Possible reason of no-santino Royal Rumble, update on Jericho

This past Thursday’s episode of WWE Superstars on WGN America scored a 1.0 rating with 962,000 viewers. The replay later on did an 0.2 rating with 209,000 viewers.

- Michael provided the following explanation on possibly why Santino Marella has been removed from the Royal Rumble match: I was at the 1/25 Monday Night Raw and after the Santino assault by Swagger and during commercial, Santino was still lying on the ground, and a couple crew members were checking in on him. After about 3 minutes, Santino finally got up was taken to the back. I don’t know if it was a legit Injury or not, but it could be, and since he was taken out of the RR, that could mean why. Obviously, he could have been selling too.

- Chris Jericho appeared on FOX News yesterday and was sporting a black eye, presumably from the incident earlier in the week where he was arrested.

Jericho also noted on his Twitter last night that he had TMZ cameras kicked out of an in-store album signing with his band Fozzy.

Jeff on NEW??

The Northeast Wrestling promotion is touting that the “hottest free agent in wrestling” is coming in for an appearance and they will make the announcement during a Mickie James appearance they’re promoting today at the Newburgh Mall in Newburgh, New York. Word going around is that it will be Jeff Hardy coming in.

Update on Wrestlemania/Raw

Access Atlanta is reporting that WWE has decided to hold WrestleMania in 2011 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia. A press conference is scheduled for noon on Monday to make the official announcement.

- As noted before, WWE star Curt Hawkins worked as a color commentator at the recent WWE developmental TV tapings. Hawkins said on Twitter that it wasn’t a tryout but just a one time deal.

- Dave Meltzer reports that there is talk within WWE of making RAW three-hours each week if TNA moves to Monday nights for good. There has also been talk of keeping the guest host storyline booked if TNA goes to Mondays.

Apparently the USA Network is high on RAW going to three-hours but Vince and Stephanie McMahon are both said to be against it. Word is that this is something being talked about a lot among some in the company.

Elimination Chamber Card!

Date :    February 21, 2010
Venue :    Scottrade Center
City :    St. Louis, Missouri

 Poster:

Hurricane and Santino removed from Royal Rumble

Both The Hurricane and Santino Marella have been removed from Sunday's Royal Rumble match, while Matt Hardy and Chris Masters have been added. Thus far, 24 participants have been announced.

Here is the updated card:

Raw: Big Show, Carlito, Chris Masters, Cody Rhodes, Evan Bourne, Jack Swagger, John Cena, Kofi Kingston, Mark Henry, MVP, Shawn Michaels, Ted DiBiase, The Miz and Triple H

SmackDown: Batista, Chris Jericho, CM Punk, Kane, Matt Hardy and The Great Khali

ECW: Shelton Benjamin, William Regal, Yoshi Tatsu and Zack Ryder

It was also announced on Friday that Michelle McCool would defending her WWE Women's Championship against Mickie James at the event.

Matches announced thus far include:

World Heavyweight Championship Match
Undertaker (c) vs. Rey Mysterio

WWE Championship Match
Sheamus (c) vs. Randy Orton

ECW Championship Match
Christian (c) vs. Ezekiel Jackson

WWE Women's Championship Match
Michelle McCool (c) vs. Mickie James