– After Scott Steiner’s superstar profile was recently removed from the talent roster page of TNA’s official website, we were able to confirm that Big Poppa Pump is no longer with the company. It’s said that Scott Steiner wasn’t offered a new contract by TNA because the company felt bringing in Ric Flair was worth more to them and with the bad blood from the past between Flair and Steiner, it just wouldn’t work out.

– As previously reported, Karen Angle was backstage at this week’s  TNA iMPACT tapings in Orlando. For those keeping score, Kurt Angle’s ex-wife is still dating Jeff Jarrett. While some would think this would be a major issue between Kurt and Jeff, the two TNA stars are actually said to be on pretty good terms right now. Apparently Jarrett has even gone to bat for Kurt regarding custody of Kurt and Karen’s children, trying to help Kurt get more time for visitation with his children. Kurt has told friends he’s considering moving to Nashville to be closer to work and his kids. There was talk a few months ago of doing a Jarrett vs. Angle feud based on the real life love triangle involving Karen, but that storyline never came to pass and there are currently no plans to put Karen Angle back on television.

(Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter)

– Jeff Hardy was recently contacted by an international wrestling promotion about working for them but he said due to his indictment, he’s not allowed to leave the country until after his trial in March. He told them he would not be wrestling until his trial was over and when the trial ended, he would be going to TNA full-time.

– TNA is indeed sending one-half of the TNA Tag Team Champions Hernandez to the AAA promotion in Mexico, at least for a few appearances.

– Even though TNA’s Knockouts division has been a proven ratings draw, the new idea in the company is to have less women’s matches on TV with most of the women being featured in segments, especially with The Beautiful People. The feeling is that when they put The Beautiful People in the ring, it isn’t very good at all.

(Source: Wrestling Observer)

Six weeks after joining TNA Wrestling, Hulk Hogan tells Brian Fritz of FanHouse.com that he’s just now getting a handle on how to run a wrestling promotion and admits that for a while, he didn’t know what he was doing. Here are some highlights of what Hogan said about:

The First 6 Weeks in TNA: “I’ve never really done this before and with me everything is by instinct and feel. I was just saying a second ago to someone else that it’s actually taken me this long not to be overwhelmed because when I first came in here, everybody was going oh, they’re not going to like you, the young guys are not going to accept you. This whole negative veil of tears was thrown at me that wasn’t true. The company was very receptive; they gracefully accepted me with open arms. And then I got overwhelmed. There was so just so much good stuff going on but so many other little tweaks that kind of caught me off-guard ’cause I’m just a wrestler. I’m not someone who should be running a whole wrestling company. I know the feel for it. So it’s taken me this long to actually get all four of my claws on the ground or four feet on the ground and I feel comfortable.”

Playing Politics in TNA: “Well, you have to realize – barbarically speaking – I used to lace my boots up, go out to the ring, make my money and go home if you can say it that way. Now, the network is asking for certain things and when things get successful you get input from people you never thought you would get input from that give you, kind of, suggestions that help you or almost kind of like demands of what they want that could not be what’s best for wrestling creatively. And so all of a sudden, all these monsters are coming at me and I’m wondering how to politically, gracefully massage them and make them work because sometimes I…I wear my feelings on my sleeve and I’m not real good at being political and graceful with finesse. I’m trying to get all that done because there’s a lot of stuff, a lot of stuff. But I get it now.”

Hogan also talks about iMPACT! Moving to Monday nights, his relationship with Vince Russo and more in this interview, which you can read in its entirety at FanHouse.com.

TNA President Dixie Carter was interviewed on the Between the Ropes radio show last night, which you can listen to at BetweentheRopes.com. Here’s what Dixie said about:

Going Live Every Week: “There are talks, but I don’t think that it’s going to affect the show whatsoever. There’s also benefits to taping because you can make sure your show is perfect .. Smart business decisions are more important than anything else right now. We should take a lot of those dollars and instead of just going live right away, use it to help spread the word on TNA.”

Taking iMPACT! on the road: “We do lose something in our education process of being in the same place all the time. We don’t have that ability to go into all of these different regions outside of house shows, which are really our best indicator right now of how well things are getting over in different regions of the country.”

– The latest word on Jeff Hardy is that he has a contract waiting for him once he clears up his legal issues, indicating that he had not signed when it was reported last month. Hardy is scheduled to go to trial in North Carolina on March 17th.

– Bubba the Love Sponge is still with TNA and was backstage working at last night’s iMPACT tapings.

– Dave Taylor has received high marks in his first week as an agent with TNA.

– Karen Angle was backstage at the TNA iMPACT tapings this week. Currently there are no plans for her to return with an on-air role.

Partial source: PWInsider.com

It was announced at Tuesday night’s TNA iMPACT tapings that Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair would make their in-ring debuts for TNA on the live Monday night March 8th iMPACT!.

Hogan will be teaming with Abyss to take on the team of Flair and TNA World Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles.

So Ric Flair will be returning to action on national television almost 2 years after his big sendoff at WrestleMania 24, which coincidentally also took place from Orlando, Florida.

What do you guys think – are Hogan & Flair in action a good move for TNA on the first night of the new Monday Night War? Comment below.

— Some within the company wanted to do something to honor the legacy of ECW on its final broadcast, including bringing back names from the past for cameo appearances, but the edict was that it was much more important to promote WWE NXT and move away from ECW as soon as possible.

— Matches scheduled to take place on tomorrow night’s episode of WWE Superstars on WGN America are as follows:

* Rey Mysterio vs. Mike Knox
* Gail Kim vs. Katie Lea Burchill
* Evan Bourne and Primo vs. Carlito and Chavo Guerrero

— Last night’s dark match saw Jimmy Wang Yang beat Tyler Reks.

(source: PWInsider.com)