Kurt Angle recently vowed in an interview that he has no plans to return to WWE. Angle was asked about his future plans in an exclusive interview with an UK based daily and Kurt made it very clear that he wants to finish his wrestling career with TNA. The 42 year old Olympic gold medalist has already spent four and a half years with Dixie Carter’s company and looks very satisfied in this organization. Angle is a busy man outside wrestling; his fiancé recently gave birth to their premature baby, Kurt is a health food provider and a 30 percent owner of a film production company called North Shore Pictures. His contract, however, with TNA will end this August/September and Kurt plans to re-evaluate.

After months of speculations, Sting returned to TNA and made a prompt impact by winning the TNA Heavyweight title. The legendary grappler won the title against Jeff Hardy in the main event of TNA Impact, the flagship show of the company. Sting’s return to TNA will now finally bed the rumors of the probability of him being inducted to WWE Hall of Fame or a dream match against The Undertaker at WrestleMania 27. There was another major story-building event when Hulk Hogan returned after his recent back injury and informed Dixie Carter that he have won the court case and is now in charge of TNA.

No matter what the storyline deals with, Hulk Hogan’s future in TNA is dubious. Some sources recently confirmed he may soon be out of the company as his performance in the organization has not been satisfactory. Hogan’s arrival in the organization was much hyped though he made it very clear that he won’t be a regular wrestler in this organization but will play more like the role of a mentor. His contract was result and incentive based.  Hogan as a non-wrestling individual failed to attract the fans; his injury kept him away for a long time as well and this didn’t help his position in the organization. Let’s wait and watch what destiny has in store for him.

NFL’s Super Bowl is inching towards and everyone is abuzz about the current rivalry between Chad Ochocinco, the wide receiver of Cincinnati Bengals and Marvin Lewis, the head coach of the team. Now, it seems that Total Nonstop Action or TNA has jumped onto the occasion and they are trying to sign both for a bout at the pay-per-view event of TNA – “Lockdown”.

Ochocinco has already taken a step forward to this and openly challenged Lewis for a cage fight via twitter. Lewis is yet to respond to the challenge and if he does, then TNA will make things official by talking to their respective representatives. TNA has also offered training for both of them in the weeks prior to the actual event to be held on 17^th April.

Every single match at “Lockdown” is going to be held inside a reinforced steel cage of 15 feet. “Lockdown” is the only pay-per-view event where all matches are contested inside steel cage, in the professional wrestling industry.

Jeff Jarrett, a former WWE superstar and TNA founder believes the professional wrestling industry needs a serious shake-up again to keep the interest and the business running. Jarrett, also popularly known as “Double J”, was recently at Wrestlecast, the award-winning show of SunSport and shared his thoughts about the wrestling industry and its future.

Jarrett said professional wrestling fans always loved the surprise element in the shows and drew example from the famous ‘Monday Night Wars’ between WCW and WWE. Jarrett said the constant competition was actually proved to be very good for the business as regular creative ideas kept coming in both the shows. Now certainly all of them were not equally useful, but the flow always kept the viewers on the edge of their seats. He brought the example of introducing Mike Tyson to WWE fans and using him in the kayfabe between Vince McMahon and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. He said it was a revolutionary idea that helped WWE to turn around and win over WCW.

Jarrett said Austin became a fan-favorite as the represented the rebel who stands against the system for justice. It was a employee vs. employer situation; a person who goes against the boss, humiliates him and wins the battle over all evil – when this storyline meets Mike Tyson, ‘The Baddest Man on the Planet’ … it’s always a win-win situation.  “It was big. It was really big. You can’t put a price on getting into pop culture. I think the business as a whole needs a pop culture moment.”  Jericho also passionately spoke about his relation with his father, the legendary wrestling promoter Jerry Jarrett, TNA’s upcoming ‘Maximum Impact Tour’ and TNA’s new ‘Gut Check’ training at Wembley, London. You can learn more about the TNA’s Europe Tour and ‘Gut Check’ here.

TNA recently launched a campaign against bullying named “Eliminate the Hate”.  The organization has plans to air PSA’s on TNA programs and also across the web. Spike TV and TNA has partnered with Sirius XM Radio to spread their message through radio as well. TNA stars like Mr. Anderson, The Pope, Matt Morgan and Kazarian has already filmed their promos for the campaign. The campaign supported TNA World Champion Jeff Hardy’s act of standing by a teenager named Tyler who had been a victim of bullying. Hardy invited him to Orlando for a TNA show and spent some quality time with the kid.

ECW legend Sabu was recently informed by the TNA officials that after ‘Turning Point’ on 11.07.10, the creative team is in no position to use him in the current storyline. Sabu will be a member of team EV 2.0 against Fortune. The match has a stipulation where the winning team can pick an opponent of their choice who will be immediately fired. TNA officials informed that the match stipulation has nothing to do with Sabu’s release.

Individual respect and courtesy overshadowed professional rivalry! TNA President Dana White and WWE’s Linda McMahon are certainly not best of friends. But Dixie decided to support Linda on her Senate run. She made a Tweet recently that said: “Good luck today to Linda McMahon. I think she’d be a great senator. Get out and vote!!!” Hats off Dixie, you’re a star!

Hulk Hogan’s career as a wrestler may have finally come to an end. Hulk Hogan aka Terry Gene Bollea recently had undergone a back surgery. The operation was successful but Hogan, reportedly, is being advised to stay from active wrestling as further injury may turn out to be a fatal one for him. Hulk is with TNA now-a-days along with former WCW and WWE Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff and TNA officials believe, a re-union of Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff will repeat history, yet again.

But Hulk has never competed in a singles wrestling match inside a TNA ring. He, however, was scheduled to fight against Abyss and Sting. But the plan died in the bud after doctors showed him a red signal. Hogan didn’t appear in any of TNA shows last week including the PPV. But he was present in Chicago for an autograph session. During his appearance for the autograph session, Hulk was asked about his current physical condition. Hogan was in a light mood as he answered that he had five back surgeries already during his 30 year old wrestling career. He said he is recovering well and is almost in a condition to get back to his regular fitness training schedule. He admitted that his chances to get back to a wrestling ring again are thin. He said his body has already been though a lot and he can’t “afford any more broken things”. Hogan reportedly has taken some time off to heal his injury and TNA officials have apparently agreed to his request as he is not currently in the focus of storylines.

Only a few weeks back, the wrestling fans were surprised to see a cameo appearance by Booker T in a Friday night TNA house show in Lake Charles, Texas. The TNA officials had announced earlier that due to AJ Style’s inability to perform that night’s main event; he will be replaced by none other than the “5 Time WCW Champion” Booker T. Booker tried to play a heel during his cameo and in order to do so; he looked down upon the TNA fans and the promotion itself. Booker said he is here only to win the TNA World Heavyweight Title. As it happens in the cameo appearances, Booker fought well but succumbed to RVD, the TNA World Heavyweight Champion following a 5 Star Frog Splash.

This appearance drew some attention of the fans as Booker has parted ways from TNA last year and reportedly shares a sour relationship with the TNA management. He was severely criticized for poor locker room presence and was all words about how he can join WWE whenever he wanted. To make things even worse, he even refused to take the job to Matt Morgan, then considered as a less popular TNA wrestler. This was a serious violation of company rules and TNA decided not to entertain Booker further. Since then there was no Booker T in TNA and after this cameo appearance, fans thought this might the first step of his return to TNA. But TNA officials have confirmed that it was only a one-time deal with Booker and no further negotiation has taken place for the time being.

There were rumors that WWE is still interested in Booker T, but only if he decides to maintain a full schedule. But at the age of 45, this might well not be possible for him. WWE thinks he is not important enough to appear as a part-time wrestler, something that HBK or The Undertaker enjoys at these later years of his career. WWE refused a similar proposal in case of Jeff hardy and RVD as well which was a major factor in their signing with TNA. Now we had to wait and watch Booker’s next step which will actually determine his career as an in-ring performer.

TNA is fast moving to acquire globally acclaimed talents for their promotion. A number of former WWE and WCW stars are now working for Dixie Carter’s promotion. Popular superstars like Sting, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Kurt Angle, Kevin Nash, Booker T, Scott Hall, Jeff Hardy or Rob Van Dam are only a few to name. TNA has even acquired Vince Russo, the former creative head of WWE and WCW. Their last big draw for the promotion was Eric Bischoff, the mastermind that created WCW Monday Nitro and drew a lot of attention with the fascinating Monday Night Wars between WWE and WCW. But it seems the brand can’t get enough acquiring talents as their most recent targets are former ECW promoter Paul Heyman and the “Voice of WWE”, good old Jim Ross himself!

The company officials are trying to do their best to get JR; but Jim is still under contract to WWE. However, the promotion doesn’t seem to be as interested to use JR as they used to be. In recent times, WWE has not used Jim in any of their house shows like Raw or SmackDown. In fact, the fans were shocked and disgusted to see WWE not using JR even in Wrestlemania XXVI, the grandest show of WWE. Jim is certainly not happy with this situation; neither are the fans. But WWE is now more interested in giving it a try to newbie like Josh Mathews but not Jim Ross. JR is with WWE since 1993 and is considered as a loyal member of WWE family; so he will never make any arbitrary comment on the brand. In his Twitter page, he stated that his absence in Wrestlemania XXVI was due to ‘other reasons’, but fans can smell something fishy over here. In his latest blog, Jim said he ‘doesn’t know’ what the future holds for him in WWE. If WWE decides to terminate or not to renew JR’s contract and TNA approaches, things unexpected may happen.

Paul Heyman, on the other hand, is contractually free. Nobody ever doubted his creative potential. TNA’s current head writer Vince Russo recently stated that he needs a break to revitalize himself. If Vince steps out, Heyman is the best possible person to fill up the position and even overshadow the former’s creative inputs. He has friends like Rob van Dam or Tazz already working for the promotion. But he hasn’t shown much interest in joining TNA in the past. TNA official Dave Meltzer believes Paul Heyman will soon be the new member of TNA; but his inclusion will be a big surprise as his past relationship with Eric Bischoff is more than bitter. They both were involved in several verbal battles against each other throughout the 90’s. But such speculations will surely draw TNA some attention from the wrestling fans worldwide.

TNA’s newly designed World Heavyweight title has been much criticized by the fans across the globe. Some even compared the purple leather belt to the WWE Woman’s Championship. In fact, the protest has been so loud that TNA officials are now in the field for damage control. The officials have recently made a public statement that the new TNA World Heavyweight title is customized only for Jeff Hardy.  This indicates that once Jeff loses his title, the old belt will be brought back.

TNA authorities have now taken a “go- slow” policy when it comes to signing released WWE superstars. TNA has so far signed a lot of ‘out-of- WWE -contract’ superstars and the list includes the likes of Mr. Anderson (Mr. Kennedy in WWE), “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero (Elijah Burke in WWE), Ric Flair, Kevin Nash, Kurt Angle, Tommy Dreamer, Sabu, Sandman, Mickie James and many more. But the results have not always been as expected. Angle recently tried to sign Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas but failed to impress the two. Since then, TNA officials have decided not to jump for all former WWE talents as a plan of their new business policy. They would now rather concentrate more in bringing up fresh talents.

It is expected that WWE creative team has decided to pull out the Paul Bearer character soon. WWE SmackDown team was recently in Jacksonville, Florida where the team filmed a video that showed Bearer trying to roll away from Edge in his wheelchair and Edge, in a gold Lexus, ran over the chair. The video will be aired soon in any of the upcoming SmackDown shows. In a recent backstage segment the character of Jack Swagger’s eagle mascot also appeared to come to an end.

TNA’s latest PPV Bound for Glory was a fairly successful one. This will make its place in TNA’s history for several reasons. First of all, it ended former WWE and ECE superstar Rhino’s run in Dixie Carter’s promotion. He participated in a Lethal Lockdown match between EV 2.0 and Fortune. EV 2.0 team included Rhino along with Tommy Dreamer, Raven, Sabu and Stevie Richards.  The PPV has also seen the last of Team 3D as Devon and Brother Ray announced their retirement after the show. But these two superstars are still in contract with TNA and is expected to perform as individually. Brother Ray will continue as a heel while Devon will work as a babyface.

In another Three on Two Handicap match, the team of Sting, Kevin Nash and D’Angelo defeated Jeff Jarrett and Samoa Joe. It was the last match for Kevin Nash also as he has decided to stay away from wrestling. In a Monster Ball match, RVD defeated Abyss. The biggest turnaround in the TNA storyline, however, took place during the TNA World Championship match. Jeff hardy defeated Kurt Angle and Mr. Anderson in a Triple Threat match via pinfall. Hardy pinned Mr. Anderson with Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischof turning heel and joining Hardy to secure the title for him.  Jeff has taken a step further with his latest comment on Twitter. While reply to one of his fan’s comment, Hardy asked: “would u admit it’s stronger ThanThatWackAssNexusTeaseWithCena?” Strong words for a former WWE star, for sure!

Will Matt Hardy leave WWE? This question is looming large in recent times and a recent incident ignited the possibility of an apparent drift in relation between the wrestler and the organization. Hardy was a part of WWE’s recent mini trip to UK. But rumors and confusions surrounded his status when some wrestling websites informed that Matt Hardy was sent back to USA before the trip ended.

Matt added to the controversy when he denied these claims and quickly posted a YouTube video as a proof that he is still in England. The video showed cars driving on the left and several such proofs. But his claims were all in vain when a WE official agreed to the claim that Hardy was, indeed, left off in UK. Matt changed his stance immediately after initial denial and made several posts on Tweeter that contradicted his earlier claim. WWE reportedly isn’t very happy with Matt in recent times, but they can’t release him as this will help him join his brother Jeff in TNA and re-unite their famous tag team.