funniest shit about I read about him: “Rizvi was able to buy only $100 million in Facebook shortly before its IPO, thus limiting his returns, according to people with knowledge of the matter.” Poor guy :(
He should be fine with the 16 million PLBY shares he's going to have though :)
Shuhail also has experience in the entertainment industry. He’s invested in companies like SESAC, ICM, and Summit Entertainment. He’s got Hollywood connections to blast this stuff post-merger. And he’s at least partially responsible for that whole Twilight thing. I’m team Edward btw.
I really like what Suhail has done so far. He’s lurked in the shadows while Kohn is consolidating the company, trimming the fat, making Playboy profitable, and aiming the ship at modern growing markets.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-ipo-rizvi-insight/insight-little-known-hollywood-investor-poised-to-score-with-twitter-ipo-idUSBRE9920VW20131003
Ben “The Bridge” Kohn is an interesting guy. He’s the connection between Rizvi Traverse and Playboy. He’s both CEO of Playboy and was previously Managing Partner at Rizvi Traverse. Ben seems to be the voice of the Playboy-Rizvi partnership, which makes sense with Suhail’s privacy concerns. Kohn said this:
“Today is a very big day for all of us at Playboy and for all our partners globally. I stepped into the CEO role at Playboy in 2017 because I saw the biggest opportunity of my career. Playboy is a brand and platform that could not be replicated today. It has massive global reach, with more than $3B of global consumer spend and products sold in over 180 countries. Our mission – to create a culture where all people can pursue pleasure – is rooted in our 67-year history and creates a clear focus for our business and role we play in people’s lives, providing them with the products, services and experiences that create a lifestyle of pleasure. We are taking this step into the public markets because the committed capital will enable us to accelerate our product development and go-to-market strategies and to more rapidly build our direct to consumer capabilities,” said Ben Kohn, CEO of Playboy.
“Playboy today is a highly profitable commerce business with a total addressable market projected in the trillions of dollars,” Mr. Kohn continued, “We are actively selling into the Sexual Wellness consumer category, projected to be approximately $400 billion in size by 2024, where our recently launched intimacy products have rolled out to more than 10,000 stores at major US retailers in the United States. Combined with our owned & operated ecommerce Sexual Wellness initiatives, the category will contribute more than 40% of our revenue this year. In our Apparel and Beauty categories, our collaborations with high-end fashion brands including Missguided and PacSun are projected to achieve over $50M in retail sales across the US and UK this year, our leading men’s apparel lines in China expanded to nearly 2500 brick and mortar stores and almost 1000 digital stores, and our new men’s and women’s fragrance line recently launched in Europe. In Gaming, our casino-style digital gaming products with Scientific Games and Microgaming continue to see significant global growth. Our product strategy is informed by years of consumer data as we actively expand from a purely licensing model into owning and operating key high-growth product lines focused on driving profitability and consumer lifetime value. We are thrilled about the future of Playboy. Our foundation has been set to drive further growth and margin, and with the committed capital from this transaction and our more than $180M in NOLs, we will take advantage of the opportunity in front of us, building to our goal of $100M of adjusted EBITDA in 2025.”
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201001005404/en/Playboy-to-Become-a-Public-Company
Also, according to their Form 4s, “Big” Dong Liu and “lil” Suying Liu just loaded up with shares last week. These guys are brothers and seem like the Chinese market connection. They are only 32 & 35 years old. I don’t even know what that means, but it's provocative.
https://www.secform4.com/insider-trading/1832415.htm
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mountain-crest-acquisition-corp-ii-002600994.html
Y’all like that China money?
“Mr. Liu has been the Chief Financial Officer of Dongguan Zhishang Photoelectric Technology Co., Ltd., a regional designer, manufacturer and distributor of LED lights serving commercial customers throughout Southern China since November 2016, at which time he led a syndicate of investments into the firm. Mr. Liu has since overseen the financials of Dongguan Zhishang as well as provided strategic guidance to its board of directors, advising on operational efficiency and cash flow performance. From March 2010 to October 2016, Mr. Liu was the Head of Finance at Feidiao Electrical Group Co., Ltd., a leading Chinese manufacturer of electrical outlets headquartered in Shanghai and with businesses in the greater China region as well as Europe.”
Dr. Suying Liu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp., commented, “Playboy is a unique and compelling investment opportunity, with one of the world’s largest and most recognized brands, its proven consumer affinity and spend, and its enormous future growth potential in its four product segments and new and existing geographic regions. I am thrilled to be partnering with Ben and his exceptional team to bring his vision to fruition.”
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201001005404/en/Playboy-to-Become-a-Public-Company
These guys are good. They have a proven track record of success across multiple industries. Connections and money run deep with all of these guys. I don’t think they’re in the game to lose.
I was going to write a couple more paragraphs about why you should have a look at this but really the best thing you can do is read this SEC filing from a couple days ago. It explains the situation in far better detail. Specifically, look to page 137 and read through their strategy. Also, look at their ownership percentages and compensation plans including the stock options and their prices. The financials look great, revenue is up 90% Q3, and it looks like a bright future.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921005986/tm2034213-12_defm14a.htm#tSHCF
I’m hesitant to attach this because his position seems short term, but I’m going to with a warning because he does hit on some good points (two are below his link) and he’s got a sizable position in this thing (500k+ on margin, I think). I don’t know this guy but he did look at the same publicly available info and make roughly the same prediction, albeit without the in depth gambling or cannabis mention. You can also search reddit for ‘MCAC’ and very few relevant results come up and none of them even come close to really looking at this thing.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gOvAd6lebs452hFlWWbxVjQ3VMsjGBkbJeXRwDwIJfM/edit?usp=sharing
“Also, before you people start making claims that Playboy is a “boomer” company, STOP RIGHT THERE. This is not a good argument. Simply put. The only thing that matters is Playboy’s name recognition, not their archaic business model which doesn’t even exist anymore as they have completely repurposed their business.”
“Imagine not buying $MCAC at a 400M valuation lol. Streetwear department is worth 1B alone imo.”
Considering the ridiculous Chinese growth as a lifestyle brand, he’s not wrong.
Current Cultural Significance and Meme Value: A year ago I wouldn’t have included this section but the events from the last several weeks (even going back to tsla) have proven that a company’s ability to meme and/or gain social network popularity can have an effect. Tik-tok, Snapchat, Twitch, Reddit, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter. They all have Playboy stuff on them. Kids in middle and highschool know what Playboy is but will likely never see or touch one of the magazines in person. They’ll have a Playboy hoodie though. Crazy huh? A lot like GME, PLBY would hugely benefit from meme-value stock interest to drive engagement towards their new business model while also building strategic coffers. This interest may not directly and/or significantly move the stock price but can generate significant interest from larger players who will.
Bull Case: The year is 2025. Playboy is now the world leader pleasure brand. They began by offering Playboy licensed gaming products, including gambling products, direct to consumers through existing names. By 2022, demand has skyrocketed and Playboy has designed and released their own gambling platforms. In 2025, they are also a leading cannabis brand in the United States and Canada with proprietary strains and products geared towards sexual wellness. Cannabis was legalized in the US in 2023 when President Biden got glaucoma but had success with cannabis treatment. He personally pushes for cannabis legalization as he steps out of office after his first term. Playboy has also grown their brand in China and India to multi-billion per year markets. The stock goes up from 11ish to 100ish and everyone makes big gains buying somewhere along the way.
Bear Case: The United States does a complete 180 on marijuana and gambling. President Biden overdoses on marijuana in the Lincoln bedroom when his FDs go tits up and he loses a ton of money in his sports book app after the Fighting Blue Hens narrowly lose the National Championship to Bama. Playboy is unable to expand their cannabis and gambling brands but still does well with their worldwide lifestyle brand. They gain and lose some interest in China and India but the markets are too large to ignore them completely. The stock goes up from 11ish to 13ish and everyone makes 15-20% gains.
TL;DR: Successful technology/e-commerce investment firm took over Playboy to turn it into a porn, online gambling/gaming, sports book, cannabis company, worldwide lifestyle brand that promotes sexual wellness, vetern access, women-ownership, minority-ownership, and “pleasure for all”. Does a successful online team reinventing an antiquated physical copy giant sound familiar? No options yet, shares only for now. $11.38 per share at time of writing. My guess? $20 by the end of February. $50 by EOY. This is not financial advice. I am not qualified to give financial advice. I’m just sayin’ I would personally use a Playboy sports book app while smoking a Playboy strain specific joint and it would be cool if they did that. Do your own research. You’d probably want to start here:
WARNING - POTENTIALLY NSFW - SEXY MODELS AHEAD - no actual nudity though
https://s26.q4cdn.com/895475556/files/doc_presentations/Playboy-Craig-Hallum-Conference-Investor-Presentation-11_17_20-compressed.pdf
Or here:
https://www.mcacquisition.com/investor-relations/default.aspx
Jimmy Chill: “Get into any SPAC at $10 or $11 and you are going to make money.”
STL;DR: Buy MCAC. MCAC > PLBY couple weeks. Rocketship. Moon.
Position: 5000 shares. I will buy short, medium, and long-dated calls once available.

Hey Guys, so I thought I'd share this letter here so you can all spam the SEC on their policies and what brokerages can get away with now that there's so much attention on the market and activity. Feel free to adjust the letter and spam to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) and put the subject as day trading rules. These are what I personally feel would help, but the main thing is we should have access to the market as we see fit:
Dear Commissioners of The SEC and Chairwoman Allison Herren Lee:
I will first provide the substance of the pattern day trader rule:
Anyone who buys and sells a particular security in the same trader day (day trades), and does this four or more times in any five consecutive business day period is considered a pattern day trader. A pattern day trader is subject to special rules. The main rule is that in order to engage in pattern day trading you must maintain an equity balance of at least $25,000 in a margin account. If you are flagged as a pattern day trader and do not maintain a balance of $25,000 your account will be frozen for 90 days.
As a citizen of the United States of America, I am petitioning for the repeal or amendment of the pattern day trader rule. The rule, which is designed to protect unsophisticated investors from the high risk of day trading, is instead increasing risk by limiting the number of stop positions one can take, driving traders to more volatile markets such as futures and forex where no pattern day trader rules exist, and driving traders into offshore brokerages who do not adhere to the SEC pattern day trader regulations.
Additionally, this regulation among others is contributing to a divide in this country on who can utilize and invest in the stock market. Due to this tension the gap between the lower, middle and upper classes continues to grow as Day Traders also can utilize technology and programs to automatically buy and sell shares to secure a profit. As Americans, we should have the right to purchase and sell on the market to allow it to grow so we may also profit as desired and re-invest this profit into our economy.
Most recently on the social media platform Reddit, users gathered on this forum together to purchase shares of GameStop Corp. (GME) and caused the price of shares to grow by 3700% which allowed users to secure a profit that they will invest in the economy. While I understand the basis for this rule, it does not protect investors anymore with the evolution of communication technology. As shown recently after gaining a profit, several applications that offer free trading were forced to remove Gamestop Corp(GME) and AMC Entertainment Holdings INC (AMC) and void all orders placed on the previous day. This further demonstrates that the market is not about providing investors the opportunity to grow their income by investing as multiple brokers have removed the Reddit Markets from their platform and have expressed dissatisfaction and seek to file a complaint with the SEC about users communicating on forums and purchasing shares or seeking legal action. As of now, if one user has thousands of followers and posts a stock symbol each user is free to decide if they will invest, similar to those with subscriptions to Yahoo Finance, The Motley Fool or a Bloomberg Subscription and their stock recommendations. The driving force behind this decision was to spite a hedge fund seeking to make a profit which furthers the evidence of the growing disparity between the lower, middle and upper classes.
Additionally, If I open an account on multiple brokers, the highest risk is opening a margin with an account which is what can drive an individual into debt. As of now, if I sought to gamble, I can seek out the nearest Casino or Casino Cruise in the State of Florida to secure a profit with any amount of money and there is no policy in place to prevent me aside from being over the age of 18 and nor should there be. As I have worked to earn the money, I should have the right to spend or invest the money as I see fit without restriction.
I propose the following actions to fix the problems with the current disparities in the market caused by NASD Rule 2520, create a truly fair market and address the risk to investors on the stock market.
1) Repeal Rule 2520 and allow all traders to day-trade online and if platforms offer a program for automatically trading or application programming interface (API), they must fill out a form acknowledging they understand the risks they are taking.
2) Create new federal guidelines for Margins to be treated like a credit line where rather than based on leverage such as 1:10 it will be a fixed line of credit in the account minimizing the risk determined by the financial institution and based on creditworthiness.
3) Institute a policy where brokerages cannot restrict the sale of any stock without first filing a notice to the SEC and allowing the Trade day to close and 2 business days to elapse and must publicly provide justification for removal from the market.
I thank you for the time to review my email and hope you’ll consider the aforementioned actions, as this would be in the best interest of truly having a fair market while protecting our citizens and allowing them the opportunity to invest at their discretion.
Thank You, (Insert Name Here)

In 2015, I created a list titled, “Top10ner’s 1001 'Greatest' Movies of All Time” and many of you seemed to enjoy it and still use it today so I thought it was about time that I updated it..
The original 2015 thread can be found here as well as the initial update for those curious about the algorithm.
Basically I started off by gathering ratings from IMDB (UseCritic Average), Rotten Tomatoes (Tomatometer, Critic Average) & (Audience Score, User Average), Metacritic (Critic Average, User Average) and Letterboxd (User Average). Each site’s average rating was then weighted so that no site’s ratings were favoured above the rest. The next step was to make sure that each film was treated equally. Rather than eliminating films that had little votes, I opted to alter these films score by carefully deducting points depending on how many people have seen it, and therefore voted on it.
I then finally put the list through a final adjustment, where I applied aspects such as critical reception (# of official lists movie is in), audience reception and overall likability/popularity. These figures were determined using sources such as iCheckmovies, Letterboxd and TSPDT?.
I've created the following lists for both Letterboxd and iCheckMovies, as well as a Google spreadsheet where you can check out the full list and search for particular films easier.
Letterboxd - 2020 Edition: Top10ner’s 1001 ‘Greatest’ Movies of All Time
IMDb - 2020 Edition: Top10ner’s 1001 ‘Greatest’ Movies of All Time
iCheckMovies - 2020 Edition: Top10ner’s 1001 ‘Greatest’ Movies of All Time
Google Spreadsheet - 2020 Edition: Top10ner’s 1001 ‘Greatest’ Movies of All Time
ANYWAY, here is the 1001 ‘Greatest’ Movies of All Time. Enjoy! (NOTE: Could only include the first 750 movies due character limit)

RANK	TITLE	YEAR	DIRECTOR
1	The Godfather	1972	Francis Ford Coppola
2	The Godfather: Part II	1974	Francis Ford Coppola
3	Seven Samurai	1954	Akira Kurosawa
4	Pulp Fiction	1994	Quentin Tarantino
5	12 Angry Men	1957	Sidney Lumet
6	Spirited Away	2001	Hayao Miyazaki
7	Schindler's List	1993	Steven Spielberg
8	Casablanca	1942	Michael Curtiz
9	Psycho	1960	Alfred Hitchcock
10	Goodfellas	1990	Martin Scorsese
11	Lawrence of Arabia	1962	David Lean
12	The Good, the Bad and the Ugly	1966	Sergio Leone
13	Singin' in the Rain	1952	Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly
14	City Lights	1931	Charlie Chaplin
15	Sunset Boulevard	1950	Billy Wilder
16	Apocalypse Now	1979	Francis Ford Coppola
17	The Shawshank Redemption	1994	Frank Darabont
18	Rear Window	1954	Alfred Hitchcock
19	Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back	1980	Irvin Kershner
20	2001: A Space Odyssey	1968	Stanley Kubrick
21	Citizen Kane	1941	Orson Welles
22	M	1931	Fritz Lang
23	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest	1975	Miloš Forman
24	Vertigo	1958	Alfred Hitchcock
25	The Dark Knight	2008	Christopher Nolan
26	The Silence of the Lambs	1991	Jonathan Demme
27	Modern Times	1936	Charles Chaplin
28	Star Wars - A New Hope	1977	George Lucas
29	Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb	1964	Stanley Kubrick
30	Come and See	1985	Elem Klimov
31	Bicycle Thieves	1948	Vittorio De Sica
32	Tokyo Story	1953	Yasujirō Ozu
33	It's a Wonderful Life	1946	Frank Capra
34	Rashomon	1950	Akira Kurosawa
35	Once Upon a Time in the West	1968	Sergio Leone
36	Taxi Driver	1976	Martin Scorsese
37	Ikiru	1952	Akira Kurosawa
38	Metropolis	1927	Fritz Lang
39	The Passion of Joan of Arc	1928	Carl Theodor Dreyer
40	Alien	1979	Ridley Scott
41	The Third Man	1949	Carol Reed
42	All About Eve	1950	Joseph L. Mankiewicz
43	Fanny and Alexander	1982	Ingmar Bergman
44	Chinatown	1974	Roman Polanski
45	City of God	2002	Fernando Meirelles & Kátia Lund
46	Double Indemnity	1944	Billy Wilder
47	Paths of Glory	1957	Stanley Kubrick
48	Raiders of the Lost Ark	1981	Steven Spielberg
49	Andrei Rublev	1966	Andrei Tarkovsky
50	The Apartment	1960	Billy Wilder
51	Harakiri	1962	Masaki Kobayashi
52	Parasite	2019	Bong Joon-ho
53	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	2001	Peter Jackson
54	The 400 Blows	1959	François Truffaut
55	Stalker	1979	Andrei Tarkovsky
56	Some Like It Hot	1959	Billy Wilder
57	Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans	1927	F.W. Murnau
58	Pan's Labyrinth	2006	Guillermo del Toro
59	Ran	1985	Akira Kurosawa
60	Sherlock, Jr.	1924	Buster Keaton
61	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	2003	Peter Jackson
62	The Night of the Hunter	1955	Charles Laughton
63	A Separation	2011	Asghar Farhadi
64	Grave of the Fireflies	1988	Isao Takahata
65	North by Northwest	1959	Alfred Hitchcock
66	Persona	1966	Ingmar Bergman
67	Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind	2004	Michel Gondry
68	Back to the Future	1985	Robert Zemeckis
69	The Battle of Algiers	1966	Gillo Pontecorvo
70	Toy Story	1995	John Lasseter
71	Raging Bull	1980	Martin Scorsese
72	8½ (Eight and a Half)	1963	Federico Fellini
73	Saving Private Ryan	1998	Steven Spielberg
74	On the Waterfront	1954	Elia Kazan
75	The Shining	1980	Stanley Kubrick
76	Three Colors: Red	1994	Krzysztof Kieślowski
77	The Great Dictator	1940	Charles Chaplin
78	The Wizard of Oz	1939	Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Mervyn…
79	The Wages of Fear	1953	Henri-Georges Clouzot
80	In the Mood for Love	2000	Wong Kar-wai
81	Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse	2018	Rodney Rothman, Peter Ramsey…
82	The Treasure of the Sierra Madre	1948	John Huston
83	The Seventh Seal	1957	Ingmar Bergman
84	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	2002	Peter Jackson
85	The Red Shoes	1948	Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
86	The General	1926	Clyde Bruckman & Buster Keaton
87	The Gold Rush	1925	Charles Chaplin
88	Touch of Evil	1958	Orson Welles
89	WALL-E	2008	Andrew Stanton
90	Aliens	1986	James Cameron
91	Wild Strawberries	1957	Ingmar Bergman
92	Paris Texas	1984	Wim Wenders
93	A Clockwork Orange	1971	Stanley Kubrick
94	La Grande Illusion	1937	Jean Renoir
95	There Will Be Blood	2007	Paul Thomas Anderson
96	Amadeus	1984	Miloš Forman
97	Annie Hall	1977	Woody Allen
98	Whiplash	2014	Damien Chazelle
99	Pather Panchali	1955	Satyajit Ray
100	Cinema Paradiso	1988	Giuseppe Tornatore
101	It Happened One Night	1934	Frank Capra
102	The Bridge on the River Kwai	1957	David Lean
103	The Lives of Others	2006	Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
104	Terminator 2: Judgment Day	1991	James Cameron
105	Blade Runner	1982	Ridley Scott
106	Yojimbo	1961	Akira Kurosawa
107	Ugetsu	1953	Kenji Mizoguchi
108	Reservoir Dogs	1992	Quentin Tarantino
109	Memento	2000	Christopher Nolan
110	Princess Mononoke	1997	Hayao Miyazaki
111	Mad Max: Fury Road	2015	George Miller
112	The Pianist	2002	Roman Polanski
113	Wings of Desire	1987	Wim Wenders
114	The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari	1920	Robert Wiene
115	The Best Years of Our Lives	1946	William Wyler
116	Inception	2010	Christopher Nolan
117	Monty Python and the Holy Grail	1975	Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones
118	Fargo	1996	Joel & Ethan Coen
119	La Dolce Vita	1960	Federico Fellini
120	Oldboy	2003	Chan-wook Park
121	Nights of Cabiria	1957	Federico Fellini
122	Toy Story 3	2010	Lee Unkrich
123	Children of Paradise	1945	Marcel Carné
124	Gone with the Wind	1939	Victor Fleming,George Cukor...
125	Jaws	1975	Steven Spielberg
126	Das Boot	1981	Wolfgang Petersen
127	High and Low	1963	Akira Kurosawa
128	The Mirror	1975	Andrei Tarkovsky
129	L.A. Confidential	1997	Curtis Hanson
130	Unforgiven	1992	Clint Eastwood
131	Amelie	2001	Jean-Pierre Jeunet
132	My Neighbor Totoro	1988	Hayao Miyazaki
133	Barry Lyndon	1975	Stanley Kubrick
134	Le Samouraï	1967	Jean-Pierre Melville
135	Ordet	1955	Carl Theodor Dreyer
136	To Be or Not to Be	1942	Ernst Lubitsch
137	No Country for Old Men	2007	Joel & Ethan Coen
138	Solaris	1972	Andrei Tarkovsky
139	Coco	2017	Lee Unkrich
140	Your Name.	2016	Makoto Shinkai
141	Fight Club	1999	David Fincher
142	The Maltese Falcon	1941	John Huston
143	The Kid	1921	Charles Chaplin
144	Woman in the Dunes	1964	Hiroshi Teshigahara
145	Se7en	1995	David Fincher
146	Do the Right Thing	1989	Spike Lee
147	The Rules of the Game	1939	Jean Renoir
148	Aguirre: The Wrath of God	1972	Werner Herzog
149	The Grapes of Wrath	1940	John Ford
150	La Haine	1995	Mathieu Kassovitz
151	Once Upon a Time in America	1984	Sergio Leone
152	Throne of Blood	1957	Akira Kurosawa
153	Notorious	1946	Alfred Hitchcock
154	Badlands	1973	Terrence Malick
155	A Man Escaped	1956	Robert Bresson
156	Cool Hand Luke	1967	Stuart Rosenberg
157	Rosemary's Baby	1968	Roman Polanski
158	Before Sunrise	1995	Richard Linklater
159	The Lion King	1994	Roger Allers & Rob Minkoff
160	Before Sunset	2004	Richard Linklater
161	Rebecca	1940	Alfred Hitchcock
162	La strada	1954	Federico Fellini
163	Duck Soup	1933	Leo McCarey
164	The Deer Hunter	1978	Michael Cimino
165	Sansho the Bailiff	1954	Kenji Mizoguchi
166	The Philadelphia Story	1940	George Cukor
167	The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance	1962	John Ford
168	Die Hard	1988	John McTiernan
169	Brazil	1985	Terry Gilliam
170	Sweet Smell of Success	1957	Alexander Mackendrick
171	The Departed	2006	Martin Scorsese
172	Three Colors: Blue	1993	Krzysztof Kieślowski
173	The Last Picture Show	1971	Peter Bogdanovich
174	Rome, Open City	1945	Roberto Rossellini
175	Up	2009	Pete Docter & Bob Peterson
176	The Princess Bride	1987	Rob Reiner
177	Breathless	1960	Jean-Luc Godard
178	Dog Day Afternoon	1975	Sidney Lumet
179	Kind Hearts and Coronets	1949	Robert Hamer
180	To Kill a Mockingbird	1962	Robert Mulligan
181	Chungking Express	1994	Wong Kar-wai
182	The Conversation	1974	Francis Ford Coppola
183	Rio Bravo	1959	Howard Hawks
184	Full Metal Jacket	1987	Stanley Kubrick
185	The Handmaiden	2016	Chan-wook Park
186	A Matter of Life and Death	1946	Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
187	A Woman Under the Influence	1974	John Cassavetes
188	All the President's Men	1976	Alan J. Pakula
189	Portrait of a Lady on Fire	2019	Céline Sciamma
190	The Matrix	1999	Lilly & Lana Wachowski
191	12 Years a Slave	2013	Steve McQueen
192	Brief Encounter	1945	David Lean
193	Shoplifters	2018	Hirokazu Kore-eda
194	American Beauty	1999	Sam Mendes
195	His Girl Friday	1940	Howard Hawks
196	The Usual Suspects	1995	Bryan Singer
197	The Graduate	1967	Mike Nichols
198	Jurassic Park	1993	Steven Spielberg
199	Memories of Murder	2003	Bong Joon-ho
200	King Kong	1933	Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack
201	Inside Out	2015	Pete Docter
202	Yi yi	2000	Edward Yang
203	Raise the Red Lantern	1991	Zhang Yimou
204	Rififi	1955	Jules Dassin
205	Blue Velvet	1986	David Lynch
206	Army of Shadows	1969	Jean-Pierre Melville
207	This Is Spinal Tap	1984	Rob Reiner
208	The Wild Bunch	1969	Sam Peckinpah
209	Witness for the Prosecution	1957	Billy Wilder
210	Battleship Potemkin	1925	Sergei M. Eisenstein
211	Strangers on a Train	1951	Alfred Hitchcock
212	The Searchers	1956	John Ford
213	The Big Lebowski	1998	Joel & Ethan Coen
214	Nosferatu	1922	F.W. Murnau
215	Network	1976	Sidney Lumet
216	The Hustler	1961	Robert Rossen
217	The Exterminating Angel	1962	Luis Buñuel
218	Days of Heaven	1978	Terrence Malick
219	Finding Nemo	2003	Andrew Stanton & Lee Unkrich
220	Heat	1995	Michael Mann
221	The Great Escape	1963	John Sturges
222	A Streetcar Named Desire	1951	Elia Kazan
223	Diabolique	1955	Henri-Georges Clouzot
224	The Sting	1973	George Roy Hill
225	Night of the Living Dead	1968	George A. Romero
226	The Thing	1982	John Carpenter
227	Mulholland Drive	2001	David Lynch
228	The Conformist	1970	Bernardo Bertolucci
229	The Grand Budapest Hotel	2014	Wes Anderson
230	A Brighter Summer Day	1991	Edward Yang
231	Monty Python's Life of Brian	1979	Terry Jones
232	Umberto D.	1952	Vittorio De Sica
233	Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?	1966	Mike Nichols
234	Stagecoach	1939	John Ford
235	Beauty and the Beast	1991	Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise
236	The Big Sleep	1946	Howard Hawks
237	Inglourious Basterds	2009	Quentin Tarantino
238	Viridiana	1961	Luis Buñuel
239	Incendies	2010	Denis Villeneuve
240	The Terminator	1984	James Cameron
241	Bride of Frankenstein	1935	James Whale
242	Sullivan's Travels	1941	Preston Sturges
243	Playtime	1967	Jacques Tati
244	Ivan's Childhood	1962	Andrei Tarkovsky
245	Life Is Beautiful	1997	Roberto Benigni
246	Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid	1969	George Roy Hill
247	Manhattan	1979	Woody Allen
248	Trainspotting	1996	Danny Boyle
249	All Quiet on the Western Front	1930	Lewis Milestone
250	The Young and the Damned	1950	Luis Buñuel
251	The Elephant Man	1980	David Lynch
252	All About My Mother	1999	Pedro Almodóvar
253	Le Trou	1960	Jacques Becker
254	The Leopard	1963	Luchino Visconti
255	Laura	1944	Otto Preminger
256	Shadow of a Doubt	1943	Alfred Hitchcock
257	Mr. Smith Goes to Washington	1939	Frank Capra
258	Hiroshima Mon Amour	1959	Alain Resnais
259	Bringing Up Baby	1938	Howard Hawks
260	Out of the Past	1947	Jacques Tourneur
261	Anatomy of a Murder	1959	Otto Preminger
262	Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon	2000	Ang Lee
263	L'avventura	1960	Michelangelo Antonioni
264	Beauty and the Beast	1946	Jean Cocteau
265	The Hunt	2012	Thomas Vinterberg
266	Forrest Gump	1994	Robert Zemeckis
267	Ace in the Hole	1951	Billy Wilder
268	Late Spring	1949	Yasujirō Ozu
269	The Celebration	1998	Thomas Vinterberg
270	Au Revoir Les Enfants	1987	Louis Malle
271	Spotlight	2015	Tom McCarthy
272	Roman Holiday	1953	William Wyler
273	Amour	2012	Michael Haneke
274	Ali: Fear Eats the Soul	1974	Rainer Werner Fassbinder
275	Paddington 2	2017	Paul King
276	The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp	1943	Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
277	The French Connection	1971	William Friedkin
278	The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie	1972	Luis Buñuel
279	High Noon	1952	Fred Zinnemann
280	Akira	1988	Katsuhiro Otomo
281	4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days	2007	Cristian Mungiu
282	Ben-Hur	1959	William Wyler
283	Let the Right One In	2008	Tomas Alfredson
284	Nashville	1975	Robert Altman
285	Room	2015	Lenny Abrahamson
286	The Adventures of Robin Hood	1938	Michael Curtiz & William Keighley
287	Jules and Jim	1962	François Truffaut
288	Good Will Hunting	1997	Gus Van Sant
289	Young Frankenstein	1974	Mel Brooks
290	White Heat	1949	Raoul Walsh
291	Short Term 12	2013	Destin Cretton
292	The Killing	1956	Stanley Kubrick
293	In a Lonely Place	1950	Nicholas Ray
294	Frankenstein	1931	James Whale
295	Secrets & Lies	1996	Mike Leigh
296	Django Unchained	2012	Quentin Tarantino
297	Call Me by Your Name	2017	Luca Guadagnino
298	Magnolia	1999	Paul Thomas Anderson
299	Being There	1979	Hal Ashby
300	The Manchurian Candidate	1962	John Frankenheimer
301	Paper Moon	1973	Peter Bogdanovich
302	The Shop Around the Corner	1940	Ernst Lubitsch
303	Halloween	1978	John Carpenter
304	The World of Apu	1959	Satyajit Ray
305	Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring	2003	Kim Ki-duk
306	L'Atalante	1934	Jean Vigo
307	The Iron Giant	1999	Brad Bird
308	The Exorcist	1973	William Friedkin
309	Amores Perros	2000	Alejandro González Iñárritu
310	Central Station	1998	Walter Salles
311	Bonnie and Clyde	1967	Arthur Penn
312	Persepolis	2007	Vincent Paronnaud & Marjane Satrapi
313	The Best of Youth	2003	Marco Tullio Giordana
314	The Spirit of the Beehive	1973	Víctor Erice
315	Z	1969	Costa-Gavras
316	Underground	1995	Emir Kusturica
317	The Killer	1989	John Woo
318	Kes	1969	Ken Loach
319	Moonlight	2016	Barry Jenkins
320	Howl's Moving Castle	2004	Hayao Miyazaki
321	Her	2013	Spike Jonze
322	Requiem for a Dream	2000	Darren Aronofsky
323	The Truman Show	1998	Peter Weir
324	The Incredibles	2004	Brad Bird
325	Cries and Whispers	1972	Ingmar Bergman
326	Stand by Me	1986	Rob Reiner
327	Before Midnight	2013	Richard Linklater
328	Groundhog Day	1993	Harold Ramis
329	Little Women	2019	Greta Gerwig
330	The Social Network	2010	David Fincher
331	The Right Stuff	1983	Philip Kaufman
332	Get Out	2017	Jordan Peele
333	It's Such a Beautiful Day	2012	Don Hertzfeldt
334	Boogie Nights	1997	Paul Thomas Anderson
335	Fantasia	1940	Samuel Armstrong, James Algar...
336	Black Narcissus	1947	Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
337	Midnight Cowboy	1969	John Schlesinger
338	Children of Men	2006	Alfonso Cuarón
339	E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial	1982	Steven Spielberg
340	Toy Story 2	1999	John Lasseter
341	Leon: The Professional	1994	Luc Besson
342	Cabaret	1972	Bob Fosse
343	The Diving Bell and the Butterfly	2007	Julian Schnabel
344	Ratatouille	2007	Brad Bird
345	The Cranes Are Flying	1957	Mikhail Kalatozov
346	Day for Night	1973	François Truffaut
347	Withnail & I	1987	Bruce Robinson
348	Safety Last!	1923	Fred C. Newmeyer & Sam Taylor
349	The Umbrellas of Cherbourg	1964	Jacques Demy
350	Shaun of the Dead	2004	Edgar Wright
351	Song of the Sea	2014	Tomm Moore
352	Scarface	1983	Brian De Palma
353	Harold and Maude	1971	Hal Ashby
354	Platoon	1986	Oliver Stone
355	The Nightmare Before Christmas	1993	Henry Selick
356	Close Encounters of the Third Kind	1977	Steven Spielberg
357	Talk to Her	2002	Pedro Almodóvar
358	Wild Tales	2014	Damián Szifrón
359	Close-Up	1990	Abbas Kiarostami
360	Time of the Gypsies	1988	Emir Kusturica
361	Mary and Max	2009	Adam Elliot
362	The Return	2003	Andrey Zvyagintsev
363	Logan	2017	James Mangold
364	For a Few Dollars More	1965	Sergio Leone
365	A Prophet	2009	Jacques Audiard
366	La La Land	2016	Damien Chazelle
367	The Sound of Music	1965	Robert Wise
368	The King of Comedy	1982	Martin Scorsese
369	The Big Heat	1953	Fritz Lang
370	In the Heat of the Night	1967	Norman Jewison
371	Amarcord	1973	Federico Fellini
372	A Night at the Opera	1935	Sam Wood
373	Repulsion	1965	Roman Polanski
374	Freaks	1932	Tod Browning
375	Au Hasard Balthazar	1966	Robert Bresson
376	Downfall	2004	Oliver Hirschbiegel
377	Lost in Translation	2003	Sofia Coppola
378	Belle de Jour	1967	Luis Buñuel
379	What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?	1962	Robert Aldrich
380	The Circus	1928	Charles Chaplin
381	How to Train Your Dragon	2010	Chris Sanders & Dean DeBlois
382	Crimes and Misdemeanors	1989	Woody Allen
383	Breaking the Waves	1996	Lars von Trier
384	Brokeback Mountain	2005	Ang Lee
385	Steamboat Bill, Jr.	1928	Buster Keaton & Charles Reisner
386	Werckmeister Harmonies	2000	Béla Tarr & Ágnes Hranitzky
387	Greed	1924	Erich von Stroheim
388	Roma	2018	Alfonso Cuarón
389	Make Way for Tomorrow	1937	Leo McCarey
390	The Lady Eve	1941	Preston Sturges
391	The Straight Story	1999	David Lynch
392	Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion	1997	Kazuya Tsurumaki & Hideaki Anno
393	Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade	1989	Steven Spielberg
394	Peeping Tom	1960	Michael Powell
395	The Secret in Their Eyes	2009	Juan José Campanella
396	Cleo from 5 to 7	1962	Agnès Varda
397	Aladdin	1992	Ron Clements & John Musker
398	Rocco and His Brothers	1960	Luchino Visconti
399	Hannah and Her Sisters	1986	Woody Allen
400	My Darling Clementine	1946	John Ford
401	Avengers: Endgame	2019	Joe & Anthony Russo
402	Infernal Affairs	2002	Alan Mak & Andrew Lau
403	Patton	1970	Franklin J. Schaffner
404	Mary Poppins	1964	Robert Stevenson
405	Monsters, Inc.	2001	Pete Docter
406	Hunt for the Wilderpeople	2016	Taika Waititi
407	Children of Heaven	1997	Majid Majidi
408	Last Year at Marienbad	1961	Alain Resnais
409	Sanjuro	1962	Akira Kurosawa
410	1917	2019	Sam Mendes
411	Avengers: Infinity War	2018	Joe & Anthony Russo
412	The Tale of the Princess Kaguya	2013	Isao Takahata
413	Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri	2017	Martin McDonagh
414	Through a Glass Darkly	1961	Ingmar Bergman
415	The Thin Man	1934	W.S. Van Dyke
416	American History X	1998	Tony Kaye
417	Knives Out	2019	Rian Johnson
418	Orpheus	1950	Jean Cocteau
419	Evil Dead II	1987	Sam Raimi
420	Airplane!	1980	Jim Abrahams, Jerry & David Zucker
421	Red River	1948	Howard Hawks & Arthur Rosson
422	Rope	1948	Alfred Hitchcock
423	Y tu mamá también	2001	Alfonso Cuarón
424	Million Dollar Baby	2004	Clint Eastwood
425	Pickpocket	1959	Robert Bresson
426	Being John Malkovich	1999	Spike Jonze
427	The Cameraman	1928	Buster Keaton & Edward Sedgwick
428	Satantango	1994	Béla Tarr
429	Hard Boiled	1992	John Woo
430	Naked	1993	Mike Leigh
431	The Double Life of Veronique	1991	Krzysztof Kieślowski
432	Arrival	2016	Denis Villeneuve
433	Rushmore	1998	Wes Anderson
434	Sing Street	2016	John Carney
435	Rebel Without a Cause	1955	Nicholas Ray
436	The Lady Vanishes	1938	Alfred Hitchcock
437	The Last Laugh	1924	F.W. Murnau
438	The Green Mile	1999	Frank Darabont
439	Vivre Sa Vie	1962	Jean-Luc Godard
440	Spartacus	1960	Stanley Kubrick
441	A Hard Day's Night	1964	Richard Lester
442	Autumn Sonata	1978	Ingmar Bergman
443	Ghostbusters	1984	Ivan Reitman
444	The Hidden Fortress	1958	Akira Kurosawa
445	Capernaum	2018	Nadine Labaki
446	Mommy	2014	Xavier Dolan
447	Le Cercle Rouge	1970	Jean-Pierre Melville
448	Down by Law	1986	Jim Jarmusch
449	Stalag 17	1953	Billy Wilder
450	Boyhood	2014	Richard Linklater
451	Trouble in Paradise	1932	Ernst Lubitsch
452	Judgment at Nuremberg	1961	Stanley Kramer
453	Casino	1995	Martin Scorsese
454	McCabe & Mrs. Miller	1971	Robert Altman
455	The Prestige	2006	Christopher Nolan
456	The Irishman	2019	Martin Scorsese
457	Blade Runner 2049	2017	Denis Villeneuve
458	Faust	1926	F.W. Murnau
459	Marriage Story	2019	Noah Baumbach
460	Fireworks	1997	Takeshi Kitano
461	Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi	1983	Richard Marquand
462	Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind	1984	Hayao Miyazaki
463	Goldfinger	1964	Guy Hamilton
464	Gangs of Wasseypur	2012	Anurag Kashyap
465	Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs	1937	David Hand
466	Invasion of the Body Snatchers	1956	Don Siegel
467	Top Hat	1935	Mark Sandrich
468	The King's Speech	2010	Tom Hooper
469	Farewell My Concubine	1993	Chen Kaige
470	The Breakfast Club	1985	John Hughes
471	Wolf Children	2012	Mamoru Hosoda
472	The Sixth Sense	1999	M. Night Shyamalan
473	Boyz n the Hood	1991	John Singleton
474	In the Name of the Father	1993	Jim Sheridan
475	Gladiator	2000	Ridley Scott
476	The Phantom Carriage	1921	Victor Sjöström
477	Dead Poets Society	1989	Peter Weir
478	What We Do in the Shadows	2014	Jemaine Clement & Taika Waititi
479	The Birds	1963	Alfred Hitchcock
480	Moonrise Kingdom	2012	Wes Anderson
481	A Fistful of Dollars	1964	Sergio Leone
482	Kill Bill: Vol. 1	2003	Quentin Tarantino
483	Manchester by the Sea	2016	Kenneth Lonergan
484	Who Framed Roger Rabbit	1988	Robert Zemeckis
485	Almost Famous	2000	Cameron Crowe
486	Lady Bird	2017	Greta Gerwig
487	To Have and Have Not	1944	Howard Hawks
488	Kiki's Delivery Service	1989	Hayao Miyazaki
489	Kill Bill: Vol. 2	2004	Quentin Tarantino
490	Eyes Without a Face	1960	Georges Franju
491	Blazing Saddles	1974	Mel Brooks
492	The Sacrifice	1986	Andrei Tarkovsky
493	The 39 Steps	1935	Alfred Hitchcock
494	Donnie Darko	2001	Richard Kelly
495	Gone Girl	2014	David Fincher
496	Eraserhead	1977	David Lynch
497	Hero	2002	Zhang Yimou
498	Ghost in the Shell	1995	Mamoru Oshii
499	Miller's Crossing	1990	Joel & Ethan Coen
500	Meet Me in St. Louis	1944	Vincente Minnelli
501	Great Expectations	1946	David Lean
502	Contempt	1963	Jean-Luc Godard
503	Scarface	1932	Howard Hawks
504	Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles	1975	Chantal Akerman
505	My Left Foot	1989	Jim Sheridan
506	The Long Goodbye	1973	Robert Altman
507	Zootopia	2016	Byron Howard
508	Catch Me If You Can	2002	Steven Spielberg
509	Fitzcarraldo	1982	Werner Herzog
510	West Side Story	1961	Jerome Robbins & Robert Wise
511	All That Jazz	1979	Bob Fosse
512	Castle in the Sky	1986	Hayao Miyazaki
513	Kagemusha	1980	Akira Kurosawa
514	The Wolf of Wall Street	2013	Martin Scorsese
515	My Fair Lady	1964	George Cukor
516	Dunkirk	2017	Christopher Nolan
517	Guardians of the Galaxy	2014	James Gunn
518	The Lost Weekend	1945	Billy Wilder
519	The Intouchables	2011	Eric Toledano & Olivier Nakache
520	Nightcrawler	2014	Dan Gilroy
521	Short Cuts	1993	Robert Altman
522	A Silent Voice	2016	Naoko Yamada
523	The Innocents	1961	Jack Clayton
524	Nostalgia	1983	Andrei Tarkovsky
525	Mean Streets	1973	Martin Scorsese
526	Rocky	1976	John G. Avildsen
527	I Am Cuba	1964	Mikhail Kalatozov
528	3-Iron	2004	Kim Ki-duk
529	Dirty Harry	1971	Don Siegel
530	Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior	1981	George Miller
531	The Crowd	1928	King Vidor
532	The Triplets of Belleville	2003	Sylvain Chomet
533	Black Swan	2010	Darren Aronofsky
534	Mon Oncle	1958	Jacques Tati
535	The Piano	1993	Jane Campion
536	Ed Wood	1994	Tim Burton
537	Head-On	2004	Fatih Akin
538	Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban	2004	Alfonso Cuarón
539	The Insider	1999	Michael Mann
540	Forbidden Games	1952	René Clément
541	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2	2011	David Yates
542	When Harry Met Sally...	1989	Rob Reiner
543	The Wrestler	2008	Darren Aronofsky
544	The Player	1992	Robert Altman
545	Inside Llewyn Davis	2013	Joel & Ethan Coen
546	Blow-Up	1966	Michelangelo Antonioni
547	The Remains of the Day	1993	James Ivory
548	The Man Who Would Be King	1975	John Huston
549	The Florida Project	2017	Sean Baker
550	Napoleon	1927	Abel Gance
551	Suspiria	1977	Dario Argento
552	Drive	2011	Nicolas Winding Refn
553	The Producers	1967	Mel Brooks
554	That Obscure Object of Desire	1977	Luis Buñuel
555	The Outlaw Josey Wales	1976	Clint Eastwood
556	Klaus	2019	Sergio Pablos
557	The African Queen	1951	John Huston
558	Ninotchka	1939	Ernst Lubitsch
559	Slumdog Millionaire	2008	Danny Boyle
560	My Man Godfrey	1936	Gregory La Cava
561	Dangal	2016	Nitesh Tiwari
562	Blood Simple.	1984	Joel & Ethan Coen
563	Interstellar	2014	Christopher Nolan
564	About Elly	2009	Asghar Farhadi
565	Hot Fuzz	2007	Edgar Wright
566	Johnny Guitar	1954	Nicholas Ray
567	Planet of the Apes	1968	Franklin J. Schaffner
568	The Quiet Man	1952	John Ford
569	Fantastic Mr. Fox	2009	Wes Anderson
570	Casino Royale	2006	Martin Campbell
571	Monsieur Hulot's Holiday	1953	Jacques Tati
572	Adaptation.	2002	Spike Jonze
573	American Graffiti	1973	George Lucas
574	Barton Fink	1991	Joel & Ethan Coen
575	Tampopo	1985	Juzo Itami
576	Little Miss Sunshine	2006	Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris
577	Edward Scissorhands	1990	Tim Burton
578	The Earrings of Madame de…	1953	Max Ophüls
579	Arsenic and Old Lace	1944	Frank Capra
580	Doctor Zhivago	1965	David Lean
581	The Virgin Spring	1960	Ingmar Bergman
582	Jean de Florette	1986	Claude Berri
583	Zodiac	2007	David Fincher
584	Aparajito	1956	Satyajit Ray
585	The Asphalt Jungle	1950	John Huston
586	Ex Machina	2014	Alex Garland
587	The Favourite	2018	Yorgos Lanthimos
588	The Royal Tenenbaums	2001	Wes Anderson
589	The Twilight Samurai	2002	Yôji Yamada
590	Pierrot le Fou	1965	Jean-Luc Godard
591	The Day the Earth Stood Still	1951	Robert Wise
592	Enter the Dragon	1973	Robert Clouse
593	Batman Begins	2005	Christopher Nolan
594	Hell or High Water	2016	David Mackenzie
595	Dersu Uzala	1975	Akira Kurosawa
596	Letter from an Unknown Woman	1948	Max Ophüls
597	Sleuth	1972	Joseph L. Mankiewicz
598	Whisper of the Heart	1995	Yoshifumi Kondô
599	Nobody Knows	2004	Hirokazu Koreeda
600	Glengarry Glen Ross	1992	James Foley
601	Dogville	2003	Lars von Trier
602	Nine Queens	2000	Fabián Bielinsky
603	The Sweet Hereafter	1997	Atom Egoyan
604	Dazed and Confused	1993	Richard Linklater
605	True Romance	1993	Tony Scott
606	The Great Beauty	2013	Paolo Sorrentino
607	Band of Outsiders	1964	Jean-Luc Godard
608	Eighth Grade	2018	Bo Burnham
609	The Killing Fields	1984	Roland Joffé
610	Once	2007	John Carney
611	The Artist	2011	Michel Hazanavicius
612	Sling Blade	1996	Billy Bob Thornton
613	Ferris Bueller's Day Off	1986	John Hughes
614	Dial M for Murder	1954	Alfred Hitchcock
615	The Farewell	2019	Lulu Wang
616	Limelight	1952	Charles Chaplin
617	Charade	1963	Stanley Donen
618	Prisoners	2013	Denis Villeneuve
619	Mildred Pierce	1945	Michael Curtiz
620	Kubo and the Two Strings	2016	Travis Knight
621	Winter Sleep	2014	Nuri Bilge Ceylan
622	Hedwig and the Angry Inch	2001	John Cameron Mitchell
623	Kiss Me Deadly	1955	Robert Aldrich
624	Pride	2014	Matthew Warchus
625	After Hours	1985	Martin Scorsese
626	East of Eden	1955	Elia Kazan
627	Mission: Impossible - Fallout	2018	Christopher McQuarrie
628	The Mother and the Whore	1973	Jean Eustache
629	Perfect Blue	1997	Satoshi Kon
630	The Blues Brothers	1980	John Landis
631	Elevator to the Gallows	1958	Louis Malle
632	Pain and Glory	2019	Pedro Almodóvar
633	The Fugitive	1993	Andrew Davis
634	The Vanishing	1988	George Sluizer
635	Hidden Figures	2016	Theodore Melfi
636	JFK	1991	Oliver Stone
637	Dancer in the Dark	2000	Lars von Trier
638	Don't Look Now	1973	Nicolas Roeg
639	Dallas Buyers Club	2013	Jean-Marc Vallée
640	Hotel Rwanda	2004	Terry George
641	Sense and Sensibility	1995	Ang Lee
642	The Avengers	2012	Joss Whedon
643	Vampyr	1932	Carl Theodor Dreyer
644	Twelve Monkeys	1995	Terry Gilliam
645	Rain Man	1988	Barry Levinson
646	Pinocchio	1940	Hamilton Luske & Ben Sharpsteen
647	The White Ribbon	2009	Michael Haneke
648	Zelig	1983	Woody Allen
649	The Magnificent Ambersons	1942	Orson Welles & Fred Fleck
650	Stranger Than Paradise	1984	Jim Jarmusch
651	Picnic at Hanging Rock	1975	Peter Weir
652	3 Idiots	2009	Rajkumar Hirani
653	Phantom Thread	2017	Paul Thomas Anderson
654	The Last Emperor	1987	Bernardo Bertolucci
655	Birdman	2014	Alejandro González Iñárritu
656	Day of Wrath	1943	Carl Theodor Dreyer
657	The Texas Chain Saw Massacre	1974	Tobe Hooper
658	Deliverance	1972	John Boorman
659	Gandhi	1982	Richard Attenborough
660	Warrior	2011	Gavin O'Connor
661	In Bruges	2008	Martin McDonagh
662	C.R.A.Z.Y.	2005	Jean-Marc Vallée
663	To Live	1994	Zhang Yimou
664	The Fly	1986	David Cronenberg
665	The Lego Movie	2014	Phil Lord & Christopher Miller
666	Volver	2006	Pedro Almodóvar
667	The Thin Red Line	1998	Terrence Malick
668	Our Hospitality	1923	John G. Blystone & Buster Keaton
669	La Notte	1961	Michelangelo Antonioni
670	The Holy Mountain	1973	Alejandro Jodorowsky
671	Malcolm X	1992	Spike Lee
672	The Dark Knight Rises	2012	Christopher Nolan
673	The Purple Rose of Cairo	1985	Woody Allen
674	Isle of Dogs	2018	Wes Anderson
675	The Lion in Winter	1968	Anthony Harvey
676	A Short Film About Killing	1988	Krzysztof Kieślowski
677	Black Cat, White Cat	1998	Emir Kusturica
678	Mother	2009	Bong Joon-ho
679	Snatch.	2000	Guy Ritchie
680	If....	1968	Lindsay Anderson
681	Toy Story 4	2019	John Lasseter
682	Godzilla	1954	Ishirô Honda
683	A Short Film About Love	1988	Krzysztof Kieślowski
684	Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages	1916	D.W. Griffith
685	Carol	2015	Todd Haynes
686	Letters from Iwo Jima	2006	Clint Eastwood
687	Fiddler on the Roof	1971	Norman Jewison
688	Moon	2009	Duncan Jones
689	L'Eclisse	1962	Michelangelo Antonioni
690	Serpico	1973	Sidney Lumet
691	Porco Rosso	1992	Hayao Miyazaki
692	The Heiress	1949	William Wyler
693	Winter Light	1963	Ingmar Bergman
694	Cat on a Hot Tin Roof	1958	Richard Brooks
695	Elite Squad: The Enemy Within	2010	José Padilha
696	Deep Red	1975	Dario Argento
697	The Ox-Bow Incident	1942	William A. Wellman
698	Pride & Prejudice	2005	Joe Wright
699	The Blue Angel	1930	Josef von Sternberg
700	Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown	1988	Pedro Almodóvar
701	Three Colors: White	1994	Krzysztof Kieślowski
702	The Ladykillers	1955	Alexander Mackendrick
703	Breakfast at Tiffany's	1961	Blake Edwards
704	Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India	2001	Ashutosh Gowariker
705	Baby Driver	2017	Edgar Wright
706	Iron Man	2008	Jon Favreau
707	Kramer vs. Kramer	1979	Robert Benton
708	The Martian	2015	Ridley Scott
709	The Bourne Ultimatum	2007	Paul Greengrass
710	Thor: Ragnarok	2017	Taika Waititi
711	Burning	2018	Lee Chang-dong
712	The Wind Rises	2013	Hayao Miyazaki
713	Jojo Rabbit	2019	Taika Waititi
714	Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2	2013	Jay Oliva
715	Cache (Hidden)	2005	Michael Haneke
716	Delicatessen	1991	Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro
717	Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory	1971	Mel Stuart
718	Shrek	2001	Andrew Adamson & Vicky Jenson
719	A Christmas Story	1983	Bob Clark
720	The Life of Oharu	1952	Kenji Mizoguchi
721	Pandora's Box	1929	G.W. Pabst
722	Five Easy Pieces	1970	Bob Rafelson
723	Thelma & Louise	1991	Ridley Scott
724	Andhadhun	2018	Sriram Raghavan
725	The Big Sick	2017	Michael Showalter
726	Gilda	1946	Charles Vidor
727	Creed	2015	Ryan Coogler
728	Blue Is the Warmest Color	2013	Abdellatif Kechiche
729	RoboCop	1987	Paul Verhoeven
730	Shane	1953	George Stevens
731	A Face in the Crowd	1957	Elia Kazan
732	Moana	2016	Ron Clements & John Musker
733	Argo	2012	Ben Affleck
734	Gravity	2013	Alfonso Cuarón
735	BlacKkKlansman	2018	Spike Lee
736	I Am a Fugitive from the Chain Gang	1932	Mervyn LeRoy
737	The Magnificent Seven	1960	John Sturges
738	Run Lola Run	1998	Tom Tykwer
739	A Star Is Born	1954	George Cukor
740	Mystic River	2003	Clint Eastwood
741	Brooklyn	2015	John Crowley
742	The Ten Commandments	1956	Cecil B. DeMille
743	Miracle on 34th Street	1947	George Seaton
744	Into the Wild	2007	Sean Penn
745	This Is England	2006	Shane Meadows
746	Love and Death	1975	Woody Allen
747	Mustang	2015	Deniz Gamze Ergüven
748	Departures	2008	Yojiro Takita
749	Star Trek	2009	J.J. Abrams
750	Selma	2014	Ava DuVernay

Please let me know if there are any glaring omissions, mistakes, or possible bias, as well as any other feedback that you have that could improve the list. Thank you.
Extra Lists:
500 ‘Greatest’ Movies of the 21st Century
CRITIC EDITION: Top10ner’s 1000 ‘Greatest’ Films of All Time
AUDIENCE EDITION: Top10ner’s 1000 ‘Greatest’ Movies of All Time

"You're going to play gotcha questions with me?" - Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO), asked if he thought Joe Biden won the election

Don't Wayne On My Parade

Eleven days after the election ended in decisive victory for Joe Biden, Republicans’ continued performance of uncertainty about the outcome is as appalling and dangerous as it is unrelentingly embarrassing.

• On Tuesday, the two Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers briefly refused to certify the election results in Michigan’s largest county, for a very valid reason that definitely wasn’t “Detroit has a lot of Black voters and we don’t think their votes should count.” (Against all odds, a white man in a polo shirt summed up this stunt best.) The Republicans reversed course on Tuesday night, for a very badass reason that definitely wasn’t “reporters started finding all the racist memes on our Facebook pages.” As a cherry on top, Donald Trump missed the memo and congratulated his would-be coup enablers on their courage, after they had agreed to certify the results.
  
• His hopes of stealing away Michigan’s electoral votes dashed, Trump has turned to Wisconsin, a state he lost by more than 20,000 votes. The Trump campaign has filed a petition for a recount, but only in Wisconsin’s two largest, most Democratic-leaning counties, for a very solid reason that assuredly wasn’t “we’ve been through this, that’s where all the young and Black voters are.” That partial recount cost the campaign $3 million, but if you can pay Rudy Giuliani $20,000 a day to rattle off conspiracy theories at an exasperated judge, what’s a few million dollars to lose Wisconsin again?
  
• As profoundly dumb as all of this is, it is also incredibly corrosive. It’s no particular surprise that Trump fired DHS’s cybersecurity director Chris Krebs for the crime of debunking his lies about the election having been stolen from him, but it deserved immediate, unanimous condemnation. Instead, Democratic lawmakers have spoken up, while Republicans, with a few half-hearted exceptions, have sat on their hands. What will it mean for future elections that a defeated president fired an official who safeguarded this election’s integrity and then told the truth about it, and a whole political party said “sure”?
  

Republicans might be blowing up democracy in slow-motion, but at least most of them aren’t pretending to agonize over it.

• Sources who have spoken to General Services Administrator Emily Murphy say she’s been struggling with her unilateral decision to delay the presidential transition, and feeling like she’s been put “in a very difficult position.” Boy have we got great news for Emily: This one’s actually super simple. There’s no real doubt about who won the election, so you can just go ahead and sign that piece of paper! Get a marketing job and move to Paris! You’re free!
  
• In the meantime, Joe Biden has been pushing ahead with transition briefings from outside experts. Those briefings have limitations, as advisors outside of the government won’t have the most up-to-date information, and can’t share classified intelligence. The White House has refused to provide even basic coronavirus data to the transition team, and in spite of the lives hanging in the balance if sabotaging the transition creates problems with vaccine distribution, HHS Secretary Alex Azar said the department won’t communicate with the Biden team until the GSA signs off.
  

Each of Trump’s far-fetched coup maneuvers has flopped, but way too many Republicans have been happy to give them a whirl, and there’s no reason to think they wouldn’t try again in an election with closer margins. Whatever surreal elements of this year we eventually shove down the memory hole for our collective sanity, that fact can’t be one of them.

Look No Further Than The Crooked Media

On today's Keep It stream, Ira, Louis, and Aida discuss Candace Owens and Ben Shapiro's fervor over Harry Styles wearing a dress on the cover of Vogue: "The hilariousness of 'bring back manly men.' Where do you want them brought?" Watch and subscribe → youtube.com/crookedmedia

Under The Radar

Donald Trump just gave the worst possible job to a former speechwriter who was fired for having white nationalist ties. The White House dismissed Darren Beattie in 2018 after it came to light that he had spoken at a white-supremacist conference, back when that was something the Trump administration could still be shamed about. Beattie then took a bunch of taxpayer money from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), in a violation of House rules. Following that proud interlude, Trump has welcomed Beattie back into the administration fold with an appointment to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, which was established for the specific purpose of preserving the memory of Holocaust victims. Sixty-three days until the Inauguration.

What Else?

The official U.S. coronavirus death toll has surpassed 250,000, and more than three million people are estimated to be currently contagious. Doctors on the coronavirus task force warned Vice President Mike Pence that the U.S. could see an average of 2000 deaths a day by Christmas (Scott Atlas was presumably in the bathroom), and urged Pence or Trump to stress the importance of mitigation efforts from the White House podium.
Neither of them has any scheduled plans to do so, but White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany called statewide coronavirus restrictions “Orwellian,” if that’s helpful to anyone?
New York City’s public school system will shut down for in-person learning on Thursday (though bars, restaurants, and gyms are still open, lol), and Gov. Kim Reynolds (R-IA) has joined a growing number of Republican governors in issuing a mask mandate for the first time. All straight out of Animal Farm.
The FAA has cleared Boeing’s 737 Max to resume flights, 20 months after grounding it following two fatal crashes and roughly 100 years before we will agree to step foot on one.
Trump has ordered the rushed withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, though not the total withdrawal he had campaigned on. According to one administration official, this is part of the White House’s galaxy brain strategy to light more fires than Biden can put out.
Well, here’s unelected Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) violating Senate ethics rules by soliciting donations from a federal office building. Let’s send her home, yes?
Donald Trump was terrified he would be cut in half by lasers at the opening of his Atlantic City casino in 1990, while “Eye of the Tiger” was blasting over the loudspeakers. Just a nice little image to carry close to your heart.
Rockefeller Center’s bummer of a Christmas tree has been widely deemed a metaphor for 2020. The tree’s resident owl who was just minding his own business before getting dragged into midtown can confirm.

Be Smarter

One of the biggest takeaways from this election has been “Latino voters are not a monolith,” and while much of that analysis has focused on Florida, it’s just as true everywhere else. In Texas, Trump became the first GOP presidential candidate in a century to win Zapata County, which is more than 94 percent Hispanic or Latino. Dissecting the result the requires understanding the specific character of South Texas, where most Spanish-speaking residents self-identify as Tejano. Most consider themselves American above all else, wouldn’t identify as people of color, and have positions on gas and oil, guns, and abortion that are closely aligned with the Republican Party. The Trump campaign recognized and effectively targeted that specific community, and Democrats will need more than generic messaging to win it back.

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Is That Hope I Feel?

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s policy of using the pandemic as an excuse to turn away migrant children seeking asylum at the border.
Pfizer now says that its vaccine actually seems to be 95 percent effective, and, implicitly, that Moderna can eat its shorts. Pfizer plans to apply for emergency use authorization from the FDA within days.
The FDA has issued emergency use authorization for the first at-home rapid coronavirus test.
Tiara Mack has become the first openly LGBTQ Black person elected to the Rhode Island state Senate, at age 26: “I'm going to be unapologetically Black, I'm going to be unapologetically queer, and I'm going to be unapologetically young, and I'm going to push back against the system that tells us we don't deserve justice now.”

Enjoy

Philip Michaels on Twitter: "This Senate hearing looks like the tale of a marooned lighthouse keeper and the robot butler he built to stave off loneliness."

Hello guys, I am writing my whishlists about GTA 6, I lost my hope for GTA 6 while Rockstar don't answer us about it, if anybody wants GTA 6 or don't, stop writing GTA 6 in Rockstar games Social Media Posts, just be silent to GTA 6 be exist soon, because we tried everything so why we don't do that at least, this words for Rockstar Games Community and haters, and this post is only a idea for GTA 6 not a leak.
​
1- Features:
- 3 Playable Protagonist
- For the First Time in the Series there is a Female Protagonist
- Return Characters From GTA 4 and GTA 5 (HD GTA) and Some Protagonist Appear and Mentioned
- Multiple Cities and States
- Huge Map
- More Enjoyable Minigames (Shopping, Trading, Smuggling, Kidnapping, Racing, etc...)
- The Graphics is Better than RDR 2 Graphics
- The Physics are the same as Max Payne 3 and RDR 2
- More Wilderness
-More Animals to add
- Alot of Small Towns in The Map
- 2 Limited Places: Las Vegas (Las Ventures) , Mexico City (Capitalo)
​
2- States:
- Florida (Florida)
- New York (Liberty)
- New Jersey (Alderney)
- Pennsylvania / Michigan / Illinois (???)
- Georgia / Alabama / Mississippi / Louisiana (Lemoyne)
3- Cities:
- Miami (Vice City)
- Tampa (Cottonmouth)
- Orlando (???)
- Jacksonville (???)
- Atlanta (???)
- New Orleans (Saint Denis)
- Washington D.C (Capital City)
- Chicago / Detroit / Philadelphia (Carcer City)
- Atlantic City (???)
- Jersey City / Newark (Alderney City)
- New York City (Liberty City)
- Albany (???)
- Buffalo (???)
​
4- Protagonist:
- Marcus Jackson: he is 26 years old, Street Gang Member, Lives in Carcer City, he is African American man
- Walton Parker: he is 45 years old, Retired Drug Dealer, Lives in Vice City, he is a Widower with one 9 years old kid, he is American
- Kate Williamson: she is 23 years old, Hacker and Smart Thief, Lives in Liberty City, She is American
​
5- Story:
(The game is About Mafias Family's and Drug Lords) ( The Game isn't Dark Like GTA 4 and Bright Like GTA 5 its in the Middle)
- In the Prologue the game will start in (1999) Las Ventures, a Young man Called (Walton Parker) and he is 22 years old, he doing some sort of drug dealing with a big Russian Mafia Boss somewhere in Caligula Hall Casino, then the deal not going fine, then it will start a big shooting ,then you need to run away from the casino, when you get out there is someone who was waiting for Walton, and he is the brother of the Mafia Boss, a sniper shot got in his face, that was Walton's Friend (Stanley) Protecting him, then Stanley Takes Walton To the Airport, Fly To Vice City.
After 24 years Later (2023) you will start playing with Kate, Doing hers Routine, After that She entered a Jewelry Store, stealing alot amount of jewelry with a Smart way, without someone Caught her, she out the store and stole a super car smartly, runs to hers house and hack the camera's the store then she finished doing that and see the view of the city.
Taking us to Carcer City with Marcus, rolling with his gang members suddenly heard some guns shot, they go to find out, only some other gangs start gun war, starting a gun fight till finish, Marcus house is the only stolen house from the other, he takes his friend Chris to the market to buy, suddenly in the middle of trip the car is low fuel, then you need to go to the gas station to gas it up, after that they reached to the market and buy some resources and back to home, then here starts the open world.
After Completing Some Missions there is a Mission that Marcus needs to have a deal to get some drugs from the Big Mafias in the City, he go there and make the deal, telling him there is a drug dealer you need to go and he lives in Vice City, Marcus go with 2 Mafia Members and fly to Vice City.
In a Park of Vice City there is Middle Aged Guy sitting with his son ,preparing to going to School ,he takes his kid to School, After that there is a Call From Stanley telling him to go with the Ex - Mafia Leader of Vice City he Go there, and takes the drugs because there is deal needs to happen like the final mission for him to get out the Mafia, he takes the Drugs and go with 4 Mafia members, they Making the deal in a Industrial place in Vice City, Suddenly there is a Ambush from a Mexican Gang some of the members dies, Marcus and 2 of the Members runs away, and Walton in his alone Fight with the enemies, he finished then he want to grab the money and the Drugs but he Saw a Bomb there is Activated then he Can't Do anything only to Run, he get out the place with Big Explode there, he runs away without the Money and The Drugs.
Now the Both of them in Big Trouble and the game going to combine the Problems with them to help each other, with kate to be Featured and Help them.
​
- I Hope Everyone Enjoys the Ideas That I am Sharing, and Remember Guys this is a ideas for GTA 6 and not Official, Maybe Some of the things that I mentioned maybe Appeared In GTA 6 So Don't get Your Hopes high Because Maybe Some them Happend.

Going through old issues of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and posting highlights in my own words. For anyone interested, I highly recommend signing up for the actual site at f4wonline and checking out the full archives.
PREVIOUSLY:

• Observer Rewind - 1987 by SaintRidley
  
• The Complete Wrestling Observer Rewind 1991-2001
  

1-7-2002	1-14-2002	1-21-2002	1-28-2002
2-4-2002	2-11-2002	2-18-2002	2-25-2002

NOTE: I mentioned it in the first post of 2002 but a lot of y'all are aware that a few months ago, SaintRidley picked up the Observer Rewind reins after I stopped and started doing his own recaps from the 1980s. Well, he's been doing great work with it and he just finished posting the year of 1987. I went ahead and added it the Previously" section up there. ↑↑↑ Just wanted to make sure to bring it to everyone's attention.

• It's been awhile since we've had major PPVs going head-to-head with each other, but it happened this week when WWA aired it's 2nd ever PPV live from Las Vegas, going head-to-head with PRIDE. Dave recaps the history of head-to-head PPV battles, specifically the WWF vs. Crockett war in the late-80s. How Vince McMahon created Survivor Series specifically to run it in direct competition with Crockett's first ever PPV, Starrcade 87. The resulting loss of needed revenue was a huge reason why Crockett eventually had to sell the company to Ted Turner and, in retrospect, set into motion everything that led to WCW's eventual death last year. He goes on to recap how Royal Rumble was created and aired on free TV to go head-to-head with Crockett's next PPV attempt, Bunkhouse Stampede. Then Crockett responded by creating the first Clash of the Champions and airing it against Wrestlemania IV. Not sure PRIDE vs. WWA is up there in the same league as that PPV battle. Which, to be fair, Dave admits it's not the same thing.
  
• Anyway, the PRIDE show was among the greatest events of all time, one of the very few times in the history of the Observer that a show got a unanimous 100% thumbs up vote on the reader poll. It aired in Japan live and in the U.S. on a bit of a delay, with the matches edited in a different order. In Japan, the card was headlined by Vanderlei Silva vs. former UWFI wrestler Kiyoshi Tamura, which was an excellent fight that Silva won. In the U.S., the show was built around Ken Shamrock vs. Don Frye in the main event (in Japan, it aired 3rd from last) and the 2 men had an absolute war that should shut up critics who say both are too old. Shamrock lost a split-decision in a fight that Dave thinks should have legitimately been a draw. (This fight is considered to this day one of the all-time wars in MMA history. An utter slobberknocker. Neither fighter was the same again afterward and Frye has said that the damage Shamrock did to his legs in this fight led to him later getting addicted to painkillers). After the fight, Shamrock went over to ringside and hugged his girlfriend Alicia Webb, who you may remember as Ryan Shamrock. The girl that played his sister in WWF.
  

WATCH: Don Frye vs. Ken Shamrock - PRIDE 19: Bad Blood (2002)

• And then there was WWA. A low-budget, amateur-ish event, marred by bad production and no-shows. Not that the crowd would even know, because most of the lineup was never even announced ahead of time anyway. The scheduled main event of Jeff Jarrett vs. Randy Savage didn't happen because Savage held promoter Andrew McManus up for more money at the last minute. Savage originally had agreed to work the show in exchange for a 30% ownership stake in the company, which was agreed upon. But three days before the show, Savage upped the ante, saying he wanted the 30%, plus an extra $50,000 in cash. At that point, they started haggling back and forth to try to strike some kind of deal. Ownership got pulled off the table and then Savage asked for a flat $250,000 fee to work the show. WWA turned that down and came back with a flat $150,000 offer instead. Savage turned that down and at that point, everything broke down. For what it's worth, a lot of the lower card wrestlers on the show worked for $300. Last second attempts to bring in Sting to save the show didn't work either. Road Dogg was also supposed to appear on the show but couldn't because of legal issues. Word is he got arrested 2 days before the show in Florida on a probation violation. As a result, the PPV was headlined by Jeff Jarrett defending the WWA championship against Brian Christopher.
  
• The whole show was simply an embarrassment. The production was completely minor league and the crowd was totally dead for all these long matches with guys nobody cares about. The in-ring work was fine, but the booking often made no sense, with overbooked three-ways and 6-way undercard matches that ended up being more clusterfuck than match. It was also one of those Russo-type things where the commentary team made endless inside-references that only the hardcore internet fans would get. But then again, this show only drew hardcore internet fans anyway, so why not? They also constantly made reference to WWF, which came across as desperate and sad. In particular, Larry Zbyszko was given the chance to cut a meandering promo, challenging Vince McMahon to a fight over some unspecified grievance from 20 years ago and criticized them for having Chris Jericho as their world champion. Dave thinks Zbyszko was actually angling for a job from WWF by trying to start his own angle and says this promo was basically his job application. And he thinks it was pretty pathetic. Backstage, the disorganization was apparent and most even within the company saw what a mess it was and have already given up on the promotion as a lost cause. Dave said this PPV made it clear that nobody will be challenging WWF anytime soon.
  
• Other notes from the WWA Revolution PPV: yes, in case you're wondering, that Japanese man sitting behind the commentary table all night who very briefly (literally blink and miss it) got involved in the Scott SteineDisco Inferno tussle was indeed NJPW star Hiroyoshi Tenzan and yes, they flew him all the way from Japan (and had him bring his ring gear just in case), only to have him do almost nothing and never be acknowledged on camera. Eric Bischoff was backstage, as a guest of Ernest Miller. Bischoff laughed off any questions about going to WWF but said the ol' "never say never" shtick. The crowd was about 2,800, most of them freebies and they were desperately giving away tickets in the casino before the show. During the first match, the building looked practically empty so they quietly began moving everyone closer to ringside to pack the area around the ring to make it look presentable for TV. Opening 6-way match featuring all the hottest indie stars was a sloppy mess, with too people flying everywhere trying to get their shit in and the cameras missing most of it. Bret Hart came out and cut a long, rambling promo before announcing Brian Christopher was replacing Randy Savage in the main event, to zero crowd response. By the 5th match, people in the crowd could be seen leaving, never to return. Jerry Lynn showed up, interrupting an Eddie Guerrero interview, at which point Dave mentions, oh yeah by the way, the WWF released Jerry Lynn 2 days before the PPV. Considering WWF has been talking about reviving the cruiserweight division after Wrestlemania, Dave doesn't know why they'd get rid of a guy who could be one of the best in the division. Anyway, yeah, this show sucked. Here ya go, enjoy.
  

WATCH: WWA: The Revolution PPV - 2002

• WWF's latest investor conference call took place and wasn't particularly newsworthy, but there's some stuff to note. The new agreement with DirecTV is until August of 2003 and is under the exact same terms they were operating under last year, which means WWF gained nothing while losing an estimated $4.4 million in revenue over the last few PPVs. Following the brand split, WWF plans to run 16 PPVs per year, and increasing the price by an extra $5. Linda McMahon said Wrestlemania 18 has sold 58,000 tickets as of the time of the call, for a record gate of $3.96 million, breaking the record set by last year's WM. Dave goes through all the numbers and for the most part, in comparison to previous quarters, almost everything is down. Which is no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention because WWF is clearly on the downswing. Linda also said they're currently interviewing new writers and are hoping to double their writing staff, which Dave thinks is a terrible idea (and time has damn sure proven him correct). Finally, Linda was also asked how the purchase of the WCW library has benefited the company, which Dave thinks is an interesting question since revenues have declined since then and the Invasion angle flopped so hard that it killed any brand value the name "WCW" may have had. Linda talked about the value of the tape library but Dave points out that it's been a year and WWF has done practically nothing with that library (of course, in the end, they found ways to monetize that WCW library and it more than paid for itself).
  
• In his first match as an official member of the AJPW roster, Keiji Muto lost the Triple Crown championship to Toshiaki Kawada in a match nearly a year in the making, before a sold out crowd at Budokan Hall. He hasn't seen it yet, but the match was reported to Dave as a near-classic (he ends up giving it 4.5 stars). The other 2 NJPW stars who jumped ship, Kendo Kashin and Satoshi Kojima, also worked their first official AJPW matches. Kaz Hayashi, formerly a member of Jung Dragons in WCW and who worked in WWF's developmental until asking for his release a few weeks ago, also debuted on the show and will be part of Muto's faction.
  

WATCH: Keiji Muto vs. Toshiaki Kawada - AJPW 2-24-2002

• Obituary time for Swede Hanson, who worked primarily in the Carolinas and had a brief run in the WWF as a cult favorite babyface in the early 80s. Sadly, he passed away in a mental hospital because he had advanced Alzheimer's disease which made it impossible for his family to handle him and they had him put away. Jeez, that's rough. He also had a litany of other health problems. Dave gives an in-depth history of his career in the 60s and 70s as a heel in the Carolinas before talking about the WWF run. Vince Sr. brought him in as a monster heel to challenge Bob Backlund, and Dave thinks someone else must have backed out at the last moment or something. By this time (in 1979), Hanson was well past his prime and hadn't been a major star anywhere in years but he was a big dude and so they brought him in to face Backlund and they actually sold out Madison Square Garden with Backlund vs. Hanson in the main event (though Dave says Bruno Sammartino working the undercard sure didn't hurt). The match sucked and almost immediately after, he became a jobber in the WWF, but Vince Jr, on commentary, just loved to call him "Rawboned Swede Hanson" and the "Rawboned" nickname caught on. Vince said it with such gusto that Hanson briefly became a cult favorite jobber from it and the crowd turned him babyface at damn near 50 years old. It led to a brief career resurgence and him having a small role in the Backlund/Billy Graham feud for the title before he finally faded into oblivion.
  
• Mark Henry won the "world's strongest man" competition at the Arnold Classic bodybuilding and fitness event. Henry has been out of WWF for the past 2 months training for this competition and the training paid off, with Henry capturing first place and making a legitimate viable claim to his "strongest man in the world" moniker. During the event, Henry became the first man in 50 years to cleanly press the 366 pound Apollon wheel weight above his head. In another event, he carried an 800 pound block of bolted together railroad ties up a 40-foot ramp faster than the other competitors. For his victory, Henry won a $75,000 Humvee and some other cash prizes. Over the same weekend, he also won another $1,000 in a contest where he was able to lift an inch dumbbell (which weighs 172 pounds) to his shoulder with one arm. There's a bunch of other weightlifting stuff here, but you might be surprised to find out....I dunno shit about any of this. I got winded lifting pizza to my mouth earlier. Mark Henry strong.
  

WATCH: Mark Henry at the Arnold Classic 2002

• Another obit for former wrestler, promoter, and father of 80s valet Baby Doll, Nick Roberts who died of pancreatic cancer. Once again, a bunch of details and stories about someone I've never heard of in wrestling history that Dave somehow knows everything about. I know I've said it before, but these obituary pieces are some of the greatest reasons for subscribing to the Observer.
  
• Masahiro Chono says he wants to take NJPW in a more serious, realistic direction. No sports entertainment gaga nonsense, they want it to be like a real sports product. So much so that, in his own match with Manabu Nakanishi at the last big NJPW show, Chono wouldn't even bounce off the ropes, saying that it's not credible and no one would do that in a real fight. Ah yes, Inoki's gonna love this.
  
• FMW wrestler Kodo Fuyuki has said he plans to try to keep the promotion running after it was announced it was folding last week. FMW still has 8 shows scheduled for this month and Fuyuki said he plans to try to run them himself and keep the company going (no such luck buddy).
  
• Japan Today, an American newspaper that covers Japanese news daily, had a story on Antonio Inoki battling diabetes. It says he was first diagnosed in 1982, which Dave says is right around the time Inoki's in-ring work dropped off considerably when he lost his stamina. The story said for the last 20 years, Inoki has eaten a ridiculously healthy diet and is in better health now at 59 than he was then at 39.
  
• Dave said he got tons of positive feedback on the debut of RF Video's Ring of Honor promotion in Philadelphia. The show was sold out in advance, was well organized, and had several really good matches. They limited a lot of the mistakes that most indie companies fall victim to, such as too many matches, too many run-ins, too much mic work, too many guys trying to do too much stuff, etc. Steve Corino and CZW announcer Eric Gargiulo did commentary. Eddie Guerrero faced Super Crazy in an excellent match and the main event was a three-way featuring Low-Ki, Christopher Daniels, and American Dragon that Dave has heard rave reviews for. And thus, ROH was born.
  

WATCH: Highlights from ROH's debut show in 2002

• Vic Grimes took the most insane bump of all time at an XPW event before 1,500 fans in Los Angeles. Grimes was facing New Jack in a scaffold match said to be at least twice as high up as the fall Mick Foley took off the Hell in a Cell. The ring below had tables stacked 4-high to break his fall, but Grimes ended up missing most of the tables when New Jack overshot him. Perhaps on purpose. Grimes missed all but the corner tables at the edge of the ring before coming down on the corner turnbuckles. After the bump, they tried to rush fans out of the arena since it was almost 1am and gave many the impression Grimes life was in danger. But he was surprisingly okay and was walking around backstage after, although he was definitely banged up. Grimes was really nervous about the bump earlier in the day, as you might expect and Dave says he's pretty damn lucky he didn't miss the ring because he almost certainly would have died if he took that bump straight to the floor. Elsewhere on the show, there was a match where porn star Lizzy Borden (wife of XPW promoter Rob Black) faced another porn star, Veronica Caine, in a match that was supposed to end only when someone was stripped totally naked. But right before it happened, the lights went out and the women were rushed out of the ring and when fans realized they'd been ripped off, they were so pissed the arena feared a riot. (Anyway, here's the bump and yeah....Grimes very easily could have died from this. No mention from Dave on the fact that New Jack also tazed him before this)

WATCH: Air Grimes goes long

• Shane Douglas is expected to take over as XPW booker when his WCW contract with Time Warner expires next month.
  
• Former WCW journeyman wrestler Chip Minton's primary career was bobsledding. He only wrestled in WCW occasionally while doing that, primarily as a jobber on the C-shows. Minton was part of the US bobsledding team in both the 1994 and 1998 Winter Olympics and was planning to compete this year, but failed to make the team. Soon after that, he failed a steroid test and has been suspended from the sport for 2 years.
  
• Remember a couple weeks ago, it was mentioned that Roddy Piper was in a car accident but he was playing down how serious it was? Turns out....very serious. Piper suffered 4 broken ribs, one of which punctured his liver and nearly killed him. He also suffered severe back injuries and shattered his ankle. Piper was taken to the hospital and was near death but obviously, he managed to pull through and has still been making all his appearances for XWF in recent days. (Yeah I think in Piper's autobiography, he dedicates the book to the guy who saved his life by rushing him to the hospital and even says he was clinically dead for a few moments. Then again, Piper was like a lot of those old time guys and was prone to exaggeration, so who knows).
  
• Eric Bischoff is teaming up with Mark Burnett, the producer of the hit show Survivor, to produce a MMA reality show called Skien. From Dave's understanding, it will basically be a reality show with K-1 kickboxers leading up to a PPV event. (Here's an article about it from Variety at the time, but this ends up going nowhere).
  

WATCH: Variety article on Eric Bischoff's new reality show

• Notes from Raw: only one thing really notable, they filmed a segment at referee Tim White's bar The Friendly Tap. The bar really is owned by White and WWF pretty much always films angles there when they're in town (Providence, RI). This time, the skit featured the APA going into the bar to drink and the bar was filled by a bunch of gay men and drag queens (played by a bunch of wrestlers from indie promotion Chaotic Wrestling) while the APA guys acted all grossed out by it all. Then Billy and Chuck attacked them. Dave thinks this played on all the typical homophobic stereotypes and he seems pretty irritated by it. Anyway, among the wrestlers from Chaotic were Todd Sinclair (better known now as ROH's senior official), Rich Palladino (ring announcer for Beyond now) and John Walters (indie wrestler and former ROH Pure champion).
  
• Next week's Smackdown hasn't aired yet but it was taped and Dave has details. Notably, this is the episode where Austin chases down the NWO and tries to shoot them with a net gun. Dave says this was a mess, with the gun going off but no net being fired from it and they'll have to fix the whole thing in post-production. It went horribly when they filmed it and it aired for the live crowd and it killed the crowd and basically forced them to improvise on the spot (on one of the Something To Wrestle podcasts, Bruce Prichard tells this story and how frustrated they were with this net gun being a piece of shit). This episode also featured Stephanie yelling at Chris Jericho for getting her the wrong hand lotion and Booker T and Edge feuding over a Japanese shampoo commercial. (Rock/Hogan was great, but man, the build for everything else at Wrestlemania 18 suuuuuucked.)
  
• Prototype won the OVW title from Leviathan at the latest OVW tapings. After the match, they did an angle to set up David Flair as the #1 contender for the title. Prototype's only singles loss in OVW came last week, when Flair beat him, so there ya go (this video covers ALL of that. The FlaiCena match, the Leviathan match, the post-match angle, etc).
  

WATCH: Prototype vs. Leviathan for OVW title - 2002

• Wall Street Journal did an article talking about the decline in Smackdown's ratings, saying they were down 28% from last year and down 42% from the year before that. The article blamed it on Smackdown changing networks. Here's the thing though....it hasn't. Raw changed networks in 2000. Smackdown has been on UPN since its debut. Also, UPN has grown overall in ratings while Smackdown has declined. So....no. It's just because the show sucks now.
  
• Charlie Haas, fresh off returning to the ring and winning the HWA title after the death of his brother, tore his ACL this week. He just had surgery and will be out 4-6 months. Rough few months for that dude.
  
• A Washington newspaper did a story on James Dudley, who you may know as....WWF Hall of Famer James Dudley and little else. On-screen, he's never really done much. But Dave says Dudley started working for Vince Sr. back in the 1940s, when Sr. was a boxing promoter, and was essentially his Vince Sr.'s driver and assistant. Dudley did a lot of odd jobs for the company during those early years, working ticket booths and stuff like that, but to most people, he was just kinda known as Vince Sr.'s limo driver. So when he was indicted into the WWF Hall of Fame a few years ago, it was a pretty controversial decision among a lot of people, given that someone like Bruno Sammartino isn't in, by the company's limo driver is. Anyway, before his death, Vince Sr. made Vince Jr. promise to take care of Dudley and keep him on the payroll. So for the last 18 years or so, even though he doesn't work for the company, Vince McMahon has continued to pay him a salary. He also bought him a new car as a gift some years back.
  
• Billy and Chuck's recent tag team title win makes Billy Gunn the most decorated tag team wrestler in WWF history, as he's now held the tag titles 9 times (3 as part of the Smoking Gunns, 5 as part of New Age Outlaws, and now once with he and Chuck). The previous record was Mick Foley, with 8. (to the best of my research, if we're only talking WWF/WWE tag title reigns, that record is now held by Edge).
  
• USA Network CEO Barry Diller took part in a lecture at Syracuse University and talked about losing the WWF to TNN. When asked why it happened, he responded, "Because I'm a dope." He said he didn't fight hard enough to keep the WWF and admitted the loss hurt, but also said it may have been the best thing for them in the long-run because pro wrestling doesn't really fit the direction they're planning to take the network. He said wrestling fans came for wrestling and left immediately after it was over and there was never any cross-over fans who stuck around to watch the next show or anything like that. He said they could never figure out what to connect wrestling to within the rest of their properties.
  
• WWF held a try out camp in Cincinnati and reportedly, nobody was particularly impressive, including AJ Styles. The knock on Styles was that he's average looking and too small. Wrestler Sonny Siaki was said to be the most impressive, but he also rubbed people the wrong way with his attitude so probably not gonna make the cut this time. Matt Morgan, who was on the Tough Enough casting special last season got a tryout and since he has no formal training, he was pretty awful but he's big so Dave seems to think he'll get a chance anyway. The other one they were impressed by was a woman named Erin Bray, who was one of the final 25 picked for the original Tough Enough. But then some other contestants spotted her out on a date with one of the show's judges and they threw a fit, which resulted in Bray not making the final 13. Another wrestler, Travis Tomko, is a guy who has worked some indies and is a former bodyguard for Limp Bizkit ("Tomko, gimme a beat." "No.")
  
• Rock was a presenter at the NAACP Awards and Dave thinks he looked pretty great for a guy who was almost murdered in an ambulance by the NWO a few days earlier. Cheeky Dave is just the best.
  
• Speaking of, Dave throws in a random paragraph to backhandedly shit on Kevin Nash. For years, people in the business joked that Lex Luger made the most money with the least ability or drawing power of anyone ever in wrestling. Dave says it's gotta be Nash. For example, Nash is not wrestling and is only going to be in Hall's corner for the match at Wrestlemania (his knees really are giving him problems), but he has been promised that he's going to get the same type of payoff as if he was the guy in the match working with Austin in the semi-main event. Not to mention all the huge contracts he signed in WCW, or how he got a huge-by-WWF-standards deal here, plus got Vince to cave to almost all his other demands regarding schedule and bringing back Scott Hall, among other things. (I mean, while Dave is being kind of a dick here, I don't think he's really wrong either. When it comes to top draws in the history of the business, Nash isn't anywhere near even the top 10 or 20. And he's never exactly been a great wrestler. But since the 90s, Nash always managed to make sure he gets PAID like he's in that upper echelon. Nash is one of those very few wrestlers who isn't entranced by the fame or the fake accolades. He treats wrestling for what it is: a business. It's the way they pay their mortgages and buy groceries, just like you and me at our jobs. I love it. I laugh my ass off every time I hear "Brock Lesnar signed a huge new contract to only work 6 matches a year." Good for him. I hope he gets even more money for less dates next year. You should always know your worth and never let your employer take you for anything less. Nash has always been one of the guys to do that and he's probably going to die comfortably in a nice house while these other guys from his era are still clinging to fame at 60 years old doing $300 indie shows on crippled knees. Anyway, that's my soapbox). Dave seems to feel the same way and admits, love him or hate him, you gotta give Nash credit for being one of the smartest guys in the biz.
  
• Fear Factor featuring the Hardyz, Lita, Test, Molly Holly, and Jacquelyn aired this week. First they had to climb up a rope ladder hanging from a helicopter over the river and they all made it up except Jeff Hardy who slipped near the top and fell (knowing Jeff, he probably purposely let go so he could take the big fall for fun). Lita also got eliminated for being the slowest one up the ladder. Next they had to chug a gross drink that included bile, rooster testicals, spleen, and some animal brains all blended together. Molly Holly almost vomited after one sip and was out. Jackie and Matt succeeded. Test refused to even try. So then it came down to Matt vs. Jackie and they had to walk across the tops of high poles and move flags around. Matt Hardy ended up winning the whole thing and won $50,000 for charity.
  

WATCH: WWF stars on Fear Factor, Pt. 1
WATCH: WWF stars on Fear Factor, Pt. 2
WATCH: WWF stars on Fear Factor, Pt. 3

• Sunday Night Heat is being converted into one of the B-shows like Metal and Jakked. Awhile back, they started airing Heat from the WWF New York restaurant but the production costs of that were high. So in a cost-cutting move, they're just gonna tape dark matches and throw them on Heat the same way they do those other shows, featuring all the nobodies that can't ever get TV time on the main shows.
  
• As mentioned last week, Scott Hall has been taking a drug called Antabuse, which makes him violently sick when he drinks or even smells alcohol. It caused him to get sick after Raw last week when Austin poured beer all over him in a bit after the cameras were off. Hall has said he is clean and has been clean for awhile, except for the incident a couple weeks ago where he fell off the wagon. Others are skeptical and question if Hall only takes his medication on TV days and needless to say, there's some doubt here.
  
• Everywhere he goes, Brian Christopher has been telling people he's coming back to WWF after Wrestlemania, but contrary to what he's saying, Dave says there are zero plans for that (indeed, it does not happen).
  

FRIDAY: More on WWA's PPV disaster, the landscape for any new promotion attempting to start up, WWF huge show in Japan, WWF loses appeal over "WWF" initials, Bret Hart given offer for Wrestlemania 18, and tons more...