June 10, 2023 News and Notes

• Manchester City has flipped off the Financial Fair Play allegations of Europe and England, winning the treble:  The Premier League Championship, the FA Cup, and, today, defeated Inter Milan 1-0 in the final European club match of the year, the finals of the UEFA Champions League.
• Britney Griner was confronted by a MAGA provocateur at the airport today.
• Poland's Iga Swiatek has continued her domination of women's tennis:  Her third French Open title in four years, a 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 win over the Czech Republic's Karolina Muchova.
• The last American was Coco Gauff, who fell in straight sets to Swiatek 6-2, 6-4 in the quarterfinals.
• Men's final tomorrow:  Serbia's Novak Djokovic goes for his third French Open vs. Casper Ruud of Norway, last year's runner-up.
• 14-time (yes, Nadal has won FOURTEEN French Opens -- the record by SIX) champion Rafael Nadal was unable to compete due to injury.
• Either Nadal or Djokovic have won 16 of the last 18 French Opens.
• Last American:  No American man made it out of the third round.
• Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, has died in federal prison.  He was 81.
• The blocks for the G1 Climax for New Japan Pro Wrestling have been given, and now it's time to kind of turn the key, because, as most people figure out, you can pretty much figure out the favorites to win the blocks based on the final night's schedule.
• Four blocks, eight per block, and they're going top two to an eight-person knockout tournament for the Wrestle Kingdom Challenger Rights.  (Layman's translation for Americans:  It's a Money In The Bank to be the challenger at next January's Wrestle Kingdom (NJPW's Wrestlemania at the Tokyo Dome January 4, 2024), but has to be defended against any wrestler, ostensibly who defeated the winner in the G1.
• Group A: Final night:  August 5 in Osaka.
• Shota Umino vs. Hikuleo, Ren Narita vs. NOAH's Kaito Kiyomiya, IWGP World Heavyweight Champion SANADA vs. Chase Owens, Yota Tsuji vs. Gabe Kidd.  Good grief, that's a wide open block.  Three recently-former Young Lions, a NOAH visitor, etc.  SANADA goes through, the second is anyone's guess!   
• Group B:  Final night:  August 6 in Osaka
• Taichi vs. Great O-Khan, Kazuchka Okada vs. Tanga Loa, El Phantasmo vs. Will Ospreay, YOSHI-HASHI vs. KENTA.  In contrast, everyone in this group has some degree of a name, and there's three guys who could conceivably join Okada in the quarters.  Taichi, Ospreay, and KENTA will make this a very interesting group, but that setup for the final night is...  interesting to say the least.   
• Group C:  Final Night, August 8 in Kanagawa
• AEW's Eddie Kingston vs. David Finlay, Shingo Takagi vs. EVIL, Tama Tonga vs. Aaron Henare, Tomohiro Ishii vs. Mikey Nicholls.  If I take the regular booking at pattern, Takagi-EVIL is probably an eliminator:  That winner probably goes through.  I think the second will be the foreigner match with Kingston vs. Finlay.  Eddie, though his kayfabe character will not admit it, is being honored with this opportunity, and I fully believe he may make the most of it by at least being in this thing to the Kanagawa final night.   
• Group D:  Final Night, August 9 in Shizouka
• Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Tetsuya Naito...
• Full stop.  That's not only an eliminator, almost certainly, but, by far, the best match of the seventh round.  
• Hirooki Goto vs. Zack Sabre Jr., Jeff Cobb vs. Shane Haste, and Alex Coughlin gets the comedy match and the night off with Toru Yano.  This is fairly straightforward, I would have to think:  Tanahashi/Naito winner and Goto/Sabre winner go forward.   
• Apparently, the Miami Heat aren't the only thing essentially knocked out of the NBA Finals.  Conor McGregor came to visit Miami for Game 4, and, in a moment everyone thought was scripted, legit decked the Miami mascot, sending him to the ER.  Da fuq????   
• Arcangelo won the Belmont Stakes (yes, the smoke was clear enough, they were allowed to run).  It was the first win for a female trainer in the history of the Belmont, over 150 years.  Arcangelo was just short of an 8-1 shot.  Favorite Forte finished second.