Lashley made an appearance at Total Nonstop Action Wrestling's (TNA) Lockdown pay-per-view event on April 19, 2009, following a promotional video of himself that aired on the Lockdown stage video wall which confirmed his participation with the company. Lashley is going to have his first match with TNA on April 30,2009. On April 23, at the end of iMPACT!, Lashley made a semi-return giving notions towards joining the Main Event Mafia.

Jeff Hardy’s future in WWE has been a hot topic among the Internet wrestling community after pwinsider.com reported earlier this week that Hardy’s contract was expiring in the next two-to-four months and he had yet to accept WWE’s offer for a new deal.

According to the report, WWE wants to sign Hardy to a long-term contract. When he was not receptive to such a deal, the company then offered him a one-year contract with the hope of working out a longer deal later, but he has not agreed to that either.

If the report is accurate (pwinsider.com has a pretty good track record), it’s anybody’s guess as to what it all means. Hardy in real life is a lot like his wrestling persona in that he is something of an enigma.

Perhaps Hardy is burnt out on wrestling and needs to get away from it for a while. He certainly has been on an emotional roller coaster over the past year, as he received the biggest push of his career and finally won the WWE title, but he also was suspended for his second violation of WWE’s Wellness Policy and lost all of his possessions as well as his dog in a fire.

Unlike his brother Matt, Jeff Hardy does not seem to be consumed by wrestling. In an interview with me last year, Hardy said that he had lost his passion for the business when he left WWE in 2003. “It becomes a job and you do it so much and things get old,” he told me. Hardy said that his big singles push was largely responsible for him regaining his passion, but he also said that “there’s a lot of pressure and stress that comes with [it].”

WWE has done such a tremendous job of branding its name over the years that no one star is bigger than the company, but it still would be a blow to lose Hardy. He is incredibly popular with teenage girls and kids, and despite that fact, there hasn’t been a backlash among male fans. With Triple H having moved over to Raw in the draft, Hardy is currently slotted as Smackdown’s No. 2 babyface behind The Undertaker.

posted by Kevin Eck on weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/wrestlin...

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The biggest surprise on Raw’s three-hour draft special Monday night was that no one attempted to snuff out Vince McMahon this year.

The draft itself was basically a repeat of last year’s version in that stars from Raw and Smackdown switched places, while ECW garnered just one pick. At least one world champion always seems to change shows, and this time it was WWE champ Triple H, who – as most expected – moved back to Raw after a 10-month stint on Smackdown.

The addition of Triple H to a roster that includes world heavyweight champion John Cena means that Raw now has both world champions. That situation will be rectified if Smackdown’s Edge defeats Cena for the belt at the Backlash pay-per-view on April 26.

After U.S. champion MVP was drafted to Raw and women’s champion Melina was sent to Smackdown, it was predictable that Intercontinental champion Rey Mysterio would then go to Smackdown and divas champion Maryse would end up on Raw.

Chris Jericho going to Smackdown was a no-brainer because he’s done about all he can do on Raw.

A lot of people saw the John Morrison/Miz split coming, but I’m a little surprised that Miz is the one who got promoted to Raw while Morrison is staying put on ECW. A move that I didn’t see coming was Matt Hardy leaving Smackdown for Raw. Since the Hardys feud is still going, that doesn’t make sense to me.

Overall, I think Raw made out the best. While the brand lost Jericho, it gained Triple H, which means that money players Triple H, Cena, Randy Orton, Batista and Shawn Michaels are all on the same show. Raw also picked up another main-eventer in The Big Show.

The top of Smackdown’s card now has Edge, The Undertaker, Jericho and Jeff Hardy. Money in the Bank winner CM Punk, who comes over from Raw, could be in line for a nice push. Also moving from Raw to Smackdown are Rey Mysterio and Kane. Those two, along with Umaga, fit in somewhere between the upper mid-card and main event levels.

Although ECW landed just one pick (Vladimir Kozlov), it only lost one (The Miz), so the brand wasn’t weakened. I thought for sure ECW was going to lose Christian, but it appears that he is staying put. Of course, we won’t know everything for sure until after the supplemental draft is completed Wednesday. That’s when ECW will most likely acquire some talented mid-carders who are currently lost in the shuffle on Raw and Smackdown.

Once all the drafting is over, I will be interested to see if WWE stops having wrestlers appear on shows other than their own.

Here’s a look at each brand’s acquisitions Monday night:

RAW
Triple H (from Smackdown)
The Big Show (from Smackdown)
MVP (from Smackdown)
Matt Hardy (from Smacldown)
The Miz (from ECW)
Maryse (from Smackdown)

SMACKDOWN
Chris Jericho (from Raw)
Rey Mysterio (from Raw)
CM Punk (from Raw)
Kane (from Raw)
Melina (from Raw)

ECW
Vladimir Kozlov (from Smackdown)

posted on weblogs.baltimoresun.com/...

by Kevin Eck