Scrapped Triple H Plans, New Day WrestleMania 38 Match, Released WWE Star Retires – Audio News Bulletin – March 28, 2022

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Triple H has officially retired and it sounds like there were some big plans that had to be scrapped, an update on what New Day will be doing at WrestleMania, a released WWE star has retired, and more.

It’s Monday morning and what better way to start WrestleMania week than getting caught up on all the latest wrestling news. I’m Liam Winnard for WrestleTalk.com, and this is our audio news bulletin for March 28, 2022.

Listen to this morning’s round-up here:

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Scrapped Triple H Plans Before Retirement

In September, Triple H suffered a ‘cardiac event’, and he and WWE kept very quiet on the specifics while he was recovering, but now, Triple H himself has come out and opened up a little bit.

The most notable thing is that his in-ring career is done, and we will not be seeing him wrestle again. He made the announcement in an interview with Stephen Smith that aired on First Take.

He also mentioned that, specifically, he had Viral Pneumonia, and was quote “99% gone”. He now has a defibrilator in his chest.

When it comes to the plans that had to be scrapped, he revealed that there was something on the books for WrestleMania this year. He said:

“I was already at a place in my career, as far as the in-ring goes, where I was comfortable being done and finished.

“If the right thing came along, I hadn’t really said much, but if the right thing came along and they wanted me to do it… I had a conversation with Vince McMahon about doing something at WrestleMania this year in Dallas.

“We had talked about and there were plans for. Obviously, when this happened, it shut all that down.”

There’s no word as of yet about what specifically the plans were, but it sure sounds like if none of this had happened, we’d have a Triple H match to look forward to this weekend.

What Are New Day Doing At WrestleMania?

Speaking of WrestleMania, the New Day team of Kofi Kingston and King Woods currently don’t have anything announced for the event, but they’re also not in the Andre Battle Royal or a match on this week’s SmackDown, so it seems like they will be on the Mania card.

The question is, what are they going to be doing? Well, as we’ve mentioned numerous times now, the original plan was for all three members of New Day, including Big E, to face Sheamus, Ridge Holland and Butch in a six-man tag match, but obviously an end was put to that thanks to Big E’s broken neck.

According to Fightful, the plan – at least as of March 25 – was, Kingston and Woods vs Sheamus and Butch, so presumably Holland would just be at ringside. Fightful reiterated that plans can change and WWE could easily adjust the match to include Holland or make any other changes.

Holland defeated Kofi Kingston on the March 18 SmackDown a week after E’s broken neck, but then lost to a returning King Woods this past Friday.

Fightful Select interestingly noted that the match listed internally for this past Friday was just a Holland vs Kingston rematch, not Holland vs Woods.

Former WWE Star Fandango Retires

A former WWE star appears to have announced his retirement, that being Fandango, who more recently had been going by the name Dirty Dango.

He tweeted: “I’ll be stepping away from the ring in couple months. Goodbye forever”, before proceeding to deactivate his Twitter account.

Fandango had been with WWE since 2006 if you include his time in developmental, before being released on June 25, 2021.

Since then, he’s continued wrestling, most notably for the NWA, and most recently in the Crockett Cup on March 19, where he and fellow former WWE star JTG defeated Aron Stevens – the former Damien Sandow – and the Blue Meanie, before going on to lose to the Briscoes.

Other Stuff

In other little bits of news…

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that it’s believed WWE will be editing out Jonathan Gresham’s PROGRESS matches since it’s likely he’ll be heading to AEW or at least Ring of Honor which is obviously now very closely affiliated with AEW.

The Observer also noted that Cody Rhodes, who is now signed with WWE, is also in talks for more television roles.

Speaking of Rhodes, according to WrestleVotes, there are two “very high profile” people in WWE who have specifically told Vince McMahon that the best way to present Rhodes would be the same as he was in AEW as the American Nightmare, because of the visual and the message that would send. We’ll have to wait and see if Vince actually listens.

WWE officially announced Shad Gaspard will be this year’s recipient of the Warrior Award at the Hall of Fame.

Japanese star Konosuke Takeshita announced he’ll be making his AEW return in April. This would seem to be in conjunction with AEW’s new partnership with DDT.

A rumor emerged on Twitter that Alexa Bliss didn’t like Ronda Rousey and had badmouthed her in a group chat with other WWE women’s stars. Bliss took to Twitter to shoot the rumor down and said she isn’t even in any group chats other than her bridal party.

Kairi Sane made her in-ring return at STARDOM’s World Climax event this past weekend, but unfortunately suffered a ruptured eardrum during the match.

Dustin Rhodes also provided an injury update after his match with Lance Archer on AEW Rampage, saying that he got five stitches in his head and also has a busted eardrum.

Commenting on speculation that he could be heading to AEW, Bret Hart jokingly asked, “Go there and do what?”. The obvious answer to that is manage FTR.

Hulk Hogan posted a picture on Instagram with Jinder Mahal and said that Jinder could be the new-generation Hulk Hogan.

According to the Observer, people in WWE have pitched Gable Steveson winning a squash match over Omos at WrestleMania, but that’s not the current plan as Bobby Lashley looks set for a match with Omos instead.

AEW’s newest signing will make her debut this coming Wednesday on Dynamite against The Bunny in a qualifier for the upcoming Owen Hart Cup tournament.

Trish Stratus appeared at last night’s WWE house show in Toronto, opening the show with a Kevin Owens Show segment then closing it by confronting Becky Lynch before Rhea Ripley laid Lynch out.

WWE released a video of Logan Paul training with Shane ‘Hurricane’ Helms, The Miz and MSK, and they were all praising him very highly for how he’s getting on.

During SmackDown on Friday, Michael Cole said that Edge vs AJ Styles will be taking place on WrestleMania Sunday, despite WWE.com having moved it to WrestleMania Saturday.

This week’s episode of Raw will be branded WrestleMania Raw, and SmackDown will be branded WrestleMania SmackDown.

Announced for SmackDown is the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal which most notably includes United States Champion Finn Balor and Damian Priest, who many thought would have a match for the title at Mania itself, but this seems to suggest that won’t be the case.

Also set for WrestleMania SmackDown is Ricochet defending the Intercontinental Title against both Angel and Humberto of Los Lotharios in a three-way. The Intercontinental Title hasn’t been defended at a Premium Live Event since last year’s WrestleMania when Apollo Crews won it from Big E.

And for tonight’s WrestleMania Raw, Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns will both be appearing; Raw Tag Team Champions RK-Bro will face SmackDown Tag Team Champions the Usos; the Street Profits will face the Alpha Academy; Natalya, Shayna Baszler, Queen Zelina & Carmella will take on Sasha Banks, Naomi, Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan in an eight-woman tag match; Rey Mysterio will face The Miz; Ronda Rousey & Bianca Belair face Becky Lynch & Charlotte Flair; and Seth Rollins will have some kind of meeting with Vince McMahon about his WrestleMania opponent, which is set to be Cody Rhodes.

Be sure to stay tuned to WrestleTalk.com throughout the day to keep up with all the news from the world of pro-wrestling, and I’ll see you tomorrow morning for another round-up.

• audio news bulletin
• Triple H
• fandango
• New Day

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