Day 748

• Portugal, Poland, Ghana, Cameroon, Morocco, Tunisia, and Senegal all qualified for World Cup 2022 yesterday.
• After Ghana eliminated Nigeria on away goals, the Nigerian fans rioted and trashed their own stadium in the nation's second-largest city.
• And the match in Senegal, where they eliminated Egypt on penalties, was a complete damned farce, as the crowd attempted to blind the entire Egyptian team with hundreds of laser pointers throughout the match.  I guess that's part of African soccer, and a benefit of hosting the second leg of the two-leg tie, I guess...  
• Egypt has officially demanded either a replay of the second leg or a disqualification of Senegal.  I expect they will get neither, fact is, they should get the DQ of Senegal.
• 27 of the 32 nations are now determined.  

1. UEFA has to determine what to do with the Ukraine (it's scheduled for June in the UK, against Scotland first, the winner getting Wales).  
2. The United States 
3. and Mexico will qualify tonight unless Costa Rica pastes the USA by about six goals.  
4. Peru has qualified for one interconfederational playoff -- and now waits for a June match between Australia and the United Arab Emirates to determine who they play.
5. And unless Costa Rica ramrods the USA tonight, they will play New Zealand (winners of the Oceanic Football Confederation tournament, the final in a 5-0 win over the Solomon Islands today in Qatar) in June.

• It's Wrestlemania Week, meaning, for a person like me, a lot of the other companies' cards over the course of about four days in Dallas, TX.  (My neck of the woods gets next year's Mania.)  Not only a Grade One "FUCK VINCE!", but the main WWE cards themselves are quite underwhelming this year...
• WWE Hall of Fame class, at least in announcement:

1. Headlined by the long-overdue (if we're going to make a point of Ric Flair going in "active", then why wasn't this guy put in six years ago or so???) induction of The Undertaker.
2. The Steiner Brothers go in. Scott will be an interesting speech!
3. Sharmell, Booker T's wife, is the women's inductee this year.  Someone has GOT TO fucking explain to me why she goes in and Miss Elizabeth is still out -- I know there's a "one deceased person a year" quota, it seems, BUT COME THE FUCK ON!!!!   
4. Speaking of said quota: They're FINALLY putting in (Big Van) Vader.  Just a damned shame he couldn't get the induction while he was alive!!!  
5. And the annual "Warrior Award" winner -- and many of us who know the award's namesake better as The Ultimate Homophobe agree that the name should be changed to this year's inductee going forward:  Shad Gaspard of "Cryme Time", who was killed after saving his son from a Southern California riptide.

• No word if any Celebrity Wing or Legacy inductees are on the docket.  Batista was to accept an induction this year, but a scheduling conflict took that out.  I guess he'll be second-fiddle to The Rock next year???
• No full Axxess event this year, due to COVID.  A lesser-scale event around their Superstore in Dallas will be held, with some panels.
• The WWE is also holding a college-age tryout around Mania -- as it tries to start making it's entry-level roster younger.  The new underlings of Fuck Vince want more entries around the age of 25, rather than 35.
  
• Some of the other-company events around Dallas this year include these highlights:

1. The first look at Ring of Honor under AEW's Tony Khan.
2. On it:  Mark and Jay Briscoe finally get a match with AEW's FTR.
3. The annual Wrestlecon 10-man tag appears to be a brutal-fest:  Atsushi Onita will captain one team.  PCO (Pierre Carl Ouillet) will captain the other.
4. An interesting stipulation in the Wrestlecon Supershow card:  The fans will vote on the best match of the night (supposedly -- though, knowing Wrestlecon, it's probably real), and the participants in it will split $5,000.
5. As part of New Japan's portion of the festivities, the likes of Tomohiro Ishii and Minoru Suzuki will be part of the events.

• The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences will meet tonight to consider what action it will take against Will Smith for his actions Sunday night.  Start the bidding at removal of him as 2022 Best Actor and banishment from the 2023 ceremony, for starters.   
• AMPAS, however, in a letter condemning Smith's actions and announcing tonight's meeting, does note that, under their by-laws, the process will take several weeks.  Smith will probably receive a letter by Monday as to possible sanctions (which could include suspension or expulsion from the Academy), 15 days notice to the Academy's vote on the subject, which could come at a meeting April 18th.
• And this has officially gone far enough -- CRIMINAL CHARGES, NOW!!!  Will Smith WAS asked to leave the Oscars ceremony and refused, the Academy has announced..  And, in a TIL moment, I was told that the winners actually are notified in advance.  So you now have assault AND criminal trespass.