Terri Runnels appeared on the Monday Night Mayhem radio show last week and was asked if there was any pressure on her for being married to somebody in the company at the time.

The hosts used Triple H and Stephanie McMahon as an example, saying that people argue over whether he has his position in the WWE due to his marriage. Terri replied with the following defense of Triple H:

"I will defend Triple H in a heartbeat because I remember way back when, I don't remember what year it was, but this was way back in WCW when Paul was at a party that Diamond Dallas Page and Kimberly threw, this was a Christmas party. And he had just gotten in the business, and I remember, everyone was saying "Here's this new kid" and he had just come in the business and, I remember watching him, and what I respected about him was, he was such a student of the business.

You could tell he wanted to soak up and learn absolutely everything he could. And so for that, you cannot, there's no way, if you really know who Paul Levesque is, and what he's done, the way he has ate, slept, and breathed this business, long before Stephanie, there's no way you can say he needed Stephanie to do anything. He didn't. And I think it's a great disservice to him whenever any fan says that.

Yes of course his life is made easier in terms of what he gets to do, I'm sure if he has an idea, it probably flies a lot quicker than, you know, any other Joe Blow, but to say that he hasn't earned the place that he's at in this business, I think is unfair."

John Cena turns 31 years old today.

The WWE star is busy shooting a new movie, but is rumored to be entering into a summer-long feud with Triple H upon his return.

In honor of Cena's birthday, here's a photo tribute to the grapper. Click on each picture for a larger version...

Here's what fans were treated to on ECW last night...

Tommy Dreamer and Kelly Kelly defeated Mike Knox and Layla. Kelly hit the Fameasser on Layla for the win. Afterward, Knox hit his finisher on Dreamer and left him lying.

Jimmy Wang Yang (w/Shannon Moore) beat John Morrison. The Miz sat in on commentary and immediately stated that it was a pleasure to be around someone with Adamle's legendary status. Miz also threw out the "Jamaican Me Crazy" line that Adamle used last week. Good stuff. He also referred to Yang as "Jimmy Wang Wang" and said it was okay because Adamle is allowed to mess up lines. As for the match, Yang hit a moonsault on a standing Morrison and scored the pin.

Kofi Kingston pinned Shelton Benjamin. Early in the match, Shelton jumped off the top rope into a dropkick. Shelton worked an arm hold and Tazz did a nice job of explaining the purpose of the hold. Later, Shelton went for a kick, but Kofi ducked it and hit Trouble in Paradise for the win. Solid television bout.

Mark Henry squashed Nunzio. During the match, the announcers hyped that the ECW replay on WWE.com was downloaded a record 155,000 times. Way to go, Mike Adamle! The match was a total squash.

Edge introduced Kane for the Cutting Edge segment. Edge said most people believe the most dominant family in wrestling are the Brothers of Destruction. "Your parents must be proud," Edge said.

Kane got upset: "My parents are dead and you will be too if you mention them again. He said he's taken out Edge before and can do so again. Edge pointed out that Kane's life sucks. He ran through Kane's history, including Undertaker burning his house down, the mask years, and the failed relationships with two women. Edge said he wouldn't mention one (Katie Vick), but pointed out the other was with Lita.

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Jim Ross updated the blog section of JRsbarbq.com. In it, he commented on a pair of issues from this week's WWE RAW:

On the King of the Ring tournament: "The KOR Tourney Monday night in Greenville, S.C. certainly had its moments that featured a strong first half of the bracket and a perplexing second half of the tournament bracket. KOR winner William Regal is arguably one of the more underutilized talents in the biz and even though Regal can definitely talk, which all General Managers must obviously be able to do, he adds a valuable element of experience and expertise to any bout in which he is involved."

On the Hillary Clinton vs. Barack Obama debacle: "Some wrestling pundits really slammed the 'match' between the impersonators posing as Hillary and Barack. I am not sure what folks expectations were for this "contest," but it was, plain and simple, nothing more than a publicity stunt that did garner a great deal of pub the week of a WWE pay per view.

The WWE made air on media outlets that would never mention the WWE unless there was a tragedy or a scandal. While the "match" was not my personal cup of tea, it did not last long enough to offend me and I sort of got a kick out of the ovation Umaga received when he came to the ring to put an end to the frivolity."

WWE has added a 12-Diva tag team match to the Backlash card this Sunday.

It will feature WWE Women's Champion Mickie James, Maria Kanellis, Ashley Massaro, Michelle McCool, Cherry and Kelly Kelly vs. Beth Phoenix, Melina, Jillian, Layla, Victoria and Natalya.

Check out other matches on the card now.

Here's a clip from last night's WWE RAW.

Reportedly, fans in attendance didn't care for the following Barack Obama/Hillary Clinton match. Can you really blame them?

Take a look now:

We aren't sure where the following, newly released photos of Karen Angle are from... but does it really matter?

Just drool over the thumbnails of this TNA Wrestling knockout now, clicking on each photo for a larger, more beautiful version:

WWE RAW put on a three-hour extravaganza last night. Did it live up to the hype? Let's recap it and find out...

Chris Jericho vs. MVP (King of the Ring match)
Jericho applies the walls of Jericho for the victory.
Winner: Chris Jericho

CM Punk vs. Matt Hardy (King of the Ring match)
CM Punk scores the pin with a reverse roll up on Hardy. Decent match. Could make for a solid feud.
Winner: CM Punk

The Great Khali vs. Finlay w/Hornswaggle (King of the Ring match)
At one point, Finlay is wrapped around the ring post and Khali is slamming his leg against the corner post from the outside of the ring. The ref counts him out. Big Show comes out but there is no showdown. Seriously, does anyone care about this Khali/Big Show feud?
Winner: by DQ - Finlay

William Regal vs. Hornswaggle (King of the Ring match)
Immediately, Regal puts Hornswaggle into the Regal stretch. Hornswaggle taps.
Winner: William Regal

Shawn Michaels comes down tot he ring calling out Batista for a quetsion. He asks Batista if he's mad at HBK because he wanted to be the man to take down Ric Flair in his final match. Batista says that he respects HBK’s career, just not how he got there. Batista will end it at Backlash. He leaves HBK standing in the middle of the ring.

Hardcore Holly w/Cody Rhodes vs. Carlito w/Santino
Holly goes for the Alabama Slam, but Carlito escapes for a backstabber on Holly.
Winner: Carlito
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WWE has been advertising a Barack Obama/Hilary Clinton match for tonight's three-hour RAW for weeks now - and we've been mocking it endlessly because, come on, was there any doubt this was simply leading to some stupid midget lookalikes squaring off inside the ring?

It looks like we may need to eat our elitist words, however.

While it's still unclear whether any sort of match will take place on the show, it does appear as though all three presidential candidates - Obama, Clinton and John McCain - will address WWE viewers in taped segments tonight. Pretty cool, funny stuff. Check it out:

Former TNA Wrestling announcer Leticia Cline claims she's been negotiating with World Wrestling Entertainment for a position in the company.

In her latest MySpace blog, Cline says she's had talks with the WWE several times, but scheduling is preventing any sort of deal from being finalized:

A lot of you have been asking what my status with TNA and WWE is so I thought I would do a mass blog to answer some of your questions. As of November 25, 2007 I was released from TNA after not seeing eye to eye with my contract and role on the show. I loved my time with TNA.

Might former TNA star Leticia Cline become one of the WWE Divas? We can hope and pray, can't we?

They are a great company and I truly am grateful for the year that I was with them. Wrestling is a very hard business to break into and an even harder one to stay in it. Since I didn’t come from a wrestling background and I had many other things going on for me I feel it worked against me as far as production was concerned. It was a constant struggle to get respect no matter how many times I would jump through hoops...

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