TNA producer Eric Bischoff posted a veiled shot clearly aimed at former TNA creative writer Vince Russo on his official facebook page:

"Story, character, structure. Looking forward to the next set of TV's. Been a long time coming."

Ring Ka King Wrestler Harry "Bulldog Hart" Smith was interviewed by WrestlingInc.com regarding his time in the WWE, Ring Ka King and more. Below is a quick recap.

When asked about him potentially signing with TNA in the near future, he was noted as saying:
"Yes, I mean... I think I could, it would just depend on what direction they would want to go. It would depend on their contract, because when you sign WWE contracts you are basically screwed. I mean, I couldn't do anything outside. So it would just be… could I still go over to Japan and do a tour here and there? What kind of promotions can and can't I work for? There would be a lot of questioning, curiosity on that behalf on what the contract would consist of what they would let you do, what they wouldn't let you do. There would be a number of things, but I would give it a try. Jeff [Jarrett] has been great with me in Ring Ka King, he was friends with my dad, really good friends with my Uncle Lowell. It isn't out of the question, it could happen."

"I mean Jeff was cool, we just talked and [he said] I'll see you next tour. He didn't say anything… it was more like, "I don't understand why you aren't still in WWE or what happened, you're a hell of a talent, we'll see you next tour, we're glad to have you," just that kind of thing. Nothing in that, no contract offers."

Regarding TNA's Ring Ka King India Show:
"Yeah, Ring Ka King is great. They put a lot of money into the production and the studio they have down there in Pune. I think it will be great. What I was told is that more people will be seeing me on these Ring Ka King shows than probably ever before because of India's population. That's just crazy because people recognize me all the time and see me on TV in the United States and all over the world, but just in India alone I mean it's crazy.

I like India in general, the people were very, very friendly. It's a great country and I've made some good friends. Unfortunately my last trip there I got a stomach infection that kind of took me out of commission for about three days. Other than that it was awesome."


You can read the full interview at the following link:WrestlingInc.com Harry Smith Talks MMA Training, Natalya's Gimmick, Resistance Pro, If TNA Is An Option & More

TNA Wrestler Bully Ray spoke out regarding hardcore wrestling, Concussions, Chris Benoit and much more in the second half of his UK Sun interview. Below is a quick recap.

Comparing hardcore wrestling to a dangerous circus act:
"You're on the trapeze, it's the circus, it's a show. You could use a net, right? "But it's a hell of a lot more intriguing if there is no net there and there is the possibility that they could fall off that trapeze and splat on the floor. I will take bigger risks when the risk is warranted. If the story merits the bigger risk, I will do it. I will try not to do anything just for the sake of doing it. I don't do things to get a 'pop' — I guess that's the jargon that the 'smarter' wrestling fan will use — I do things that make sense in the story that I'm trying to tell. Chairshots to the head, barbed wire, thumbtacks, fire — been there, done that. I learned how to do it from the best — Terry Funk, Cactus Jack, Atsushi Onita in Japan — you are learning how to do this stuff the right way."

On concussions:
"Concussions are definitely a big deal. More research has been done on concussions."

On the double murder and subsequent suicide of wrestler Chris Benoit:
"Personally, do I think Chris Benoit did what he did because he had a concussion? Absolutely not. That's my opinion."

You can read the full interview at the following link: Sun.co.uk Ray: I know what I can handle

During the show we find out that it is Kim's daughters 6th Birthday. She is really upset and Devott comforts her. Kim says that the cameras and the TV show means nothing to her. It's all about her family.

Kim reveals that she was adopted. Birthdays are hard for her because she always wondered if her mom knew that it was her birthday. Devott let's Kim call her daughter, she wishes her a happy birthday and tells her she loves her.

Kim lost 7 pounds this week and now weighs 193 pounds. She is still in the competition.

TNA Wrestler Crimson, real name Tommy Mercer was born February 21, 1985 is celebrating his 27th birthday today. Happy Birthday to Crimson!

Dixie Carter revealed the post for this year's Lockdown through her facebook account:

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Former TNA wrestler and backstage agent Glenn Gilbertti, better known as The Disco Inferno spoke candidly in an audio interview with Gerweck.net about TNA, Dixie Carter, Vince Russo, the lack of current stars in wrestling and tons more.

On his position in TNA and why he was let go:
"I was a road agent for the show. Honestly, we had too many agents. It was such an easy job that we could have had one or two guys doing it, we had like five. We would just go over the finish with the guys, organize it and then we would just be in the truck and see how the match is going on and you work with the producers and the camera men to tell them what kind of shots you are going to need. Basically, a coach would be a proper word."

On Vince Russo:
"Russo never got a fair shake because he was criticized from the get-go by the internet and they were always trying their best to prove that they were right about their criticism. the one thing about Russo that i tell everyone is where ever he booked just look at his numbers. People say he killed WCW blah blah blah. if you just take Vince's numbers and put them up against other writers in the business during the same time period; He was by far the most successful writer. Strictly looking at the numbers, Vince Russo has been the most successful writer in the last 15 years. To me the only critic ever is the numbers."

"The one thing with Vince, he gets criticized for stories and stuff and everything blah blah but the thing is, he has always tried and he tries with everybody. Regardless of where you were on the card, he tried to do a story with them. He tried to do something. You see guys getting released and they give them the "creative has nothing for you" excuse then creative should be the one fired. You can write for anybody if you are creative. How could creative not have anything for you? It's your job. Could you imagine a coach hiring a running back that does good but they tell him they don't have a place for you (on the team)."

On Dixie Carter:
"Dixie is a good lady, i respect her a lot. I think she has done pretty well considering the ethics of some of the people she has been involved with in the wrestling business. There's so many scumbags in the business its ridiculous. There's some people that get pleasure out of working angles and stabbing people in the back. To actually still be doing business with some of the most politically backstabbing people in the business, I think she is doing well. I respect her."

On the WCW-TNA criticism of older talent always being used:
"I have friends in the wrestling business. I really like some of these guys but i honestly think that some of the newer guys aren't nearly as good as some people think they are. I like a lot of these guys but they just aren't what people think they are. I think when the people, When they come out of ROH and the Indies and the internet fan base gets behind these guys and they finally get their shot, if you can't entertain me then you really aren't that good. When you tell them this they remember their internet fan base and so they complain about the booking."

"Steve Austin and The Rock were entertaining. They were so good, you could have given them bad writing. The way they delivered, were so compelling they would get over. regardless of the writing, you cant keep blaming the writing. maybe you just aren't as good as they think they are. Stop blaming other people, you just aren't that good. There's lots of guys in the business like this today. I tell them, guys just look at the numbers, and you will see that you are not making people watch you."

The wrestling business is filled with guys like this these days. I don't know whether the style has changed or there is an emphasis on wrestling more. They should be teaching these guys to talk and act. Back in the day you guys guys like Piper, Hogan, Nash. These guys were all good actors, talkers. Guys today are all "Wooden". If they were better they would be in all kinds of movies. John Cena isn't a good actor. If he was, his movies would be a lot better. The Rock is an movie star.

On The early days of TNA and viability of the weekly PPV broadcasts:
"I used to help write the show. It was me, Vince and Jarrett doing the very first shows. Jeff would always put the most stock on the crowd. I would tell him, thats not that audience. Our audience is the TV population not the fake audience that would get into the show from the fairgrounds for free. We would always get into arguments about this. He always talked about what if somehow you got a pop from the crowd. That's a fake crowd.

I just felt like the visual presentation of the show was not up the par with their expectation that people would be willing to pay $9.99 for the show on PPV. If the show was in Universal studios then maybe, with that production, maybe they could have stood a better chance of getting fans to pay $9.99 every week."

You can listen to the full audio interview at the following link: Gerweck.net Audio: The Disco Inferno talks wrestling today, Vince Russo, TNA, WCW, more

Men's magazine, GQ has posted an interesting column on TNA's Ring Ka King. The article calls TNA's endeavor "Utterly fascinating". The article begins with some hilarious detail about Scott Steiner and Indian fans who flee from him during the now infamous near riot scene. It also notes the changes made to modern wrestling in order to accomidate a new, untaped market such as India. This is a must read for Ring Ka King Fans. You can read the full article at the following link: GQ.com The Broad, Brilliant Strokes of Ring Ka King and India's Wrestling Revolution

Report by Ben Hough


Before the show started, there was a meet and greet with several stars for 50 dollar ticket holders. Also, if you bought a Jeff Hardy action figure, you got to go backstage and he would sign it for you.

1. Eric Young and ODB beat Hernandez and Sarita. The crowd was hot for EY and ODB. Good opener with tons of comedy spots.

2. Austin Aries beat Kid Kash to retain the X Division Title. Aries was in full babyface mode for the match. Kash was getting booed out of the building. Aries won with the Brainbuster suplex.

3. Gail Kim beat Tara to retain the Knockouts Title. Tara played up the knee injury throughout the match. Tara got a good pop for her entrance. Kim got good heel heat.

4. Magnus and Samoa Joe beat Crimson and Matt Morgan to retain the TNA Tag Titles. Very good tag match. The crowd was really into it. The finish came when Crimson accidentally hit Morgan, leading to Magnus hitting the elbow from the top on Morgan for the pin. Crimson left Morgan alone in the ring after the match.

5. Gunner beat Garrett Bischoff. Despite the posters all over the arena promoting Ric Flair would be there and in Gunner's corner, he was not present and made no appearances during the show. Gunner won after using the ropes for leverage during a roll up. Bischoff got good sympathy heat throughout match.

6. James Storm and Jeff Hardy beat World Champion Bobby Roode and Bully Ray. The original line up had this as Ray vs. Storm and Hardy vs. Roode. The match started as a singles match between Storm and Ray. Roode came out about five minutes in and Ray and Roode started double teaming Storm. Hardy's music hit and he hit the ring and ref Brian Hebner made it a tag team match. Really good main event. Storm pinned Roode after a superkick.

Afterwards, Hardy and Storm did photos in the ring.

Notes: As stated above, despite Ric Flair being promoted for the show and being all over the posters, as well as the live event site, he was not present for the show in any capacity.

Nice sized crowd with the entire floor filled and most of the bleachers full.

Jeff Hardy got by far the loudest and most sustained reaction of the show. The place literally was shaking when his music hit. There was Hardy merchandise everywhere, especially with the younger fans.

Matt Morgan also got a very loud pop and was super over.


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WrestleTalkTV in conjunction with The Daily Star has put up video of their interview with TNA star Hulk Hogan. In the interview, Hogan speaks out on TNA, Star power some wrestlers have and some others lack, making changes to the Bobby Roode angle and more. The first half of the interview begins immediately at the beginning of the video. The second half is shown at the 43:55 mark.

Former TNA personality Jimmy Hart spoke candidly to Dave Lagreca of Busted Open Radio. Hart spoke candidly about WWE, Wrestlemania, TNA, Russo and more. Here are some highlights:

Vince Russo:
"He was OK with me. When he first came to WCW he made an announcement, and said, 'Hey look, you're gonna see wrestling like you've never seen it before because I don't think you really care too much about the wrestling part.' (Which if that's the way you feel, that's the way you feel) And so I think that's what he really wrote about. I have nothing bad against him one way or another. I did my little stuff down there, he had set a few little matches this, that, and the other… I think it's hard to be a writer, especially when you're by yourself like that. You've gotta worry about people going and coming and quitting, and some of the bigger stars not wanting to do this thing, or not wantin' to be part of this. Also, there's always someone who's got a friend of a friend who wants to be involved. Maybe a guy's wife wants to be on tv or a girlfriend, and, if there's enough pressure on you, then you gotta work them in because the strongest force in the world is a woman! I'm sure he had to run through a lot of things that went up against him. I guess they were successful all these years 'cause, if not, I'm sure he would've been gone years and years ago, so I have nothing bad to say about him."


Hulk Hogan and TNA:
"I love Hulk Hogan. I spoke to him 3 days ago. I think he went up to do the Wendy Williams Show. He asked me, 'Can you do me a favor? Can you watch the TNA show?' I said, 'Sure.' And so I watched the one from London and he said, 'Give me your opinion.' So I said, 'You packed on a few pounds.' He goes 'Jimmy Hart you always tell me the truth. You were right, I gotta slim down a bit.'
"He said 'What else?' I said 'To me, everybody wearing blue jeans and their t-shirts hanging out… this doesn't look professional. If you're a major company trying to get 50 or 60 bucks from your fans… If you dress like the audience, one day you're gonna wind up sitting in the audience!' And so that's why I still wear the crazy flashy jackets and carry the megaphone because you wanna stand out, and think that's what's helped me be around 30 years in this crazy business doing music and doing this. I told Hulk, I said AJ Styles and all these guys are phenomenal… and Christopher Daniels, I love those kids. For him to go out in blue jeans, it's just not professional."

TNA Knockout Gail Kim, born on February 20, 1977 is celebrating her 35th birthday today. A big happy birthday to Gail Kim!

Multiple readers have sent word that TNA Wrestler Ric Flair did not appear at the Feb 19 TNA house show in Glenville, West Virginia as scheduled. TNA had promoted and had flyers printed out specifically promoting Ric Flair. We hope to have more information on this soon.

According to the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board, TNA Impact Wrestling on February 12 2012 scored 208,000 viewers; A decrease from the previous weeks viewership numbers of 278,000 viewers.

The Tuesday replay of last week's show did make the top 10 on ChallengeTV +1 and scored 42,000. This brings last week's episode to a total of 363,000 viewers.

Sunday's Impact Wrestling came in first place in the overall ChallengeTV rankings. TNA Xplosion did not make the Challenge top 10 this week.

Report by LG Sims


This is Saturday results from the Raleigh County Convention Center. Attendance: 2,700 (estimated).

(1) ODB & Eric Young pinned Sarita & Hernandez.

(2) X Division champion Austin Aries pinned Kid Kash to retain the X Division Title.

(3) Knockouts champion Gail Kim pinned Tara to retain the Knockouts Title.

(4) TNA tag champions Samoa Joe & Magnus beat Matt Morgan & Crimson via submission to retain the TNA Tag Titles.

(5) Gunner (w/Ric Flair) pinned Garett Bischoff.

(6) Bully Ray beat James Storm via DQ when Bobby Roode attacked Storm.

(7) James Storm & Jeff Hardy pinned TNA World Hvt. champion Bobby Roode & Bully Ray in the main event.


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