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This Week in Dulture…
Approx 5 minute read:
⚽ Soccer shoe summer
🎾 The GOAT is back
🩸 Gory games
🤘 30 Years of 2 sweet
Dulture weekly mix
Other than the Michael Jackson show at resorts in Mexico and Punta Cana, I really hadn’t listened to much of Michael Jackson’s music since I was a kid.
But then Chicago hit me randomly on Spotify a few weeks back and all of the sudden Michael has been back in my rotation.
This week’s mix is inspired by that very song plus some summertime + heartbreak vibes given its now shorts weather for the next 3 months. I don’t know where the heartbreak thing came from - maybe Frank Ocean? Iunno….blame Frank.
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Be forewarned, you’re about to find a bunch of new soccer fans in your social circle.
Or maybe you’re the new soccer fan?
Just like how the NBA finals has pulled the Knick fan out of me, the World Cup is about to inspire a bunch of jersey purchases that will be an after thought come August.
The thing is…
Soccer jerseys are the perfect thing to wear in the summer.
A lot of clubs / international kits can be really stylish, so why wouldn’t you want a comfortable dri-fit shirt that you can rock anywhere (except maybe the stushy office place).
France 2022 kit - one of my favourites BY FAR
It’s obvious we’re going to see soccer jerseys everywhere over the next month and a half.
If Nike has its way, we’ll see soccer shoes everywhere too.
Throw out all those basketball clunkers - yeah that’s right, all those Lebron 1-15’s (I hoop in the 16’s, they’re nice) and 17-19’s. The 20’s were the first model where I felt like they actually cared what the Lebron’s shoe looked like - “they” meaning Lebron of course.
This summer we’re all becoming European…if you aren’t already.
Nike has essentially pushed the red button. 👈 one of the best ads Nike has ever done.
And now we’re getting a flurry of soccer shoes.
Like A LOT of shoes.
NOCTA Cryoshot Tiempo 94
Palace Cryoshot Air Speed M
Jacquemus Cryoshot Tiempo R10
Patta Cryoshot Mercurial Vapor R9
Slawn Cryoshot Strike 1976
Peaceminusone Cryoshot CTR 360
V.A.A Cryoshot Zoom M9
I wasn’t joking - like if you wanted to rock a pair of soccer shoes that weren’t Sambas this summer, Nike has got you covered.
These shoes are all part of Nike’s X2 collabs (some of which I talked about last week) and will be staggered in their release on June 11th with everything being availble on June 16th on the (fml) SNKRS App.
Speaking of which, I picked up these Nike Gato’s back in the winter for like $85. If you can’t score any of the above hypebeast soccer shoes, these are great chillers. Size up one size as they fit rather slim in the toe box…because they’re actually soccer shoes.
The Tennis GOAT is Back
There’s something about a GOAT announcing their retirement that makes you realize how much you took for granted watching them.
YeAh, yEaH, yEaH, I guess we can all say that about LeBroN…
(I’ll feel it more when KD retires tbh).
When Serena Williams announced the 2022 U.S. Open would be her last tournament, I immediately checked for when she was playing. I think it’s safe to say we were all hoping for one last Cinderella run from a then 40 year old 6 time U.S. Open champion.
And then she lost in the 3rd round and we were all like:
At the time Serena had said her departure from the sport was really just an “evolution away from tennis”…so not as retired as we might’ve thought given…
Serena Williams is back.
In the upcoming Queens Club tournament, 44 year old Serena Williams accepted a wild card entry to play doubles with Victoria Mboko.
"Queen's Club feels like the perfect place to begin this next chapter. Grass has given me some of the most meaningful moments of my career and I'm excited to be back competing on one of the sport's most iconic stages."
So obviously we’ll see Serena at Wimbledon and most likely the U.S. Open as well.
Imagine you bet on this back in January when rumours were she requested to be taken off the retired players list in the WTA
Meanwhile 44 year old Roger Federer at Wimbledon next month:
Gory Video Games: A Historical Reminder
I don’t know about you but it takes A LOT for me to go what the fuuuuuhhhh when I see anything online anymore.
With anything and everything so accessible, and attention spans at an all time low, I’m swiping to the next outrageous thing quicker than than the Hawk Tuah girl becoming irrelevant.
So when I saw the trailer for the latest Wolverine game on Playstation, I got the same feeling I got waaaaay back when Splatterhouse came out and then when Mortal Kombat came out.
Splatterhouse Japanese arcade version
Splatterhouse was one of the first controversial video games to hit the world, straight out of Japan in the late 80’s. Known for it’s blood and gore, the executives managing the development team made them cut down the “realism” in fear the game would get scrapped.
There were no game ratings back then so it was on the arcade operators to determine if Splatterhouse was “safe” to play or not.
No game even came close to this level of gore and violence back then.
It wasn’t until Mortal Kombat came out in 1992 where the US government woke up to video game violence and forced the industry to regulate itself, ultimately creating the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), which is why you see ratings on games today.
And yet, even after living through all versions of Mortal Kombat, I’m kinda just like meh.
And then the gameplay trailer is released for Wolverine this week and I’m like, holeeee SH*T.
I mean, look at this…bro c’mon 👇
Yeah this is nuts
A one player beat em up, blended in with a bit of open world-ish gameplay, Wolverine just became one of the goriest video games of all time.
The point of the game is to find and save the innocent mutants from the bad guys, while hacking and slashing through everything in sight. You should watch the trailer, it’s packed with the most violence you’ll see this year.
The game officially comes out in September - read more and preorder here.
This looks so cool
The 30 Year Anniversary of the NWO
It’s crazy to think it’s been 30 years since Scott Hall walked through the audience on Nitro, climbed over the barricade, and interrupted a random match…
This was the first time wrestling actually felt real and it was the beginning of the craziest run WCW would ever have.
A couple weeks later Kevin Nash would join Scott Hall on Nitro, signing with the WCW because he wanted to work fewer dates and was offered a lot more guaranteed cash than what the WWE was offering at the time.
This was around the time of the biggest heel turn pro wrestling would ever see when Hulk Hogan would come out as the “third man” and give Macho Man his patented leg drop, thus forming the NWO with Hall and Nash.
The rest is history as every wrestling fan would be glued to their TV every Monday (Tuesday in Canada) to see what was going to happen next with the NWO.
Man, it’s been 30 years. But did you know…
Sting was supposed to be the third man, but a couple days before Bash at the Beach, Hogan called Eric Bischoff, flew to California, and told him he wanted to turn into a bad guy.
WCW’s top stars at the time had no clue Hogan was going to turn heel, apparently a lot of guys were shocked backstage.
Eric Bischoff stole the idea of the NWO from New Japan Pro Wrestling, as wrestlers from another company “invaded” NJPW.
There were 62 wrestlers and non-wrestlers at one point in the NWO. Part of its demise was that at one point, so many guys were in the NWO it was just looking stupid when they all walked out each week.
Kendall Jenner became an honorary member of the NWO lol
It’s still fun to go back and watch matches and segments from this time period, especially all those times Sting would drop from the rafters and freak everyone the f*ck out.
Good times.
