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Sports
Predictions: Can The Bloodline find success under new leadership?
Four titles are on the line in France, but which champions will leave Lyon with their belts?
The WWE's tour of international premium live events continues with Backlash in Lyon-Decines, France on Saturday afternoon (1 p.m. ET on Peacock). The Undisputed WWE title is on the line, as are four other titles -- giving this card a Night of Champions feel without the actual name attached.
The 19th edition of Backlash feels eerily similar to last year's event in Puerto Rico. Bianca Belair is involved in a title match vs. a member of Damage CTRL, Randy Orton is entangled once more with The Bloodline in a tag match and two men who defined that night in San Juan (Cody Rhodes and Damian Priest) are now entrenched in the first defenses of the respective titles they won at WrestleMania 40.
Will the trio who won titles at WrestleMania be going home empty-handed? Is Backlash a precursor to one of the most important summers in recent WWE history?
Here's a look at each of the matches in France, along with predictions on how these feuds may play out.
If WrestleMania 40 ended like "Avengers: Endgame," with a long, arching story finally reaching a satisfying conclusion, Backlash represents the beginning of something new for Cody Rhodes. A year ago at this event, he battled Brock Lesnar, bloodied him and escaped. He's the champion this go-round, and AJ Styles represents a unique first challenger.
After dispatching LA Knight a week after WrestleMania to secure his spot as the No. 1 contender, Styles did what many a man before him has done when approaching Rhodes: he invoked his late father, Dusty. However, Styles' angle is different than those before him. He doesn't hate Rhodes, nor did "The American Dream" proclaim him to be a son he never had. Styles merely wants it to be understood that Dusty gave him the tools to be a man and succeed everywhere in pro wrestling. And he has done just that.
Even though they've wrestled in nearly every major wrestling promotion in America, the stars have never aligned for them to be simultaneously across the ring from one another -- until now. With a feud built on respect (and past ties to New Japan's Bullet Club faction), Backlash represents a moment between two Georgia boys who want to be champion, but only one will likely walk out with the gold.
Prediction: Cody Rhodes wins after a lengthy battle, but the two may run it back once things get more personal.
For nearly nine months, Damian Priest was in a "will he or won't he" limbo with his Money in The Bank briefcase. One fortunate moment at WrestleMania and Senor Money in the Bank became El campeĆ³n. With Rhea Ripley sidelined for a few months, he steps in as the de facto leader of The Judgment Day, even if his underlings aren't exactly living up to his championship mettle. Hence why Jey Uso being his first challenger makes all the sense in the world.
Since his arrival to RAW last September, Uso has made peace with plenty of people he assaulted and aggrieved while The Bloodline ran rampant on the WWE for the better part of three years. The night after WrestleMania, he outlasted Drew McIntyre, Ricochet and Bronson Reed in a Fatal 4-Way to become the No. 1 contender for the World title. And considering Uso's history with The Judgment Day and his personal history with Priest, it's deeper than joining a faction between them. There's some simmering bad blood, and given all the criticism Priest faced for not being champion, he's dead set on not having a short reign.
Prediction: Priest retains, with a bit of help from either The Judgment Day or Uso's cousins in The Bloodline.
Bayley finished her own story at WrestleMania. Despite being the first of the Four Horsewomen to become a Grand Slam champion, the noted 49ers fan never had a true WrestleMania moment until that fateful night in Philadelphia. Now going from hunter to hunted, The Role Model thought she would get a friendly, competitive one-on-one with Naomi. Instead, Tiffany Stratton has made it known that the entire WWE should be on "Tiffy Time," including the women's champion and one of her best friends.
Naomi's desire to be a champion isn't lost on anyone involved, considering she not only held down TNA during her time away from the WWE as champion, but she's also very aware of what being a champion means. If she, Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill leave France with gold? It's a historic moment. Bayley isn't planning on giving up a title and moment she sought for years this easily, not to a close friend and especially not to the upstart in Stratton.
Prediction: Bayley wins, though Stratton proves to not only be a game opponent, but that she's ready to challenge Bayley throughout the summer.
At this point, we can count Bianca Belair vs. Damage CTRL as one of the longest feuds in WWE history. Since SummerSlam in 2022, Belair has been embroiled in issues with the group, spanning two different WarGames matches. Belair lost the Women's title to Iyo Sky at SummerSlam 2023 and a six-woman tag match at WrestleMania last month. Needless to say, The EST is primed to finally put things to bed with the group.
Teaming with Jade Cargill, who looks like Belair's physical equal, has been nothing but a nightmare for Damage CTRL, all the way down to their defeat at WrestleMania. Cargill is a game-changer, and although Asuka and Kairi Sane are easily the most decorated Women's tag team champions in WWE history, they're facing arguably the most physically imposing women's tag team in WWE history.
After running Smackdown for most of 2023, Damage CTRL is united but lacking hardware. Bayley's win over Iyo Sky at WrestleMania left the group vulnerable. And seeing how the group feels primed for a rebirth on RAW following the WWE draft, it feels all the more likely that Cargill's undefeated run will continue and France will see new champs crowned.
Prediction: Belair and Cargill win, setting up the most dominant women's tag team title holders the company has seen.
No group felt more in flux than The Bloodline post-WrestleMania. Roman Reigns, the proverbial face of WWE, finally lost the WWE title and, with it, the power of being the guy on Smackdown. Solo Sikoa -- in demand of answers for the group's failure -- assumed the position of interim "Tribal Chief" with Reigns' sojourn away from the ring.
Similar to how Triple H reconfigured Degeneration X following WrestleMania 14, Sikoa brought in Tama Tonga, the son of the legendary Haku. First order of business? Restore The Bloodline to a faction to be feared, which meant booting Jimmy Uso out via numerous Samoan Spikes, and assaulting Kevin Owens in a way not seen on WWE TV since the late 1990s. Owens, who feels like he has been feuding with The Bloodline since the pandemic, now has to deal with Sikoa and Tonga alongside Orton, who has his own beef with The Bloodline.
Orton and Owens are friendly rivals at best, as evidenced by their hard-hitting triple-threat match with Logan Paul at WrestleMania. But to further establish the new version of The Bloodline as a ruthless outfit, they need to leave France with a victory.
Prediction: The Bloodline wins, but not before bloodying either Orton or Owens and beginning the road to reclaiming their control of Smackdown.
The 19th edition of Backlash feels eerily similar to last year's event in Puerto Rico. Bianca Belair is involved in a title match vs. a member of Damage CTRL, Randy Orton is entangled once more with The Bloodline in a tag match and two men who defined that night in San Juan (Cody Rhodes and Damian Priest) are now entrenched in the first defenses of the respective titles they won at WrestleMania 40.
Will the trio who won titles at WrestleMania be going home empty-handed? Is Backlash a precursor to one of the most important summers in recent WWE history?
Here's a look at each of the matches in France, along with predictions on how these feuds may play out.
If WrestleMania 40 ended like "Avengers: Endgame," with a long, arching story finally reaching a satisfying conclusion, Backlash represents the beginning of something new for Cody Rhodes. A year ago at this event, he battled Brock Lesnar, bloodied him and escaped. He's the champion this go-round, and AJ Styles represents a unique first challenger.
After dispatching LA Knight a week after WrestleMania to secure his spot as the No. 1 contender, Styles did what many a man before him has done when approaching Rhodes: he invoked his late father, Dusty. However, Styles' angle is different than those before him. He doesn't hate Rhodes, nor did "The American Dream" proclaim him to be a son he never had. Styles merely wants it to be understood that Dusty gave him the tools to be a man and succeed everywhere in pro wrestling. And he has done just that.
Even though they've wrestled in nearly every major wrestling promotion in America, the stars have never aligned for them to be simultaneously across the ring from one another -- until now. With a feud built on respect (and past ties to New Japan's Bullet Club faction), Backlash represents a moment between two Georgia boys who want to be champion, but only one will likely walk out with the gold.
Prediction: Cody Rhodes wins after a lengthy battle, but the two may run it back once things get more personal.
For nearly nine months, Damian Priest was in a "will he or won't he" limbo with his Money in The Bank briefcase. One fortunate moment at WrestleMania and Senor Money in the Bank became El campeĆ³n. With Rhea Ripley sidelined for a few months, he steps in as the de facto leader of The Judgment Day, even if his underlings aren't exactly living up to his championship mettle. Hence why Jey Uso being his first challenger makes all the sense in the world.
Since his arrival to RAW last September, Uso has made peace with plenty of people he assaulted and aggrieved while The Bloodline ran rampant on the WWE for the better part of three years. The night after WrestleMania, he outlasted Drew McIntyre, Ricochet and Bronson Reed in a Fatal 4-Way to become the No. 1 contender for the World title. And considering Uso's history with The Judgment Day and his personal history with Priest, it's deeper than joining a faction between them. There's some simmering bad blood, and given all the criticism Priest faced for not being champion, he's dead set on not having a short reign.
Prediction: Priest retains, with a bit of help from either The Judgment Day or Uso's cousins in The Bloodline.
Bayley finished her own story at WrestleMania. Despite being the first of the Four Horsewomen to become a Grand Slam champion, the noted 49ers fan never had a true WrestleMania moment until that fateful night in Philadelphia. Now going from hunter to hunted, The Role Model thought she would get a friendly, competitive one-on-one with Naomi. Instead, Tiffany Stratton has made it known that the entire WWE should be on "Tiffy Time," including the women's champion and one of her best friends.
Naomi's desire to be a champion isn't lost on anyone involved, considering she not only held down TNA during her time away from the WWE as champion, but she's also very aware of what being a champion means. If she, Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill leave France with gold? It's a historic moment. Bayley isn't planning on giving up a title and moment she sought for years this easily, not to a close friend and especially not to the upstart in Stratton.
Prediction: Bayley wins, though Stratton proves to not only be a game opponent, but that she's ready to challenge Bayley throughout the summer.
At this point, we can count Bianca Belair vs. Damage CTRL as one of the longest feuds in WWE history. Since SummerSlam in 2022, Belair has been embroiled in issues with the group, spanning two different WarGames matches. Belair lost the Women's title to Iyo Sky at SummerSlam 2023 and a six-woman tag match at WrestleMania last month. Needless to say, The EST is primed to finally put things to bed with the group.
Teaming with Jade Cargill, who looks like Belair's physical equal, has been nothing but a nightmare for Damage CTRL, all the way down to their defeat at WrestleMania. Cargill is a game-changer, and although Asuka and Kairi Sane are easily the most decorated Women's tag team champions in WWE history, they're facing arguably the most physically imposing women's tag team in WWE history.
After running Smackdown for most of 2023, Damage CTRL is united but lacking hardware. Bayley's win over Iyo Sky at WrestleMania left the group vulnerable. And seeing how the group feels primed for a rebirth on RAW following the WWE draft, it feels all the more likely that Cargill's undefeated run will continue and France will see new champs crowned.
Prediction: Belair and Cargill win, setting up the most dominant women's tag team title holders the company has seen.
No group felt more in flux than The Bloodline post-WrestleMania. Roman Reigns, the proverbial face of WWE, finally lost the WWE title and, with it, the power of being the guy on Smackdown. Solo Sikoa -- in demand of answers for the group's failure -- assumed the position of interim "Tribal Chief" with Reigns' sojourn away from the ring.
Similar to how Triple H reconfigured Degeneration X following WrestleMania 14, Sikoa brought in Tama Tonga, the son of the legendary Haku. First order of business? Restore The Bloodline to a faction to be feared, which meant booting Jimmy Uso out via numerous Samoan Spikes, and assaulting Kevin Owens in a way not seen on WWE TV since the late 1990s. Owens, who feels like he has been feuding with The Bloodline since the pandemic, now has to deal with Sikoa and Tonga alongside Orton, who has his own beef with The Bloodline.
Orton and Owens are friendly rivals at best, as evidenced by their hard-hitting triple-threat match with Logan Paul at WrestleMania. But to further establish the new version of The Bloodline as a ruthless outfit, they need to leave France with a victory.
Prediction: The Bloodline wins, but not before bloodying either Orton or Owens and beginning the road to reclaiming their control of Smackdown.
Technology
The US is propping up gas while the world moves to renewable energy
A global energy report forecasts a peak in electricity and greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. But the US is still slowing down a transition to renewable energy.
A record 30 percent of electricity globally came from renewable sources of energy last year thanks primarily to growth in solar and wind power. Starting this year, pollution from the power sector is likely to start dropping, with a 2 percent drop in the amount of fossil fuel-powered electricity projected for 2024 āĀ a decline Ember expects to speed up in the long term.
āA major turning point in the history of energyā
āThe decline of power sector emissions is now inevitable. 2023 was likely the pivot point ā a major turning point in the history of energy,ā Dave Jones, Emberās insights director, said in an emailed statement. āBut the pace ... depends on how fast the renewables revolution continues.ā
Itās a transition that could be happening much faster if not for the US, which is already the worldās biggest gas producer, using record amounts of gas last year. Without the US, Ember finds, electricity generation from gas would have fallen globally in 2023. Global economies excluding the US managed to generate 62 terawatt hours less gas-powered electricity last year compared to the year prior. But the US ramped up its electricity generation from gas by nearly twice that amount in the same timeframe, an additional 115TWh from gas in 2023.
A big part of the problem is that the US is replacing a majority of aging power plants that run on coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, with gas-fired plants instead of carbon pollution-free alternatives. āThe US is switching one fossil fuel for another,ā Jones said. āAfter two decades of building such a heavy reliance on gas power, the US has a big journey ahead to get to a truly clean power system.ā
The US gets just 23 percent of its electricity from renewable energy, according to Ember, falling below the global average of 30 percent.
President Joe Biden set a goal of reaching 100 percent carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035 and signed into law the nationās largest investment in clean energy and climate to date with the Inflation Reduction Act. But the administrationās ability to mandate a transition to cleaner energy is limited after the Supreme Court decided in 2022 that the Environmental Protection Agency shouldnāt be allowed to determine how the US generates its electricity. Since then, the EPAās long-awaited rules for greenhouse gas emissions from power plants have leaned on getting energy companies to capture carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels.
Fortunately, renewables have become remarkably affordable, with solar now considered the cheapest source of electricity in history and the fastest-growing power source for 19 years in a row.
āLast centuryās outdated technologies can no longer compete with the exponential innovations and declining cost curves in renewable energy and storage,ā Christiana Figueres, former executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, said in an emailed statement.
Emberās report tracks closely with other predictions from the International Energy Agency (IEA), which called a transition to clean energy āunstoppableā in October. The IEA forecast a peak in global demand for coal, gas, and oil this decade (for all energy use, not just electricity). It also projected that renewables would make up nearly 50 percent of the worldās electricity mix by 2030.
Ember is a little more optimistic after more than 130 countries pledged to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030 during a United Nations climate summit in December. With that progress, renewable electricity globally would reach 60 percent by the end of the decade compared to less than 20 percent in 2000.
Sports
Record-breaking teams, shutout pitchers and the POY race: Numbers that defined the 2024 season
From Reese Atwood's record-setting year to Miami Ohio's and Charlotte's improbable rise, these numbers tell the story of the 2024 regular season.
The 2024 college softball regular season has officially wrapped up. This season brought many record-breaking heroes and fascinating stats.
These stats can tell us about strengths, weaknesses and which players are leading the race for the 2024 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award. They can also provide us some hints about what we might see in the Women's College World Series, which begins May 30. The NCAA Softball Selection Show Presented by Capital One will air live on Sunday, May 12 at 7 p.m. on ESPN2.
With the conference tournaments upon us and with the final top 25 poll of the regular season out, here are the key numbers to know from the college softball season.
Stats are through May 7.
15: Clemson's pitching staff has allowed just 15 home runs all season, the fewest by any Power 5 conference team this year.
14: Charlotte started the season with a bang, downing Florida State 6-5 in the first game. The 49ers have quietly kept up their momentum throughout and ended on a program-best 14-game winning streak.
13: With UCLA's 12-1 win over Arizona State on Saturday, the Bruins clinched their 13th and final Pac-12 regular-season championship.
12: There were 12 perfect games this season. Ball State's Francys King claimed the final of the regular season in an 8-0 victory over Central Michigan on Saturday.
11: There were 11 different pitchers with over 200 strikeouts this season.
Brooklyn Shroyer (FDU), NiJaree Canady (Stanford), Kasey Ricard (Boston), Courtney Wyche (Maryland), Maddie Penta (Auburn), Maddia Groff (Southern Illinois), Isabella Smith (Campbell), Rissa Bajusz (Western Michigan), Maya Johnson (Belmont), Olivia Lackie (South Alabama) and Mariah Lopez (Utah).
10: Miami (Ohio) had 10 different batters hit home runs this season as the Redhawks claimed a nation's best 154 homers, ranking fourth all time.
9: Maya Brady, who hit a two-home run in UCLA's sweep of Arizona, has nine multihomer games in her career (tied for second most in UCLA history).
8: In April, Reese Atwood set a Texas program record with eight straight games hitting at least one RBI. This wasn't the only program record she shattered, as her 21 home runs are the most in a single season.
7: Miami (Ohio) finished the regular season only seven home runs shy of tying Oklahoma's 2021 team (161) for the single-season home run record.
6: Oklahoma's six losses are the Sooners' most since 2019. They finished that season as the WCWS runner-up to UCLA.
5: Stanford's NiJaree Canady has only allowed five home runs all season, the fewest among Pac-12 pitchers who started at least 15 games.
4: Oklahoma's Tiare Jennings has 301 RBIs in her career. She needs four more to surpass Sierra Romero (304) to claim the fifth most in women's DI softball history.
3: Texas had three starting hitters batting over .400, helping lift its offense to a nation-leading .380 batting average.
2: Boston (26) and Oklahoma (21) were the two teams to finish the regular season with 20 or more shutouts.
1: Florida State entered as the preseason favorite to finish atop the ACC but lost its final series of the season to Syracuse to drop below Duke in the conference standings, handing the Blue Devils their first 1-seed for the ACC tournament in program history.
ESPN Stats & Information research contributed to this article.
These stats can tell us about strengths, weaknesses and which players are leading the race for the 2024 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award. They can also provide us some hints about what we might see in the Women's College World Series, which begins May 30. The NCAA Softball Selection Show Presented by Capital One will air live on Sunday, May 12 at 7 p.m. on ESPN2.
With the conference tournaments upon us and with the final top 25 poll of the regular season out, here are the key numbers to know from the college softball season.
Stats are through May 7.
15: Clemson's pitching staff has allowed just 15 home runs all season, the fewest by any Power 5 conference team this year.
14: Charlotte started the season with a bang, downing Florida State 6-5 in the first game. The 49ers have quietly kept up their momentum throughout and ended on a program-best 14-game winning streak.
13: With UCLA's 12-1 win over Arizona State on Saturday, the Bruins clinched their 13th and final Pac-12 regular-season championship.
12: There were 12 perfect games this season. Ball State's Francys King claimed the final of the regular season in an 8-0 victory over Central Michigan on Saturday.
11: There were 11 different pitchers with over 200 strikeouts this season.
Brooklyn Shroyer (FDU), NiJaree Canady (Stanford), Kasey Ricard (Boston), Courtney Wyche (Maryland), Maddie Penta (Auburn), Maddia Groff (Southern Illinois), Isabella Smith (Campbell), Rissa Bajusz (Western Michigan), Maya Johnson (Belmont), Olivia Lackie (South Alabama) and Mariah Lopez (Utah).
10: Miami (Ohio) had 10 different batters hit home runs this season as the Redhawks claimed a nation's best 154 homers, ranking fourth all time.
9: Maya Brady, who hit a two-home run in UCLA's sweep of Arizona, has nine multihomer games in her career (tied for second most in UCLA history).
8: In April, Reese Atwood set a Texas program record with eight straight games hitting at least one RBI. This wasn't the only program record she shattered, as her 21 home runs are the most in a single season.
7: Miami (Ohio) finished the regular season only seven home runs shy of tying Oklahoma's 2021 team (161) for the single-season home run record.
6: Oklahoma's six losses are the Sooners' most since 2019. They finished that season as the WCWS runner-up to UCLA.
5: Stanford's NiJaree Canady has only allowed five home runs all season, the fewest among Pac-12 pitchers who started at least 15 games.
4: Oklahoma's Tiare Jennings has 301 RBIs in her career. She needs four more to surpass Sierra Romero (304) to claim the fifth most in women's DI softball history.
3: Texas had three starting hitters batting over .400, helping lift its offense to a nation-leading .380 batting average.
2: Boston (26) and Oklahoma (21) were the two teams to finish the regular season with 20 or more shutouts.
1: Florida State entered as the preseason favorite to finish atop the ACC but lost its final series of the season to Syracuse to drop below Duke in the conference standings, handing the Blue Devils their first 1-seed for the ACC tournament in program history.
ESPN Stats & Information research contributed to this article.
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