AFP Podcasts

NASCAR Cup Series: Joey Logano wins Las Vegas, a spot in the Championship 4

Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano executed Team Penske’s fuel strategy flawlessly on Sunday, securing victory in the South Point 400 Playoff race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. This win earned him the first of four spots in the NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4.

Catching Up With: Former Mid-Atlantic heavyweight champion Sam Houston

Sam Houston has been involved with professional wrestling his entire life.

The son of Grizzly Smith, Houston’s family is ingrained in the fabric of the business. His older brother is WWE Hall of Famer Jake “The Snake” Roberts, and his younger sister is former WWE women’s champion Rockin’ Robin.

From setting up the ring and shuttling wrestlers across Louisiana as a teenager, to winning the Mid-Atlantic Championship and appearing in WrestleMania IV, Houston has seen it all.

23XI Racing, Front Row Motorsports seek injunction in suit over NASCAR charters

Front Row Motorsports has not turned a profit in its 20 years in NASCAR, according to a court filing from its owner, Bob Jenkins, who along with Michael Jordan at 23XI Racing is suing the privately-owned racing circuit to challenge the legality of its charter system, aimed at teams being able to get a bigger share of NASCAR’s $3 billion annual revenues.

Tony Bennett steps down as UVA Basketball coach

Tony Bennett retired on Friday after 15 seasons as the head coach for the UVA Basketball program.

AFP editor Chris Graham was at Bennett's retirement press conference on Friday, and reports on the mood in the room, which, yes, obviously somber, looks back on what led to the shocking move by Bennett, and ahead to the prospects for the upcoming UVA hoops season, and beyond.

Prayers for AEW stars Dax Harwood, Cash Wheeler, Adam Copeland in Asheville

This week’s “Street Knowledge” podcast on AEW, with AFP editor Chris Graham and columnist Ray Petree, opens with a segment acknowledging the tragic flooding down in Western Carolina, including Asheville, N.C., the home of AEW stars Dax Harwood, Cash Wheeler and Adam Copeland.

“Dax Harwood kind of lives on social media, it seems, and he did post yesterday, just that the storm walloped him pretty hard. He was home in Asheville. And man, that situation there, it looks horrible,” Graham said on the podcast.

“Roads in and out of town, washed out, power gone, no communications, or very limited communications. It just looks awful. So that's, I mean, of course, there's the much bigger situation, just with all the people who are affected by that, but, but certainly from a wrestling perspective, we'll try to keep tabs on all that. That's, it's just a horrible story.”

Also on the show:

• Review of Night 1 and Night 2 of this week’s “Grand Slam.”
• WWE apparently has interest in Malakai Black. Would he be a good fit for a return?
• WWE stars AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura are nearing the ends of their current contracts. Could they fit in as top guys in AEW?
• The latest on the contract situation for AEW mainstays Penta and Ray Fenix.
• Swerve Strickland let slip something about AEW landing a new show on Fox. Did he mean FS1?

This week’s AEW ‘Dynamite’ was not must-see TV

The money quote from AFP columnist Ray Petree on this week’s podcast: you could miss this week’s AEW “Dynamite,” and not be any worse for the wear heading into the big “Grand Slam” show next week in New York.

And no, this isn’t good for AEW.

Ray and AFP editor Chris Graham cover a lot of territory on the AEW beat this week.

In this podcast

Jericho-Cassidy sheds viewers in dud of opening segment

The opening segment of “Dynamite,” featuring a match pitting Chris Jericho vs. Orange Cassidy, went over like the proverbial wet fart in church.

As a gimmick, “The Learning Tree” is easily Jericho’s worst re-invention yet. Every week, we watch the “Jericho Vortex” suffocate Bryan Keith and Big Bill.

Since “All In,” Jericho has had The Conglomeration and Orange Cassidy in his crosshairs; culminating in this match — which lasted nearly 20 minutes.

Was this the best use of time for this episode of “Dynamite”?

New looks for Jon Moxley, Private Party

Jon Moxley and Claudio Castagnoli are doing a good job reinventing themselves in the new-look Blackpool Combat Club.

This week, the BCC attacked Private Party, after Isaiah Kassidy and Marq Quen cut a nice promo that seems to signal a new direction for them, and then we saw Darby Allin get involved.

Where all of those parties go from here will be something worth watching.

It’s time to get the tag belts off The Young Bucks already

The names of the participants in the “Dynamite” main event reflect the quality of this match: Will Ospreay, Kyle Fletcher and Konosuke Takeshita faced Kazuchika Okada & the Young Bucks. 

For Ospreay, Fletcher, and the Young Bucks, it was a preview of their match next week at “Grand Slam.” For Takeshita and Okada, this was yet another confrontation — building towards their eventual match for the AEW Continental Championship. 

This match was guaranteed to be entertaining, given how phenomenal all six men are in the ring. Not to mention, watching Ospreay and Okada share an AEW ring was exhilarating.

The question remains: can we just get the tag belts off The Bucks already?

Breaking: Miro asks for his release

Miro, not used in AEW at all in 2024, has reportedly asked Tony Khan for his release, and the only surprising thing to this breaking news is: what took so long?

Miro was, for a brief few months several years ago in WWE, the hottest heel in wrestling, as a pro-Putin propagandist with nuclear heat.

He had a solid run as the TNT champ in 2021, but we’re three years past that now.

Is the grass going to be greener if he returns to WWE? Or does he try to latch on with TNA Impact, MLW, or … just hang ‘em up?

Kill, Steen, Kill!

The wrestling rumor mill has it that Kevin Owens, nee Kevin Steen, could be a target for Tony Khan, with Owens’ contract with WWE coming up at the end of the year.

Would Owens/Steen consider jumping ship from WWE to reunite with his former Ring of Honor running buddies Matt and Nick Jackson?

KO might have already hit his ceiling in WWE, so that’s one factor to consider.

But he might want to get some assurances from Khan that there’s a plan in place for his rollout, in light of the flubs that we’ve seen with recent big-money signees Adam Copeland, Mercedes Mone and Kazuchika Okada.

Republicans block IVF bill, keep lying about immigrants eating pets

Politics is a contact sport, as Springfield, Ohio, knows all too well, with MAGA Nation continuing to put the city in the crosshairs, all because city leaders refuse to play along with the Donald Trump/JD Vance lie about immigrants eating pets.

Chris Graham covers that topic in today’s podcast, and we also get into the Senate IVF bill that was blocked by MAGA Republicans, and the Teamsters, rather curiously, deciding to sit out the 2024 election, despite Trump making it clear that he will continue his union-busting ways if he gets elected in November.

All of that, plus our too busy with North Carolina politics to care about Waynesboro guy running for a seat on Waynesboro City Council.

The bottom line in sports

If you want to know the reason for something happening in the world of sports, follow the money.

That’s the theme for today’s “Street Knowledge” podcast, at least the first two segments.

Host Chris Graham examines the rumored talks involving the ACC, Florida State and Clemson, and the latest about the AEW-Warner Bros. Discovery TV deal that is supposedly in the works.

The final segment breaks contain to update the latest on UVA Football, which is coming off a 27-13 loss to Maryland in Week 3.

NASCAR, team owners, come to uneasy truce on team charters

NASCAR and its team owners, with two notable exceptions, have come to an agreement on the extensions of team charters, with an announcement on the extensions coming in advance of the opening of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs last weekend.

The two exceptions – 23XI Racing, co-owned by Michael Jordan and NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin, and Front Row Motorsports, owned by restaurant operator Bob Jenkins – are taking different approaches to where they want to see things go from here.

Jenkins has not commented on why he didn’t sign; 23XI, through Jordan and Hamlin, has been outspoken on why, citing terms that the team doesn’t think are favorable for the long-term.

Chase Briscoe wins his way into the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs

Chase Briscoe and Kyle Busch battled to the end of the Southern 500 to secure a spot in the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.

Briscoe got the win and the final playoff spot, leaving Busch, who has been running well of late, on the outside looking in.

#TeamAFP’s Chris Graham and Rod Mullins break down the thrilling end to the regular season, the disappointing near-miss for Bubba Wallace, and look ahead to the playoffs.

The second segment covers the developing news that an announcement appears to be in the works regarding NASCAR coming to an agreement with team owners on the terms of team charters that the team owners have been pushing for to give them more stability for the long term.

What does that mean for the sport?