Ronald Acuña Jr. Talks Working with Bad Bunny & Rimas Sports
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Yahoo
6 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Next stop, SubwayMania: Meet the man and story behind one of wrestling's most viral sensations
'Stand clear of the closing doors, please.' If you're a New Yorker, you probably read that sentence in the exact same cadence and tempo of Charlie Pellett, the iconic voice of the New York City subway system. Millions of people ride the subway every day. Whether they're heading to work, out to meet friends, or just need to get from point A to point B, it's one of the most reliable forms of transportation there is — yes, even you, L train. For born-and-raised New Yorkers like Tim Rivera, the subway is ingrained in their DNA. 'I take the train every day and I have been since I was a kid,' Rivera told Uncrowned. 'My life revolves around the train. Everything I've experienced has involved the train. Going to the movie theater, hanging out with friends — it always involved the train.' Rivera's internet claim to fame also just so happens to have a direct link to the subway, as the Spanish Harlem-born video editor is the creator and one of the stars of SubwayMania, the viral wrestling sensation that stages wrestling matches on the same trains that carry millions of New York commuters during rush hour. When it comes to Rivera, 29, the idea for SubwayMania was born from a high-school graduation present. Rivera's mother bought him a replica, "Attitude Era" WWE championship belt (not the Winged Eagle, he specifically clarifies) more than a decade ago, and he envisioned a playful cosplay segment involving The Rock and X-Pac. Initially planned as a one-off, the 2016 video eventually led to the first match in SubwayMania's history — then branded Subway Slam. 'I've always been doing content, always trying to find my niche, but I always loved wrestling,' Rivera said. 'One day, I thought it would be funny if my friend — who played The Rock — if he just posed on the train as if the corner of the train was the turnbuckle, holding the championship belt. I love storytelling and skits so I decided to push myself and do a whole segment on the train — cutting a promo and whatnot. It was supposed to be a one-time thing, but I posted it and it went viral. People wanted a match because it's what we were hyping up. It was just for giggles though. They wanted us to wrestle on the train, I wasn't sure how we were going to do it, but we did it.' Anyone who relies on public transportation knows there are certain pitfalls you may need to navigate — delays, crowds, etc. — and that's just your standard commute. Even though the New York City subway system is no stranger to entrepreneurial endeavors — train cars have long served as stages for musicians, dance floors for aspiring performers, or even makeshift bodegas where you can buy anything from candy to churros to batteries — pulling off an entire wrestling match presents Rivera and his team with an entirely new set of challenges, especially as the operation and production has become more complex. 'Nobody else could really pull this off,' Rivera said. 'How do I know what stops are crowded, what stops are low-key, what trains to use? You have the 4, 5, 6 trains, those train cars are smaller than the 7 train or N, Q and R. How do I know this? I'm not out here Googling what train cars are bigger. It's through experience, life. There are times where it can be tough. Not every SubwayMania is 100 percent guaranteed, but with my team, especially throughout the years, we're all from New York and have confidence, we prep, we plan and rehearse our stuff — that way, when we do shoot it, it's less than 10 minutes and that's it.' That first Subway Slam video generated 55,000 views, with the resulting match nearly doubling that number. The exponential growth continued a year later as Rivera created another train match, this time a full-on Royal Rumble, with eliminations happening at actual subway stations. The Subway Royal Rumble's 285,000 streams paled in comparison to what happened in 2019 as WWE brought WrestleMania to MetLife Stadium in New Jersey and Rivera's creation fully exploded, with the first branded SubwayMania video drawing more than 2 million views on YouTube alone. The success has even permeated to the props, as the old replica WWE belt has since been swapped for a custom SubwayMania one. 'With WrestleMania coming [to the area in 2019], I said we needed SubwayMania, and that one really went crazy,' Rivera said. 'The name stuck, too. I just kept going — let's see what else we could do on the train. It's being creative and pushing the boundaries, there's always more.' That penchant for more also presents new hurdles. A traditional WWE wrestling ring measures 20 feet by 20 feet. The average New York City Subway car has a width that is half that, not accounting for seating and dozens of straphangers who may be onboard. As SubwayMania has grown, Rivera and his crew have upped the ante in the sense that chairs, ladders and even tables have been introduced. While Rivera isn't a trained wrestler himself, the other talent in the videos do have professional training. Rivera's friends, three wrestlers who go by the monikers of Lex Gunz, Deadkid and Mahdi Ladjo, play various characters in the SubwayMania universe, from referees to Kevin Owens to The Undertaker. They're in a faction together outside of SubwayMania on the independent wrestling circuit and that experience allows them take on key roles in planning the matches. '[The guys I work with] are trained and go by 'The Cult' faction,' Rivera said. 'Deadkid and Justin are from Harlem. Deadkid was onboard from the beginning and I was trying to get the other two and they eventually started doing it. They help a lot, they teach me moves, me and my boy Spag, we just do [SubwayMania] but we know how to sell. I'm in the wrestling scene but I never wanted to be a wrestler, I guess I just do it on the subway.' SubwayMania has opened doors — pun intended — for Rivera as a wrestling content creator, even earning him recognition from WWE and executives Paul 'Triple H' Levesque and Nick Khan in the process. Rivera met Levesque and Khan in a chance work encounter last year and he happened to be wearing a SubwayMania shirt at the time. Arguably the two most powerful men in WWE knew of the videos and offered him tickets to WrestleMania 40 in Philadelphia. A year later, Rivera — cosplaying as Jey Uso — managed to be featured in the "Showcase of the Immortals," thanks to SubwayMania. 'In April we were featured on WrestleMania 41,' Rivera said. 'I was here watching with my partner and I'm laying down with her and I just saw myself and we lost it. I sometimes wonder, how did I get here? From the subway to being part of WrestleMania.' SubwayMania has also become an unofficial right of passage for pro wrestlers who come through New York City. In the past month alone, Matt and Jeff Hardy, Mike Santana and TNA President Carlos Silva all took part in SubwayMania, with Jeff Hardy making his maiden voyage on the New York City subway system. 'It's been really cool. I feel like SubwayMania has been a blessing for me,' Rivera said. 'I believe [the success is about] consistency and continuing to innovate. Matt Hardy said that on his podcast and it's true — nobody is doing what I do. On top of that, having the creativity with the cosplay, the moves, the commentary, the camera angles, the video editing — I edit all my stuff — it feels like a real wrestling match. It's never been done before the way I'm doing it. It's consistency, quality and the fans sharing it, that's what is getting wrestlers and legends to want to be a part of this.' With WWE SummerSlam 2025 taking place this weekend at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, SubwayMania and Rivera will certainly have a presence. Rivera is hosting an event alongside professional wrestler Big Swole called Summer Bash, which is run by the people behind WaleMania. Rivera declined to divulge the details as to who may appear on the inevitable SubwayMania segments, and instead did what any good wrestling promoter does: Sell for his promotion. 'It's cosplay and we're paying homage," he said, "but also this has added the factor that you never know who is coming through those doors.'
Yahoo
6 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Patriots activate Mack Hollins from physically unable to perform list
Patriots wide receiver Mack Hollins is cleared to practice. Hollins is being activated off the physically unable to perform list, according to NFL Network. The Patriots have not disclosed the nature of the injury that put Hollins on PUP, but he can now fully participate in training camp. Hollins signed a two-year contract with the Patriots in March after playing all 17 games for the Bills last year and catching 31 passes for 378 yards and five touchdowns. He has previously played for the Falcons, Raiders, Dolphins and Eagles.
Yahoo
6 minutes ago
- Yahoo
College Sports Commission informs schools that NIL collectives can pay athletes directly with limitations
In a revised memo sent to schools on Thursday, the College Sports Commission announced that booster-backed NIL collectives can, in fact, directly compensate athletes if the transactions meet certain 'valid business purpose' benchmarks. The one-page guidance replaces a memo sent to schools on July 10 where the CSC revealed that collectives would not be treated as valid businesses and denied many of their transactions with athletes. After weeklong negotiations with House plaintiff attorneys Jeffrey Kessler and Steve Berman, the College Sports Commission, operated by the power conferences, is adjusting its approach — an expected resolution that Yahoo Sports reported last week after the parties originally agreed on a joint statement that was finally released Thursday. The statement 'clarifies' what is permitted from collectives to athletes under the NCAA's landmark House settlement agreement, reversing the July 10 guidance by permitting collectives to strike deals with athletes as long as they 'have a valid business purpose related to offering goods or services to the general public for profit and fall within the range of fair market value compensation.' [Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Football league for the 2025 NFL season] The College Sports Commission, the industry's new enforcement entity led by a former Major League Baseball executive in Bryan Seeley, is charged with determining the legitimacy of third-party NIL deals with athletes. Approved deals hold significant benefit for schools as third-party compensation does not count against the revenue-share cap that each school is working inside. According to the CSC's guidance, the entity is determining deal legitimacy not on the 'labeling' of businesses or payors, as it originally planned, but on the transaction itself. 'Whether or not payments to student-athletes by collectives are permissible under the settlement will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis,' the statement said. Previously denied deals are being reevaluated to apply the new, revised guidance, the organization said in its guidance to schools. While the statement notes that traditional NIL collective pay-for-play deals remain prohibited, the change in approach paves the way for collectives to pay athletes if those deals satisfy three benchmarks: (1) deliver the public a good or service; (2) turn a profit beyond paying athletes; and (3) fall within a Deloitte-created 'compensation range' standard in the CSC's NIL Go submission platform. This provides a path for collectives to hold an assortment of events to pay athletes, including merchandise sales, autograph signings and athlete appearances at, for example, golf tournaments. The guidance distributed to schools focuses on the 'for profit' benchmark, even noting that the entity may require athletes or businesses to provide information and documentation 'to establish compliance' with the benchmarks. 'Refusal to provide this information or the provision of insufficient information to establish compliance may result in deals not being cleared by the CSC,' the guidance says. This is a notable line that was approved by the House plaintiff attorneys, Kessler and Berman. The resolution between the House plaintiffs and the power conferences operating the CSC may create what some coaches and administrators refer to as a 'soft cap,' certainly softer than the CSC's original approach to collectives. From his football media days earlier this month, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said deeming collectives as any other business could result in a 'very different management system' and a 'softer cap,' a reference to the new revenue-share cap. Schools can directly share no more than $20.5 million with athletes in Year 1 of the concept, excluding compensation from CSC-approved third-party deals. Last week in an interview with Yahoo Sports, Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti was asked about collectives finding ways to strike deals with athletes if restrictions were loosened. 'When something works, it gets copied,' he said. 'Things happening out there to provide additional NIL deals for student athletes that makes sense and are allowed under rules, you're going to see more versions of that.' The approach change also, at least for now, prevents a legal challenge from leaders of a group of NIL collectives who began drafting a lawsuit against the CSC's approach. Over the last four years, collectives have served as the driving force for schools to compensate athletes, raising millions in booster money to provide schools a way to recruit and retain players. Tom Mars, a well-known attorney representing the collectives, released a statement to Yahoo Sports about the resolution: 'It should be concerning that it took the four commissioners more than a week to agree on the language of the new guidance. That speaks volumes about their ability to agree on anything. Stephen King wrote a 219-page novel in less time than it took them to write up what was published today.' The CSC's original interpretation of the 'valid business purpose' definition, and resulting denials of collective deals, speaks to one of administrators' goals of the settlement — to shift athlete pay from these booster-run organizations to the schools, which are now permitted to directly share revenue with athletes under the capped system that began July 1. That said, many schools are still operating their collectives as a way to, perhaps, circumvent the system. 'We know that some people are saying, 'We're not worried because we don't think they can really enforce it!'' Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin told Yahoo Sports earlier this month from SEC media days. 'They don't think NIL contracts are going to get kicked back (by the clearinghouse) or they think they're not going to be able to win long-term (legal challenges) because of players' rights.' Ultimately, Sankey suggested, schools hold authority to control their own affiliated collectives. 'For how long have people been begging for guardrails?' Sankey asked. 'Well, now we have guardrails. Those broadly across the country that claim they wanted guardrails need to operate within the guardrails. If you allow what's happened to continue to escalate, there would be a very small number of programs that would be competitive with each other and we'd not have a national sport or a national championship.' The resolution may not completely end what will likely be continuous negotiations over particular enforcement rules between the power leagues controlling the CSC and the House plaintiff attorneys, who hold authority and veto powers over various aspects of the settlement. Last week, Petitti cautioned that more such negotiations are expected in the future. 'I don't think it will be the last time that an issue comes up in the process,' Petitti said. 'The settlement approval came later than expected. It compressed the time period.' The guidance change may also not prevent future legal challenges over other enforcement aspects, including Deloitte's compensation range concept or the appeals arbitration system that athletes can use for deals denied a second time. The CSC, in its first month of existence, is reliant on athletes submitting deals. Athletes are required to submit any third-party deal of $600 or more to an NIL clearinghouse, NIL Go. Those deals flagged by NIL Go are sent to the CSC and its new leader, Seeley, to determine an enforcement decision. As of three weeks ago, more than 100 deals were denied and at least 100 more were under review. More than 1,500 deals had been approved.
