WWE releases The Brian Kendrick

Former tag team champion and Raw superstar, The Brian Kendrick was released by the WWE several days ago. The 30 year old Kendrick first started out as a character named "Spanky" on SmackDown back in 2003, and started campaigning for a job on the show with Stephanie McMahon. He even feuded with John Cena as both superstars used a rap gimmick. Kendrick left WWE as of 2004, but made his way back in the summer of 2005 after wrestling in independent gigs.

WWE issued the following standard statement regarding the release on WWE.com:

World Wrestling Entertainment has come to terms on the release of Raw Superstar Brian Kendrick as of today, July 30, 2009. WWE wishes Brian the best in all future endeavors.

It was a tough past several months for Kendrick since arriving to Raw, in fact he was almost ridiculed weekly, being made as a jobber for Hornswoggle, Jerry Lawler, Festus and countless others. Just a week ago, he was on the receiving end of a loss to Kofi Kingston, in less than a few seconds after the bell rang. What a way to go out huh? The Brian Kendrick had started a gimmick of looking for the best tag team partner he could find on Raw, only to end up getting into it with the ones he chose.

He did have a good bit of success on Smackdown, first with his former partner Paul London. The duo carried the tag team belts for a long period of time and were hailed as one of the top tag teams in all of WWE. Upon London and Kendrick's split up, Kendrick was re-introduced as "The Brian Kendrick", a flamboyant and cocky rockstar like wrestler who came to the ring with his bodyguard Ezekiel Jackson. At one time (probably due to the injury situation), Kendrick was even thrust into the World Heavyweight Title Scramble match last year with other top competitors. That surprised tons of fans but maybe made many fans take notice as well. Unfortunately, upon his arrival to Raw, Kendrick had no true direction for his character, and now is out of work. Best wishes to Kendrick on his future career plans wherever they may land him.

Raw Revelations: Batista, US Title & Kendrick

The 5/11/09 WWE Raw provided a great showing for the Animal, Dave Batista, this past week, as he turned the tables (or chairs & steps) on Randy Orton for once. A week ago it was Orton and Legacy severely injuring Shane McMahon and smashing his ankle. Shane was sent out via stretcher in agony, as Batista rushed down to chase off Legacy. Unfortunately the damage was already done. On the latest Raw, Batista unleashed all fury as he went after Legacy one by one backstage, then tried to give Orton a dose of his own medicine, smashing a chair down on his ankle. Orton managed to escape before the steel steps came into play, so he wasn't taken out of the arena on a stretcher like Shane McMahon. Of course this likely indicates Orton will retain the title at Judgment Day to continue his reign as the evil champion, but it was still fun to see things go against Orton for once.

Montell Vontavius Porter was able to score a pinfall victory on William Regal. It would be nice to see MVP keep getting a big push now on Raw. His interruption of Randy Orton weeks ago was a good start and hopefulyl an indicator that he's going to be in the WWE Title picture soon. The interruption almost reminds you of Chris Jericho interrupting The Rock years ago, except the exchange wasn't quite as entertaining. MVP definitely has the ability to become a bigger star, if the company uses him properly. He's got the cool move that the crowd seems to love with his "Ballin'" elbow drop, a la The People's Elbow or the Five Knuckle Shuffle, and he's got the "M-V-P" chant behind him. It's good to see him feuding with the likes of William Regal, since they've never been involved in a feud before, and adding Matt Hardy into this makes it more intriguing. I'm still expecting MVP to drop the US title soon to one of these guys, and then hopefully he will get back into it with Orton & Legacy. Possibly a Money in the Bank win at Wrestlemania 26?

Maybe even more intriguing was The Brian Kendrick's statement made after he defeated Carlito, that he's moving on to Step 2 of his plan to find "The tag team partner" who will help him defeat the Colons for their tag team belts. A smart choice might be The Miz, unless WWE is grooming him in the fashion of Chris Jericho to be a cocky, loud-mouthed insulting superstar heel. Beyond Miz, there's not much to choose from on Raw as everyone else really is involved in feuds. Is Paul London secretly going to return? It's hard to see Mr. Kennedy teaming with Kendrick either. Who knows, maybe we're in store for a Kendrick-Goldust pairing after all...