Date: 07/16	6:00 PM
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Thursday's news update can be found HERE. Don't miss Milk of Minutia #21 with Julia Nunes and another recap from Nickolye of Friday Night Smackdown at 8 PM EST! With that out of the way here's Friday's latest wrestling news.

Tickets for WWE's return to Madison Square Garden on September 25th go on sale on July 24th. (PWI) Here's the expected card:

* Kelly Kelly and Tiffany vs. LayCool
* Christian vs. Jack Swagger
* Rey Mysterio vs. Kane for the World Championship
* Kofi Kingston vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Cody Rhodes for the Intercontinental Championship
* The Hart Dynasty vs. CM Punk & Luke Gallows for the Unified Tag Team Championship
* Also Appearing: The Big Show, Matt Hardy, MVP, Alberto Del Rio and Dolph Ziggler

Due to the "Artists Formerly Known As ECW" invasion angle drawing (slightly) more interest in TNA right now, TNA Wrestling is suggesting that people traveling to Orlando for the Hard Justice PPV purchase VIP ticket packages since the Impact Zone only holds 1K people. (PWI)

The Weekly Standard did an article on the McMahon family and Linda's Senate campaign HERE.

As a reminder MTV2 will be debuting Lucha Libre USA: Masked Warriors tomorrow night at 10 PM EST. (MTV) Alex Marvez interviewed Marco Corleone (Mark Jindrak) about the show's TV debut HERE.

SLAM! Wrestling posted an article where Drew McIntyre not only guaranteed that the Smackdown Money in the Bank match will be better than Raw's, he OFFERED FANS THEIR MONEY BACK if they weren't satisfied. (WO)

Ric Flair has a new two part interview on YouTube where he talks about TNA HERE and HERE.

Hulk Hogan gave an interview to The Province to promote his appearance with Honky Tonk Man's wrestling legends speaking tour and has this to say about an in-ring return: "Hopefully I won't get back in the ring again, because I can't afford any more broken things." As for the format of HTM's show he had this to say: "We're free-balling it. We're supposed to only tell stories for an hour-and-a-half, but, I got a feeling, this is going to go on for hours. This is our first attempt at it; I don't know whether people are going to dig it." (PWT)

WWE and the McMahons have until August 11th to respond to Martha Hart's lawsuit regarding the use of Owen Hart's likeness and footage in WWE-related materials. The lawsuit alleges WWE used Hart's name and likeness in dozens of commercial videos and other materials, violating a contract restricting use of Hart's name, likeness and wrestling footage. (PWI) Of course there's no proof such a contract even exists. Owen's brother Bret has spoken out against the lawsuit and WWE's attorney Jerry McDevitt has referred to the suit as politically motivated. AngryMarks has also published an editorial crticizing the lawsuit HERE.

John Morrison is on the cover of the next issue of Muscle and Fitness plus an article looking at his training routine that comes out Monday. Details are available HERE. WWE put up a video of the photo shoot which features a cameo from The Rock HERE.

Yahoo! Sports posted a new article about Brock Lesnar working on his autobiography with Paul Heyman HERE.

Jerry Lawler is allowing a local businessman named Joe Cooper to use his his name and likeness for a Memphis deli and retail store called "King Jerry Lawler's." (PWI)

IGN posted an interview with Kofi Kingston where he talks about the Money in the Bank PPV and being Intercontinental Champion among other things HERE.

SLAM! Wrestling posted an interview with Manny Fernandez where he talks about writing a book featuring famous moments of his career, whether he would like to go into the WWE Hall of Fame and his opinion on TNA Wrestling HERE.

Here's a non-spoiler listing for tonight's episode of Friday Night Smackdown. (WWE)

* Cody Rhodes vs. Kofi Kingston
* Christian vs. Drew McIntyre
* Kelly Kelly & Chris Masters vs. Layla & Trent Baretta
* Matt Hardy vs. Dolph Ziggler

While we freely admit he might be pulling our legs given the comical amount of exaggeration here, 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin has been tweeting about foiling a robbery tonight HERE. We've edited his tale into chronological order below.

went to buy groceries and stopped a robbery in progress at the store...baited the robber with a distraction noise and threw a banana peel... on the floor...the robber slipped on the banana peel and i threw a can of pork and beans and knocked the gun from his hand...then i... reloaded with 2 cans of black eyed peas and gave him 2 black eyes..then delivered the knockout blow with a king size can of cream style corn

goood night folks...forgot to tell you i had a coupon for the corn...50% savings on that ass whoopin.

Here are the results of the latest AngryMarks poll. A new poll is up on the homepage now!

What show interests you the most in the next 30 days? (60 total votes.)

WWE Money in the Bank             32 (53 + 1/3%)
UFC 117 Sonnen vs. Silva           17 (28 + 1/3%)
TNA Victory Road                       11 (18 + 1/3%)

WWE's pre-sale code for the Raw house show in Hamilton, Ontario on September 11th is WWECENA. Tickets went on sale via Ticketmaster today. (PWI)

Eric Bischoff's been blogging again and he's got a lot on his mind including missing the Impact tapings and Batista's future in MMA.

Also, as I have posted on my Facebook page, really want to thank Vince Russo, Matt Conway and the team at TNA for picking up my slack and allowing me to spend some time with family and friends over an extended 4th of July break. The 4th is a special holiday for us as it is not only our favorite national holiday, but it's also my wife's birthday, (and now our new anniversary) as well as the anniversary of my fathers passing 10 years ago. My friends and family from around the country have started coming out to our place in Cody as a sort of unofficial "friends and family reunion and it has become a big part of our lives over the last 10 years.

I am excited about the direction of iMPACT over the last couple of months. Re-tooling the format, adding the docu-style backstage elements, better focus on story and key talent matchups have really given the show a sense of urgency and more drama. The team has laid out a pretty compelling long range arc that should take us through the summer and into the fall with some great TV.

Not so sure about Bastista's move into MMA. Unless he has some amateur wrestling or legitimate kick-boxing background that I am unaware of, sounds like a quick payday, but not so much of a long term plan. It takes years to develop solid wrestling skill as well as punching/kicking technique. At 40 years of age, it's a hell of a lot of catching up to do when you are in there with fighters half your age who have been on a mat or in a dojo all their lives. That said…like Dave a lot and wish him the best.

You can read the rest of Bischoff's new blog HERE.

Tickets for the WWE Smackdown tapings on September 14th in Detroit, Michigan go on sale on July 31st. (PWI)

TNA has released some more information about their Hard Justice travel packages HERE.

The Wall Street Journal has an article up on how WWE has had a positive effect on Mattel's business HERE.

The New York Times has a new article up on Linda McMahon's Senate campaign HERE.

Bobby Lashley's next MMA fight will be against Chad Griggs in Houston - details are available HERE.

Drew McIntyre discusses his work visa issues with SLAM! Wrestling HERE.

Kofi Kingston has three new interviews up today - HERE with IGN, HERE with the Miami Herald and HERE with AOL Fanhouse.

A couple of this season's NXT rookies posted FCW spoilers on Twitter last night you can read HERE.

Last night's show ending "Not Called ECW Invasion" of TNA Impact was heavily edited from the original taping to the point people who saw both called last night a "Cliff Notes" version. Among the edits - Shannon Moore and Jesse Neal trying to save Rob Van Dam from Abyss, Brian Kendrick causing Simon Diamond and Al Snow to side with ECW, and Abyss reacting to Mick Foley coming out. (PWI)

TNA is still finalizing the August 8th Hard Justice card. (PWI)

There is talk that TNA is looking into running house shows in India later this year. (PWI)

FWIW AJ Styles was named #1 in this year's Pro Wrestling Illustrated Top 500. (PWI)

Former ECW wrestler Lou E. Dangerously is auctioning off the hat he wore at the Trent Acid Memorial Acid-Fest with proceeds going to the family of Michael "Trent Acid" Verdi. You can check out the auction HERE.

On August 28th, Matt "Doink" Borne will be appearing for IHWE in Texas and will take part in the promotion's training seminar. You can get all the details HERE.

TNA Impact did a 1.1 rating last night. (WO)

The Connecticut Post has an article about WWE getting ready to tour China HERE.

Last but not least WWE Superstars this week did a 0.74 rating, with 795,000 viewers. The replay did a 0.24 with 214,000 viewers. (PWI)