Backstage News On Shelton Benjamin's WWE Status, More

Shelton Benjamin's recent move to ECW was not done as a demotion, but rather in hopes that he'll once again emerge as a big fish in a small pond. The PWTorch Newsletter reports that the company feels if he heats up on ECW, they can always move him back to RAW or SmackDown. Shelton's reputation for years was that he's a great athlete but lacks the motivation to live up to WWE's expectations of him, and this caused his SmackDown push to be scaled back. The feeling of several sources is that he became complacent once he made some money, but has shed that reputation in recent months.

In another report by the PWTorch Newsletter, they state that WWE officials take into account the number of minority wrestlers they have on each brand. More than one source says that race was something taken into account as part of the recent 15-wrestler trade between brands.