Rico wins a title, Fozzy woe's, Raw rating, Update on Matt and more

-Two former WWE wrestlers Rico & Bull Buchanan captured the Asia Tag Team Titles from Mitsuya Nagai & masayuki Narukse in Tokyo at Korakuen Hall yesterday. Rico replaced another former WWE wrestler, D-Lo Brown, who cancelled the tour. Also on the card, another former WWE wrestler Taka Michinoku retained the All Japan World Jr. Title defeating Mini Love Machine (Gran Hamada). He next defends against Great Sasuke. Another former WWE wrestler, Jamal, teamed with Taiyo Kea and successfully defended the World Tag Team Titles against Keiji "Great" Muto & Kohei Suwama.

-The nephew of V.P. of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis, James Laurinaitis, signed a letter of intent to play football at Ohio State University yesterday. James is the son of Road Warrior Animal Joe Laurinaitis. [Thanks to PWTorch.com reader Greg Brothers]

-Chris Jericho's new Fozzy album hasn't done well, as it's off the charts entirely in its second week in release with likely fewer than 1,000 units sold. Even his millions of fans aren't nuts about his music, apparently. There was a distribution problem at first through at least some Best Buys that could have affected sales. Last week the CD debuted at no. 66 on the Top New Artist album list, which is not impressive, but they're even off of that this time. The lowest selling Top New Artist sold 1181 copies this past week, so it must be lower than that. [Thanks to Torch VIP member Kevin V. of Orange County, Calif.]

-At Matt Hardy's new website, TheMattHardy.com, he reports: "I'm not at 100% percent right now, but my goal is to be 100% percent by early March. When that happens, I'll be cleared by my doctor, and then it could be anytime. Believe you me, I will be back better than ever before we know it." He also wrote about Amy "Lita" Dumas's morale: "Speaking of ACL injuries, I feel terrible for Amy having to endure this painful road that I've been traveling the last four-plus months. I really hate that she suffered such a severe injury in such a freakish accident. After overcoming her career-threatening broken neck, she was finally back to where she wanted to be and doing awesome. It goes to show how you can't take your health or physical well-being for granted, as all it takes is a moment to change things. Since Amy has gotten through the ultra-miserable two week period, I hit her with my "bring the mood up" joke yesterday. A lot of couples get matching tattoos, but it really takes some dedication to get matching ACL total reconstructive surgery scars on your left knees. I got a chuckle out of her at least." Hardy and Lita are a couple in real life.

-Raw drew a 4.1 final rating, the best rating in months. The jump in rating is no surprise coming off of the Royal Rumble, but until the rating comes in, nothing is taken for granted.

-A new WWE paperback book has been released today called "Are We There Yet?" It's a 225 page series of stories from the road with a long list of wrestling talking about bizzare stories, good times, seven way to be entertained, old school stories, food, bathrooms, and more.

-Page six of the New York Post (the gossip column) writes that Rock has been anointed as Hollywood's next big action hero "and he's not impressed with some other would-be Tinseltown tough guys." Rock is quote: "Men find an action hero believable if they say, 'Wow, I believe this guy can really kick some [bleeping] ass, mine included,' I loved 'Spider-Man,' but I'm not too sure Tobey Maguire could kick a lot of people's asses." Rock also criticized Ron Artest for going after fans in the stands. "It's non-negotiable," states Rock about that decision. "I was so hated that when I went into the ring I was bombarded with batteries, cans, you name it," said Rock. "Once, fighting my way through the crowd, I got cut with a knife or an X-Acto blade. I've got a four-inch scar on my arm. I also got sliced on my back. I've got a cut on the back of my head." Rock, though, says it's a different story when fans climbed over barricades to grab him: "At that point it's open season. I have handed out a lot of ass-whippings in those situations."