TNA Wrestling sent out the following press release today hyping next week’s 3=hour live Monday Night iMPACT! special:

HULKAMANIA IS COMING BACK TO MONDAY NIGHT ON “TNA iMPACT!” LIVE JANUARY 4 ON SPIKE TV

Hulk Hogan’s First Live Appearance On Spike TV’s “TNA iMPACT” Will Be In A Special 3-Hour LIVE Episode Monday, January 4 At 8:00 PM ET/PT

Hulk Hogan’s first appearance inside the six-sided ring of TNA Wrestling will follow weeks of speculation after Hogan and TNA President, Dixie Carter announced their partnership on October 27 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Hogan has hinted in various media interviews that he’ll have multiple surprises in store for TNA Wrestling fans.

“I knew when I signed with TNA, that it would be important to make a statement with the first episode. Going head-to-head with the WWE on January 4th, makes the statement loud and clear: Game on!” Hogan said.

“TNA is kicking off 2010 in the biggest way possible with the biggest name in the history of our sport. Hulk Hogan is a pop culture icon, and his arrival will change not only TNA, but the entire professional wrestling landscape. We’re firing that first shot,” Carter said.

Joining Hogan for the three-hour live “iMPACT!” will be TNA World Heavyweight Champion “The Phenomenal” AJ Styles, Olympic Gold Medalist Kurt Angle, Mick Foley, Kevin Nash, “The Samoan Submission Machine” Samoa Joe, “The Boss” Bobby Lashley, “The Blueprint” Matt Morgan and many more

THQ and WWE issued the following this morning:

Dec 28, 2009 — THQ Inc. and World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. announced that they have entered into a new eight-year agreement granting THQ the exclusive worldwide rights to develop and publish video games based on WWE’s content effective January 1, 2010.

“This agreement ensures that WWE games will continue to be an important cornerstone of THQ’s annual release schedule for the long term,” said Brian Farrell, THQ President and Chief Executive Officer. “We look forward to working directly with WWE to expand their brand in the video game space through continued game play innovation and increased online delivery of WWE content.”

“As one of the most successful video game brands, WWE is excited to work directly with THQ to translate WWE’s colorful characters and ever-changing content into exciting and fresh video games for our fans,” said Donna Goldsmith, WWE Chief Operating Officer.

“This year’s highly rated WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 video game demonstrates the innovation and creativity that THQ brings to WWE,” said Vince McMahon, WWE Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “This new licensing agreement will ensure that we continue our tremendous success in the video game industry in the years to come.”

– TNA Wrestling will be holding a part at Universal Citywalk in Orlando on January 3rd to celebrate Hulk Hogan’s iMPACT! debut the following night. Hogan and many other TNA stars will be there. The event will be filmed by TNA and parts will air on the three-hour iMPACT special the next night. Radio personality and longtime Hogan ally Bubba the Love Sponge is apparently having a big role with the event that they’re billing as a “Pre-Hulkamania Invades TNA” party. It begins at 5PM and admission is free. This event is expected to be similar to the Hulkamania Parade thrown by WCW back in 1994 when Hogan joined that company.

– Hulk Hogan came in at #85 on a “2009’s Most Annoying People” list in the UK. Hogan was listed for the OJ Simpson comments he made about his ex-wife earlier this year.

– TNA will be releasing a Best of 2009 DVD on February 16th, 2010.

– As previously reported , top independent tag team The Young Bucks have signed with TNA Wrestling. There is talk of them debuting on the January 4th live iMPACT.

— Alissa Flash noted on her Twitter account that last week, she accidentally stepped on some shattered Christmas ornaments destroyed by her cat in the middle of the night. This could explain why she did not appear at last Monday’s all-Knockout television taping.

— The TNA website has posted all-new holiday photos of Sarita, Velvet Sky, ODB, Tara, Daffney, Taylor Wilde, Lacey Von Erich and the infrequently seen SoCal Val. You can see the images at the following link.

In Daytona Beach News-Journal writer Jeff Wilen’s latest JAW Breaker column, he breaks down Irvin Muchnick’s seven-part series chronicling numerous sex, drug and steroid scandals to strike Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Entertainment over the past two decades. Among the topics covered include:

* A doctor by the name of George Zahorian would routinely distribute steroids and other drugs to wrestlers. It’s specifically noted that dozens of wrestlers would line up backstage at Zahorian-administered shows in Pennsylvania and openly exchange cash for “bags of drugs.” For further reference regarding this, Bret Hart goes into great detail on Zahorian’s routine in his 2007 autobiography, Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling.

* A backup ring announcer by the name of Mel Phillips — who also supervised setting up the rings at WWF shows — was exposed as a pedophile who frequently took advantage of young boys from broken homes. Phillips had a bit of a foot fetish as he would frequently play with little boys’ feet by first pretending to play wrestle. A former member of the WWF ring crew, Tom Cole, discussed Phillips’ disturbing behavior in great detail in the following interview.

“When we were younger, he (Phillips) used to have a thing where he used to play with your feet,” Cole told the Wrestling Perspective. “He would wrestle you for five seconds then he’d grab your toes and pull your shoes off and he’d start playing with your toes. Squeezing them and stuff. I was a small kid, maybe 100 pounds. I was real small when I was younger. He’d get your toes. I don’t know, I didn’t think anything sexual about it because he was playing with your feet. When you’re a young kid, you’re not thinking like…Now I look at it like, “Wow, that was a foot fetish.” Several years later I realized, “There’s something wrong here.”

* It’s been speculated that Vince McMahon wore a neck brace to appear sympathetic to the jury in his 1994 trial in which he was accused of distributing steroids to wrestlers. Also, there is an interesting note on WWE Hall of Famer Afa Anoa’i (uncle of Eddie “Umaga” Fatu, who died recently) supposedly trying to intimidate the jury during McMahon’s trial.

* An important government witness at McMahon’s trial was his former secretary Emily Feinberg, who was also a former Playboy model. During her employment to the World Wrestling Federation, McMahon and Feinberg were rumored to have had an affair. Pictures of Feinberg can be discovered online if you look her up under her professional name, Emily Arth.

* Some interesting quotes from McMahon and his defense lawyer, Jerry S. McDevitt, are noted. During an investigative interview with Henry Waxman’s committee staff, McMahon refused to answer if he had taken steroids since 1992 — the last year which he admitted to doing so.

* Muchnick caps off his piece by recognizing WWE’s success, but also recognizing its “horrible record of health and safety standards, of which death by drugs is but one aspect.”

To read Wilen’s column, click here.

— Former WWE Women’s Champion Trish Stratus has garnered yet another accolade as she has been named Woman of the Decade by Pro Wrestling Illustrated.

When reached for comment, Stratus expressed her gratitude in the honor.

“I couldn’t ask for a better Christmas gift! I’m honored to be regarded as the woman of the decade, especially when I look back at my WWE signing, which took place 10 years ago…I feel honored…and kinda old,” she joked on her official website, “And blessed to have the support I’ve had for the last 10 years…a decade of Stratusfaction – wow!”

— Former WWE Divas Candice Michelle and Lilian Garcia will be appearing at the Steel City Con taking place in Monroeville, Pennsylvania in late February. Visit www.SteelCityCon.com for more information.

— In today’s wrestling birthday, former WWE wrestler Dennis Knight (a.k.a. Mideon, Phineas I. Godwinn) turns 41 years old. Also, Rhaka Khan turned 28 years old yesterday.

World Wrestling Entertainment updated its Wellness Policy last week to officially note that any positive test for marijuana will result in a $2,500 fine. Previously, it was a $1,000 fine.

The levied fine was in response to pot usage running rampant throughout the company. With that being said, usage is said to be way down among those on SmackDown, but still reportedly “out of control” among Raw talent.

In the case of alcohol, the policy states that WWE performers are prohibited from “using or consuming alcohol at any time within a twelve hour period prior to any WWE event or WWE scheduled performance.”

— In WWE’s latest attempt to find a Mexican star, the company recently inked a deal with Incognito, who previously worked under the guise of Mistico de Juarez. He briefly worked with TNA Wrestling a few years ago, but when he missed a television taping, they stopped using him.

— The lone wrestling related death to make Sports Illustrated’s annual year-end “Not to be Forgotten” list was WWE Hall of Famer Captain Lou Albano, who passed away this past October.

(Credit to f4wonline.com for some of the information used in this report)

There are mixed feelings on WWE champion Sheamus among those in the locker room.

While some feel his friendship with Triple H has been blown out of proportion, others are accusing him of being a “shameless suck-up.”

The word going around the company continues to be that Sheamus and new Intercontinental Champion Drew McIntyre are the favorites of Triple H and Shawn Michaels.

– The latest on Ric Flair is that he has not signed with TNA as of this week. Flair was out of the country on vacation last weekend but word is that TNA is putting pressure on him that if he doesn’t sign and appear on the January 4th show then the offer may be pulled. The issue most likely is Flair not wanting to go with WWE’s competition. However, money plays a factor as the last time WWE made him an offer it wasn’t even close to what TNA is offering. It’s believed that WWE’s last offer to Flair was somewhere around $250,000 per year. Flair hasn’t spoken with WWE about any kind of offer recently. As noted before, Flair wants to sign with Panda Energy in case TNA goes under, he still gets paid. Flair feels that since Hulk Hogan signed a deal under the same circumstances with Panda, he should get the same treatment.

– Reaction within TNA to the news of Scott Hall returning has been negative because of Hall’s track record with the company. Some are also worried about what kind of negative impact Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff can have on TNA with making bad decisions.

– While TNA is still turning people away from the iMPACT Zone for pay-per-views, they are having problems with attendance at TV tapings. They have been having to get people to move closer together and only film that direction because of attendance lately. They are trying to get more fans to come out for the January 4th live show and the feeling is attendance is more of a problem this time around because of the slow season at Universal Studios. Attendance at the theme park is down this time of year and people in the park who aren’t wrestling fans usually make up a good part of the crowd. There is hope that with Hogan and possibly Flair wrestling in the iMPACT Zone in 2010, attendance among park-goers who aren’t wrestling fans will increase.

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

– As noted earlier, sources in WWE are interested to see how the politics will be with Triple H once Bret Hart is back in the company. Many are curious to see how diplomatic Triple H will be with the whole situation. Most feel that given the recent changes in his life, Shawn Michaels will get along fine and wouldn’t be surprised if he gave Hart an apology.

– A former WWE employee was with Shane McMahon at a non-wrestling function over the weekend. The friend notes that Shane was beyond relaxed and relieved. Shane didn’t say anything negative about WWE but did seem glad that his travel schedule was over. Shane gave no indication of what’s next for him besides spending more time with his family. Apparently the meeting he had with UFC officials went well but it doesn’t look like anything further has came from it. While Shane is pretty aware of UFC, his interest in MMA must be blown out of proportion as he didn’t know of MMA promotion Strikeforce, where they stand of their recent moves.

(Credit to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter for the information used in this report)

Teddy Hart is telling people he’s joining World Wrestling Entertainment alongside his uncle Bret.

While his claims have yet to be confirmed, the feeling among his peers in Mexico — where he currently resides — is that should he wind up in WWE, he won’t last long because “he hasn’t learned one thing since he’s been there.” He still has a reputation for being highly talented, but greatly lacking in the psychology aspect of wrestling. Also, he still has a reputation for not listening, which is pretty much why he was released by WWE in October 2007.

Hart wants to bring Jack Evans with him, but Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA) is high on Evans, more so than Hart, not mention he has more than two years left on his contract anyway.

Hart was either asked to visit WWE’s headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, or already has, to do an interview for their DVD release profiling the legendary Hart Family. He was under the impression that the DVD would coincide with next year’s WrestleMania where Stu Hart would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

(Credit to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter for the information used in this report)

The short-term deal that Bret Hart has signed with WWE is a performer’s contract, so he will be an integral part of the storylines heading into WrestleMania. It’s still believed by many that he will be wrestling one match, most likely against Vince McMahon at WrestleMania.

Bret is old-school and is trying to keep everything about his return quiet. Because of this, a lot of news might not get out about plans for him in WWE before his first appearance. It’s still not confirmed that Bret will be hosting the January 4th RAW. WWE has announced guest hosts for the weeks before and after that date and that’s the night TNA challenges WWE for the first time on Monday nights, but nothing is confirmed yet.

Bret is a bit heavier than he has been in the past and is trying to get back into ring shape. He has been suffering from an unknown back injury that has made it hard to train.

Bret hasn’t talked with Shawn Michaels or Triple H since Montreal so it will be interesting to see how everything plays out between them.