Chris Kanyon dead, former WWE & WCW star dies age 40

In what seems to be an unfortunate trend yet another professional wrestling star has passed away at an all too young age. Just today it's been reported that former WWE and WCW wrestling star Chris Kanyon has died at age 40. The news that Chris Kanyon is dead has shocked many of his family, friends and fans. Chris Kanyon's death appears to be a suicide at this point with details still developing in the story.

Early news reports have indicated that a pill bottle and several notes were found nearby to Kanyon's body in his Sunnyside, Queens, New York home. The news will cause many to remember another tragic death, when former wrestler Chris Benoit committed suicide after murdering his wife and child in their home.

Kanyon's wrestling career extended from 1992 until 2006 according to the Chris Kanyon wiki entry. In 1994 he had worked as a "jobber" wrestler with WWE, providing an amateur opponent to help push other wrestlers in the ring. Kanyon worked in the WCW as a character named "Mortis" (1997) but eventually began to use his regular name of "Kanyon". For a while he used the catch phrase "Who's better than Kanyon?" Kanyon started working in WWE during a WCW-ECW Alliance storyline. He had few storylines including a breif feud with wrestlers Matt Hardy, then Rhyno, as well as an appearance when he dressed up as Boy George and was attacked by Undertaker. Kanyon suffered several injuries requiring surgery after working with WWE and appearing at various house shows as his "Mortis" character.

After revealing in real life that he was homosexual, his wrestling career ended with WWE. Kanyon went on the Howard Stern show several times in the aftermath of his career. Kanyon, althouh retired from wrestling, made a return to the ring this past year to work in a couple matches.

Deepest condolences are extended to the friends, family and fans of Chris Kanyon.

WWE Releases Helms, Burchill & Maria

Earlier on Friday, WWE announced the release of three of its superstars. Former ECW wrestlers Gregory "Hurricane" Helms and Paul "The Ripper" Burchill were let go in addition to Smackdown diva Maria Kanellis. While Helms and Burchill hadn't been seen for several weeks on the air, Maria was recently seen as part of a small storyline on Smackdown involving Matt Hardy. She fought in several mixed gender tag matches along with Hardy and The Great Khali against the Hart Dynasty on both Smackdown and Superstars.

Each of the superstars' release notices on WWE.com followed the usual format:

"WWE has come to terms on the release of _____ as of today February 26, 2010. We wish _____ the best in all future endeavors."

Gregory Helms was with WWE since 2001, after appearing in WCW from 99-01. His Hurricane character was a popular superhero, which also incorporated Molly Holly, Rosey and Stacey Keibler at various times. Hurricane held the tag titles twice, once with Kane, once with Rosey, as well as holding the WWE Cruiserweight title twice, European title once and Hardcore title also one time. Helms was last seen in the ring doing an interview of Ezekiel Jackson. The interview came just a day or so after news of Helms' arrest during a drunken taxi ride with Chris Jericho and Matt Hardy. William Regal who was in the ring during the spot, commented about Helms' recent trouble. Helms noted during the interview he was going to put the incident behind him and move on. He ended up getting slammed to the mat by Jackson to end the segment. Helms wasn't seen in any matches after that.

Paul Burchill came to WWE in 2005 and played a pirate character early on. He eventually moved on from that and started appearing with his on-air sister, Katie Lea. Burchill and Helms had been involved in a rivalry on the now-removed ECW show on SyFy. It involved Burchill trying to unmask The Hurricane and expose that he was really Gregory Helms. They even had a match in which Helms retired Burchill from the show. Not long after, Burchill re-appeared as a masked villain type character named "The Ripper". The Ripper was unmasked by Hurricane and Burchill was forced to leave again. Soon after that, Katie Lea Burchill appeared as a new diva on Raw. There's no news of Katie Lea being released as of yet. It appears that with the closing down of ECW, Helms and Burchill had nowhere else to go with WWE.

The most shocking of the three releases might be that of Maria Kanellis, who was recently promoted as part of NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice" by Donald Trump. She's been with WWE since back in 2004-05 as a losing contestant in the diva search, then a backstage interviewer, and eventually a girlfriend/valet of several wrestlers including Santino Marella, Dolph Ziggler and Matt Hardy. She's been a member of the Raw and Smackdown rosters during her career which also included posing for the 2008 Playboy cover and spread. On Smackdown, Maria was introduced by Matt Hardy as his recent Valentine, and the two were considered a couple. After a loss in the ring on Smackdown, Maria blamed herself for the loss. Hardy consoled her, but Maria didn't seem happy and ended up pushing past fellow divas Michelle McCool and Layla backstage. According to her wiki entry, Mara's got a debut album called "Sevin Sins" releasing on April 13th, so that may explain her being let go to work on the music career.

With the release of these three, it seems that once again WWE's loss is TNA's gain. It won't be surprising to see one or all three of these re-surface on TNA's show in the near future.

WWE NXT Cast & Final ECW Champion

Tuesday night's 2/16/10 episode of ECW is the final ECW show ever. With the close of the Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) era, there will be an interesting piece of trivia. Ezekiel Jackson became the final ECW Champion in the history of the brand, defeating Christian in an Extreme Rules match on the final show. Christian made a valiant effort, fighting off a feisty Zack Ryder, taking a slap to the face from Rosa Mendes, and chasing off William Regal with a Kendo stick. In the final moments though, Regal returned to attack Christian and ended up the victim of a Killswitch. That allowed Jackson the window of opportunity he needed to make his move. He grabbed Christian for his one-arm slam finisher, driving Christian straight through a wooden table for the final pinfall. Jackson becomes the final champion in ECW history, and he'll most likely use that as a bragging point wherever he heads next. Possibly Raw where he can challenge guys like Cena and HHH to give some fresh new heels to the mix.

During that championship match, we finally saw Tiffany show some of her aggressive wrestling prowess when she rushed to the ring and tackled down Rosa Mendes then tossed her out of the ring. Hopefully we'll see more of these two divas engaged in a feud on a WWE program like Raw or Smackdown.

Also on the final ECW on SyFy, they introduced the WWE Universe to the cast of WWE NXT which will premiere on next Tuesday night. The format of the show is a reality-based program with eight WWE Superstar "Pro's" mentoring eight new WWE Rookies. Here's who will be involved:

* Wade Barrett mentored by Chris Jericho
* Justin Gabriel mentored by Matt Hardy
* Skip Sheffield mentored by MVP
* Michael Tarver mentored by Carlito
* Daniel Bryan mentored by The Miz
* Heath Slater mentored by Christian
* Darren Young mentored by CM Punk
* David Otunga mentored by R-Truth

Each of the rookies involved in WWE NXT will graduate to one of the WWE brands at the end of their season, whether it be Raw or Smackdown. The rosters are definitely starting to pick up some momentum it seems.

WWE NXT will premiere next Tuesday night in ECW's timeslot on SyFy, 10PM EST.

WWE News: Smackdown chamber, HBK, NXT, more!

In a recent shareholder's meeting, WWE declared its quarterly dividend for the WWE stock of $0.36 cents per share. Also revealed during a conference call, Chairman Vince McMahon said the Survivor Series PPV is coming to an end. He noted that as one of the original four PPV's it worked years ago but will now be re-branded under a new title. This news comes on the heels of the alarming stat that the Survivor Series PPV suffered nearly a 30% drop from the prior year. (Source: PWNewsnow.com)

If you caught Friday night's Smackdown, then you most likely saw John Morrison sustain an "injury" versus R-Truth, early in their match. Morrison tried a move where he rolled over Truth's back, but then landed ackwardly on his one foot, hurting his ankle. Morrison tried to get up once but fell back down holding the hurt ankle. The ref called the match on account Morrison couldn't continue (see video). Most likely this incident is going to play right into the Shawn Michaels obsession with The Undertaker. Morrison will be unable to compete in the Elimination Chamber, and a surprise competitor will take his place, aka HBK. I'm still predicting Chris Jericho wins that match, and HBK costs Taker his title somehow, or maybe even eliminates him from the match early.

Early reports about the WWE NXT show are saying that two wrestlers, Bryan Danielson and Low-Ki will both be a part of the new show. Some have reported that Danielson's name was announced as "Daniel Bryan" at a recent FCW event, but it's been uncomfirmed if that will be his name on WWE NXT. The new show debuts in two weeks, with the last ever ECW episode airing this coming Tuesday night on SyFy.

In celebration of Valentines Day which arrives February 14th (Sunday), WWE.com has a special WWE divas section with four different galleries of diva V-day shots. Check out the Divas Galleries here. There's also an interesting little Valentines themed game at WWE.com where you can try to make your own WWE Superstar-Diva couples and see what results you get. See the WWE Love Connection game.

ECW wrestlers are free agents

With the ending of the ECW brand, the fate of the ECW Superstars was at first unknown. Would they all be aprt of the new show, WWE NXT, or moved around between other brands? It's now been officially announced on Raw by Christian, and then confirmed by ECW GM Tiffany on Tuesday's show that all ECW Stars will be free agents. This means ECW wrestlers can sign with any brand they choose, if that brand will accept them of course.

Although Christian appeared on Raw Monday night and lost in a match to Sheamus (to tune up the WWE champ for Elimination Chamber), it may work best for the ECW champion to sign with Smackdown. There he can either feud with or team with Edge, to recreate their tag team of glory days. Christian hasn't won the United States title yet, so putting him on Raw could work as well, as a formidable new challenger for The Miz.

For some reason, most of the ECW stars seem suited for Smackdown, but we know it won't work out that way. The biggest movers will of course be Christian, Ezekiel Jackson, Shelton Benjamin, William Regal, Zack Ryder, Vance Archer and Vladimir Kozlov. Croft and Barreta is a promising new tag team to add some more life to WWE's almost non-existant tag division. It's unknown at this point if any of the ECW stars will be released, but hopefully everyone gets a shot in the aftermath of the ECW shutdown.

One thing is certain, we may finally get some new and exciting matchups that haven't been seen before involving some of the ECW stars versus Raw or Smackdown's own.

ECW to end, WWE NXT to begin

According to an announcement on Tuesday night's ECW on SyFy, the ECW brand will officially end in three weeks time. WWE Chairman Vince McMahon appeared on the ramp to let everyone know a new "evolution in television" will take its place at that time, the same time slot ECW currently has. The fans cheered the news, but it will mean the end of a four year run for ECW under WWE.

According to reports for months, ECW was being pressured by SyFy execs to get better ratings. Unfortunately it wasn't able to live up to its bigger brothers in Smackdown and Raw which do well in their current spots. Then again, ECW is more of a show for newer talent, and the new show which replaces it will be even more of that type of showcase. The next show will be named "WWE NXT" and we can supposedly expect to see much more developmental talent on that show. Right now ECW has several FCW stars such as Vance Archer, Trent Barreta and Caylen Croft as well as ring announcer Savannah. The recent member to join CM Punk's Straightedge Society named Serena is also a FCW alum. So expect to see more fresh faces and new stories to come from FCW. Check out the current FCW talent roster here.

Most likely we'll see Christian as the last ECW champion, having successfully defended his belt at the Royal Rumble against Ezekiel Jackson. The belt will probably be retired and Christian may make his move to Smackdown or Raw for bigger championships. Stay tuned as more news comes forth on WWE NXT, which is scheduled to begin airing on SyFy March 2, 2010.

Tommy Dreamer retires from ECW

Last night on SyFy's final ECW of 2009, there was an emotional closing to the program as the ECW original, Tommy Dreamer, made his official retirement and farewell speech to the WWE Universe. This came in the ring just moments after losing a tough match to Zack Ryder.

In the match, Dreamer and Ryder fought it out for almost fifteen minutes. Dreamer thought he had the match won after a suplex off the corner, followed by a DDT. Unfortunately, his pinfall was close to the ropes. Ryder stuck a leg under the bottom rope wisely. The ref caught it, and told Dreamer the match must continue. Dreamer kept on trying to end things and put Ryder on the corner for another suplex. This time around, Ryder countered in the air turning it into a lateral press. He locked up a pinfall to seal Dreamer's fate and send him home from ECW/WWE for good.

Dreamer gave a passionate speech following the loss about being passionate about your dreams, and to keep getting up whenever life knocks you down. There's no doubt that as one of the true innovators in extreme wrestling, Dreamer has been knocked around quite a bit, but kept getting back up. In fact, he returned to form by reclaiming the ECW title for his second official reign.

Dreamer, whose real name is Thomas Laughlin, got his start with Eastern Championship Wrestling (ECW) in 1992, which eventually changed its name to "Extreme Championship Wrestling". During his memorable career, Dreamer feuded with the likes of Raven, Sandman and the Dudley Boyz. His wife Beulah was also involved in several of the storylines throughout Dreamer's first nine years with ECW until 2001 when the company folded. ECW made its comeback via WWE in 2005, with Dreamer once again part of leading the way with the ECW originals. Dreamer's story earlier in 2009 was that he would retire if he could not win the ECW title before his contract expired in April. He had an official title match against Christian on April 28th, which was interrupted by an envious Jack Swagger. However, Dreamer was given a one day extension to his contract, and won the ECW title on 4/29/09 to become a two-time ECW Champion. He's also the only wrestler to have held the title while with ECW and then WWE. See more about Dreamer at his official Wikipedia entry.

With the way things ended on Raw for John Cena being layed out in his WWE title rematch, and now with Dreamer being retired on ECW, it makes you wonder what could possibly be coming next for Superstars or Smackdown. After all they say bad things tend to happen in threes. Dreamer's departure also makes for the departure of another daredevil/extreme type, as earlier this year we saw CM Punk retire Jeff Hardy on Smackdown.

Best wishes go out to Tommy Dreamer, who has always been a true ECW & WWE innovator. It's been noted he will likely show up again with TNA wrestling, but never say never about Dreamer making a WWE return in some capacity in the future.

See Dreamer's farewell speech at WWE.com

WWE dropping ECW?

According to rumors flying around the world wide web, World Wide Wrestling Entertainment may soon drop the Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) brand from SyFy. That's not to say they will remove their programming completely, only that they will change up the show that airs on SyFy Tuesday nights.

SyFy has been pressuring WWE quite a bit due to ECW's poor ratings. WWE producer Kevin Dunn is also not a fan of the letters ECW. So both WWE and SyFy believe a complete overhaul of the program may lead to increased ratings. Some of the rumors have centered around another show similar to WWE Superstars being put on that slot. Many sites are reporting there will be a move at the very least to drop the letters "E-C-W" from the show, and that it will feature more new talent. Tommy Dreamer has been MIA from the show for weeks and he is the "ECW original".

As the champion Christian mentioned on ECW last week, their brand really hasn't been given much respect at the past few Pay-Per-Views. Should WWE decide to drop the ECW program or at least change its name, ECW will be disrespected furthermore. Then again, ECW has been a place for rising stars and new talent to get ready for the "big leagues" of Raw and Smackdown. Examples include CM Punk, Kofi Kingston, and Sheamus who is about to challenge John Cena for the WWE Title at TLC. In all reality, the stars of ECW are there in the making, but the ratings go primarily to Raw or Smackdown. It's a relatively entertaining show full of newcomers and interesting feuds, as well as the Abraham Washington Show, which fans either love, or completely hate.

So will ECW be gone from SyFy in 2010? Stay tuned....

Read more about this at HeadlinePlanet.com by Eric Cantor

Regal's ECW Crowning?

On Tuesday night's episode of ECW on SyFy, William Regal finally got what he wanted from GM Tiffany and ECW champ Christian: a shot at the ECW title. Regal's been wreaking havoc on the entire ECW roster for weeks now, along with his henchmen Ezekiel Jackson and Vladimir Kozlov. That all came to a head last week, when Regal and his men attacked Yoshi Tatsu and Christian following their competitive ECW title match.

Last night, Regal once again got involved, this time after Christian and Yoshi beat Kozlov/Jackson in a tag match. Christian scored the pinfall after a Killswitch on Kozlov. Regal soon rushed the ring and attacked, and with the help of his men, they destroyed Christian in and outside the ring. Earlier in the night, Christian demanded Regal come out so they could settle things in the ring. ECW's lovely GM Tiffany came out to try to convince Christian not to give into Regal's demands, but Christian had had enough. Tiffany finally gave in to what her superstars wanted, a title matchup.

The Christian-Regal match is scheduled for next week's ECW, and because Regal demanded it, it will be held in his home territory of Sheffield in the UK. That definitely spells for the crowning of a new champ, and it almost appears that way a mile away. Tiffany was able to get a stipulation, that Regal can't have his bodyguards at ringside for the contest. You've got to believe he'll still have some tricks up his sleeve, perhaps involving brass knuckles, or we'll see a heel turn for Yoshi Tatsu, costing Christian the ECW belt.

Next week's ECW also carries another interesting stipulation-based match, although it's not as big as the ECW title. Paul Burchill issued a challenge to Hurricane for a match. If Burchill wins, Hurricane unmasks. If Burchill loses, he and Katie Lea leave ECW. We all now what Helms looks like under his mask, but he could possibly substitute another wrestler in his place just to toy with Burchill.

So we may possibly see both Christian and Burchill wind up somewhere else after next week's big event in England. With the arrival of Vance Archer, and the rise of stars like Zack Ryder/Yoshi Tatsu, ECW continues to bring in new talents. Shelton Benjamin seems to be the heir apparent ECW title contender once Christian is finished.

Feel free to leave your thoughts on Tuesday's ECW show, or your predictions for next week's big matches..

WWE Divas Trade Details

As announced on the 10/12/09 episode of WWE Raw, there has been a trade orchestrated involving the WWE divas from Raw, ECW & Smackdown. Two names already were revealed on Raw, as Melina returned to the show to win the WWE Divas Title from the shortest reigning champ ever, Jillian, who had just won the title from Mickie James. The other known traded superstar is Beth Phoenix, who will now head over to Smackdown.

The seven diva trade was arranged by the latest guest host of Raw, Nancy O'Dell from Access Hollywood. She reportedly met with Smackdown GM Teddy Long and ECW GM Tiffany this past weekend to work the trade out. Here's the rest of the trade details:

Mickie James traded from Raw to SmackDown
Rosa Mendes traded from Raw to ECW
Brie & Nikki Bella traded from ECW to Raw
Eve traded from SmackDown to Raw

Quite a coincidence that Mickie was traded to Smackdown, before she loses the title to Jillian Hall, who then instantly loses to new Raw acquisition Melina. Smackdown's a new scene though for Mickie who has yet to be a member of its roster. It appears she'll be thrust into the WWE Women's title picture on Smackdown to begin a new feud with Michelle McCool and Beth Phoenix. It's going to be interesting to see the role Rosa Mendes is given on ECW. The only other divas on the show really are Katie Lea Burchill, also a heel, and then General Manager Tiffany. Raw gains the Bella Twins, although they've been seen in numerous segments over the past few months with various guest hosts and last week's Diva bowl. Raw also gains the 2007 WWE Diva Search winner, Eve Torres who was a supporting member and ringside manager for Cryme Tyme.

Full article on the trade here at WWE.com.

New ECW Title Contender Zack Ryder

Last night's ECW on SyFy 09.15.09 showed once again that the Tuesday night program offers some fresh and exciting matches even if they don't carry the big name superstars like Triple H, Undertaker, Cena or Batista. On the program, things got off to a great start as they always do when Tiffany arrived to the ring. The beautiful ECW General Manager began to discuss how proud she was of the ECW Title match that went down at Breaking Point, but Sir William Regal decided he needed to confront her. Regal arrived to the ring along with Vlad Kozlov and Zeke Jackson to weigh in. Tiffany stood up to the bullying act Regal put on, and let him know he wouldn't be getting the next ECW Title shot. Instead, Tiffany announced a 10-Man Battle Royal for later in the show, which Kozlov and Jackson would be part of. Regal would have to face Hurricane in the opening bout.

Regal fought in his street clothes, making it a great fight as initially Hurricane was taking it to him. Despite the akward outfit and lack of mobility, Regal managed to pull off a win when Hurricane was climbing back into the ring through the ropes. Regal with a quick running knee to KO Hurricane. An extra nice touch came when Regal was informed by the ref that Hurricane's leg was beneath the rope. Whether it was planned or not, great move by the ref, and Regal pulled the leg in to secure the pinfall. A good opening match, however Hurricane was also excluded from the Battle Royal later on. Most likely due to being attacked in the ring by Paul Burchill. You've got to wonder why Tiffany wouldn't remove Burchill from the match for his actions, but can't have it all.

We also saw Yoshi Tatsu with a surprise uspet victory against rising star Zack Ryder, which made a nice set up for later in the night. In their match, Ryder seemed to dominate but the fan favorite Yoshi Tatsu delivered a surprise roundhouse kick to Ryder's head, knocking him down for the 3 count pinfall. Both men would later be involved in the 10 Man Battle Royal to determine the #1 Contender for ECW Title.

The Battle Royal was probably one of the better ones seen in some time, because it didn't have John Cena, Randy Orton, Edge or Triple H. Even the fact that Regal ws excluded made it more interesting, because it was hard to call who would win. Going into the match, I was under the impression one of the big men would take it, such as Ezekiel or Vladimir, maybe even Sheamus. But surprisingly it came down Tommy Dreamer, Vladimir Kozlov and Zack Ryder. In true heel fashion, Ryder did an Edge style move to win. Dreamer had just managed to knock Kozlov out of the ring, so Ryder snuck up behind Tommy, grabbed his legs and tossed him out. Definitely a nice surprise win to set up a Ryder-Christian bout, but I don't know that Ryder will be on the Hell in a Cell PPV. Probably will get a shot at Christian on a future ECW show.

All in all, the ECW show may be seen as the minor league or transition for FCW stars to WWE, but if offers some fresh and unique matches with newer superstars. The crowd was really behind Goldust in Canada, making his momentum building effort in the Battle Royal more fun to watch. The fans were hot over Shelton Benjamin's performance as well as he was holding on to the ropes and managed to pull Ezekiel Jackson to the outside. Great action, great crowd responses, now that's what Raw needs to work towards, or they just need to bring more Canadian fans to the US shows.

ECW's New Diva Savannah

(Angela Fong debuts as Savannah on ECW)

On the 09/08/09 episode of ECW, Josh Matthews and Matt Striker introduced the latest member of their ECW broadcast team, a new diva named Savannah. Savannah conducted her first official WWE backstage interview when she talked to Tommy Dreamer and Christian prior to their main event match against Vladimir Kozlov and Ezekiel Jackson. See footage of that interview here.

Savannah (Fong) was a former BC Lions Felions Dance Team Cheerleader and also competed in the 2007 WWE Diva Search. Although she didn't win the contest, WWE signed her to a developmental contract. She's worked with Flordia Championship Wrestling (FCW) as a ring announcer and wrestler up until now. Some may have quickly believed that ECW's Courtney Taylor was replaced by Savannah, but Taylor still is on the ECW Superstars page at WWE.com, and is featured in a new divas photo shoot here. She also had an interview she did with William Regal, Kozlov and Jackson after last night's show. Video available at WWE.com.

ECW's New Diva Courtney Taylor

You may have seen the new blond backstage ECW diva Courtney Taylor on the August 18th, 2009 episode of ECW on SyFy. Courtney did her first interview as the newest member of the ECW crew when she spoke to ECW original Tommy Dreamer backstage. Here's a little more information about this new on-air personality for ECW & WWE.

Courtney Taylor's real name is Beverly Mullins and she came from the Florida Championship Wrestling organization. At FCW she was first involved in a series of appearances with another familiar WWE Diva, Tiffany (Taryn Terrell). The two competed in lingerie contest for FCW, until Tiffany eventually was called up and now serves as ECW General Manager.

Courtney Taylor (Beverly Mullins) changed her in ring name to Daisy and became a valet for FCW wrestler Alex Riley. She also began competing at FCW as of March 2008, and went up against the likes of Rosa Mendes, the Bella Twins and Alicia Fox, who are all now a part of the WWE.

In addition to WWE, she's been featured in Playboy Magazine several times. She's a former Hooters girl and was in the Playboy's Women of Hooters 2008 issue in February 2008. She's been featured in a Hooters YouTube pillow fight and claims her idol growing up was Stone Cold Steve Austin.

We wish Courtney Taylor best of luck in her new role as an ECW on-air personality and hope to eventually see her in the ring!

WWE News: Edge Surgery, Cena & Borat...

WWE Superstar Edge suffered an achilles tendon injury (left ankle) just a week or so ago during a WWE House Show. It happened during a main event bout against Jeff Hardy where Edge landed badly, and then had to stop wrestling, requiring help getting backstage. The injury will supposedly shelf the superstar until early 2010 due to surgery and recovery time. Surgery was done by Dr. James Andrews at Andrews Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Center at St. Vincent's Hospital in Birmingham, Ala. WWE.com posted recent photos of the surgery here.

Add another superstar to the injury list. According to the SUN UK, WWE Smackdown star, Matt Hardy is expected to be on the sidelines for about eight to 10 weeks. Matt suffered a torn abdominal muscle 2 weeks ago in the US title Triple Threat versus Kofi Kingston & MVP. More about the injury and surgery at The Sun UK.

THQ has released the official cover for the upcoming WWE game Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 (featuring ECW). The cover features John Cena front and center, flanked by Edge, Undertaker, Orton, and Rey Mysterio. The game will be available November 10, 2009. See the cover and pre-order your copy here.

WWE has landed a legendary rock band to do the theme for Summerslam 2009. Boston rock band Aerosmith will supply "You Gotta Move". It was featured on the band's 2004 album Honkin' on Bobo. There's no word if the group will perform the song live at Summerslam, but with their current tour they'll be 50 miles away in CA on August 23.

JR's BBQ Blog discusses Jim Ross' thoughts on the 7/6 episode of Raw. Ross applauds Million Dollar Man's moves as guest host for the show, discusses splitting up the Colons, and talks up Randy Orton vs. Ted Dibiase as a future Wrestlemania main event. Ross also notes that Matt Hardy had surgery and won't be wrestling for a while due to that. Read more here.

It appears that John Cena and Borat/Bruno are buddies. A recent article "Ten Things You Never Knew About Sacha Baron Cohen" reveals:

7. It may sound like an unlikely friendship, but Cohen is apparently best buddies with WWE wrestler John Cena. Online reports have claimed that the Brüno star is a big fan of the sports entertainment format. Maybe we'll see Borat and co at the next Wrestlemania or Royal Rumble.

**Special reminder, ECW will air on Sci-Fi Thursday night at 7PM EST. It moved from its traditional spot of 10PM EST Tuesday nights due to the 2 hour premiere of "Warehouse 13".**

ECW's Abraham Washington Show

(ECW's Abraham Washington)

Tuesday night's ECW debuted several new wrestlers and WWE personalities on the show to make up for the void left in the wake of Evan Bourne, Mark Henry, Jack Swagger, Finlay and the Hart Dynasty all being moved to either Raw or Smackdown. On ECW we got a glimpse at two foreign imports in Sheamus and Yoshi Tatsu. Each debuted with a win, with Sheamus going the Vladimir Kozlov squash route and Yoshi winning with a single kick to knock out a mocking Shelton Benjamin. We also saw a newcomer named Tyler Reks backstage letting Zack Ryder know they'd be fighting on Thursday's WWE Superstars.

Abraham Washington also showed up on ECW to some obvious painful crowd reactions. It's always a kick when the crowd starts up the traditional Stone Cold "What?!" response after everything a wrestler says. According to pwtorch.com, Washington is supposed to be a play on Barack Obama, although he was more like the daytime talk show host looking to stir up controversial situations. His first guests on the debut of his in-ring segment were the beautiful Bella Twins and he got the two twins fighting over who was the better kisser, student and athlete. WWE.com video footage here

Abraham Washington's real name is Brian Jossie, and he was formally trained at Ohio Valley Wrestling, then signed with WWE in September 2008. Jossie worked as Abraham Washington in FCW where he was a manager to a tag team known as The Secret Service (Agent T and Agent D).

None of the new roster members are on the ECW superstars page at WWE.com yet. All of the new talent as well as some of the other current WWE stars (Rosa Mendes, Tyson Kidd, Alicia Fox) are pictured on FCW's Talent page here but there are no bios.

WWE's 15 Superstar Trade Details

Before selling WWE Raw back to Mr. McMahon at double the original buy price, Donald Trump made sure to orchestrate a major superstar trade between the three shows. That's right ECW, Raw and Smackdown each acquired 5 new superstars just months after the 2009 WWE Draft. Here's the breakdown of who went where:

Moving to the Raw roster:
Gail Kim
Alicia Fox
Jack Swagger
Evan Bourne
Mark Henry

Moving to the SmackDown roster:
Matt Hardy
Finlay
The Hart Dynasty - David Hart Smith, Tyson Kidd & Natalya

Moving to the ECW roster:
Shelton Benjamin
Goldust
William Regal
Brie & Nikki Bella

It's interesting to see just who went where. As we already know Raw picked up some major talent from the ECW in Henry, Swagger and Bourne, and as you see above they added 2 Smackdown divas, Gail Kim and Alicia Fox as eye candy. Matt Hardy wasn't quite cutting it on Raw, so a move back to Smackdown where his brother wrestles makes some sense. The Hart Dynasty also needed to be showcased in the tag division and quite possibly they'll make a run at the unified titles now.

The moves of William Regal, Goldust and the Bellas to ECW definitely will be interesting as well. Shelton Benjamin's been there before, but maybe this time he'll capture the ECW title. William Regal could be a contender as well, while Goldust leaves behind Hornswoggle at Raw.

Read more on the Superstar trades by Trump here at WWE.com.

Watch Full Smackdown Episodes Online!

For fans who may not receive MyNetworkTV on their cable or satellite dish package, the website Hulu.com provides full episodes on their website. Here is the June 19, 2009 episode of Smackdown from Roanoke, Virginia. The show includes two exciting main event matches with CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio and Jeff Hardy against Chris Jericho.

In addition, Hulu provides episodes of ECW, WWE Classics, WWE's Tribute to the Troops and several Pay-Per-View highlight moments. The ECW and Smackdown episodes seem to be posted on Hulu just a few days or less after the actual episode has aired. So head over to Hulu and catch up if you've missed any episodes!

Watch Smackdown episodes at Hulu.com

ECW Star Tony Atlas Returns Home

The Roanoke Times featured a front page photo and story about WWE legendary superstar, ECW's Tony Atlas. Atlas (real name: Tony White) currently serves as the manager for ECW superstar Mark Henry, "The World's Strongest Man". Last week on ECW, Atlas saw himself back in the wrestling ring as he went toe-to-toe with the high-flying Evan Bourne. On Tuesday night's ECW, Atlas was at ringside, giving support and morale for Henry as Mark finally defeated Evan Bourne with the World's Strongest Slam.

It was a homecoming for Atlas as he returned to Roanoke where grew up in Clifton Forge, VA, attending Patrick Henry high school back in the 1970's. He saw familiar faces along the way as he did a media tour prior to the live WWE event from Roanoke Tuesday night. Tony's trip included a radio show for WSLC, an interview (alongside Henry) with Natasha Ryan of WDBJ Channel 7 news, eating a plate full of ribs at Blues BBQ Company, and working out at the local Golds Gym in Roanoke. Atlas wrapped it up with the ECW event televised Tuesday night.

Atlas is enjoying recent success but according to the article on him and his history, Atlas fell from glory. His story is almost similar to that of The Wrestler movie. He was prominent in WWE back in the days when things were much different and he once held the Mr. USA Bodybuilding title. According to the Times' article, other wrestlers actually helped give him cortisone injections and re-set bones/joints. Atlas fell victim to drugs and became homeless, then was taken in by a woman who helped him on the road to recovery. He married her and they've been together for 20 some years now. Tony's financial situation is also much improved, as he was doing gigs in high school gyms and serving as a part-time personal trainer. A call from the WWE let him know he was being inducted into the Hall of Fame, and eventually he signed a new talent contract with the company, giving him his current manager role. Atlas plans to buy his first house now that he's making some decent coin.

You can check out the full article "Wrestler pins success" at Roanoke Times website along with a photo slideshow and video footage of Tony Atlas' visit back to his home of Roanoke, Virginia.

Matt Striker Nude Photos Leaked

(Striker in hot water with WWE?)

Current ECW commentator and former wrestler/manager, Matt Striker, may have given the wrong type of anatomy lesson to a former partner via his cell phone. According to pwnewsnow.com, pwinsider.com and multiple other wrestling news sources, nude photos of Matt Striker have recently surfaced, which are watermarked with "GM presents Matt Striker". The photos were leaked to the internet and show the WWE personality caught with his pants down, literally. Celebrity gossip blogs and other sites are promoting the photos, which display full frontal nudity of the ECW commentator.

Striker is a 34 year old former high school social studies teacher (Queens, NY) and currently part of WWE's broadcast team as he is a co-host, co-commentator of ECW on Sci-Fi with Josh Matthews. According to reports he's got a better deal as an announcer with WWE than most others, including more benefits. The WWE may receive some bad publicity from this recent news as they've been trying to make their various shows and Pay-Per-Views more "PG" rated. Unlike the Vickie Guerrero nude photo scandal on WWE.com, this one doesn't appear to be part of a storyline, but it will be interesting to see if WWE tries to spin it as one.

2009 WWE Supplemental Draft Results

The WWE had coverage of its Supplemental Draft for 2009 over on WWE.com where several superstars have now officially switched rosters. In total, 24 different names were moved amongst the various rosters. Notably, several tag teams and pairings have been broken apart with this draft which will make things interesting on the different TV shows. Below is a list of all 24 supplemental draft moves featuring the various superstars and divas and which roster they were drafted to. This concludes the 2009 WWE draft moves.

1) Mr. Kennedy - drafted to RAW
2) Shad Gaspard - drafted to Smackdown
3) Alicia Fox - drafted to Smackdown
4) Primo Colon - drafted to RAW
5) Mike Knox - drafted to SmackDown
6) Ezekiel Jackson - drafted to ECW
7) Nikki Bella - drafted to Raw
8) Candice Michelle - drafted to Smackdown
9) Zack Ryder - drafted to ECW
10) Chavo Guerrero - drafted to Raw
11) Ricky Ortiz - drafted to Smackdown
12) Layla - drafted to Smackdown
13) Hornswoggle - drafted to Raw
14) DH Smith - drafted to ECW
15) John Morrison - drafted to Smackdown
16) Carlito - drafted to Raw
17) Natalya - drafted to ECW
18) Festus - drafted to Raw
19) JTG - drafted to Smackdown
20) Dolph Ziggler - drafted to Smackdown
21) The Brian Kendrick - drafted by Raw
22) Charlie Haas - drafted by Smackdown
23) Hurricane Helms - drafted by ECW
24) Brie Bella - drafted by Raw

Commentary: So things have become even more monstrous in the land of extreme. ECW gains yet another behemoth wrestler in Ezekiel Jackson who is of course The Brian Kendrick's bodyguard from Smackdown. Jackson is definitely a heavyweight caliber competitor and can compete for the ECW belt. Along with him, DH Smith makes the move to ECW as does Natalya, officially. Many are already suggesting a new Hart foundation will form with Tyson Kidd there as well. Also, the unified tag team champions have been moved to Raw, while Cryme Tyme moves to Smackdown. Alicia Fox is drafted to Smackdown, taking her away from DJ Gabriel, as are Mike Knox and Shad Gaspar of Cryme Tyme, breaking up a third tag team. Meanwhile Raw will regain superstar Mr. Kennedy.....Kennedy! It's going to be very interesting to see how the various stars Hornswoggle, Alicia Fox, Festus do now that they've been moved away from their allies (Finlay, DJ Gabriel, Jesse). During WWE Universe's live coverage of the supplemental draft Howard "The Fink" Finkel posed a very important question "Who's going to ring the bell for Festus if he needs it?" A good question indeed.