Daily Update: Scott Hall, WWE notes, CM Punk

Latest News:

• AEW's Hook to make indie debut in May
• SmackDown Women's title 'I Quit' match official for WWE WrestleMania Backlash
• WWE SmackDown video highlights: Three NXT call-ups, Lacey Evans returns
• New champions crowned at NJPW Hyper Battle
• Francesco Akira debuts at NJPW Hyper Battle, joins United Empire
• NJPW announces dates for G1 Climax 32 tournament
• SANADA vacates IWGP United States title at NJPW Hyper Battle
• NJPW Hyper Battle live results: Okada vs. Sabre IWGP World title match

Latest Audio:

• Wrestling Observer Live: WWE Name Game, bots, top 10 tag teams
• Wrestling Observer Radio: Tony Khan's tweets, NXT call-ups, UFC 273
• Speak Now: Lots to talk about on AEW Rampage & WWE SmackDown, show recap

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This Week's Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WrestleMania 38 weekend, Cody Rhodes returns to WWE

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Saturday News Update

WWE

• Last night’s WrestleMania 38 fallout edition of SmackDown averaged 2.10 million viewers in the fast national ratings, down from the 2.23 million that the show drew in the fast nationals for WrestleMania SmackDown last week. The fast national rating in the 18-49 demo was a 0.6 in hour one and a 0.5 in hour two.
• Before last night’s show, Ricochet thanked WWE for giving him some time to spend with his son this weekend: “A champion not only defends his title in the ring, he defends & protects his family. Thank you @WWE for giving this champion some time to spend with my son this weekend. After whooping Los Lotharios on Wrestlemania Smackdown, some R&R with MY champ is exactly what I need.” Ricochet will return to SmackDown next Friday and defend his Intercontinental title against Jinder Mahal.
• Becky Lynch parodied Tony Khan's “army of bots” tweet: “An independent study confirmed that much of the staunch anti - Becky in arena booers aren’t real individuals, it’s a staff running thousands of A.I. - an army of bots! Look closely, these aren’t real people. Who’d pay for such a ‘wildly’ expensive thing?”
• Paul “Triple H” Levesque told The Athletic that wrestlers on the WWE main roster make at least $250,000 per year: "Levesque said wrestlers on the main roster for ‘Raw’ or ‘SmackDown’ earn at least $250,000 annually."
• WWE uploaded a video from the company’s WrestleMania week tryouts in Texas. The tryouts were an invite-only event open to college athletes and former college athletes. WWE senior vice president of global talent strategy James Kimball said there were more than 15 tryout attendees that WWE were going to extend offers to.
• WWE is supporting Global Citizen’s Stand Up For Ukraine campaign. Stephanie McMahon tweeted: “More than 4M people, mostly women & children, have fled Ukraine. Refugees in Ukraine & around the world need our help NOW. Join me, @WWE, & @GlblCtzn as we #StandUpforUkraine & those displaced – because everyone deserves safe & humane living conditions: ForUkraine.com”
• On Logan Paul’s Impaulsive podcast, Sasha Banks said she wants to be the first woman to bring pro wrestling to another planet: “It’s like you said, if I am going to be here on this planet, why not be the first? Why not try to be Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk? Why not, why can’t I try, why can’t I think big? So I think I would love to go to space. I would love to be the first woman to put pro wrestling on a different planet. Not the moon, let’s say, Mars. It has to be a frog splash.”
• TOGETHXR has issued a legal notice to the XFL over the league’s new logo being similar to theirs. The XFL, which is now run by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Dany Garcia, unveiled its new logo earlier this week.
• Charlotte Flair, Raquel Rodriguez (formerly known as Raquel Gonzalez), and Madcap Moss were interviewed on Talking Smack.
• Ron Simmons and JBL were the guests on this week’s episode of WWE After the Bell.
• WWE posted a gallery of behind-the-scenes photos from WrestleMania weekend.
• WWE’s YouTube channel uploaded Nikki Bella vs. Naomi for the Divas title from Extreme Rules 2015, a Ronda Rousey/Stephanie McMahon segment from the April 9, 2018 episode of Raw, and Becky Lynch vs. Bayley from the April 30, 2019 episode of SmackDown.

Other Wrestling

• Scott Hall was laid to rest yesterday. On Instagram, his son Cody Hall posted a picture with Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash, X-Pac, and Diamond Dallas Page and wrote:
• We buried my father yesterday. And I guess it was the last step in the process, but it still feels like I’m going through a ton.
• Being my dads son wasn’t always easy, in fact it used to feel really hard sometimes, he was hard sometimes.
• But it feels different now, not my burden to bear but my torch to carry going forward. A legacy from a legend.
• It feels like he’s with me now. The whole world feels different now. I feel so different now.
• Death is part of the circle of life, and my father lives through me.
• And so many memories live in my head and my heart forever now, all the sayings he had, all the facial expressions, going fishing together, him blasting Shaggy -’ it wasn’t me ‘ every morning to wake us up for school, thinking George foreman turkey burgers are a delicacy, singing country songs on our drives, the spot on the side of the garage we’d both pee in to see how deep we could go, wearing our matching #HallGood shirts and color coordinating outfits, seeing him when he was ON how he could light up and flip a switch and be the best person you could ever meet.
• He was my best friend, he taught me everything I know. And I’ll never ever forget it.
• I love you dad
• In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Hiroshi Tanahashi spoke about Scott Hall’s death and the match they had against each other for NJPW where Tanahashi defeated Hall in 2001: “I felt very lonely. I wanted to meet and talk again. The match with Mr. Hall had a great influence on my life as a wrestler and my way of thinking about professional wrestling.”
• Tanahashi also said: “I think Mr. Hall taught me the answer to the question, ‘What is a true professional?’ It is an important memory that Mr. Hall invited me to go out for a meal together. I will hold on to and cherish that memory.”
• CM Punk tweeted today: “Hey somebody wrestle me Wednesday. @DaxFTR @CashWheelerFTR @WheelerYuta @PENTAELZEROM @KORcombat @TonyNese @dustinrhodes @bryandanielson @TheJonGresham @SilverNumber1 @youngbucks basically anyone except Eddie Kingston. #AEWDynamite”
• Tony Khan tweeted about Wheeler Yuta after Yuta’s match against Jon Moxley on last night’s Rampage: “A star is born, @WheelerYuta #AEWRampage”
• Thunder Rosa uploaded her latest vlog.
• William Regal appeared on AEW Unrestricted this week.
• Mia Yim reflected on returning to the ring at WrestleCon.