A couple of weeks back, Torrie Wilson announced on her Myspace page that her doctors had advised her to retire from wrestling due to a back injury that has sidelined her for the last few months. The other shoe dropped on May 8 when WWE officially released Torrie after 7 years with the company, ending a career that spans almost a full decade.

Most of us will recall that Torrie debuted in WCW during its glory days of the late 90's, and was involved in a feud between future husband Billy Kidman and Shane Douglas in 2000. While she was never considered a serious contender for the women's championship while with WWE, Torrie did make some strides as an in ring competitor the last couple of years. At one point, any time there was a bikini contest or any sort of similarly gimmicked event, if Torrie was entered, she usually won going away.

At 7 years, Torrie was second only to Raw ring announcer-chanteuse Lillian Garcia in terms of diva seniority. Victoria now moves into Torrie's role as the Elder Diva in the locker room, but there are already people speculating that Vic, who has a knee injury long in need of repair, might not be around much longer. Like Torrie, Victoria (Lisa Varon) has a side business to keep her busy when not on the road. Will Torrie resurface elsewhere, other than the convention circuit? No one really knows at this time.

Good news for Raw fans. Beginning in 2009, the US Open Tennis championships, long a late-summer attraction for USA in conjunction with CBS, moves to ESPN, a move that had been rumored as far back as a year or two ago. Now, all WWE needs is for the Westminster Kennel Club to follow suit.

Reports out today are refuting the rumors issued 2 weeks ago, claiming that Jonathan Coachman was ESPN-bound. No one knows where the rumors actually started, but a lot of people bought into them, including this reporter. What prompted the speculation was Coachman's abrupt removal from the Smackdown broadcast team after just 4 months, replaced at Backlash by Mick Foley. While Coachman would be a good fit at ESPN, they already have people of similar personalities in Stephen A. Smith & Stuart Scott. Coachman has a side gig now with MSG, and it might be a good move to merge his two employers together if he were to be asked to succeed Gene Okerlund as host of WWE Classics on MSG, with the 3rd season opener airing Wednesday. Will Coach actually leave WWE at all? Stay tuned to find out, effendis. That's all I can tell you.