— As seen last night on SmackDown, CM Punk followed up on his promise to “save” a member of the WWE Universe. A fan identified only as James was the chosen one. Assuaging James of his fears, the “Straightedge Savior” shaved his head, initiating him into the straightedge society. The identity of the fan is OVW star Ted “The Trailor” McNailer. Click here for more information on this young grappler.

— The official website of Florida Championship Wrestling has removed WWE developmental wrestler Lift Sawyer from its talent page — the lone modification to the section.

However, it should be noted that he may not have necessarily been released as he could be getting repackaged, or considering he has very little wrestling experience, perhaps getting more seasoning for an eventual return to the roster. Though he was listed on the FCW talent page, he sparingly competed at live events.

Sawyer, whose real name is Aaron Reed, is a 6 foot 8 inch, 295 pound former bodybuilder the company signed to a developmental contract this past June. He is based out of Las Vegas.

— WWE Executive Vice President of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis’ proposed trip to Ohio Valley Wrestling this past week to scout prospective talent ended up being canceled. They did, however, sign OVW wrestler Asher Knight to a developmental contract at Tuesday’s SmackDown/ECW tapings in Louisville, reports f4wonline.com. He’ll be heading to Florida soon.

— 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.