THQ will be spending $11 million to market the new SmackDown vs. RAW 2008 video game. A cool $7 million will be spent here in the United States and $4 million across the rest of the world starting with the big launch on 11/13.
The “One Night Only” return of Degeneration X on RAW last week was Vince McMahon’s way to satisfy Bonnie Hammer, the head of the USA Network. Hammer is in favor of using stars she is familiar with from the WWF Attitude era.
WWE.com has announced that Matt and Jeff Hardy will once again team up on next week’s Friday Night SmackDown to face the team of Mr. Kennedy and the United States Champion MVP. Also confirmed for next week’s SmackDown, the final stop before the Survivor Series pay-per-view is World Heavyweight Champion Batista taking on Mark Henry. WWE’s SmackDown preview is also teasing more with Batista and The Undertaker, MVP and Matt Hardy as well as the Rey Mysterio vs. Finlay feud.
In the tradition of hiring girls who have been eliminated from the WWE Diva Search, I’ve been told that WWE has signed Lena Yada to be the new backstage interviewer for the ECW program. Lena was eliminated from the Search a month or so back. Originally WWE wanted her to start training in Tampa, FL at the FCW developmental territory but Lena had to turn the offer down due to personal family reasons. WWE wanted her to come on board so bad they came back to her with a second offer, that being the new backstage interviewer on ECW. Eventually Lena is expected to make the trip down to Tampa to begin training in the ring. She is currently training at a local gym learning how to take some simple bumps and such. The deals are being finalized now, but look for her to make her ECW debut within the next month.
