(WGN) Feb 9: NXT-ECW update, Ric Flair wants to wrestle, Hogan doesn't, Piper DUI, Jericho jokes about recent arrest, Steiner-TNA update, memories of Jack Brisco, and more...

WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT NEWS

2/8 Raw TV results from  Lafayette, LA: Sheamus over Christian; ShowMiz over DX and CM Punk & Luke Gallows to capture the tag titles, Gail Kim over Jillian Hall, Cody Rhodes over Randy Orton, and John Cena vs. Ted DiBiase Jr never happened.

The Smackdown/ECW tapings are tonight in Baton Rouge. We're looking for reader reports to you2us@wrestlingglobe.com.

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The Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase was the first name announced on television for the 2010 Hall of Fame. WWE also hosted a press conference today in Tokyo to present Antonio Inoki with an invitation to accept his Hall of Fame award during Wrestlemania weekend in Phoenix. Press in Japan are hailing Inoki as the first Japanese wrestler ever to be inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame. His presenter wasn't named but it's believed to be Stan Hanson.

Maryse vs. Gail Kim for the Divas title will now take place at the pay-per-view in St. Louis. For those wondering, Maryse' promo in French last night loosely translates to: "You smell like garbage, it's terrible, I can smell you from 100 feet away, I pity you, you are a little girl, a nobody, you are a nobody!"

Chris Jericho did some media in Tampa on Monday to promote his band Fozzy and a Smackdown live event in June. He did both the Cowhead and Bubba the Love Sponge radio shows. He noted his next book, The Highlight of the Night, goes to the printers next month. He said he has been working on the book for several hours each night to meet the upcoming deadline. He also talked a little about his arrest last month joking that the reason he was smiling on his mug shot was because he was signing autographs for the cops while they were taking his picture. He said he was caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and if TMZ didn't exist then nobody would have known he got arrested.

Christian announced on Raw that the ECW talent roster will become free agents when the show is rebranded as NXT in two week's. That will suck for some people and put many more on the endangered species list. The announcers are safe. Abraham Washington is also safe as Vince loves the gimmick. Tiffany may be Smackdown bound as they just did the angle where Michaels superkicked Teddy Long. Everyone else appears to be in the dark about their future although it's understood NXT will be a reality-based series where young talent compete to win a spot on Raw or Smackdown--like a recycled version of Tough Enough. WWE producer Kevin Dunn is spearheading the new show.

Brother's Keeper, the upcoming WWE Studios movie with John Cena was tentatively renamed Legendary. Apparently the name change was due to a potential legal issue with New Line Cinema, because of the similarity of the title to the movie My Sister's Keeper, released by New Line last year starring Cameron Diaz.

The Raw house show this past Saturday night in Alexandria, LA, drew 5,400 paid, plus 500 comps. A story in the local newspaper noted the show generated more than $19,000 in concession sales. That's a lot of nachos.

Due to inclement weather the Raw house show on Thursday in Philadelphia has been moved again to Valentine's Day. As a result, Sunday's Raw show in Peoria has been postponed until July 9. All tickets will be honored for both events.

The Smackdown tapings originally scheduled for today in New Orleans but bumped to Baton Rouge due to the Super Bowl celebrations was rescheduled for May 28.

Upcoming Raw guest hosts Cheech and Chong were interviewed on Arizona's KQRS-FM radio station. When asked about WWE they didn't appear to know anything about the company other than their agent booked them after WWE requested them.


TNA WRESTLING NEWS

Hulk Hogan was interviewed on the Monday Night Mayhem radio show at www.mondaynightmayhem.com. He said he learned a valuable lesson during his recent Australia tour: He shouldn’t be wrestling anymore, because of the condition his back, hips and legs are in. "I found out in Australia that me wrestling in a ring in not the place to be," he said. "If I was to wrestle in TNA, the hardest part of my night is walking down that ramp and staying straight-faced, because my back, and my hips, and legs hurt so much. If you watch closely, I'm doing a bit of a shuffle out there, so if I was crazy enough to wrestle in that ring, they might be using a broom and a dustpan to sweep out the ring at the end of the match, so not anticipating going in the ring." On TNA moving to Monday nights, he didn't give anything away, but said, "It looks much better than it did yesterday." He claimed everyone in WWE is calling him up around the clock to try to come to TNA. Not sure about that one. He said, "Jeff Hardy, Rob Van Dam, even if [John] Cena wants to play that game down the road, he can get real. I'm looking for guys who can get real with me and not a bunch of posers." On working with Russo, he said: "My mother told me if you can't say something good, don't say nothing at all. Sometimes you have to look at the big picture, and sometimes if things get real nasty, you don't want to step in s--t, you want to step over it." On daughter Brooke becoming an on-screen character: "Her just sitting in the crowd, hanging out in the crowd is good enough for me. I don’t want to see her crawling around half-naked on WWE. I don’t want to see her getting chest-slapped or drop kicked by the Beautiful People. At the end of the day, I love Brooke to death and I wouldn’t wish this life on anyone."

For what it's worth, Hogan said this morning on Bubba the Love Sponge that he would be turning heel soon on television.

Ric Flair says he'll wrestle "sooner than later," in an interview with the Virginian-Pilot. "The feud thing with Hogan will play out later," he said. "The story line right now is that they’ve made all these changes to be competitive, and I’m just a part of that." Flair added: "I wasn’t sure if [wrestling again] was something I wanted to do. But I’m a big fan of Kurt Angle, and working with Hulk in Australia really showed me how much I missed things." Full interview at http://tinyurl.com/yzoglre.

The word on Scott Steiner is that his contract expired and the company opted not to renew his deal. Steiner has just released a wacky workout DVD. The trailer is online at http://tinyurl.com/ybt5ww3.

The Against All Odds count down show is now online at http://tinyurl.com/yd49g59 complete with an interesting ranking system of heavyweight title contenders. Bischoff says on the show, "There needed to be some order, some organization, and some reason that's justifiable to the wrestlers themselves and to the audience so that everyone understood when someone gets a title shot in TNA, they've earned it."

Tara's Impact wardrobe malfunction aired unedited in the UK over the weekend. I guess that means TNA production people missed it and it was actually Spike who made the final edit.

TNA Epics this week will be a special on Sting.

Kurt Angle has launched his own range of food products. Story is at www.the-sun.co.uk/wrestling.

There is a story on Matt Morgan in the March edition of Men's Exercise magazine. The story focuses on his diet and workout regime.


OTHER WRESTLING NEWS

Former WWE wrestler Ken Doane survived week two of the FOX Reality show, Seducing Cindy. You can watch the first two episodes online at www.insidetv.aol.com.

Roddy Piper's DUI charge from last summer in Los Angeles was recently expunged.

There is a story on Colt Cabana on the Chicago Tribune website promoting his comedy improv with Mick Foley and Bruce Prichard. Cabana has a show Wednesday at the ComedySportz Theatre. He said he is using comedy to keep himself in the spotlight and hopes to go back to WWE. He said: "A lot of guys get released by WWE and vanish. I’m staying on and wrestling full time [with Ring of Honor] and I’m doing comedy. I like to think that by doing comedy, it shows I’m an asset to [WWE] in and outside of the ring."

Candice Michelle wrote a blog revealing that she will give birth to a baby girl in April. She is planning a home birth.

Today's Diva of the Day is Shelley Martinez at http://www.thewrestlingpress.com/DailyDiva.