Backstage News: Maria, Helms, Burchill, & Armstrong Firings

— SITE NOTE: Things are really going to get busy in the coming weeks with TNA iMPACT! vs. WWE RAW on Monday night’s starting March 8th as well as WrestleMania 26. Expect double the news on a daily basis as we increase our coverage. It’s going to be wild over the next few weeks/months so be sure to check back in often. We usually start posting news around 10AM EST and continue on until about 2AM EST depending on how much breaking news there is on that particular day. Check back often guys and enjoy the ride with us! You can email me (Ryan Clark) at Webmaster@ProWrestlingSCOOPS.com. If you’ve got a newsbit please pass it along. We’ll try to confirm it and then post it here on the website with credit to you. Be good guys and PLEASE COME BACK OFTEN!!! As corny as it sounds, we owe all of our success to you – our loyal fans!

— The firing of Scott Armstrong comes as a big surprise to many as WWE is in need of referees and they aren’t highly paid. As noted earlier, Armstrong was very well liked among his peers and many were surprised to see him go.

— As noted earlier, Maria’s WWE firing is somewhat surprising as well as she was awarded the Diva of the Year Slammy last year and is set to be on NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice this season. She will represent WWE during the show. She has been vocal in interviews recently about wanting to phase down her involvement in wrestling, so the release may have had something to do with that. She seemed fairly shocked earlier with her Twitter messages. She said she was not told in advance and was notified today that she had been fired. As noted, she celebrated her 28th birthday yesterday.

— Shane Helms’ release should come as no surprise obviously. That had been brewing for quite some time now for obvious reasons. It’s interesting to note that Matt Hardy is all that’s left of their ‘clique’ (Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy, Shannon Moore, & Shane Helms). With Jeff Hardy and Shannon Moore in TNA it wouldn’t surprise me to see Helms wind up there shortly once his 90 day no-compete clause is up. So Helms gets fired and Jericho gets the World title. That’s a double-standard if I ever saw one.

— We don’t have much to report on the WWE firing on Paul Burchill other than it appears to be a case of ‘creative has nothing for him’. It’ll be interesting to see what they do with Katie Lea.

— All fired WWE talent were notified via phone today by Senior Vice President of Talent Relations, John Laurinaitis. All were told there was a possibly of a return down the line which is the standard message Laurinaitis gives to all released WWE talent.

Katie Lea Burchill, Carlito & Primo Colan, & Shad Gaspard Fired From WWE – Not Yet Announced!