[Poindexter]

Does the NFL still exist? MLB? NBA?
Or are these relics gone nowadays due to higher demand for more violent sports and whatnot?

Also, what about WWE style wrestling, that everyone knows is fake, but is still fun? Are things like that still around? How about the Olympics? Does that still happen?

Last question, can someone point me toward some reading about the newer sports like combat biking, urban brawl, etc?
I'd like to know more details about not only how the game works, but how the industry works.

[Sendaz]

Yep though they have had to adapt some.

2nd Ed Shadowbeat and 4th ed Attitude touches on these as does one of the stories in the SR novel 'Wolf and Raven'. 

American Football ( not soccer) took to cybering like a duck to water.

Baseball slowly adapted to the use of some cyberware and in the novel mentioned above certain leagues make use of a skillwire/personafix so you can have someone playing as Babe Ruth from a certain year as a pitcher against another player doing Babe Ruth from a different year as a hitter. 

Basketball dances on the edge, allowing just enough cyber to help without making things too easy.

Magic is still a touchy subject and typically not allowed on the field though there are exceptions.

Edit: almost forgot....The Olympics are still held and have been opened to the Corps since 2044 so this is a big PR event.  Supposed still only for amateurs they don't really allow Adepts, cyber or paid professionals for these.(Note: amateur in the corp sense means a guy who has to put in an hour a day behind a desk and gets to spend the rest of the time training. Remember the guy in Every Which Way You Can who professed to occasionally play Squash? go figure)

[ProfGast]

NFL, NBA and MLB are all listed to still exist in Attitude.  A Wakyambi elf is listed as one of the star players for basketball for example

That said I'm not 100% sure why we'd need WWE when people can now watch honest to goodness deathmatches broadcast live from Aztlan.  I'm sure they'd have their own version of kayfabe but they don't even need to fake the fighting now.

[Mirikon]

As Sendaz said, Shadowbeat and Attitude are your best bets for all things pop culture, including sports, music, and movies.

[cantrip]

There is also an old Shadowrun novel - 'Dead Air' - that has a Combat Biker as the main character. And 'A Killing Glare' is an old run that centered around Urban Brawl.

[The Tekwych]

In the 50s there were the Desert Wars in which corps would place internal military forces along with Merc teams against each other. This was used to showcase new armaments and equipment as well as gain bragging rights.

Don't know if Desert Wars are still being held or how often

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Held?  Yes.  How often?  Pretty much constantly.  It's live/reality TV - units sign up for 'the next season', that presumably being literally a season's worth of time, i.e. 3 months ...

[Dinendae]

Also, what about WWE style wrestling, that everyone knows is staged, but is still fun? Are things like that still around? How about the Olympics? Does that still happen?

Fixed that for you. Professional wrestling is staged, not faked; there is a difference. Attitude and Shadowbeat covered this topic if I remember correctly. There is also an old SRM mission called Super Brawl Sunday that went more in-depth on Urban Brawl, but the last time I checked it was still unpublished.

[Bull]

Fixed that for you. Professional wrestling is staged, not faked; there is a difference.

Yeah.  Anyone who thinks wrestling is simply faked should look at a retired wrestlers medical file sometime (as well as many, MANY wrestlers who SHOULD be retired).  Wrestling is an incredibly hazardous sport that leaves the athletes wrecked in a way that no other sport can.

Attitude and Shadowbeat covered this topic if I remember correctly. There is also an old SRM mission called Super Brawl Sunday that went more in-depth on Urban Brawl, but the last time I checked it was still unpublished.

Yeah, it's on a backlog. 

There's also a German book, Blut und Spiel, I think it's called.  Blood and Games or Blood and Sport maybe?  My German is pretty much limited to what I learned on Hogan's Heroes as a kid, so...  Limited is putting it lightly.  So I'm sure someone will correct me.  Anyway, that was focused on Urban Brawl as well, and I know Critias had a conversation with the German publishers when he wrote Super Brawl Sunday to make sure they were cohesive.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Attitude and Shadowbeat covered this topic if I remember correctly. There is also an old SRM mission called Super Brawl Sunday that went more in-depth on Urban Brawl, but the last time I checked it was still unpublished.

Yeah, it's on a backlog. 

*sniffle*  I still want to get someone to solo-run one of my characters (okay, okay, it's Hawatari) through Super Brawl Sunday.  I wanna go for a single-handed wipeout ...

... I wonder if chem rounds are allowed??

[Poindexter]

Also, what about WWE style wrestling, that everyone knows is staged, but is still fun? Are things like that still around? How about the Olympics? Does that still happen?

Fixed that for you. Professional wrestling is staged, not faked; there is a difference.

Totally.

[Crimsondude]

May have to go back and pitch my Desert Wars idea as an ebook. When I wanted to write the desert chapter of Hazard Pay, DW was going to be an 8,000-world subchapter since it had four venues (Gobi has since been culled, I assume because that desert is more valuable for other purposes), how the league functions, and the gamut of its entertainment potential.