— The January 4th edition of WWE Raw, which will go head-to-head with TNA’s special 3-hour Monday night iMPACT!, will tape place from the Nutter Center in Dayton, Ohio. The show is currently scheduled to be a 2-hour broadcast, but it will be interesting to see if WWE offers any counter programming to offset TNA’s 1-hour lead-in that night.

— Ashley Massaro got some new tattoos on her wrists over the weekend. The former WWE diva wrote a message on Twitter saying, “This is one of 2 I got yesterday, small but were building, awesome artist, i wanted to distract from the roman num”

To view a picture of the new ink, click here.

She noted that the picture is backwards/inverted and the picture she posted is of her right wrist.

She said the new tattoos are in addition to the roman numerals .. The word/name “Lula” is new – anybody know if the cupcake and heart are also new?

The WWE website announced last night that John Morrison would be defending his Intercontinental Championship against Drew McIntyre at the upcoming Tables, Ladders & Chairs pay-per-view. Here is the updated card:

Tables Match for the WWE Championship
John Cena (c) vs. Sheamus

Chairs Match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship
Batista vs. Undertaker (c)

Ladder Match for the ECW Championship
Christian (c) vs. Shelton Benjamin

Tables, Ladders & Chairs Match for the Unified WWE Tag Team Championships
Chris Jericho and Big Show (c) vs. D-Generation X

WWE Intercontinental Championship Match
John Morrison (c) vs. Drew McIntyre

partial source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter

— The CNN website has posted an article regarding the passing of former WWE talent Edward “Umaga” Fatu. The article offers comment from former WWE Diva Dawn Marie.

“He had his demons, but he found a lot of strength in his family,” said Dawn Marie Psaltis, family friend and founder of Wrestlers Rescue. “He was always a jokester, he was always playing a practical joke on someone. He comes from a long line of professional wrestlers and did his family proud.”

To read the article, click here.

— Former WWE talent Armando Estrada (real name Hazem Ali), has said that his match tonight against Mr. Ken Anderson in Milwaukee for the Great Lakes Championship Wrestling promotion will be his retirement match. The former General Manager of ECW has done very few indy dates since being released by WWE on November 18, 2008. Since then, he opened a restaurant called Baby’s Steak and Lemonade in Glendale, Arizona and is attempting to franchise the brand.

– The movie Aztec Revenge starring Mil Mascaras is scheduled for release next year.

— The Fox News website has a story today looking at the vast number of deaths to strike the professional wrestling industry. The article features photos and brief stories on twenty-one notable professional wrestling performers who have died including Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Rick Rude, Earthquake and Miss Elizabeth. To see the feature, click here.

— WWE Hall of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin will be guest-starring on the NBC comedy series Chuck next month. Courtesy of BuddyTV.comF, the synopsis of his appearance is as follows: “Austin will portray Hugo Panzer, who becomes entangled in Chuck’s first solo mission. He’ll appear in the fifth episode of season 3 entitled “Chuck vs. First Class”, as a master of close-quarters combat.” The episode is scheduled to air on January 25, 2010.

— In today’s wrestling birthday, former WWE wrestler Sylvester Terkay turns 39 years old. The former MMA fighter was released from his WWE contract on January 18, 2007 in a cost-cutting measure.

– The ongoing speculation that TNA will wind up on Monday nights competing head-to-head with WWE Raw continues. While nobody from TNA or Spike TV have commented directly about the rumor, people who are being contacted by Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff about joining them in TNA are “under the impression” that a Monday night show is inevitable. There has been talk of TNA holding a live television special on Monday night, January 4th to test he waters and see how they would do up against Raw.

– Hulk Hogan is not a fan of TNA’s 6-sided ring and has been telling people that it’s one of the first things he’s like to change when he comes into power next month.

– Hogan and Bischoff are said to be confident that Rob Van Dam and Ric Flair will wind up in TNA.

Related News: Ric Flair Comments On Whether He’d Work For TNA

– Despite being featured on the TNA Genesis PPV poster, Hulk Hogan will not be wrestling on the show. It’s likely that he will eventually step in the ring, but not until the right match has been set up with months of storyline build leading up to it.

Related News: TNA Genesis PPV Poster With Hulk Hogan

– It’s interesting to note that the DVD cover for “End Game” which starred Kurt Angle and former TNA Knockout Jenna Morasca promotes Angle as a WWE star with no mention of TNA. There is also no mention of Jenna’s run in wrestling.

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

– The court case between Warrior (a.k.a. Ultimate Warrior) and World Wrestling Entertainment was officially closed on November 19, 2009, reports PWInsider.com. While it was ruled that Warrior would have to pay WWE’s attorney costs and expenses in defending themselves against his breach of contract lawsuit — a total of $18,967.46 — both sides later came to the judge and said the case had been resolved, with WWE waiving the bill.

– During this past Monday’s episode of Raw, Jerry Lawler said Chris Jericho’s encounter with Triple H was the third time they have faced each other one on one this decade. This is not true as they had previously faced off at least three other times. If you recall, Jericho “won” the WWF Championship from ‘H during the April 24, 2000 edition of Raw. They also faced off at WrestleMania X8 for the WWF Undisputed Championship and at Judgment Day 2002 in a Hell in a Cell Match.

— WWE will be returning to Central & South America in February of 2010. Here are the dates & locations:

February 11th – Ruminahui Coliseum in Quito, Ecuador
February 12th – Voltaire Paladines Coliseum in Guayaquil, Ecuador
February 13th – Alejandro Morera Soto Stadium in San Jose, Costa Rica

Tickets for all 3 events go on sale December 14th, 2009 at 11 AM. (Thanks to Devin Cutting)

— On recent episodes of WWE Raw, we’ve seen the likes of Jesse Ventura and Carlito talking about there being  some backstage resentment towards WWE Champion John Cena. While the storyline exaggerates the locker room’s feelings towards Cena, there is some truth to it, as a number of wrestlers do reportedly resent Cena’s standing with management. There is naturally some jealousy towards Cena’s comfortable spot at the top of the roster while others are turned off by his “company guy” attitude.  Sources say his public airing of grievances with The Rock, regardless of the fact that he was likely reading company-fed lines, did not help his standing with “the boys.”

– Timing issues also played a factor in “little people’s court” with DX and Hornswoggle not airing on RAW this past week. WWE’s talent relations that were to book the little people weren’t getting answers back from creative as to how many they needed, who would get what roles or a male/female breakdown. The original idea for the segment came from Vince McMahon and nobody wanted to commit to doing anything about the angle until it came from Vince first and since Vince didn’t get around to it until the weekend, it was too late to throw everything together for Monday. Word is that those in creative weren’t really crazy about the idea to begin with. For what it’s worth, there is consideration of Hornswoggle doing a run-in near the finish for the DX vs. Chris Jericho & Big Show match at the TLC pay-per-view.

– This week’s edition of ECW on SyFy scored a 1.0 rating.

– The Great Khali returned to action at the SmackDown live event this past weekend. He recently had his knee scoped.

– WWE may have had plans to continue something between Jerry Lawler and Sheamus before changing it. Lawler was scheduled for an independent wrestling show on November 21st, five days after he was attacked by Sheamus on RAW. After the angle on RAW that week, Lawler’s people sent a text message to the indy promoter saying, “due to an ongoing storyline, Jerry Lawler can’t make his appearance.”

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

Source: PWInsider.com

Former WWE superstar Jeff Hardy was set to appear in court this morning for a probable cause hearing to determine whether there is enough evidence stemming from his September 11th drug arrest to see if the case would proceed to a grand jury. The grand jury would then decide whether to prosecute Hardy for the various felonies she’s been charged with.

The hearing has been rescheduled once again and the next court appearance for Hardy will be on January 27, 2010.

The original probable cause hearing on November 4th was rescheduled to today because certain drug test results had not been completed in time. No word yet on why today’s hearing did not take place.

* See Jeff Hardy’s NEW Look (Short Hair)