Nearly Half of the Rumble Participants Have Been Announced

14 Participants Have Been Announced for the Royal Rumble - and none of them are from Smackdown or ECW. The current list is...

Big Show
Carlito
Cody Rhodes
Evan Bourne
Jack Swagger
John Cena
Kofi Kingston
Mark Henry
MVP
Santino Marella
Shawn Michaels
Ted DiBiase
The Miz
Triple H

If this match were happening tonight, with these 14 participants, I would say it's Triple H's win - with Shawn going on to do the solo thing against Undertaker at Royal Rumble. In fact this scenario is completely plausible with another 16 people added to the mix. In a perfect world, Miz would win the Royal Rumble. But I won't even talk about it, because it's about a 100% Not Likely on the Likely Scale.

Other matches already announced for the Royal Rumble:

Undertaker (c) vs. Rey Mysterio (World Heavyweight Championship Match)- I'm looking for Rey to win this one. Undertaker goes on to fight Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania - so the streak is broken without disrupting the world title contenders and Shawn and Undertaker can take their six month vacation after Wrestlemania.

- Sheamus (c) vs. Randy Orton (WWE Championship Match)- I'm terribly undecided on this match. I need another week of Raw to form a real opinion. If WWE wants to keep Randy heel, he wins here. If they turn Orton face, he loses here, and *shudder* helps John Cena win the title. (And my brain explodes.)

- Christian (c) vs. Ezekiel Jackson (ECW Championship Match)- I don't watch this show.

More News on Shane McMahon

TheSun.co.uk. has a new interview up with Big Show to promote the WWE Royal Rumble pay-per-view. During the interview, Big Show was asked about the future plans of his friend, former WWE employee Shane McMahon:

"Shane is a lot like his dad. Vince struck away from his dad and ended up buying him out. Shane is the type that wants to follow his own path and he is going to do fine. I don't see Shane starting up a rival wrestling company, but he wanted to do some Mixed Martial Arts thing then maybe. If Shane wanted to work on a production company for movies then that can happen too. Shane is a very charismatic, intelligent man, a very driven person, so whatever avenue he chooses to go into he is going to be very successful at it. He cant ask for anymore than that."

Despite the fact that Shane has been groomed his entire life to have an executive role in World Wrestling Entertainment, Show understands that Shane has to be his own man and do what's right for him.

"We all work together and there are a lot of guys that really love him and he loves them too. But we are business men and grown men too. There comes a time where every man has to make a decision for himself and his family and everyone respects that."

There Are No Divas Here... except Hall and Waltman

Oozing more than machismo these days...

According to Nick Paglino at WrestleZone, sources within TNA are saying that Scott Hall is claiming a groin injury and is off of tonight's Genesis card. The real reason? He recently put on his wrestling trunks for the first time and was concerned at how his body looked and begged to be removed from the card. The spot went to Waltman, but he sounds a little iffy as well. The contingency plan is to slot Eric Young in the spot if Waltman no-shows.

Here's how I imagine this all went down:

Scott Hall: Hey yo. Do these trunks make me look fat?
Kevin Nash: No, your face does.
Scott Hall: Uhhhh.... *runs away crying*
Sean Waltman: I, uh... better go check on him. Yeah... *looks around nervously before sprinting after Hall*
Kevin Nash: ....shit.
Eric Young: *pops up from behind garbage can* I can has spot in nwo?! :D
Kevin Nash: ....shit.

No Dice

Seems Jeff's legal problems have changed a few things and sources say neither Jeff Hardy or Shannon Moore are backstage tonight. Shannon's deal with the company is pretty much a done thing, however, because of Jeff's woes the "creative team" needed a little more time to work out Shannon's direction.

All signs indicate that the Moore-Ons aren't getting Punk'd tonight.

Ken Anderson is IN THE BUILDING!

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More leaks from the Impact! Zone as fans and backstage sources say that Ken Anderson is backstage, geared up and on the show outline for tonight! Look for Mr. Anderson to make his TNA Debut at Genesis!

Kendrick to Debut on TNA tonight!

Sources inside the Impact! Zone say that Brian Kendrick will debut tonight at Genesis.
He is rumored to return as Amazing Red's unannounced opponent for tonight's X Division Championship Match.

Kendrick was released from his WWE contract on July 30, 2009. He has been working independent wrestling shows in the meantime.

Eric Escobar has Been Canned

WWE came to terms on the release of Eric Escobar today. Since Eric was the main reason Vickie Guerrero returned to the WWE, this may also be the end of Vickie's second run with the company.

I for one would mark out to see Vickie on TN-eh!