— Chris Jericho’s Fozzy album, Chasing the Grail, failed to crack Billboard’s Top 200 chart in its first week of release.

Despite a heavy promotional push which included Martyr No More being used as one of the official theme songs for this year’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view, the album sold a mere 2,200 copies in the United States in its first week out.

On a positive note, it ranked sixth in sales on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of the Billboard 200.

Chasing the Grail was released on Jan. 26 via Australia’s Riot! Entertainment.

— In statistic news, Shawn Michaels’ six eliminations in this year’s Royal Rumble match gives him 37 for his career, beating the record of 36 set by “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Undertaker remains at 35, while Kane now has 34 with Triple H in fifth place at 26. For most time spent in the Rumble over the course of a career, the top three spots remain the same, but the numbers have changed with Triple H at 231:12, Shawn Michaels at 213:34 and Kane at 173:46.

— WWE plans on pushing this year’s WrestleMania festivities harder this year. The mindset is to keep the talent busy and have so many activities for fans that they don’t attend the Ring of Honor and Dragon Gate shows.

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

— Hulk Hogan claimed this past week on The Bubba the Love Sponge Show that he would be turning heel soon. He also said he doesn’t want daughter Brooke to become a wrestling character.

— Eric Bischoff recently came up with the idea of a ranking system for top title contenders in order to justify title shots. Fans can check out the ratings system on TNA’s Against All Odds countdown show on DirecTV.

— Starting with Sunday’s Against All Odds pay-per-view, TNA will be putting all pay-per-view events live on the company’s web site at a cost of $14.95.

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

— There are conflicting stories on Melissa Anderson’s (a/k/a Alissa Flash) recent departure from TNA Wrestling.

It’s being said that she was frustrated with the company not using her on a regular basis. There are also multiple accounts on whether she asked for her release or if the organization made a decision to let her go. Furthermore, some feel her departure from TNA was related to Awesome Kong’s dispute with the company, seeing how they are close.

Anderson parted ways with the organization on Jan. 21, 2010.

— Former TNA announcer Lauren Brooke recently took part in an interview with women’s wrestling website RedHotDivas.com. When asked whether she ever considered lacing up the boots, Brooke responded: “No I really didn’t. I honestly believe that no one could just START wanting to be a wrestler at 27 years old, train for a year and go out there and show any quality. You need years to be as good as the Taylor Wilde’s and Gail Kim’s out there…and it would be an insult if I thought I could just.. “pull that off.”

She also reveals whether she was ever asked to take part in a lesbian storyline with Taylor Wilde, her favorite wrestler to work with, how she would like to be remembered by wrestling fans, and much more. You can read the interview in its entirety at the following link.

(credit to the Pro Wrestling Torch for some of the information used in this report)

— While nothing has been official been said by either party, the belief is that Awesome Kong has been talked into staying with TNA.

Kong requested her release from the organization following a backstage altercation with Bubba the Love Sponge a few weeks ago. Though it should be noted that she was reportedly upset with her pay as well. (source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter)

— Velvet Sky and Madison Rayne of “The Beautiful People” recently took part in a photo shoot for FHM in the U.K., which is their equivalent of Maxim. This should be high profile exposure for TNA since it’s the No. 2 selling men’s magazine in the country.

— Today is reigning TNA Women’s Knockout Champion Tara’s birthday. The five-time champion turns 39 years old.

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

– As we reported last night, Bobby Lashley’s profile has been removed from the Superstar Roster page on TNA’s official website, which suggests he may have parted ways with the company. According to sources within TNA, Lashley is still technically under contract, but is not considered part of the active roster. Lashley has been written out of TNA storylines in recent months but remains on good terms with the company and the door is open for him to return down the line. (Source: PWInsider.com)

– Kurt Angle has launched his own line of healthy foods called Angle Foods, part o the Foodies Food Club network. Kurt’s website describes it like this:

“USDA approved Signature Series Sports Performance Food line that will feature five new great tasting, high quality, high protein, high fiber, low fat ready-to-eat-meals for athletes and health conscious dieters of all ages. Each exquisite R.T.E Meal contains approximately 30-40g of high quality food protein, 10-12 grams of “fiber for life” with moderate to low gylcemic carbs for health and energy. Finally, the perfect convenient meals for everyone!”

WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross is back with another blog update from JRsBarBQ.com. Some highlights:

Appearing At Raw on 3/1: “It has been reported on line that I am making some sort of unadvertised appearance at the March 1 OKC event as we have been getting emails regarding such. This is all news to me and I know of absolutely nothing that is planned. We are spending considerable time and some in kind donations to help promote the WWE event but that’s the extend of it. I do hope to drop by and say hello to friends prior to the event starting but will likely watch the show from home or possibly “in the back.”

The Rock’s Upcoming WWE Return: “Dwayne Johnson reiterated what we have said here for the longest time and that is that he isn’t interested in stepping back in the ring as a wrestler but doing a speaking role and having fun on a wrestling show would be more to his liking. Bottom line, one takes Dwayne any way one can get him as he is a huge star who will pop a TV rating which is the holy grail for wrestling promoters.”

– The February 8th edition of WWE RAW drew a 3.6 rating, on par with the past 2 weeks. The show averaged 5,342,000 viewers and did hours of 3.48 and 3.69.

– As noted earlier, WWE has been going back and forth on whether or not to have veterans on the new NXT show. Word now is that the show will still feature veterans from other brands to help draw ratings. Apparently there will be regular appearances from WWE Superstars on the show to “mentor and hinder” the new talents on NXT.

– Chris Jericho noted on Twitter yesterday that he had written 78 pages of his new book with 250 left to write. Jericho said he has to turn the book into publishers in three weeks.

(Source: PWInsider.com)

The following news items have been compiled from several live reports sent in from fans who were at RAW:

Before Raw went on the air:

WWE taped two matches for Thursday’s Superstars show:

– Chris Masters vs. Chavo Guerrero.
– Jack Swagger vs. Santino Marella.

Live Notes

– Who Dat Nation was at Raw last night and we happy. Coming off of the Saints big win in the Super Bowl, we were treated to great Raw show. The crowd was live all night and it looked like a sell out to me.

– Bret Hart coming out at the end got the biggest pop of the night, but the crowd was into everything at the show.

– John Cena and DX also got huge pops from the crowd. Sheamus, Vince McMahon and CM Punk had the most heel heat.

After Raw went off the air:

– In the dark match main event of the evening, John Cena defeated Sheamus by DQ. Cena had Sheamus tapping to the STF when the ref called for the bell because Sheamus had already hit him. Afterward, Cena hit Sheamus with the Attitude Adjustment, and celebrated with the crowd. He grabbed a Who Dat? sign and held it high on the stage to close the show.

– There has been talk of turning SmackDown star John Morrison heel in the near future. WWE is firmly behind the developing star and he’s still seen as having a ton of potential.

– Morrison’s former partner Joey Mercury is said to be returning to WWE shortly. While several sources are reporting that a deal has been signed, many people backstage at the Royal Rumble were not aware of his upcoming return.

– The feeling within WWE is that The Undertaker will work a very light schedule headed into WrestleMania. Undertaker is still in rough physical shape and there are plans to get the World Heavyweight title off him before WrestleMania. With Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels still looking likely for WrestleMania, the match has enough going for it that it doesn’t need a title on the line and WWE could probably get more drawing power in having a separate match for the World Heavyweight title.

(Partial Source: F4wonline.com)