Daily Update: Scott Hall, Cody Rhodes, ticket scalping

Daily Update

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter: More on Tony Khan & ROH, AEW Revolution review

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Monday News Update

  • Scott Hall was removed from life support today at about Noon Eastern time. As of the last word, his heart was still beating and he was still breathing. As noted earlier today, miracles have happened but there would have to be one in this case. Hall suffered three heart attacks yesterday after surgery for a broken hip suffered a few days back.
  • Bryan and I will be back tonight talking Raw, New Japan Cup, ratings, Scott Hall and more. You can send questions to the show to mailbag@wrestlingobserver.com
  • We’re looking for reports from last night’s WWE shows in Pensacola, FL and Savannah,GA, as well as from tonight’s Raw in Jacksonville with Main Event matches or anything not on the live show to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

So this is the Cody Rhodes update. He was still listed for WrestleMania as of Friday. For tonight:

  • If they shoot a WrestleMania angle with Seth Rollins not involving Cody Rhodes, that may mean it fell through
  • If Cody Rhodes appears tonight, well, you know that means he’s 100 percent in
  • If he doesn’t appear but they don’t shoot a big angle for Seth Rollins at Wrestlemania, he’s probably still in but not a lock. If he is on the show tonight, he’s in hiding and nobody is aware of it.
  • No matches were announced for Raw past Kevin Owens will cut an interview about Steve Austin and there will be a tag team celebration of Randy Orton & Riddle winning the titles.
  • Regarding the subject of scalping tickets, which has been a major subject given the price consumers paid for All Out and Revolution, not to mention concerts, John Oliver talked about it last night on Last Week Tonight here and here.
  • Kazuchika Okada beat Taichi and Cima upset Hirooki Goto to lead to Okada vs. Cima on Sunday in the New Japan Cup. Today’s show in Okayama at 5:30 a.m. Eastern has Tetsuya Naito vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi and Jeff Cobb vs. Yoshi-Hashi. The two winners will wrestle Sunday.
  • Season two of Young Rock debuts tomorrow night. Episode one features Dwayne Johnson moving to Nashville and Dwayne Johnson playing in the CFL. Variety reported that a nemesis for Johnson is being introduced this season called Dr. Julian Echo, who had run-ins with him as a good, and now is a chiropractor in Minnesota but still holds a grudge against him. Sean Astin of Goonies fame plays the role.
  • Was told Saturday’s El Hijo del Vikingo vs. Flamita match from Monterrey on FITE was an amazing match.
  • FTR retained the AAA tag titles on Sunday in Merida but not over Pentagon Jr. & Fenix. Instead they beat a sub team, Dragon Lee & Dralistico. Penta tried to interfere and cost Lee the match. 

AEW

  • Late buys for Revolution from after the first reported numbers for cable were high due to word of mouth plus the promotion on both Wednesday and Friday’s shows. 

Dark Elevation tonight:

  • Nyla Rose vs. Katalina Perez
  • Frankie Kazarian vs. Tiger Ruas
  • The Bunny & Emi Sakura vs. Skye Blue & KiLynn King
  • Jay Lethal vs. Marrik Donovan
  • Ruby Soho vs. Amber Nova
  • John Silver & Alex Reynolds vs. Luther & Serpentico

UFC

  • Alexander Volkov vs. Tom Aspinall is still listed as the main event for this coming Saturday’s show at the O2 Arena in London. With the war going on and Russia being subject to sanctions, the question is whether Volkov, Russian, would be allowed to enter the U.K. The U.K. parliament has already decreed that the U.K. would not welcome sports teams from any country complicit with Russia or from Russia. There may be a loophole this is doesn’t extend to individual sports and only applies to team sports since he is still listed.

Other Notes

  • Toonstar, a Web3 animations studio and Sixth Wall, the digital arm of Mila Kunis’ Orchard Form Productions announced the launch of The Gimmicks, a Web3 animated NFT series. It will feature the voices of Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows, Rocky Romero and nZo.
  • Takashi Sugiura & Hideki Suzuki won the GHC tag team titles in the tournament yesterday. Suzuki was Hachiman in NXT.
  • Deonna Purrazzo talks about Impact as well as ROH being purchased by Tony Khan and ECWA on the Wrestling Estate here.
  • Defy Wrestling from Saturday night in Seattle at Washington Hall: Schaff & Josef Samael & Eddie Kingston b Ricky Gibson & Eddie Pearl & Levi Cooper, Christopher Daniels b Wheeler Yuta to keep the Defy Interim title, Danika Della Rouge b Viva Van to win the PCW Ultra Women’s title, Bollywood Boyz b Tome & Stevie Filip to keep the Defy tag titles, Tom Lawlor b Kevin Knight. 3/26 in Portland has Schaff vs. Joey Janela ad 2 Cold Scorpio vs. Nick Wayne. 4/30 in Seattle has Jon Moxley vs. Tom Lawlor.
  • Salahdine Parnasse (16-1-1) defends the KSW featherweight title against Daniel Rutkowski (13-2) on Saturday night.
  • AAW on Saturday night at the Logan Square Auditorium in Chicago, IL has Mat Fichett vs. Schaff for the heavyweight title, Skye Blue defends the women’s title against Christi Jaynes, ACH & Jah-C vs. Hakim Zane & Karam, Shane Hollister vs. Stephen Wolf and Ace Steel vs Davey Vega plus a match where the winner gets a shot at the Heritage title with Gringo Loco vs. Myron Reed vs. Gnaris Garvin vs. Brayden Lee.