(WGN) March 24: Wrestlemania notes, Cena news and the major event he's missing, Jericho on his future, TNA change regarding Monday nights, Dixie on the locker room, Mick Foley blog, Honky Tonk Man, and more...

WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT NEWS

3/23 NXT TV results from San Jose, CA: Justin Gabriel & Heath Slater over Wade Barrett & Skip Sheffield, and David Otunga & Darren Young over Michael Tarver & Daniel Bryan.

We're looking to hear from any readers attending Wrestlemania events this week at you2us@wrestlingglobe.com.

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There is talk of Shane McMahon making a cameo at Wrestlemania. In the context of the Vince-Bret Hart match this would make a lot of sense. Shane left WWE in January to pursue new business opportunities. Also, Linda McMahon has a clear schedule this weekend so it wouldn't be surprising to see her at Mania, perhaps at the Hall of Fame ceremony with Stephanie and Triple H.

Most of the crew is now in Phoenix. Security at the main WWE hotel is said to be as tight the White House. There have already been one or two incidents were fans have tried to get in and have been ejected. Some of the bigger names have been assigned personal security for promotional events.

There are a large amount of tickets still remaining for Mania. The company is expecting a last minute surge and some walk ups but nobody appears to be confident of a sellout at this point. I think they will comfortably surpass 55,000 people on the day. They would be ecstatic with anything over 65,000. In terms of PPV buys, 1 million is the internal target, but I don't see them doing that this year in this economy. They also have stiff competition for dollars this weekend with UFC 111 on Saturday night.

John Cena is scheduled for the live broadcast of Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards on Saturday night in Los Angeles, taking place at approximately the same time as the Hall of Fame ceremony. Cena and Olympic medalist Apolo Ohno will attempt to set a new world record for being catapulted into green slime. The show airs at 8pm which means he will miss the Hall of Fame. Cena has also been cast in Nickelodeon's made for television kids movie called Fred the Movie. The movie will also star Lucas Cruikshank, Jennette McCurdy, and UK actress/singer Pixie Lott, and is written by the same people as Family Guy.

New York DJ Peter Rosenburg interviewed Cena backstage at the Jimmy Fallon Show. Cena talks about Vince making a mends with Bret Hart, his family who doesn't fly in for Mania, his thoughts on turning heel, his current music tastes, and much more at http://tinyurl.com/yap4aub.

The third annual Wrestlemania Art Exhibition is tonight 6-9 at InterContinental Montelucia Resort & Spa, located at 4949 E. Lincoln Drive in Paradise Valley. The event will benefit the Phoenix Children’s Hospital and Make-A-Wish Foundation. Bret Hart, Vince McMahon, Jerry Lawler, Beth Phoenix, The Bella Twins, and many others are scheduled to appear.

Fan Axxess kicks off Thursday night at the Phoenix Convention Center where WWE will be taping footage for Friday's Smackdown. Among those scheduled to appear: John Cena, Bret Hart, Carlito, Cryme Tyme, Mike Knox, Hornswoggle, Kofi Kingston, Kane, Mark Henry, Kane, MVP, Jack Swagger, Chavo Guerrero, The Great Khali, Goldust, Evan Bourne, Matt Hardy, Gail Kim, Beth Phoenix, Eve Torres and more.

John Morrison is signing at FYE in Tempe, AZ on Thursday from 4-6pm located at Arizona Mills Mall, 5000 Arizona Mills Circle.

Steve Austin is doing a signing at FYE in West Nyack, NY on Thursday from 6-8pm.

Kelly Kelly threw out the first pitch today at the Chicago White Sox game in Glendale.

The first issue of WWE's Heroes comic book series is now on sale. Jerry Lawler illustrated one of the two alternate covers which are very rare. More info at www.wwecomics.com.

ESPN interviewed Chris Jericho at http://tinyurl.com/y9mjljw who talks about his future and the evolution of his character. "At this stage of the game, I'm doing the best work of my career and I feel physically great and mentally great, so there's no reason to think about stopping now. We'll see what happens, but for right now, I see no end in sight. But who knows, tomorrow I can wake up and give you a whole different story. But when I left (in 2005), I said I wasn't going to come back until I felt like I could be better than ever, and I think the work I'm doing is the best of my career and I want to continue to do just that for as long as I can."

Jericho was the star of TBS' George Lopez Show last night in an hilarious skit with David Arquette. They had a karaoke sing-off with Arquette dressed in a Randy Savage costume that he purchased from eBay. The idea was that Jericho was singing to esponge Arquette from the record books as a former world heavyweight champion. The footage is online at http://tinyurl.com/y8mf4tc... However, nothing will ever top Jericho's rendition of Summer Nights with CM Punk and Mickie James at http://tinyurl.com/cpctd7.

The Miami Herald has a story on Shawn Michaels at http://tinyurl.com/y8attgu. He's thinks WWE has a special entrance planned for him and Undertaker on Sunday. "I'm sure we'll have some kind of special entrance, but I think this one is taking on a different tone this year. There's more finality, I think, with this one, for both of us. I think this one will be more focused on the match and the inevitability of it, more than the differences in the characters."

Linda McMahon has garnered a lot of negative press over the past few days as Chris & Nancy author Irvin Muchnick is on a book tour in Connecticut pushing his agenda against WWE. Channel 8 news in Stamford ran a story at http://tinyurl.com/ycowqws. "WWE and Linda McMahon created the atmosphere and the working conditions that have caused many, many deaths in the industry of which the Benoit one was just the most dramatic and heinous example," Muchnick said.

John Pollock of The Fight Network talks about his excellent film on Bret Hart at http://tinyurl.com/ybnefn4.

Brian Fritz has a Q&A with the Hart Dynasty at http://tinyurl.com/y9vaxbt. They said they are hoping to work with Bret in the future.

There are reports out of Japan that Antonio Inoki recently suffered some broken ribs in a boating accident. He said he is thrilled with his Hall of Fame induction and wouldn't miss it for the world. There is a small army of Japanese reporters and photographers en-route to Phoenix to cover his induction.

Slam Wrestling has a story on the career of Wendi Richter at http://tinyurl.com/yaz7phd.

Smackdown back on 3/5 did a 2.0 rating and 3.1 million viewers, according to the latest data available.

The Undertaker turns 45 today.


TNA WRESTLING NEWS

Impact is apparently moving to 8-10pm Monday's from April 5--the next live show. At least that's according to Spike's online schedule which was updated today and changes very frequently.

As noted, Impact this week did a 0.86 rating and 1.2 million viewers. The good news is that hour two beat hour one, meaning an end to the trend of viewers tuning out as the show progresses. The lowest rated quarter hour was 0.76 for Rob Terry vs. Tomko followed by multiple commercial breaks while the highest quarter was a 0.97 for Jeff Jarrett vs. Mick Foley followed by Foley landing a stiff forearm on Bubba The Love Sponge.

Bubba thanked his "Bubba Army" last night on Twitter for making his segment the highest rated quarter hour.

In UK ratings for the week ending 3/14, Impact did 114,000 viewers on Bravo (+32,000 viewers). The replay did 68,000 viewers. Dixie Carter noted that this was a new UK record.

Mick Foley wrote a blog which was posted on the TNA website explaining that he's off television to give the younger guys a chance to shine and noted he didn't mean to catch Bubba with his forearm. I know the cats out of the bag, but talk about going out of your way to publicly kill an angle. Foley wrote, "I know some people will claim I hit him on purpose because of the Awesome Kong incident, but that is not the case. I spoke to Bubba the day after that deal, and told him how I felt about it, then had a chance to discuss it on Bubba's show and write about it on TNA's website. So as far as I am concerned, there was no problem." He also noted he was going to Phoenix for a comedy show on Saturday night with Ring of Honor wrestler Colt Cabana. "I don't think too many people know this, but I have remained good friend with Ring of Honor owner Cary Silkin since my short stint in ROH several years ago. ROH is helping us out with this show by making sure that anyone who mentions the letters ROH when booking tickets for our comedy show gets a 15 percent discount."

Crave Online interviewed Dixie Carter at http://tinyurl.com/yd986ac. Nothing really that she hasn't said in other interviews. She said the locker room is one big happy family. "I think it’s all in how you run your company. I can only speak for ours and quite honestly, I hear it’s very different than other companies that are our competition. It’s a family atmosphere. They work harder, we’re more like a team. That’s what makes it special. It was funny because Eric Bischoff came to our live taping on January 4 and we’d walk. Every 10 feet I’d stop and hug somebody and he’d hug and shake their hands. He’s like 'wow, everybody’s excited for me.' I had to go, 'No, this happens every week that we tape.' We hadn’t seen each other in a week but it’ll take me 30 minutes to walk 100 feet because I have to stop and hug and say hi to everybody."

Chris Daniels turns 39 today.


OTHER WRESTLING NEWS

Lanny Poffo, who has always been very pro-WWE, cut a promo at http://whosslammingwho.podomatic.com/ expressing regret that they didn't acknowledge the recent death of his father, Angelo, on it website or television shows.

Funeral services for former WWWF referee Jack Savage will be Thursday 5-8pm at the Auclair Funeral Home in Fall River, MA.

Story on the Honky Tonk Man at http://tinyurl.com/ykhuxg7. He said he gets a giggle when people bring up him blasting people with guitars. "I wish I had a dollar for every time someone's asked me how many guitars I went through - I'd be retired, living on a lake right now," he said. "People tend to think I was breaking these things every night. In reality, if you look back at it, I think I hit five or so guys on television with a guitar and that was probably it."

Honky Tonk Man said he's shooting a movie later this year called Crushed Velvet. No idea what it's about.

For the first time ever, Sting is coming for the NWA legends fanfest in Charlotte in August. For more infomation you can email James Soubasis at bigdaddj@comcast.net.

Wrestlicious airs tonight on MAV TV at 11pm.

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