San Diego Comic-Con’s WWE Mattel Exclusive: Shockmaster

The San Diego Comic-Con is the largest comic book and entertainment convention in the world. Movie studios, comic book titans and the top toy companies in the world unveil a lot of exclusives only available at the SDCC.

A few months ago, SDCC released a small flier showing the toy companies and brands that will have exclusives at this year’s convention. It listed the usual suspects like Funko, Marvel, DC, Ghostbusters and many others. I was shocked to find WWE on the flier since they haven’t had a SDCC exclusive since Rey Mysterio’s Funko or Mattel’s Ministry of Darkness Undertaker elite a few years ago.

Well, Mattel and Matty Collector spilled the beans a few weeks ago and announced that their exclusive is a Shockmaster elite!

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Sweetbob’s Hipster Music Playlist: July 2016

We wanted to make the Fourth of July a little extra special, so we held off our monthly Hipster Music Playlist until the holiday.

This month’s playlist is a mixture of new bands and established bands that recently put out new music we love. I was a little too excited to see Hot Hot Heat come out with a new album.

I always keep an ear out for new music. I love discovering new bands/songs, it’s a habit from my days as a music journalist. Even though this is mostly a sports blog, I still add quite a bit of music and pop culture content. Keep sending me tracks via email or Twitter. I love checking out all the recommendations you send. Keep them comin’!

I feel like this month’s list is fantastic. We super-sized the list once again with 20 tracks for your ears to drool over (also, don’t forget to check out our Spotify playlist).

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The ‘Way Too Early’ 2017 NBA Championship Betting Odds

The confetti is still clogging the drains in the streets of Cleveland, but that doesn’t stop Vegas from releasing championship betting odds for 2016-17 NBA season.

The NBA Draft just occurred and and the NBA Free Agency period hasn’t even started yet, but here we are talking about next year. A lot of players have already opted out of their contracts hoping to land more guaranteed money and others are being desperately shopped by their current teams.

Teams like the Indiana Pacers, Orlando Magic and the New York Knicks have certainly helped their odds thanks to some deals they made last week.

Are the Cleveland Cavaliers early favorites to repeat?

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Toy Crazy: Mattel’s WWE Elite Series 43

I’m a self-confessed vintage toy nerd. I collect vintage wrestling action figures from the 80’s & 90’s. I started purchasing some vintage toys out of nostalgia. Well, WWE and Mattel sucked me into their new stuff. I now buy a few figures a month. You can view photos of my collection on my Instagram account.

Elite 42 was bit of a disappointment, even though I was glad to see the Nasty Boys get some figures. The lineup in Elite 43 is just beyond amazing. You have the first elites of three different superstars. The WWE Superstars included in Elite 43 are Samoa Joe, Kevin Owens, Bret Hart, Jim Neidhart, Alberto Del Rio and Kofi Kingston.

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Sweetbob’s 2016 NBA Mock Draft

The NBA Draft starts later today and we wanted to wait until the the NBA Finals were over before we posted our mock draft. We then realized that a lot of trades may happen early in the week since we know teams like the Knicks were looking to trade into the draft…so here we are, the day of, posting our 2016 NBA Mock Draft.

A lot can (and will) happen to shuffle the draft tonight. Teams will trade up and down, especially if a prospect falls farther than expected.

I’m smart enough to know that my mock draft will not be 100% correct. Mock drafts are more about gauging where players should go if nothing changes from now until the draft…but chaos is expected. I feel like I have a good feel for the pool of draft-eligible players. I can give insight on who teams ‘should’ pick or possibly reasons why they shouldn’t choose someone.

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Pacers Acquire Jeff Teague in Three-Team Deal

With the NBA Draft taking place on Thursday, NBA teams are trying to fill holes right before the draft.

The Indiana Pacers, Atlanta Hawks and Utah Jazz got together on a deal on Wednesday that sent Atlanta point guard Jeff Teague to the Pacers, Indiana point guard George Hill to the Jazz and the Hawks would receive Utah’s #12 overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft.

The Pacers have been rumored to be interested in Teague for quite some time. They needed a third team’s involvement since a straight point guard for point guard swap wouldn’t work due to Atlanta’s possible salary cap issues and the fact that Atlanta point guard Dennis Schroder has played well enough to now start at point guard for the Hawks.

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Is Las Vegas a Good Fit for MLB?

Major League Baseball is toying with the idea of having an expansion team in Las Vegas, which is something that has residents of the area and some players excited about the possibility of playing in Sin City. While the news won’t have an impact on baseball betting lines, it might in the future if the commissioner decides to award the city a team.

MLB isn’t the only sports league considering having a team in Las Vegas, earlier this year, the Oakland Raiders, who haven’t been able to secure a new stadium in Oakland, said they are seriously considering moving the franchise to Las Vegas.

The NHL recently also announced interest in moving a franchise to Las Vegas or awarding an expansion franchise to the city.

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2016 NFL Draft – Best Undrafted Players

NFL teams are really good at scouting players for the NFL Draft, but every single year, a handful of talented players fall through the cracks. They sign contracts soon after the draft ends and go on to make a difference in the NFL.

Players like Tony Romo, Arian Foster, Wes Welker and James Harrison are four studs that went undrafted. I’m not sure if anyone on this list will go on to be a Hall of Famer, but it could happen.

This list is usually made up of players from small schools, there are still plenty of those on this year’s list, but some good players for major programs went undrafted in the 2016 NFL Draft.

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Ozzie Silna, a Famed ABA Owner Dies at 83

If you are one of the several people caught up in your own world of online NBA sportsbook odds, you might have missed the news coming out of the game regarding the death of Ozzie Silna.

As co-owner of the Spirits of St. Louis, a struggling American Basketball Asociation team, the multimillionaire and his brother, Dan, agreed to dissolve the team at a time when the ABA was merging with the NBA (this was after the 1975-1976 season).

They agreed to the deal in exchange for a percentage of the broadcast revenue the NBA would earn in the future.

Silna was 83 years old when he died. According to his family, he died on Tuesday in Los Angeles, losing his fight with cancer.

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Sweetbob’s Hipster Music Playlist: May 2016

I apologize that it has been a few months since I posted a Hipster Music Playlist. I’ve been finding a lot of good music lately, but not quite enough to put out a list of 15 to 20 songs every month. I hope to keep churning these out every month from now on.

I feel like this month’s list is fantastic. We super-sized the list once again with 20 tracks for your ears to drool over (also, don’t forget to check out our Spotify playlist).

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Favorite Songbird Ruled out of Kentucky Oaks

Unbeaten Songbird, who had been the overwhelming favorite for the Kentucky Oaks at the start of May, will now miss the race as the result of suffering from a fever. The Jerry Hollendorfer trained horse had previously been as low as 1/4 in the odds for the famous race, having made an unbeaten start to her career which includes victories at the Breeders Cup Juvenile Fillies and three other grade 1 races. Owners at Fox Hill Farm have now revealed however that she will miss the upcoming meeting, allowing an opportunity for others to claim what would be an unexpected win.

Songbird has come out victorious in all of her three races so far this year, but will be given time off to make a fully recovery. With the loss of Songbird, Breeders Cup runner up Rachel’s Valentina is set to take over as the favourite for the race, with bookmakers Coral offering her horse racing odds of 7/4.

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Chyna Passes Away, Legacy Lives On

I really hate adding wrestler names to my Dead Wrestler List post that I have updated the last few years. We have lost many in 2016 and we are only a few months into the year.

Chyna, whose real name was Joanie Laurer, was found unconscious last night and was pronounced dead. A friend couldn’t contact her and the police found her in her bed at her home in California.

She’s had her fair share of issues with both performance-enhancing and recreational drugs. It was documented in the reality television series ‘Celebrity Rehab’ a few years ago.

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