Lena Yada Turns 30, Even More On Lena & Palumbo's Firings
Today is former WWE Diva Lena Yada's birthday. Yada turns 30 years old today. Happy birthday, you're fired. – From WWE. Ouch.
Regarding the release of ECW backstage announcer Lena Yada, there are two reasons behind her departure from World Wrestling Entertainments (besides the cost cutting measure). The company wanted to eventually use her as a wrestler. Though obviously athletic due to her time as a former top ranked professional tandem surfer, she had not progressed much as a wrestler. There were actually ideas tossed around to capitalize on her surfing background, but Vince McMahon nixed them immediately and the creative team got the message.
This time last year, McMahon had to be convinced to sign her to a contract coming off her tenure in the Diva Search. The creative team lobbied for her, saying she had a unique look that stood out among your usual blond silicone Diva types. The lobbying paid off as she was signed to a deal and started on television at the start of 2008 — even before the official WWE debut of 2007 Diva Search winner Eve Torres.
Following the news of Yada's departure from World Wrestling Entertainment, a number of fans speculated online that Yada was being let go as a result of the recent hiring of former TNA Knockout Gail Kim, who is of course Asian too. As it turns out, the speculation appears to be correct. According to one source, as soon as WWE signed Gail Kim (who is indeed under contract to the company), both Vince and Stephanie McMahon felt there was no reason to have Yada on the roster anymore since "they looked too much alike." Yada technically participated in her first wrestling match at last Monday's Raw in the 16-Diva tag match. However, she was not tagged in. Although, her team won, so she has the rare distinction of being undefeated in WWE competition alongside Braden Walker and Frankie Kazarian.
She's since logged on to her MySpace page, but hasn't spoken out out or removed the numerous WWE references on the page, including the headline that reads "It's all about the ECW...." and her profile photo being a graphic of herself informing people to tune into ECW every Tuesday on Sci Fi. Ironically, Lena Yada was released a year to the date of her hiring — November 10, 2007.
Regarding last week's departure of Chuck Palumbo, apparently, his contract recently expired and it was widely assumed he wouldn't be signed to a new one because the company hadn't done anything with him in months. Palumbo was said to be the typical idea of what Johnny Ace thinks a wrestler should look like because he's big and tall. Of course, his perception is based on Vince McMahon's perception of what a WWE wrestler should look like.
After being released in '04, Palumbo returned to the company in the spring of '06. At the time, WWE was looking for "big" wrestlers as opposed to juiced up wrestlers, what with the Wellness Policy in effect. That explains how the likes of Bull Buchanan and Henry O. Godwinn got tryouts that year. Also, Palumbo had a brother in the military, which might have helped his cause in landing a job.
Despite not being employed in late '05, for some reason JBL made a comment saying one of the company's wrestlers had a brother in the military, in reference to Palumbo. Rumors then started up on WWE being interested in him, and he was eventually signed. Anyway, McMahon liked Palumbo's biker gimmick at first, but the creative team was said to never be high on him, believing he'd never get over, and McMahon eventually lost interest in him as well. Palumbo seemed to have a good thing going in his program with Jamie Noble, but it wavered off and he soon got lost in the shuffle after a brief angle with Finlay. Following his brief angle with Finlay, Palumbo was drafted to Raw, but not used on television once, only working a handful of house shows.
In an ironic twist, Palumbo was drafted to the Raw brand in July 2004, but didn't appear on Raw a single time. He primarily wrestled on Heat where he developed a car mechanic/enthusiast gimmick. He was released in November of that year during a talent purge as well. Regarding his future in wrestling, as reported earlier, Palumbo is trying to land a job in Mexico, but it may prove to be difficult. Rey Mysterio, through his connections, is trying to help him get a job in AAA, but the promotion has already turned down several ROH wrestlers and there's a moratorium on bringing in any more foreigners in as regulars. Also, former WWE wrestler Mark Jindrak (a.k.a. "Marco Corleone") is trying to get Palumbo in CMLL.