We are now five days away from Unforgiven, but most of the news from today has to do with things not associated with the upcoming PPV. Here are some passing notes from some of the out of the ring developments of the past 24-48 hours.

* In a move that has been discussed for so long I can't believe it took this long, the WWE has finally said "so long" to former ECW Champion Sandman. They gave him his official release on Tuesday, one day after he was involved in the Vince McMahon "son" storyline on RAW. The funny part is Sandman was rumored to be on his way out a long time ago, yet lasted longer than Rob Van Dam, who did leave on his own though, and Sabu. Now the last real ECW original that is left is Tommy Dreamer, and it looks for now like Dreamer is safe in the company. Sandman will always be remembered to me as being Stone Cold before Stone Cold.

* They have released the toxicology report on former WWE Women's Champion and Hall of Famer Sherri Martel. The report stated that Sherri had multiple drugs in her system at the time of her death, including a high dose of oxycodone. The 49-year olds death is being ruled an accident, but that while there was not foul play involved, she did not die of natural causes. Sherri was a great in-ring and out of the ring performer, and her death for sure came too soon. Just another sad case of the ugly side of drugs being the end of one of the greats of the sport.

* While the WWE's suspensions are being served, Wrestling Observer Newsletter is reporting that all the wrestlers that were suspended were to be at Titan Towers to have a sit down about their dealings with the pharmacy they did business with. One wrestler missed his flight, and now word is he will be BIG TIME in the WWE doghouse for sometime. That wrestler - Chris Masters. Way to go Chris.

* I guess at some point, likely when the fall TV slate starts, we will have a couple of shows that will do in-depth pieces on the death of Chris Benoit as well as the murders of Nancy and Daniel. Recently Dateline NBC was at a SmackDown/ECW taping to speak with Chavo Guerrero and ECW ref Scott Armstrong, as these were two of the people that got text messages from Benoit shortly before it is believed that he hung himself. I would guess that will be a heavily hyped show that will hit the airwaves sometime in October.

* As we get close to the end of the suspensions for the WWE stars, one wrestler that will come back in a semi-main event program is Umaga. Looks like the face push is over, and that Umaga will have a program with Triple H, the wrestler that put him "out" with the sledgehammer that could go through the December PPV. Umaga should not be feeling any long term effects of having to sit out a month, as his character has been one of the strongest on RAW for about a year now.

Posted by Matt Loede on Wednesday, September 12, 2007 at 5:40 AM | Permalink