The Daily Spotlight

The Wrestling Drive on Smackdown Live Moving To Fox

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After a way too lengthy hiatus, the wrestling drive returns to look at all things WWE with the big news that Smackdown Live appears to be moving to Fox!  Check out the wrestling drive below as we talk about all the speculation surrounding WWE’s apparent move back to network television

 

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Update on thedailyspotlight.com- I’m Engaged!

Tom Lynch The Daily Spotlight, Travel , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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So it’s been a long time.  Ok it’s been a really really long time but alas here we are, back on thedailyspotlight.com. You look great by the way, have you lost weight or is that just the angle? Regardless I’m going to get into a lot of stuff over the next few weeks as we get into a variety of topics but I felt I would take this time to catch everyone up to speed on where the heck I’ve been for the past three months or so.  I felt it would be in poor taste to hop on here and talk about Bryce Harper’s incredible walk off winner on Easter Sunday or my trip to the Magic Kingdom a few weeks ago without getting everyone up to speed.

Ch-ch-changes– First and foremost, I’m engaged! That’s right just one day after the 2017 Royal Rumble, which we were counting down to when we last left off, Eri and I took off for Iceland and on that very trip I popped the question and thankfully Eri said YES! This was by far the most nerve wracking thing I’ve ever done in my life but it’s a moment I’ll never forget.  Truth be told I wanted to propose for quite some time and was all set to do it in October of last year.  We had an idea to go to Thailand right after my birthday and I thought what better way than to take something about me and flip it to make it all about her. Unfortunately, Eri had just started a new job and couldn’t get off for over a week (I should point out that while it probably would have been frowned upon for me to do the same, I would have been able to make it work because meh I always find a way to make it work) so we couldn’t justify the trip to Thailand with the two days of travel that are required for the trip so we settled on Mexico and my plans to put a ring on it were shelved.
Shelved only because I knew that we had already booked a trip to Iceland in February.  Eri booked the trip about a year ago on a whim when seeing an unbeatable deal pop up on Groupon so I knew this trip was on the horizon and thought, what better place to do it then under the Northern Lights.  After all, I had seen all of these amazing one of a kind photos online of the Lights and proposals that took place right then and there. So that idea was set for a few months out and now came the planning process of how I was going to get the ring without Eri noticing what the heck was going on.  This was the hardest part because we are usually together and I’m not good at keeping anything hidden so it was really tough.  The entire designing process and then the resizing process was so much fun and had so many adventures that I honestly wanted to fill Eri in on everything because shit, this is what I usually do with the ups and downs of everyday life.  I have to give a shoutout to OKG Jewlery over here in Queens, New York.  They are some of the most passionate and incredible people that I found to work with.  They were able to take a vision I had and work with me, often coming in on the weekends and after hours to show me updates and communicate with me while Eri wasn’t around.  They made a stressful process completely manageable and I cannot recommend them enough.
The hardest part of this entire ordeal was getting the ring overseas and then freaking out that Eri would discover the ring at some point before I was able to ask.  The first part came to figuring out how to get the ring through the metal detectors at the airport.  Talk about a hold your breath moment as I sat there with my bag going through the medal detector, especially as I saw the TSA fella’s eye open super wide as my bag passed.  We made eye contact as I’m sure he read my expression that read “Please don’t blow this up for me bro!”…I had put the ring on the bottom of my bookbag in a glove with a little sign that said “Engagement Ring Enclosed”, please if you don’t get anything else from this entire post always remember…ALWAYS CARRY THE ENGAGEMENT RING ON YOUR PERSON!!!! Engagement rings are not cheap and even if you have it insured (which you absolutely should, that’s point number 2 to take away from this), the last thing you want to do is lose the ring because you checked your bag or left it in the hotel when you went for a hot dog over at Baejarins. From the moment the ring made it through security, it was in my pocket the rest of the trip until I gave it to Eri.
I thought this was going to be easier said than done because our Nothern Lights Tour was the first part of our trip.  On the way to the Lights, I couldn’t wait what an unbeliuevable moment this was going to be, the skies lit up with beaming green lights naturally occuring for us to see.  It was going to be magical!  But then it wasn’t….we got there and sure we saw a few faint lights but nothing like you see in the pictures.  I had no idea where those fellas who proposed got it done but there was no clear shot of the lights unless you had a super high tech camera lens, which I did, but there was no way to pose in front of the lights for a proposal.  Not to mention everyone who is there to see the lights does not want you to ruin their experience.  Any sign of a flash elicited grunts and groans from the folks on the tour and didn’t do much for the photo you were taking.  I imagined a beautiful photo of me on one knee prosign to an unexpected Eri with the backdrop of a variety of tour buses, angry tourists and a black sky…no bueno! So I returned to the hotel defeated and with a ring in my pocket trying to figure out what was next.
I had decided, with the help of my mother a couple of close friends I was texting with who threatened that I better not return home with a ring in my pocket looking forward to propose live at Wrestlemania 33 from our limited view seats, that I was ismploy going to wait the week out.  I figured that with all of the excursions we had planned, and brother do we love our excursions, I was going to find some moment where it felt right.  The enxt morning was our Ice Climbing excursions so ring in pocket we went Ice climbing up the Glaciers of Seljalandsfoss.  I have the coordinator of a 6 foot 4 white guy, so not very good, but I went swinging and climbing up the glaciers the best I could praying I wouldn’t fall to my doom.  Ok I didn’t care about my doom I just worried about the ring.  About five minutes into the trip I asked our tour guide where the highest peak we were going was and he pointed up to where I could barely see. I knew that was it, it was perfect.  I spent the rest of the excursion planning out how I was going to do this I was going to have someone film it and have someone take pictures, I was going to make a big speech, it was going to be marvelous and over the top…but almost none of that happened.  Instead, when we reached our peak I asked a photographer on the trip, from Shanghai to take a few pictures of us, I removed Eri’s glove and managed to get out just one question…”Will you marry me?”…time stood still for what felt like 3 hours until she said Yes!
What Else?- Well if you’re still reading this far down we are now on the road to weddingville.  Over the next 11 months there will likely be more wedding updates that you can stomach including many a video over on our youtube page https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy_gVqjuaWDp2QW6go6e0Xw... but don’t worry now that we’re back in the swing of things there will be plenty on the world of sports, wrestling and travel that you’ve come to expect here on the site.  After all, we were down in Orlando for Wrestlemania week and did all of the parks so you can expect to see all of that come out over the next few weeks, this was just my way of letting you guys know what’s been going on and from this moment forward…I’m back!

The Wrestling Drive- Previewing Summerslam Week

Tom Lynch Entertainment, Spotlight Videos, The Daily Spotlight, Travel, Wrestling , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hello everyone, hope everyone is doing well and welcome to the continued coverage of Summerslam week here on thedailyspotlight.com.  I have to throw out our youtube page as there will be a number of videos throughout the week including one of right now looking at how Summerslam has already started to take over the city of Brooklyn.  Click right here to subscribe to our youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy_gVqjuaWDp2QW6go6e0Xw!   the above video was uploaded on Monday morning really really gives a nice look not only into all of the happenings in WWE throughout the week but also touches on a few UFC tidbits and also talks about the television coverage on both the WWE network as well at network TV.  Below is a comprehensive list of all wrestling events going on throughout the week here in New York City.  There are also a number of really cool community outreach events that the WWE superstars are taking part in throughout the week, which you can read about here http://www.wwe.com/shows/summerslam/2016/article/wwe-takes-over-new-york-city-summerslam-week!   We are seeking live reports from all of the different shows so if you’re heading to the shows send an email to thedailyspotlight2@gmail.com and make sure to include your name and twitter handle so we can give credit.  Without any further ado check out the list of events takign place in New York City below.  Credit for contributions to the list: pwinsider.com.

WEDNESDAY 8/17

The Dudley Boyz signing
2-4 p.m.
Toys“R”Us Staten Island
2845 Richmond Ave.
Staten Island, N.Y. 10314

Eva Marie signing
5-7 p.m.
Toys“R”Us Flatbush
2875 Flatbush Ave.
Brooklyn, N.Y. 11234

THURSDAY 8/18

The Miz & Maryse signing
10 a.m.-12 p.m.
Toys“R”Us Bay Parkway
8973-95 Bay Parkway
Brooklyn, N.Y. 11214

Cesaro signing
2-4 p.m.
Toys“R”Us Middle Village
66-26 Metropolitan Ave.
Queens, N.Y. 11379

FREE- Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast- 2PM- 5PM at Carolines Broadway

Live simulcast of the Sam Roberts Wrestling podcast and the Sam Roberts show with guests Today Show’s Katie Linendoll, NXT Ring Announcer Kathy Kelly, Raw Superstars The Club & Kevin Owens and more to be announced

FRIDAY 8/19

FREE SIGNING:

Titus O’Neil signing
10 a.m.-12 p.m.
Toys“R”Us Long Island City
3540 48th St.
Long Island City, N.Y. 11101

Finn Bálor signing
2-4 p.m.
Toys“R”Us Bronx
350 Baychester Ave.
Bronx, N.Y. 10475

WWE MEET & GREETS AT BARCLAYS’ CENTER:

AJ Styles – 1 PM

Kevin Owens – 1 PM

WWE Tag Team champions The New Day – 3:30 PM

Enzo Amore & Colin Cassady – 3:30 PM

7 PM – The Amazing Red and Brian XL’s House of Glory promotion in Jamaica, Queens at Club Amazura with their biggest show of their calendar year “High Intensity” featuring:

*House of Glory Tag Team champions Private Party vs. The Hardy Boyz

*House of Glory champion EC3 vs. TBA.

*Drew Galloway vs Chris Dickinson

*Mickie James vs Sonya Strong

*EA James vs Big Daddy Cruz
For more details, visit www.HOGWrestling.net

7PM- Jake “The Snake” Roberts- The Unspoken Word Tour- Grammercy Theatre

Tickets available at Ticketmaster.com

SATURDAY 8/20

FREE SIGNING:

Becky Lynch signing
10 a.m.-12 p.m.
Toys“R”Us Rego Park
61-35 Junction Blvd.
Rego Park, N.Y. 11374

WWE MEET AND GREETS AT BARCLAYS CENTER:

Randy Orton at 10 AM

WWE Women’s champion Charlotte at 10 AM

WWE champion Dean Ambrose at 12:30 PM

Sasha Banks at 12 PM

Roman Reigns at 3 PM

Seth Rollins at 3 PM

3 PM EVOLVE in Brooklyn, NY at St. Finbar’s featuring:

*EVOLVE champion Timothy Thatcher defends vs. Drew Gulak.

*Cody Rhodes vs. Chris Hero.

*Tommy End vs. Matt Riddle.

*WWE Cruiserweight Classic Spotlight Match: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Cedric Alexander.

*Tommy End vs. Matt Riddle.

*Tony Nese vs. Peter Kaasa.

*Also appearing are Ethan Page and more.

Tickets are now on sale this link.

8 PM – WWE NXT Takeover: Brooklyn at the Barclays Center featuring:

*WWE NXT champion Samoa Joe vs. Shinsuke Nakamura.

*WWE NXT Women’s champion Asuka vs. Bayley.

*WWE NXT Tag Team champions The Revival vs. Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa.

*No Way Jose vs. Austin Aries.

*Bobby Roode vs. Andrade “Cien” Almas.

*The debut of Ember Moon.

SUNDAY 8/21

10AM- Talk Is Jericho Live Podcast at Croline’s Broadway

Live 4 hour podcast at Caroline’s with Chris Jericho and Christain which includes a Q & A, photo ops and signings. VIP Breakfast available.

6 PM – WWE Summerslam PPV at Barclays Center

*WWE World champion Dean Ambrose vs. Dolph Ziggler.

*Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Orton.

*Finn Balor vs. Seth Rollins to crown the first WWE Universal champion.

*WWE United States champion Rusev vs. Roman Reigns.

*WWE Women’s champion Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte.

*AJ Styles vs. John Cena.

*WWE Intercontinental champion The Miz vs. Apollo Crews.

*WWE Tag Team champions New Day vs. Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson.

*Kevin Owens & Chris Jericho vs. Enzo Amore & Colin Cassady.

MONDAY 8/22

7:30 PM Monday Night Raw at Barclays Center

I’ve done my best to denote all of the different free events taking place throughout the week including some meet and greets.  My suggestion would be that if you’re going to attend any of the free events, arrive early!  Free events are few and far between so you know people with be out in droves for these.

I’d also like to point out that I did not include ring Of Honor. They’re having a very big pay per view tomorrow night that should be great.  You can check out Death Before Dishonor 14 live from Las Vegas, Nevada tomorrow night at 9:00PM EST and also on pay per view.  For more information, check them out right here  http://www.rohwrestling.com/news/jay-lethal-defend-world-title-against-adam-cole-dbd

The Spotlight On The Wrestling Drive

Tom Lynch The Daily Spotlight, Wrestling , , , , , , , , , ,

Hello everyone hope all is well. I figured it was about time that we popped on here and kicked things into high gear. I have a bit of a big announcement that I’m going to get into that will hopefully be as exciting to you as it is to me. As you know over the past 9 months or so I started to upload videos onto YouTube based around my different travels all over the world. I have hours of content already in the can here and plan to begin rolling these out over the next week and into the weekend. I think these videos are a lot of fun because I have been afforded the opportunity to travel a good amount and I personally enjoy sharing these experiences with you. The goal is to hopefully help you to plan your trip by watching some of my videos and giving you some ideas of different things to do on your trip. That said, I also realize that people can’t travel or may just be unsure where to go and so it’s also my goal with these videos to give those curious an idea of different landmarks and destinations. Obviously, travel isn’t the only topic covered here on thedailyspotlight.com, as a matter of fact the primary focus of the site is professional wrestling, which leads me to my announcement today.  
It is my goal to be the wrestling fan’s one stop source for all things professional wrestling presented through that fan’s perspective. I enjoy writing up reviews of different shows and all of the hot buttons topics of pro wrestling as well as reminiscing on past experiences and events. Thus, I thought about the different ways in which we can continue to expand our content beyond that of just articles and blog posts. That brings us to the Wrestling Drive. Unfortunately one of the biggest contributions to my time is that spent commuting. I’m on the road constantly from anywhere from 2-5 hours per day and it’s pretty treacherous driving back and forth between Queens and Brooklyn every day. Rather than continuing to let this get me down, however, I see this is an opportunity. Therefore, moving forward I’m going to present to you short vlogs based on all of the news stories, shows and experiences in an around the world of professional wrestling. These videos won’t be more than 10 or 15 minutes to start and have a real sense of convenience in that you can stream them straight from YouTube. Perhaps at the end of the day you want to sit in your recliner, grab a cold one and stream the video on your big screen, go for it! If podcasts are more your thing than you can go right into YouTube and stream the content through your mobile device while listening on your own commute home. The best part about this is that while commuting so much, I have opportunities throughout the day to pop on the vlog and discuss that topic with all of you, literally moments after it drops. This should really be an exciting time and these vlogs will be a great companion piece to the site so while you’ll still get all of the articles on here that you’re used to (and will become more used to in the weeks to come), you’ll have videos to watch either along with the articles or solely if that’s more your thing.  

Please be advised that this is a work in progress. I’m working on ways to improve both the video and audio and am confident that we’ll be able to do that moving forward. With the WWE draft fast approaching and Summerslam not too long after that (especially because I am right here in the mecca on New York City, home of Summerslam), I feel like now is as good at time as any to really dive into this new venture. With that said, we are actually going to be dropping the very first edition of the Wrestling Drive today at 2PM! The vlog will be focused primarily on the Cruiserwight Classic which debuts tonight on the WWE Network and I’ll also touch on the big Nakamura vs. Finn Balor number one contender match that is set for NXT tonght. This is an exciting time to be a wrestling fan and exciting time right here on thedailyspotlight.com!

Memorial Day Weekend, NBA Insanity & More- The Daily Spotlight for 5/31

Tom Lynch Entertainment, Sports, The Daily Spotlight , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hello once again boys and girls.  Fresh off memorial day weekend, it is great to be back here with each and every one of you as the daily spotlight returns.  I couldn’t be happier today as I’m working out of queens today which chops my commute by over 2 and half hours as opposed to Brooklyn and this also allowed me to sleep an additional 2 hours so my overall quality of life as well as my mood as through the roof!   Memorial Day weekend was really quite enjoyable for me, albeit a bit of a recharge weekend.  I do hope that all who celebrated and had a nice weekend, took a minute to think about the men and women currently protecting our freedom overseas as well as those who lost their lives making that same ultimate sacrifice.  At the end of the day, these men and women are the reason why memorial day is such an important day of the year.

–  My girlfriend and I hosted two barbecues with family and friends over the weekend on both Sunday and Monday.  It was of course a little tough for me personally being the first memorial day without my dad.  He used to really look forward to memorial day as he deemed it the unofficial kickoff of summer and would plan different dishes for the grill weeks prior to the event.  They say that every first when losing a loved one is tough and they aren’t lying.  In any event, the first of the two barbecues included two friends who we hadn’t seen in over a year.  For me, it’s always great catching up with old friends especially when it’s so hard this day in age to make time to simply hang out and get on the same schedules.  What’s great about these guys, and so many of my friends really, is that we can take such a long while away from seeing each other and pick up like we had never missed a beat or that we had hung out so often.  Immediately following the barbecue, we all came back inside and our friends asked to see some of the more recent photos from our trip to California so we plugged the laptop into our big screen and streamed them off there.  I’m always big on taking photos that document our stay in a particular destination, not even necessarily of us, but of the destination itself.  Thus, it was really cool to see our friends looking through the 1200+ photos and marveling over the different sights of Cali.  I’m going to get into some of the highlights of that Cali trip later in the week.

– One of the other big highlights of the weekend for me was the series between the Golden State Warriors and the Oklahoma City Thunder.  Now I should probably mention that I’m not a big basketball fan.  I used to be, however, as a matter of fact, the way it went in my house growing up was that baseball was my mom’s sport, football was my dad’s and basketball was mine.   If you grew up in the 1990s, how could anyone not be a fan of basketball?  From Michael Jordan to Patrick Ewing to Shaq there were stars on every single team and always something good to watch.  Even throughout most of the 2000s my gift each year for my birthday was NBA League Pass.  Then something happened.  Whether it be the sad state of the New York Knicks or the retirement of most of those players I enjoyed watching or, more likely, my increased love of baseball and football and the less time I had to dedicate to basketball (I’m also a big fan of professional wrestling, have I ever mentioned that?).  Well, on Saturday night my girlfriend and I had dinner reservations and due to the restaurant having a slow night the place closed early and so we ended up at the buffalo wild wings nearby.  Let me tell ya, you would have thought Ronda Rousey had returned to the Octagon.  The place was packed and everybody so invested in the Warriors-Thunder game.  We ended up staying for the entire second half and I couldn’t help but cheer the Warriors on, despite the rest of the fans in the place mostly rooting for the Thunder.  I get the appeal in rooting for the underdog but for me I just think the Warriors are both fun to watch and a classy group of guys.  I can’t help but root for them.   As many of you know, I’m also a huge fan of history and I would hate to see the 73-win tarnished by them falling short in the finals (contrary to my celebration of epic proportions when the Patriots lost the superbowl to the Giants).  With that said, I don’t quite get the belief that if the Warriors win the NBA Championship this season, they are the best team in the history of the sport.  I mean sure, I guess record wise they would be but today’s NBA is very much different then the NBA of the past.  This day in age players rest (cc: San Antonio Spurs) and there just isn’t the star power that there was in the past.  Not to take anything away from the Warriors and I couldn’t be more impressed that they were able to comeback and win the West, but this team isn’t the 96 Bulls.

– Well, that’s going to do it for me right now but later today I’ll be back with my spotlight on Raw (which i already have in the can) and then either tonight or tomorrow I’ll be back with my spotlight on the excellent documentary that aired on the WWE Network following Raw on Seth Rollins.