As we’ve reported here on the site, Triple H was recently named the head of WWE’s new talent development program.

Check Out: Details On Triple H’s Booking Philosophy & Backstage Power

The first superstar signed by Triple H is Sin Cara. While WWE has high hopes for Sin Cara and see him as having the potential to be this generation’s Rey Mysterio, there were some botched moves in his first few WWE television appearances.

As a result, the decision was made by Triple H to draft Sin Cara to SmackDown, which is a taped show – where any botched spots can be edited off television.

WWE sources indicate that Triple H is taking his new role in WWE very seriously, but is nervous about his first “project” – Sin Cara.

While in Florida for Monday’s episode of RAW from Miami, WWE champion John Cena was interviewed this week by Bright House Network’s Rock Riley. To see video of John Cena’s interview, head over to BayNews9.com. Here are some highlights of what Cena said about:

Preparing For Life After Wrestling: “I have an extreme realist concept about me living this dream. I know that it’s entertainment and everything has an end point,” Cena said.

“Cena said he believes developments in this area have to do with the wrestling industry coming out of the dark ages decades behind advancements made by the NFL, MLB, and NBA in the area of protecting their players.

“Nowadays, we have talent given financial advisement, we have advisement on health care, they have to pass health exams, they’re drug tested. “You’re pointing talent in more of a direction to say, ‘Listen, this is the entertainment business. You have what you have while you’re in it and there will be an end point, so we’re preparing you for after that end point.'”

Edge’s Retirement: “This is the decision – I know Adam very well and he lives wrestling and is one of the best – but, if this were 1980, he would still be wrestling,” Cena said.

“Now, he got the advice, he said this is not the way for me to go, and on the spot, said, ‘I’m retiring.’ It was a decision that came out of nowhere, but there were some health risks involved and it was, ‘Listen, do you want to keep doing this and never walk again or do you want to live a normal life?’

“The obvious decision with the help of the doctors and WWE is, ‘I’m going to retire.’ That’s an example of how far the talent has evolved.”

Being A Role Model For Kids: “It’s a PG program, so I know a lot of kids watch our programming and in a world where role models are fleeting… I know where I’m at. I know WWE looks at me to be that guy. I was a team leader in college. I know what responsibilities you assume when you become a leader.”

WOO WOO WOO – YOU KNOW IT!

Mr. “Long Island Iced Z” Zack Ryder is back with another episode of the Z! True Long Island Story.

In Episode 12, Zack Ryder names the Broski of the Week, talks about the The Rock’s birthday celebration, searches for the “brass ring” Vince McMahon talked about on RAW and helps his Mattel action figure work on its tan. Check out, BRO:

— Robert Irvine, 45, a personality on The Food Network announced on Tuesday on the Preston and Steve morning show in Philadelphia that he is engaged to Gail Kim, 34.

This was first reported by Tammy “Sunny” Sytch, who was on hand for WrestleMania XXVII. Kim never denied the story, but was angry about getting it out, indicating she wanted to keep her personal life private. Since then, they were noted as a couple in an article in the Orlando Sentinel in an article about him being in town. Irvine attended the WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony as Kim’s date.

— It was reported Monday that WWE developmental wrestler Brett DiBiase, 23, was removed from the roster page of the Florida Championship Wrestling. It has since been confirmed that the third generation wrestler was released from his contract with WWE.

— Sunday’s WWE Extreme Rules pay-per-view event at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Florida drew approximately 10,000 fans.

— WWE referee Chad Patton turns 35 years old today while Hall of Famer Bill Watts turns 72.

source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter

WWE issued its First Quarter 2011 Financial Results on Thursday morning .. You can check out WWE’s official press release by clicking here.

The two main factors that make an apples-to-apples comparison between Q1 2011 and Q1 2010 are that WrestleMania was not included in the Q1 earnings report this year (as it took place in April) and there was a $2.8 million “film impairment charge” which reduced the overall net income of the quarter.

WWE Chariman Vince McMahon had this to say about the state of WWE:

“Looking ahead, we are optimistic about our longer-term opportunities to leverage our strength as the ‘New WWE’. We are pleased with the strong performance of WrestleMania, which is expected to deliver a 30% increase in domestic pay-per-view buys and reach more than one million buys globally. Further, the successful launch of our new program, Tough Enough showcases the power of our branded programming. We believe the recent adjustment in our dividend will enhance our flexibility to create and monetize new content, to distribute that content on a variety of existing and emerging media platforms and to execute our ‘New WWE’ initiative.”

Here are some additional notes that provide more insight as to “the story behind the numbers” –

– WrestleMania 27 is not included in these first quarter results as it happened on April 3rd, during the second quarter. WWE had WrestleMania 26 included in their first quarter results from last year.

– That said, pay-per-view revenues for Q1 2011 were $13.5 million, down from the $32.4 million from Q1 2010. With WrestleMania 27 not included in the first quarter’s numbers, there were only two WWE pay-per-views in the quarter. This year’s Royal Rumble did 446,000 buys and this year’s Elimination Chamber did 199,000 buys.

– Total net revenues from WWE Studios, live/TV events, consumer products and digital media for the first quarter in 2011 were $119.9 million, down from $138.7 million in the first quarter of 2010.

– Revenue from WWE Classics On Demand for the first quarter were $1.1 million, down from $1.3 million in 2010’s first quarter.

– Home video net revenues were $8.1 million, up from $7.6 million in 2010. Licensing revenues were $23.9 million, up from $19.9 million for the same period in 2010. The relationship with Mattel is paying off as revenue from toys increased by $3 million. Video game revenue is up around $2.2 million.

– WWE.com revenues were $2.7 million for the first quarter of this year, down from $3.4 million in the previous year’s first quarter. WWE blames this on a decline in pay-per-view webcast and wireless revenues. WWE’s shop website were $3.4 million for this first quarter, up from $3 million for 2010’s first quarter. Numbers of orders for the first quarter have increased to 83,000 with an average revenue of $40.59 per order.

– WWE Studios brought in $8.6 million for this year’s first quarter – up from $3.4 million in 2010. WWE attributes the growth in revenue to The Chaperone with Triple H. It was also noted that their financial statements reflect a loss of $1.5 million related to The Chaperone’s advertising costs, among other things.

— The Heyman Hustle website reports that Kia Stevens (a/k/a Awesome Kong) was almost not named Kharma because it was registered by Jennifer Thomas, a fitness model who was using the name at California based independent wrestling shows. WWE purchased the name from Thomas.

Thomas was under a developmental contract to WWE from 2005 to 2007. She is scheduled for a tryout soon.

— WWE asked their European video distributor SilverVision to pull a number of DVD titles from their website including Hart and Soul: The Hart Family Anthology, The True Story of WrestleMania, Greatest Stars of the ’90s, The Best of RAW 15th Anniversary and Raw The Beginning: The Best of Seasons 1 & 2.

Regarding this, Silvervision stated on their Facebook account, “It has been removed at the request of WWE – we’ll have more news on this next week.”

— The theme for the month of June on WWE Classics On Demand is “Bad to the Bell.” The synopsis reads: “Relive classics matches and moments with the Superstars that you hate to love, but love to hate.”

source: PWInsider.com

Busted Open satellite radio show with Lex Luger
Hosts: Dave LaGreca and Doug Mortman
Airs Mondays and Wednesdays on Sirius 92 and XM 207 from 2-4 ET

Luger on whether he’s pleased with WWE’s PG direction: “I’m very happy with the direction WWE is taking. I actually work behind the scenes with them now again and with their wellness club, I council a lot of their athletes on nutrition, wellness, exercise and taking care of their bodies. Their organization is really moving forward with that. I commend them on that. But also, they changed their ratings to PG content and more family orientated.

“The athletes now are better than ever and I was at Wrestlemania in Atlanta a few weeks back. The production quality and the athletes are incredible but they just want to make sure it’s family viewer friendly like the old Saturday night TBS days……those were the late 80’s and early 90’s when people would tune in on Saturday nights with the whole family and people say they miss that so I’m very excited with the direction that WWE is taking now and they’re definitely heading in the right direction in my opinion.”

Luger on Sting still wrestling at his age: “I think him and Undertaker…..their particular personas in wrestling are timeless. The fans continue to love their characters. I joke with Sting, he’s able to cover up with the jackets and paraphernalia like Undertaker. Their characters make them incredibly timeless. He’s still, and Undertaker’s still moving around the ring well and they have a lot of credibility with the fans…..they’re a couple of the greatest guys.

“It is incredible. I know what my body went through for 15 years and those guys are still doing it. You go beyond that with Ric Flair, Hogan and it’s just incredible some of these guys are still out there performing. My hat goes off to them. I give a lot of credit…..wow. It blows my mind.”

On Sting (a born again Christian) choosing TNA over WWE despite TNA’s adult content: “(laughing) I’ve heard people tell me that, and I tuned in to a couple of their shows recently and there is definitely some questionable content……I’m gonna have to bring that up to him. I’m gonna have to ask him about it.”

Was Elizabeth’s passing a turning point in his life? “There’s a lot of dark times and moments in my life back then, but that was definitely the lowest day…..one of the lowest, without a doubt. It’s a real tragedy. We all admired and loved her career and Elizabeth herself as a person. It’s a great loss to wrestling and a real tragedy. It’s a real tragedy of when my generation and I know that my relationship with her at the time, I was a contributory factor, the lifestyle of drugs and alcohol and things we were all doing at the time. It was a real lesson I’m able to hopefully that she…..it wasn’t in vain. I share that experience with youngsters out there to avoid the same paths.

“I’d like to say it was a turning point, but we all hear about the word rock bottom…..guys, I went further and deeper than that before the good Lord saved me from myself. I’d like to say it was a turning but even THAT wasn’t a turning point in my life.

“That’s another thing that WWE is being very proactive now with the Wellness Department and really train these guys with health and nutrition and drug prevention. We’re trying to prevent the young guys, this young generation of guys from going down the same path as we did back in the 80s and 90s. It was kind of cool to be partying and doing our thing on the road….we had no accountability. There’s a lot more accountability now on the road with these guys, a lot more supervision that we didn’t have that were trying to provide them with a real infrastructure. WWE is being very proactive in that regard and I commend them on that.”

Luger on reaching out to Scott Hall to give him the help he needs: “We’re still reaching out to those guys. I’m actually trying to get a hold of Scott right now. We don’t want any more of this to go on. Us and WWE and everybody involved really wants to turn the tide in that regard. It’s a life and death situation, so we definitely want to be available and do whatever we can in that regard.”

WWE issued the following on Thursday morning..

We’ll have a more detailed analysis up on the site later today:

WWE® Reports 2011 First Quarter Results

STAMFORD, Conn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–WWE (NYSE:WWE) today announced financial results for its first quarter ended March 31, 2011. Revenues totaled $119.9 million as compared to $138.7 million in the prior year quarter. Operating income was $13.2 million as compared to $37.3 million in the prior year quarter. Net income was $8.6 million, or $0.11 per share, as compared to $24.7 million, or $0.33 per share in the prior year quarter. There were several items that impacted comparability, primarily the timing of our annual WrestleMania® event and a $2.8 million film impairment charge. Excluding these items, revenues in the current quarter totaled $119.9 million, adjusted operating income was $17.4 million and adjusted net income was $11.2 million, or $0.15 per share. In the prior year quarter, revenues totaled $109.9 million, adjusted operating income was $22.6 million and adjusted net income was $14.7 million, or $0.20 per share.

“Our first quarter adjusted EBITDA declined 20% reflecting mixed performance from our business lines, including the impact of the ongoing transition in our talent base, and an increase in SG&A expenses. While we understand the lead time required to develop new characters with broad appeal, we were disappointed with our financial performance and our management team is working on addressing these challenges,” stated Vince McMahon, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “Looking ahead, we are optimistic about our longer-term opportunities to leverage our strength as the ‘New WWE’. We are pleased with the strong performance of WrestleMania, which is expected to deliver a 30% increase in domestic pay-per-view buys and reach more than one million buys globally. Further, the successful launch of our new program, Tough Enough showcases the power of our branded programming. We believe the recent adjustment in our dividend will enhance our flexibility to create and monetize new content, to distribute that content on a variety of existing and emerging media platforms and to execute our ‘New WWE’ initiative.”

The current quarter results reflected $1.4 million in marketing expense to promote WrestleMania XXVII, which occurred within our second quarter on April 3, 2011. In addition, the current quarter included a $2.8 million impairment charge related to our film, 12 Rounds. WrestleMania XXVI occurred on March 28, 2010 and was included as part of our first quarter results in 2010. WrestleMania XXVI contributed approximately $28.8 million of revenues, $13.1 million of profit contribution ($8.8 million, net of tax) and $0.12 of EPS from across our various business lines in the prior year quarter. The Q1 2010 results also reflected an infrastructure tax incentive which reduced depreciation and amortization expense by $1.6 million.

If you haven’t heard by now, Randy Orton defeated Christian at Tuesday’s SmackDown tapings from Orlando to capture the World Heavyweight championship.

Earlier, we posted video of Randy Orton celebrating with the World Heavyweight title after the match. New footage has leaked online of the actual match finish – which you can check out below:

Warning: The Following contains a MAJOR spoiler for Friday’s SmackDown:

If you haven’t heard by now – Randy Orton defeated Christian at Tuesday’s WWE SmackDown tapings from Orlando to capture the World Heavyweight championship.

When news leaked online of the title change, fans bombarded the WWE twitter account with negative feedback. Styles responded to those angry fans with the following:

“When sending hate tweets to myself or @WWE because of @Christian4Peeps, @RandyOrton and the World Heavyweight Championship, please be PG ;)”

In related news, Randy Orton has been re-tweeting messages from angry fans writing on his own Twitter page. Orton retweeted this one:

“You won the title.Vince has no idea how much people are hating YOU on the Internet. I hope you continue to lose all your fans.”

VIDEO of RANDY ORTON Celebrating With The World Heavyweight Title

Syfy issued the following press release on Wednesday announcing that former WWE superstar Edge will be joining the cast of the new SyFy series Haven:

WWE SUPERSTAR EDGE(R) JOINS SYFY’S “HAVEN” AS GUEST STAR

Series Premieres Friday, July 15 @ 10pm

New York, NY/Los Angeles, CA/London, UK – May 4, 2011 – Syfy and Entertainment One (eOne) announced that WWE Superstar Edge will join the cast of Haven in the guest-starring role of “Dwight Hendrickson.” A shrewd, longtime Haven resident, Dwight served as a confidant to Nathan’s (Lucas Bryant) late father and assisted the former sheriff in keeping particularly suspicious supernatural activity under wraps. Now as acting Sheriff of Haven, Nathan finds himself reaching out to Dwight just as his father did before him.

As previously announced, Vinessa Antoine (Being Erica, Soul Food) joined the cast as Evi Ryan, and Jason Priestley (who stars in, directs and produces the eOne Television international hit dark comedy Call Me Fitz) will also come to Haven this season to direct one episode and guest star in a four-episode story arc. Antoine and Priestley will join Emily Rose, who plays “Audrey Parker,” a former FBI agent with a knack for investigating the supernatural; Lucas Bryant, who plays “Nathan Wuornos,” a handsome local cop with his own supernatural affliction; and Eric Balfour, who plays “Duke Crocker,” a local smuggler and reluctant aide in solving Haven’s troubles.

Haven is based on The Colorado Kid from renowned author Stephen King and is currently production on season two in Nova Scotia. Haven will premiere on Friday, July 15 on Syfy in the U.S. and Monday, July 18 on Showcase in Canada.

The Syfy original series from leading independent producer Entertainment One is co-commissioned by Shaw Media in Canada and globally via Universal Networks International (UNI).

The creative team behind the second season of Haven includes Executive Producers John Morayniss (Hung, Goodnight for Justice) and Noreen Halpern (Call Me Fitz, Rookie Blue) from eOne Television and David MacLeod (Legends of the Fall, The Ray Bradbury Theater) of Big Motion Pictures, who are joined by Lloyd Segan, Shawn Piller, Scott Shepherd (Stephen King’s The Dead Zone) and Matt McGuiness (Journeyman) as well as and Sam Ernst & Jim Dunn (Stephen King’s The Dead Zone) who also developed the series.

Haven is produced by Entertainment One and Big Motion Pictures in association with Piller/Segan/Shepherd and airs on Syfy in the U.S., Showcase in Canada and internationally on UNI’s multiple Syfy Universal channels. Entertainment One controls the worldwide distribution rights to the one-hour series and concluded a deal with Germany’s Tele Menchen Group (TMG) for the television rights in Continental Europe.

(Source: TheFutonCritic.com)

We’ve got some new details on the surprise retirement of former WWE diva Michelle McCool.

According to sources, McCool had been planning to retire for quite some time. WWE had reportedly planned to break up LayCool going back several months, well before WrestleMania 27. When WWE signed Snooki to wrestle at WrestleMania, the LayCool breakup plans were temporarily put on hold. The angle was resumed about a month ago and the decision was made to have Extreme Rules be her last WWE match.

The general feeling regarding why McCool is retiring as a WWE performer is that she and her husband The Undertaker are looking to settle down and start a family in the near future.

Check Out: Picture from The Undertaker & Michelle McCool’s Wedding

She is leaving WWE on good terms and has a job waiting for her in the WWE offices if she wants it. She is also being considered as a coach for the second season of Tough Enough, should that be made official.

Michelle McCool tweeted the following on Wednesday afternoon:

“your love is overwhelming! In next couple days I’ll gather thoughts & give y’all a blog &/or vlog! Til then….still processing:)”

(Partial Source: f4wonline.com)

— With WWE and TNA both taping their respective television shows on Tuesday night in Orlando, it’s worth noting that TNA stars AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels wrote on Twitter that they bumped into WWE star Daniel Bryan at the airport. Daniels joked that he, Styles and Bryan wrestled an impromptu 3-way match at the airport.

— WWE diva Alicia Fox appeared to have suffered a shoulder injury at Tuesday’s SmackDown tapings from Orlando. According to live reports from several fans who were at the show, Fox took a stiff clothesline from Kharma and appeared to landed directly on her shoulder. We hope to have more on this soon.

– CM Punk has started tweeting again after taking a brief hiatus. In an apparent reference to online reports that he’s unhappy in WWE and considering leaving the company later this year, Punk wrote:

“Anybody hear any good rumors lately?”

— WWE star the Big Show is filming an episode for the USA Network show Burn Notice today. Show tweeted on Wednesday:

“On the set of USA’s Burn Notice I am playing the role of a thief! Cool fun stuff!”

Burn Notice star Jeffrey Donovan also tweeted, “Working with WWE The BIG SHOW!!! he’s REALLY big.”

— Just days after it was announced that his latest movie Fast Five opened big at the box office, it’s being reported by Deadline.com that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has ended his longtime relationship with his agent Darren Statt and signed with the prestigious William Morrison talent agency.

The Rock recently signed on to play country music singer Charlie Pride in the upcoming movie about Pride’s life and is also going to begin filming the movie “Snitch” later this year.

— Speaking of The Rock, apparently there’s an ugly rumor going around that he is dead. Rock tweeted on Wednesday morning:

“I would love to meet the person who is starting rumors of my death – to show them how a dead foot feels up their ass.”

Whoever starts these stupid rumors – get a life!

Well, that didn’t last long …

At Tuesday night’s WWE SmackDown tapings from the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida – Randy Orton defeated Christian to become the new World Heavyweight champion.

The match was made earlier in the night after Teddy Long let the fans decide Christian’s opponent between Orton, The Great Khali and Mark Henry.

This makes Christian’s World Heavyweight title reign one of the shortest in WWE history at just 2 days.

Check out this video footage (shot by an SEScoops fan) of Randy Orton celebrating with the World Heavyweight title:

What do you guys think about WWE pulling the plug on Christian’s first World Heavyweight title run?

COMMENT BELOW and let us know…

The ratings are in for Monday’s episodes of WWE RAW and WWE Tough Enough – and the numbers are virtually even with last week. Here’s the breakdown:

– Tough Enough drew a 1.70 rating with an average of 2.44 million viewers. This is still a bit under the 5-week average, which is a 1.86 with 2.64 million viewers.

– Monday’s RAW, which featured a special birthday celebration for The Rock as well as a John Cena vs. Miz WWE title match, drew a 3.45 rating and averaged 5.22 million fans. This is virtually even with last week’s WWE Draft edition of RAW, which did a 3.47 with 5.20 million viewers.

(Source: pwtorch.com)

WWE star Triple H was interviewed by Kevin Eck of the Baltimore Sun at the recent “BA STAR” anti-bullying campaign red carpet event in Washington, D.C.

“See, here’s the thing. I think a lot of people misunderstand what we’re saying. When we say we’re just going to be ‘WWE’ now and not ‘World Wrestling Entertainment,’ I think people think we’re walking away from our core product. That’s not it all,” Triple H said.

“We just do so many things very well. We’re a live event production company that does live events probably better than anyone else on the globe…We do live event touring probably better than anyone else in the world. We do merchandising and marketing as well, if not better, than anyone else in the world. There are abilities for us to take those core competencies and offer them to the outside world in addition to what we do.”
Eck also spoke with Stephanie McMahon and former WCW champion David Arquette at the event. Arquette was asked about his infamous WCW title win, to which he said, wrestling fans were upset but anybody who was a lifelong fan like him would have a hard time turning down that opportunity to be part of wrestling history.

You check out video of the interviews below:

— Kharma is a member of the Raw roster. WWE.com added a profile on the wrestler formerly known as Awesome Kong to the Raw Superstars page today. She is not, however, listed as a WWE Diva.

Kharma made her debut at Extreme Rules, attacking Michelle McCool following the Loser Leaves WWE Match. The following night on Raw, Kharma interrupted a match between Kelly Kelly and Maryse. She gave Maryse a lifting double underhook facebuster, but left the ring without attacking Kelly.

Meanwhile, McCool’s profile has been moved to the WWE Alumni section.

— ESPN.com posted an article concerning last night’s episode of Monday Night Raw. The article notes Miami Heat players Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and other athletes helping Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson celebrate his birthday. The result of the WWE Championship Match between John Cena and The Miz is also mentioned.

— Sunday’s Extreme Rules pay-per-view event featured 1 hour, 38 minutes and 47 seconds of in-ring action. By comparison, WrestleMania XXVII had 1 hour, 41 minutes and 6 seconds of in-ring action.

— WWE is participating in a promotional campaign with Best Buy for the new Blackberry Playbook Tablet as they’re having Superstars post comments on Twitter regarding the device, as well as a link to BestBuy.com.

— Both Kelly Kelly and former WWE Diva Stacy Keibler are ranked in Maxim’s “Hot 100” list. Kelly ranked #82 while Keibler ranked #72.

Kelly is ecstatic over the news as she posted several congratulatory messages from fans and colleagues on her Twitter account.

She added, “Thanks so much to everyone for all the love and Congrats on maxim hot 100 this was such a dream come true for me!!!!”

At Sunday’s Extreme Rules pay-per-view, John Cena defeated The Miz and John Morrison to capture the WWE Championship and end The Miz’s 5-month reign.

Miz’s reign included impressive title defenses against Randy Orton at the Royal Rumble and John Cena in the main event of WrestleMania XXVII.

We want to know what YOU think about The Miz’s WWE title reign.

• Was The Miz deserving of the WWE Championship?
• Did he have a good run as champion?
• Did holding the WWE Championship for 5 months help elevate his status?
• Now that he’s no longer champion, do you still see him as a top star and a contender for the title?

COMMENT BELOW and tell us what you think about The Miz:

– WWE Hall of Famer Bret Hart wrote the following on Twitter regarding the death of Osama Bin Laden:

“I hope before his trip 2 hell, dad, Owen, Bulldog, & Pillman gave Bin Laden torturous stretching. As a dual-citizen, couldn’t be more proud.”

– Chris Jericho’s metal band FOZZY has announced concert dates for June 4 in Brantford, Ontario, June 5 in Long Island, NY and July 14 in Frankfurt, Germany.

– The April 29 edition of WWE SmackDown! brought in 3,057,000 viewers and finished with a 1.96 cable rating.

– Ryan Nemeth, the younger brother of Dolph Ziggler, has been wrestling as “Briley Pierce” at Florida Championship Wrestling.

– WWEShop.com has a new Undertaker t-shirt for both WrestleMania XXVII and his now 19-0 Mania record.

SEScoops.com was at Monday’s WWE RAW from Miami  and shot this exclusive video of what happened after the show went off the air .. Check out what happens when The Rock is greeted by two young fans wearing John Cena merchandise:

— WWE developmental wrestler Brett DiBiase has been removed from Florida Championship Wrestling’s roster page, which would indicate that he has been released.

The third generation wrestler had been under contract to WWE since 2008.

Meanwhile, Briley Pierce and Rodney Thomas were added to the section. Pierce is Dolph Ziggler’s younger brother, Ryan Nemeth. Thomas is a student from Lance Storm’s Wrestling Academy who has competed as “Shotgun” Brock Barker.

— Matches taped last night in Miami, Florida this week’s episode of WWE Superstars are as follows:

* Beth Phoenix vs. Melina

* Evan Bourne vs. Zack Ryder

— WWE returns to the Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson, Mississippi on August 26, 2011 and the Fed-Ex Forum in Memphis, Tennessee on August 27, 2011.

source: PWInsider.com

Zach Ryder is back with another installment of his Z! True Long Island Story video series. In this episode, Ryder declares himself the WWE Internet champion .. Check it out here .. WWWYKI!

Check out these video highlights from Monday’s RAW featuring The Rock’s birthday celebration from his home town of Miami, courtesy of WWE’s YouTube channel:

WWE looks back at the tragedies of 9/11

Lilian Garcia sings the National Anthem:

Mysterio & Kofi Kingston vs. Swagger & Drew McIntyre

R-Truth brutally attacks John Morrison

Kane vs. Mason Ryan

The Rock goes face-to-face with Michael Cole

Superstars pay tribute to The Rock’s movie career

Pitbull and the Miami Heat dancers join The Rock

John Cena vs. The Miz – WWE Championship Match

John Cena announces Osama bin Laden is dead after Extreme Rules went off the air:

Kharma makes her RAW debut

Mya sings “Happy Birthday” to The Rock