Last week's New Year's Day Smackdown finished with a 2.8 rating (4 share) down from the Christmas in Iraq show's 3.0 (6 Share), but it was still the top rated show on UPN. There are off air notes and Heat spoilers from last night's RAW.

The Smackdown crew was in Alberquerque, NM on Sunday night with Big Show over John Cena, and in Nashville, TN last night also with Big Show over John Cena. Thursday's Smackdown is being taped in Huntsville, AL tonight. The house show crowd in Nasville, TN was quite small with about 1000 paid in the building, and Chris Benoit needed stitches after a match with Chuck Palumbo in Alberquerque, NM. 1wrestling has a few other backstage house show notes on John Heidenreich, Matt Cappotelli, Rene Dupree and Chris Jericho.

Maven is taking a leave of absence from WWE to be with his mother as she's in the hospital battling internally spreading cancer. Trish Stratus was #1 in Yahoo!'s top 10 searched wrestlers. MSN Money has an article on WWE's stock rebound from $8 a year ago to more than $13 today. Dr. Tom Pritchard's latest commentary discusses his upcoming return to the ring to face Brad Armstrong in possibly his final match.

Tomorrow night's NWA TNA PPV will feature the Ultimate X2 match with Michael Shane vs. Low Ki vs. Chris Sabin vs. Christopher Daniels, Raven/? vs. Julio Dinero/CM Punk, Jeff Jarrett possibly defending the NWA title, 3 Live Kru's new single, Roddy Piper's comments, and the Mr. TNA award presentation. Toby Keith's NWA TNA appearance made Country Music Television's "40 Greatest TV Moments" at #40.

New Japan Pro Wrestling announced the IWGP title has been vacated due to injuries sustained by holder Shinsuke Nakamura in his New Year's Eve match against Alexey Ignashov. A new champion will be selected by an eight man tournament on February 15. SLAM took a look back at the many people involved in wrestling who passed away in 2003.

Ring of Honor will debut in Wilmington, OH on Saturday, with Jim Cornette managing Jay and Mark Briscoe as they challenge Samoan Joe/Bryan Danielson for the ROH Tag Titles. Women's Extreme Wrestling did an impressive 0.5 rating at 3am on early Sunday morning on the Sunshine Network. Joey Styles will host 3 specials on Sunshine network to promote the King of the Cage MMA event on January 24 in Sunrise, FL.

S_D has returned with an ANGER MANAGEMENT New Year's Day Smackdown recap, so check that out. That's it for today. Thanks for reading.