— Jeremy Borash said this morning during an appearance on the Pain Clinic radio show that TNA is expected to debut a big-name wrestler at the Genesis pay-per-view, which takes place on Jan. 17. He indicated it would be a “big surprise.”

— Hulk Hogan’s TNA entrance theme is actually not a new song as it can be heard on the WCW Nitro and WCW/nWo Thunder video games released on Playstation in the late nineties. At the time, a sound-alike was created because THQ didn’t own the rights to the actual New World Order song.

— Kurt Angle appears on this week’s editions of TNA Today and Live Events Center. Click here to view the videos.

– The WWE website has removed Jeff Hardy’s profile from its Alumni section, as well as that of Eric Bischoff’s. Meanwhile, the site added a profile on “Dr. Death” Steve Williams, who lost his brave battle with throat cancer last week. Both Hardy and Bischoff debuted for rival promotion TNA Wrestling this past Monday night on iMPACT!.

– John Cena is the fifth longest reigning WWE Champion in history as he held the belt for 836 total days. The four wrestling legends he trails are as follows: Bruno Sammartino (4,040 total days), Hulk Hogan (2,185 total days), Bob Backlund (2,138 total days) and Pedro Morales (1,027 total days).

— Today is Raw Superstar Chris Masters’ birthday. “The Masterpiece” turns 27 years old.

(Credit to the Wrestling Observer some of the information used in this report)

— Access Hollywood correspondent Maria Menounos, who hosted an episode of Monday Night Raw this past October, has been talking about professional wrestling quite a bit on her Twitter account as of late.

She talked about watching Raw this past Monday night, but missed TNA because her TiVo was broken. She noted her excitement for Kurt Angle, the return of the New World Order and WWE not being the only game in town anymore. She also said watching Bret Hart’s return to Raw made her cry. Here are some things she wrote:

* “Was great to see Bret hart on raw…knew vince was gonna kick him in the gut-they’ll face off at wrestlemania.did anyone watch tna?”

* “I cried when bret started spoke during the open..very emotional..you could tell throughout the show he was holding so much inside.lotta pain.”

* “But I did flip to watch kurt angle who I love…and the return of nwo was huge!love that there’s a wrestling rivalry again!”

As if that isn’t enough, Maria mentioned she’s friends with Bob Backlund and that when she was a little girl, she always wanted to be Miss Elizabeth. She said he’d still kick anybody’s butt at his age and is hopeful he returns to wrestling one day. She also made mention of a few of his quirky traits, such as how he won’t give an autograph to a fan unless said fan can recite all of the United States Presidents.

— You can follow the one and only Rosa Mendes on Twitter at the following link. Her account has been confirmed by WWE.

— The WWE website has posted new studio photos of Women’s Champion Michelle McCool.

In an interview with the UK Sun, WWE’s Big Show says that with all the talk of young talent being elevated in WWE, it’s not going to be handed to them.

“I want to let you know flat out there’s not anybody good enough to take my position,” Show said. “And I’m certainly not going to give my position up just because I’ve been on top for a while, and nor would anyone else.

He  added, “If there’s another giant that can walk in and take my position, then good for him. He can run with it and I’ll retire. Until then I’m going to work on top as long as I can, make as much money as I can and entertain the fans as much as I can. It’s up to the younger generation to come to the locker room, step up and be leaders.”

Big show singled out John Cena for his tremendous work ethic, saying that one of the the reasons he’s the face of WWE is because of how bad he wants it. He also named Sheamus, Kofi Kingston, Ted DiBiase, Cody Rhodes and The Miz as stars of the future — adding, “Talent will get you so far, but work ethic is the key. That’s the thing that the guys on top have. We don’t complain about flights. We don’t complain about not going home. We don’t complain about having an hour’s sleep and then doing interviews at 5am.”

– As previously reported, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson turned down an offer from WWE to host the January 11th edition of RAW due to a scheduling conflict. Johnson will be in Mexico next week promoting his new movie, “The Tooth Fairy.” There are still hopes within WWE that he’ll come in to host some time before WrestleMania.

While he has been using The Rock name in advertising for the movie, he said it’s not because he’s going back to the name but because there is a line in the movie trailers that says, “Get ready to be rocked” and they are using The Rock name as a play on words. Johnson says it doesn’t matter to him one way or the other if The Rock name is used. He will be appearing on several shows over the next few weeks to promote Tooth Fairy including Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel, David Letterman, Good Morning America, Today, Regis & Kelly, ESPN, BET and the NFL Network.

– Ricky Steamboat Jr. arrived in Tampa this week and will be starting with WWE’s developmental territory FCW shortly.

– WWE Hall of Famer Roddy Piper will be shooting an episode of CBS show Cold Case later this month. The episode will have a pro wrestling theme and air in February or March.

– Michelle McCool hasn’t been wrestling that much as of late because she is still having problems with her knee.

TNA creative team member Vince Russo a new blog on his Facebook.com page discussing Monday’s iMPACT!, working with Hogan & Bischoff and more. Here’s what Russo said about the Monday Night War:

“We learned a lot, on Monday night as a company–a lot We hit some home runs, but also struck out once, or twice–but that’s OK. What really mattered is that we took risks. We gave you everything we had–and didn’t play it safe.

“That’s what Eric Bischoff and Russo/Ferrara both did back in the mid-to late 90’s. Nothing was safe–NOTHING. The programming, whether it was WWF, or WCW was DANGEROUS. Never one time, no matter how hot we got–did Eric or I EVER rest on our laurels–NEVER. I can’t tell you how long Vince has been resting on his . . . I honestly can’t.

“I sat in the production truck and I wanted our show, side-by-side to Vince Monday night. It was great to see Bret –I love the guy–always have. But as our show went on, and as I watched his, I just kept asking myself–‘where’s the effort?'”

“Does Vince think that little of TNA that he felt that he could just produce ‘another show’ on Monday night? I mean, you take away that first segment and that last segment, and you had a wrestling show that wasn’t even mediocre at best. Again–going back to the 90’s–that NEVER, would have happened if Eric, or I were in Vince’s shoes–NEVER. Resting on your laurels is the worst mistake that anyone can ever make–no matter what type of business you are in.”

TNA’s Hulk Hogan called into the Bubba the Love Sponge radio show this morning. Visit BTLS.com for more on Bubba’s show. Here are some highlights:

Monday’s Steel Cage Asylum Match: Hulk and Bubba talked about the Steel Cage Assylum match that opened the show, which they both agreed was a disaster. Hulk said that when he and Bubba were in the production meeting on Sunday, about 10 people told him there was a decent door to the cage. He then got to the iMPACT! Zone on Monday and found out it had no real door and that none of the wrestlers could climb out of the top, hence the DQ finish. There were plans for a big bump off the cage but it just was not possible. He and Bubba agreed that the Steel Cage Assylum needs to be scraped for good.

iMPACT! Moving To Mondays: Hulk says they have kinda dropped the ball by taping a Thursday show the day after going live and that right after he hangs up with Bubba he is gonna call Dixie Carter, Eric Bischoff and the people at Spike and tell them that they need to be on Mondays live from now on. He says he knows that it will cost a ton of money but you gotta spend money to make money. Hulk says that he will get Vince’s audience a bit at a time just like he did in WCW.

They also talked about planned upgrades to the iMPACT! zone, “making nice” with the Bubba listeners who were denied entry to iMPACT! and Hogan’s divorce.

Big props to PWTorch.com for getting a hold of the minute-by-minute ratings data:

In a news bit that should surprise no one, a minute-by-minute breakdown of Monday’s TNA iMPACT! rating reveals that the first Hulk Hogan segment contained the most-watched portion of the show.

After opening with a whopping 3.05 million viewers for Hulk Hogan’s walk to the ring, Hogan’s first live segment peaked with 3.36 million viewers at 9PM. This figure then gradually (and steadily) declined as people began tuning out, presumably to view the Bret Hart-Shawn Michaels encounter on WWE RAW.

What is interesting, however, is that the next biggest attraction was neither Jeff Hardy, Ric Flair nor any of the active male TNA performers. Rather, it was The Beautiful People’s strip poker game. While TNA’s Knockouts have often drawn well in comparison to the other action, it is surprising that they maintained their dominant level of appeal on such a star-studded show.

The first instance of the poker game drew between 3.00 and 3.01 million viewers; a segment that also featured Sean Morley drew 2.9 million viewers just after 9:30PM. Aside from a portion of Hulk Hogan’s appearance, the Beautiful People were far and away the biggest draw of hour two.

– It appears Bubba the Love Sponge is still with TNA after meeting with Dixie Carter, Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan on Tuesday night. He wrote the following on Twitter:

“went over 2tna lot shot my deal met with hulk & Eric saw Dixie2 I think it’s better Planned some sneaky stuff with them2. going2bed but after my meeting with hogan and seeing the #s Dixie annouced I’m very excited tna is on the course2 give Vince a good fight”

– Ric Flair signed his deal with TNA just a few days before Monday’s live iMPACT. His deal is for 65 appearances over one year’s time. It’s believed Flair is working on a guaranteed money deal and is still able to book his own outside-TNA appearances. In an effort to get him on Monday’s show, word is that TNA offered Flair more money. TNA really wants Flair to be part of “the team” and be a face for the company. Some feel that Flair’s heart isn’t really in TNA and he’s more interested in the money than helping TNA succeed.

(Partial source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter)