When The New "WWE Superstars" Show Will Start, Three WWE Stars Up For Award

— The official website of WGN America is running a contest for a trip to two to WrestleMania XXV in Houston, Texas. The contest ends two weeks from new on March 8th with runner-ups receiving copies of WWE’s Legends of WrestleMania video game. To enter the contest, click here.

WGN America is also running ads on television for the contest, as well as the new “WWE Superstars” show. According to the ad, the show will debut on Thursday, April 16, 2009 at 8:00 p.m. The ad says Superstars from RAW, SmackDown and ECW will be on the program.

As reported earlier today, the WWE Draft scheduled for April 13th at the Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia will be a three-hour program. Due to the three-hour Draft, WWE probably won’t be able to tape a slate of matches for the show’s debut. If that’s the case, the first “Superstars” taping will take place the very next week when Raw is at the London O2 Arena in the United Kingdom.

The new “WWE Superstars” show is expected to be a “C-Show,” so it will likely feature Superstars having trouble getting ring time on the televised Raw, SmackDown and ECW programs. On Friday, we did a report listing the WWE Superstars who have competed in two matches or less on television so far this year. To recap, here is a list of the Superstars and Divas you can probably expect to regularly see on the program:

Superstars: Charlie Haas, Curt Hawkins, DJ Gabriel, Dolph Ziggler, Festus, Goldust, “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, Hurricane Helms, Jamie Noble, Jesse, Jimmy Wang Yang, Kizarny, Kung Fu Naki, Manu, Ricky Ortiz, Sim Snuka, and Zack Ryder.

Divas: Alicia Fox, Brie Bella, Candice Michelle, Katie Lea Burchill, Maria, Mickie James, Natalya, and Nikki Bella.

With the new “WWE Superstars” show taking place, it should also be taken into account that WWE will likely ease up on calling up developmental talent to the main roster (especially those on the bubble) because there should be less pressure to instantly succeed. WWE can tryout out new wrestlers and gimmicks before deciding whether to regularly feature them on the main shows or not.

No word yet on who the commentators for the show will be. WWE has former Velocity announcer Josh Mathews calling matches in developmental promotion Florida Championship Wrestling, so if WWE has plans to use someone new, he looks to be the best bet. As far as the ring announcer is concerning, it will probably be Lilian Garcia as the show is being taped before Raw and she’s already available in the building. Garcia handled the ring announcing duties for WWE Heat through the show’s demise last May.

— This past Friday, E! aired the The Soup’s 2009 Awards Show. A heavy-breathing, face-to-face backstage segment from a November episode of Raw with Randy Orton, Manu, and Cody Rhodes was featured as a nominee for the following category: “Best Display of Homoeroticism By A Guy Who Is Totally Not Gay… Seriously… Come On You Guys… I Mean It.” The segment featured an intense staredown between Rhodes, Manu (breathing heavily), and Orton. Unfortunately, the segment didn’t win. The winner was Chet from “The Real World” who denied being gay. He was shown wearing a pink pop-up collar that he made on a sewing machine, followed by a roommate singing, “I knew he was gay all along.”

This is the fourth time in which the backstage segment has been featured on an episode of The Soup. You can see the original clip at the following link.

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