WWE
– All eight Money in the Bank participants have been announced. The participants are as follows: CM Punk, Mary Henry, Kane, MVP, Shelton Benjamin, Finlay, and the last two, Kofi Kingston and Christian.
– As noted earlier, Vince McMahon recently issued a company-wide directive to prevent storyline plans from getting out on the Internet. They are going as far to plant red herrings in order to keep their creative plans a mystery to the Internet wrestling fans, not to mention discover the individuals within the company leaking confidential information to the people behind the wrestling news websites. In an update on the situation, Stephanie McMahon has been feeding false information to members of the creative team she suspects may be leaking stories, reports The Sun. Also, the writers are using company laptops with special software that tracks their e-mails and which websites they view.
– The 2009 Backlash poster has been released. Randy Orton is on the cover. Backlash is Sunday, April 26th.
NFL
– The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that Chargers’ RB LaDainian Tomlinson will stay with the Chargers as talks enter the “final stages.” Despite conflicting reports earlier, it now looks like LT will not have to take much of a 2009 pay cut from the $6.725M he is due. Instead, the restructuring will largely affect his 2010 and 2011 salaries. LT and his agent are likely to find that they won’t do any better on the open market, so look for the deal to get done soon.
– The Rams have signed SS James Butler to a four-year/$14M contract. He can earn another $3M in incentives.
– The Sports XChange‘s Howard Balzer reports that the UFL intends to pursue suspended Falcons QB Michael Vick. Vick will need the Falcons to release him for this to happen. The UFL would be a good place for Vick to get back into football shape.