NJPW personnel done, new Rumble entrants, remembering Okerlund, assorted wrestling press, Impact name injured, another HoFer at Raw, ROH Tag Wars announced, SDL match, Braun's recovery profiled, Network collections detailed, territory name passes, NWA results, another NXT name at EVOLVE, WWEPC coach doing WWN tryouts, and Questions on how the NXT callups will do, Brock's WM35 opponent, the point of Miz/Shane, unmemorable characters, and Nailz

NJPW referee and backstage employee Tiger Hattori worked his final Tokyo Dome show this year. It's cool to see Jericho honoring the history there.

Finn Balor, Seth Rollins, and Jeff Hardy have officially entered the 2019 Royal Rumble. Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville entered their respective Rumble, too.

Eric Bischoff discussed Gene Okerlund's passing on Busted Open.

Road Warrior Animal discussed Gene Okerlund on his latest podcast, as well.

Al Snow's wrestling memoir is set for a May 7 release.

Matt Sydal suffered a knee injury recently. He pulled out of a booking this weekend. There's no further word on the injury's severity yet. That's a shame; he's a significant worker for Impact.

NWA had a press conference for their pop-up event in Tennessee.

Ric Flair is booked for Raw. I imagine he'll be part of honoring MEAN BY GOD GENE. 

ROH's Texas events from January 24 through January 26 will feature a 12-team tournament to determine who will go to ROH's 17th anniversary PPV to challenge for the tag team championship. The first two nights will feature three tag matches each. The third night will feature two three-way tag matches featuring the winners of the previous nights' matches, and the winners of those matches face off later in the night to declare the contenders. It's complicated, but it will give a lot of teams chances to shine. The division could absolutely use a boost with the Bucks and SCU gone.

Asuka's Royal Rumble opponent will be determined on Smackdown Live in a triple threat among Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, and Carmella.

Xavier Woods spoke about New Day's pop culture reach.

Braun Strowman's recovery is being chronicled by a WWE YouTube documentary.

WWE Network's Royal Rumble match and Rusev collections were detailed.

Territory star Alexis Smirnoff/Michel "The Judge" DuBois passed away at 71 following issues with diabetes and kidney problems. His career was profiled in Canada.

NWA's January 5 event notable results:
- The War Kings (Crimson and Jax Dane) defeated Jay Bradley and Caleb Konley to enter the Crockett Cup.
- Crazzy Steve defeated Samuel Shaw to win the Tried 'N' True Pro Championship. This promotion helped the NWA put the event on, so this was a nod to them.
- Allie defeated Jazz by DQ in the women's championship match
- David Arquette and Tim Storm defeated Jocephus and his spiritual adviser in a hair vs. hair match, so Jocephus' hair was shaved.
- Willie Mack defeated Matt Cross to retain the National Championship
- Nick Aldis retained the World Championship over James Storm
- The attendance was reportedly more than 700.

Adam Cole and the Street Profits will wrestle at EVOLVE 121 in Georgia. They might as well call it NXT EVOLVE at this point.

Steve Corino will coach at WWN's January 18 seminar/tryout.

NXT's January 5 Florida live event notable results:
- Taynara Conti returned to the ring for the first time since November 10, losing to Reina Gonzalez.
- Rocky returned to the ring for the first time since November 10, teaming with Boa in a loss to Adrian Jaoude and Cezar Bononi.

For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. The key with all of them is making sure they don't fall into the cracks of WrestleMania season hype, because I think there's a good chance at least half of them are stuck in battle royal matches that night. As far as excitement levels, in alphabetical order:

a. EC3 is certainly someone who can be a player at some point. He's got to compete with a lot of talented people already on the roster, but I think he can find a niche. He can be babyface, heel, serious, or comedic, so that works well for him. He's also got a great look and a solid skillset. His future should look good.

b. Heavy Machinery are a fun undercard team. I don't necessarily see them getting a big push, but they can still add to things with their role. I could see Vince liking their antics and size.

c. Lacey Evans is probably the only one on this list I'm not sold on. She's got an interesting character, and will probably get far on that. She's still growing as a wrestler, but I don't expect her to be positioned as an important star, so she should be fine early as she gets work in on live events.

d. Lars Sullivan could be a lot of fun just showing up and killing people left and right. He looked like a MONSTER in NXT. I'd say he'd be hard to screw up, but that's tempting fate after AOP and Killian Dain's post-NXT careers so far.

e. Nikki Cross has been ready for a while. Very hard worker who has a fun character. I'm curious how she'll fit into things, but she could really be someone to shake things up given her crazy attitude.

2. Seth, unless they've got something up their sleeves with Rock or someone.

3. I think it's either part of Miz turning face or a setup to get Miz vs. Shane eventually (WM35?). I definitely don't think it's a long-term direction, since I doubt Shane's going to be working live events.

4. I've got to go with the one with the shorter tenure.

5. The last match I see for him is 2001. It looks like he does sell merchandise online, though.

More wrestling tomorrow.