Sports Tracker

El Clásico. No two words can grasp the sports world’s  AN ABRIDGED HISTORY OF EL CLÁSICO The rivalry between the the two most successful clubs in football started with an oft-ignored political backstory and contrasts in how both clubs were made. FC Barcelona was founded by Joan Gamper along with several foreign-born players in 1899,  as Madrid had its club founded with Spaniards at the helm in 1902. Madrid had been long considered as the political and social center of Spain. Regional rivalries would be generated due to the nation’s focus on Madrid, which geographically was also in the center of Spain. FC Barcelona was considered to be the symbol of the Catalan people by the centralist government in the 1930s. Military general Francisco Franco, disenchanted with the changing political climate in Spain with the fall of the monarchy, staged a Coup d’état in 1936, leading to a bloody Civil War victory for his Nationalist side in 1939. One of the earli...

However you thought of the show, WrestleMania 33 was about one story, one narrative: the end of The Undertaker’s illustrious professional wrestling career. All the signs were there. Jim Ross came in, ostensibly to announce his final match. Its position as the main event, and not either of the men’s championships. That Roman Reigns defeated him clean in the middle, and the tradition of losing your final match on the way out. It was an ugly main event, to be sure, but all of that was forgotten when Taker left his glove, coat and hat in the center of the ring, then sunk down into the ramp with one fist aloft, disappearing into the underworld forever. The last 10 minutes of the show featured no commentary, just his funereal entrance music and the image of a visibly choked-up Mark Calloway leaving—quite literally—his career in the squared circle. I don’t know you can say WrestleMania 33 was even a thumbs-in-the-middle show. It was long and ...