» Advances for TNA’s upcoming tour of the UK in January 2009 have been described as strong. While there are no direct numbers released at this time, they will be the biggest gates and crowds in company history. Whether or not the company has plans for another “Global Impact” special remains to be seen, but you would think it would be crazy if they didn’t take advantage of the huge crowds overseas for a better presentation.

» Nothing much new on the Team 3D/TNA front except for the fact that their contracts with the company are up soon and many feel they will likely re-sign. It doesn’t appear they have any interest at this time returning to WWE if the option was open. Also an interesting report making the rounds stating that Brother Ray made a comment recently saying no one wants to watch “normal” wrestling matches anymore. Some have interpreted those comments by Ray as a shoot as the word making the rounds was that Team 3D demanded to be booked in stipulation matches more often as some felt they were trying to find easy ways of getting pops and having to do less work in the ring. That was at least just the perception by some within TNA.

Kim’s contract with TNA is coming up soon (it was announced that she signed a deal with TNA on September 6, 2005), so once it expires, she is free to start working in a WWE ring.

The decision to jump ship to WWE was said to completely be a financial one. Her decision to leave TNA had nothing to do with her being unhappy over how she was booked or presented on television.

TNAWrestlingNews.com is now reporting that Kim’s departure from the company has taken most by surprise. People knew her contract was being renegotiated, but most assumed it was a lock that she would re-sign with TNA. There was no indication of her leaving the company at last week’s iMPACT! tapings, no did she say goodbye to the other wrestlers.

One source told TNAWrestlingNews.com that the problems between TNA & Kim stemmed from issues regarding her contract. Kim “wanted guarantees TNA was not willing to give” and there were some issues over a separate contract she has with a booking agent who puts her personal appearances together, which created some conflict with TNA.

It should also be noted that WWE recently changed its trademark on Gail Kim from inactive to an active status, which should confirm that she’s heading back to the company.

TNAWrestlingNews.com is also reporting that Gim’s contract is up about to run up and she will be free to start working for WWE once it expires. The decision for her to leave TNA for WWE was completely financial as she had been happy in TNA. The deal she was offered was a big one and hard to pass up.

Kim left TNA on extremely good terms and the door is always open for a return according to TNAWrestlingNews.com sources.

Gail will appear on iMPACT! tonight in a street fight with Awesome Kong.

We don’t have details regarding her departure at the moment, however we hope to have more details later today.

After the dark match main event HHH went around and slapped fives with all the fans in the front row, me and my friend were in the lower bowl but the people guarding the floor left before the dark match so we hopped onto the floor (along with almost eveyone else in the lower bowl) and we both got a high five from HHH which was pretty cool.

After the show we went to where the wrestlers exit the building and i got Ricky Ortiz and Evan Bournes autograph.

MVP stole a persons sign and told us that he wasnt going to sign anything because we all boo him (actually i was cheering him during the match).

Maria came out and signed a few autographs but not many, me and my friend actually saw her run a stop sign of a relatively dangerous intersection.

Matt and Jeff led the fans outside in a “Hardy” chant as they made their way to the parking lot and about 2 minutes later we see Jeff come running back to us and he signed a couple autographs.

All in all it was a good night (besides the first hour of Smackdown).

Roy Sutherland sent this in: I was just looking at this on WWE.com and they had a picture of 2 boxes of Smackdown moving there stuff to MyNetworkTV on October 3, 2008 and they said they were going to do a first ever broadcast of Wrestlemania 24 rerun on October 2, 2008.

Pam & Terry Oliver sent this in: I was reading your article about how the Championship Scramble was a recycled idea. I went back over some old PPV’s I taped and the winner take all match at Sundays PPV with the Women’s and Intercontential titles being up for grabs was just a recycled idea too. The WWE did a match years ago between Shawn Michaels and Diesel against the late Yokozuna and the late great King of Hearts Owen Hart, but that match was for the Tag belts, Intercontential and Heavyweight belts.

Chad sent this in: This is not the same match as the Hardcore Title match at Wrestlemania 2000. If you remember correctly, at that point in time the Hardcore Championship could be won at any time at any place. The match done at Wrestlemania was just a Battle Royal, but the Hardcore Championship stipulation allowed the championship to be exchanged multiple times during they match. Just thought I’d pass that along! Great site by the way! I check it daily!

Steve Moore sent this in: In regards to VKingOfTheWorldV’s earlier comparison, he is exactly correct. The Hardcore Battle Royal at WrestleMania 2000 was essentially a Scramble match but with several more more participants than whom will be seen in each of the two “Unforgiven” Scramble matches. And just to detail the finish of the Hardcore Battle Royal for anybody who does not remember: In the final seconds of the match, Hardcore Holly laid across Crash to make the pin. Tim White, the assigned referee, dropped down to count the pinfall. After White hit the mat twice, he went to slap the mat a third time but did the “near-fall” move with his arm as if Crash kicked out. However, Crash’s shoulders were still on the mat. So, either Crash was supposed to kick out at 2 and forgot, or they rushed the final spot and time was supposed to run out just before White’s arm was coming down for the third count. So there you go.

Lori C. sent this in: Here is Ashley Massaro’s upcoming appearance ad displaying the event! To view, go to http://i34.tinypic.com/2m3kb3o.jpg. It will take place on Friday, August 22, and there will be three other Playboy women. There is a pre-party from 6:30PM-9:30PM for the “Fired Up For Kids” charity, and then afterwards starting at 9:30PM to closing, the Playboy Afterparty is scheduled to begin. The Playboy stars include: Monica Leigh, DJ Miss Vicious, who is an international Playboy star; DJ Tamara Sky, who is releasing her first major CD in 2008; and lastly, Ashley Massaro, who will be hosting the event. For more information call (303) 383-1909.

TNA also has a “countdown” section of their website for the release of the game on September 9 (in 19 days).

diegov211 sent this in: Video game retailer GameStop has a Q&A section with Kurt Angle on their web site answering wrestling and non-wrestling topics, the Q&A section plugs the upcoming TNA iMPACT! game.

Gregory Walek sent word that the WhoIsSuicide.com website is now back up featuring a graphic and statement about the character.

Gregory noted this: Right from the page source: META NAME=”keywords” CONTENT=”Who Is Suicide, Midway, TNA, TNA iMPACT!, Video Game” Does anyone connected with this bothered to see how a viral marketing ARG operates? Cause this is a big no-no.

The August 19 edition of ECW on Sci Fi featuring Mark Henry vs. Matt Hardy for the ECW Championship in a SummerSlam rematch drew a 1.5 final cable rating. This is up 25% from last week’s 1.2 rating. The show was watched by 1.9 million viewers.

For the 8/7 iMPACT!, the show drew a 0.98 cable rating and 1.5 million viewers. The actual rating was down, but viewers per home were higher than usual. In the demos the show did a 0.80 in Males 18-34 (best rating since 4/3) and 1.13 in Males 35-49 (best since January). In the Womens 18-49 demo, the show drew a 0.64, the demo’s best rating since Impact went to two hours. The show also did a 0.98 among male teenagers and a 0.86 in Males above the age of 50. Here are the segment-by-segment notes. The Sonjay Dutt vs. Curry Man match lost 61,000 viewers. The Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley vs. Jay Lethal & Consequences Creed match as well as the “Karen’s Angle” segment with Frank Trigg lost 77,000 viewers. The Beautiful People lost viewers for a change as a promo from them as well as Kurt Angle lost 107,000 viewers. The LAX & Christian & Rhino vs. Beer Money & Team 3-D match gained 31,000 viewers. The Salinas vs. Awesome Kong match as well as a number of post-match run-ins by the Knockouts gained 184,000 viewers and drew the second highest quarter hour of the show. Promos from Samoa Joe and A.J. Styles lost 122,000 viewers. The main event featuring a gauntlet match was a ratings hit as it gained 214,000 viewers and notched the show’s peak rating of a 1.07.

TNA announced in an article on the company website earlier today that Traci Brooks has been named the head official of TNA’s “Knockouts” division. Going by the storyline, Jim Cornette has put Brooks in charge of the division, so she will be keeping things in order and ruling over the matches. The article features in-character comments from Velvet Sky, Gail Kim and Jim Cornette, which you can read at TNAWrestling.com.

WWE has changed the line-up for this Saturday’s Raw brand house show at Madison Square Garden once again. The scheduled John Cena vs. Batista match has been removed. Instead, Cena will be wrestling Chris Jericho and Batista will be taking on Kane. Other matches scheduled for the show include Santino Marella vs. Kofi Kingston in an Intercontinental Championship, Ted DiBiase & Cody Rhodes vs. Cryme Tyme in a World Tag Team Championship match, and Mickie James vs. Beth Phoenix in a WWE Women’s Championship match. William Regal, D’Lo Brown, Snitsky and Kelly Kelly are also advertised to appear.

There is a story on WWE developmental wrestler Rob Terry, a 6 foot 5 inch, 285 pound European bodybuilder. He hopes to make it big in WWE one day and noted that he talked to Triple H backstage at WrestleMania. Terry said, “There was around 35,000 people in the stadium and more watching on TV. I really enjoyed it. I also got to go along to Wrestlemania, which was mind-blowing because I got to chat one-on-one with some big names like Triple H. He was a really down-to-earth guy and it was great to meet him because he is one of my heroes. He’s also built very big like me and gave me plenty of good advice. I know it’s going to take time to get there, but I’m determined to make it in WWE.” Some people believe this to be a new signing, but he actually signed his deal with WWE in April 2007. He’s been in developmental ever since and appeared as a bodyguard for Nic Nemeth in some dark matches last year. The article also notes that he recently signed a new three-year contract, although the length of the contract doesn’t really mean anything as WWE can let a wrestler go at any time and not have to pay them for the rest of the deal. Colin Delaney was signed to a three-year deal and is receiving severance pay for 90 more days due to release last week.