Episode 2 of Season 9 of The Apprentice aired this past Sunday night at 9pm on NBC (March 21, 2010), with former WWE Diva Maria being the project manger for the Women’s Team.

On episode two of The Celebrity Apprentice 3 (The Apprentice 9)—In a very risky move early in the competition—Maria Kanellis stepped up to the plate and took the helm as project manager for the women’s team; “Tenacity.” In the challenge, each team had to run a Kodak Storefront. Maria’s vision included a wrestling ring with title belts, and a red carpet. In the end, the Kodak presidents believed that the women promoted the product better, and they won the challenge. That gave Maria $20,000 for her charity, the “Make a Wish Foundation.”

—Scrippsnews.com has a new article up on Maria, promoting her job as a backstage correspondent on the “King of the Cage: Legacy” mixed-martial-arts show on HD-Net. Addressed in the article was her unexpected release from the WWE and Celebrity Apprentice. One very interesting note was her describing her wrestling ability:

“I lost all the time,” Kanellis said. “I wasn’t blessed with amazing wrestling ability. I worked my tail off to get better. But some people look good fighting and some look like spiders in the ring. I was a spider with only seven legs and one dangling. I watch some of my matches and say, ‘Oh dear.’ I think people felt sorry for me and thought, ‘I know that girl,’ or, ‘I am that girl.’ “

—Former TNA Knockout Awesome Kong will be wrestling for Ring of Honor on May 8th, 2010 at the Manhattan Center. She will take on Sara Del Rey. On March 25, the website posted “We hinted at it a couple of days ago, and now it is done…Ring of Honor management has finalized the contracts and it is official,” which spawned news sites reporting that Kong has “signed” with Ring of Honor.

Kong posted the following on Twitter:

“I feel very happy to be joining the ROH roster!”

Episode 1 of Season 9 of The Apprentice aired this past Sunday night at 9pm on NBC. Recently released WWE Diva Maria survived the first episode, along with former WWE manager Cyndi Lauper, and Bill Goldberg.

Cyndi Lauper was featured most on the episode, as she was the project manager on the Women’s team (“Tenacity”). The world renowned singer had a brief stint in the WWE as the manager of soon to be Hall-of-famer; Wendi Richter. The task for the episode was to run a restaurant, in which the women lost. In the end, comedian Carol Leifer was sent home, a decision that Maria helped Donald Trump to make, by suggesting who she felt should go home. Among Maria’s responsibilities on the episode, was serving and cooking.

—Since leaving the WWE, Maria has signed on as part of the broadcast team for MMA show “King of the Cage” on HDNet. Celebrity Apprentice was filmed before her departure.

In this edition of The Rundown: Former Three-time WWE Women’s Champion Ivory talks to WWE.com, Alicia becomes the First-ever WSU Triple Crown Champion, WSU Notes, Maria the 2009 Diva of the Year and more.

—TNA has officially announced it’s 4-hour “New Years Knockout Eve iMPACT!” special. The show will consist of all knockouts matches, and also feature the best matches of 2009. This will be a big night for Women’s Wrestling fans. Tune in Thursday December 31, for a must see show. Who will show up? Angelina Love? Roxxi? Jacqueline? Jazz? Sojo? How about some of our favorites of the Independent scene?

This will certainly hold all the naysayers at bay, who were quick to lash out on TNA for the controversial booking of the Knockouts on last week’s show (TNA Knockouts – December 10, 2009 Impact Report). The show included a drunken brawl between Tara & ODB, a mud-match between Lacey and Velvet, among other matches. It was all in good fun—The Knockouts Division should be back on track on this week’s episode of Impact.

—Speaking of controversial bookings and disgruntled fans. On the December 14 episode of Raw, Maria was announced as the 2009 WWE Diva of the year. What? Really? And we are suppose to believe that this was a result of online voting? Notice the word “booking” being used. Even if fans were voting with their ***** and not their brains, Maria wouldn’t win… Kelly Kelly maybe, even Maryse. How about arguable the most popular WWE Diva; Mickie James, who has consistently won any legit contest involving reactions or voting.

Could Maria’s win have anything to do with her scheduled role as a contestant on the upcoming season of Celebrity Apprentice?

Maria’s push is now in full effect. On the December 15 episode of ECW, she was featured on the “The Abraham Washington Show.” In the segment, they did a recap of the Kanye West/Taylor Swift parody done by Maria and Batista during her acceptance speech from Raw, among other shenanigans. (Click Here For The Video) Maria will also be featured on this week’s episode of Smackdown (WWE Divas – December 18, 2009 Smackdown Spoilers).

—Also on ECW, was Savannah (Angela Fong) making her ECW ring announcing debut.

—Former three-time WWE Women’s Champion Ivory is featured on WWE.com in their “Where Are They Now?” section. (Click Here For The Article) This was part one of the feature, which focused on her days as “Tina Ferrari,” in the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (G.L.O.W.) and Powerful Women of Wrestling.

—Speaking of former WWE Women’s Champions, Thank you! to all the wrestling sites (Wrestlezone, Diva Dirt & More) that featured our Jazz video from this past weekend as WSU taped “The Awesome Challenge” DVD. Yes, Women Superstars Uncensored latest taping which took place December 12, 2009 is tentatively set to be titled “The Awesome Challenge.” The main event, was Mercedes Martinez successfully defending her title in a hard fought battle against Awesome Kong. Also on the show, was Alicia defeating Brittney Savage to become the new WSU Spirit Champion.

Lethalwow will like to congratulate Alicia, who became the first-ever WSU Triple Crown Champion (World, Tag & Spirit) with the win. Alicia took the time to speak to Lethalwow after her win, in which she was ecstatic about making history in WSU. Click Here For Alicia’s Lethalwow Profile. Sumie Sakai and Jennifer Cruz also spoke with Lethalwow, who should have profiles on the site in the near future. (Click Here For Photos Of The Show)

Also this past weekend was the WWE’s big TLC pay per view (WWE Divas – TLC PPV Results), which saw Michelle McCool successfully defend the WWE Women’s Championship against Mickie James. This was a great way for the Divas to end the year. Mickie James, who has been criticized for her lackluster performances certainly proved a lot of naysayers wrong. Michelle on the other hand, continued to showcase the great athlete she is. There are still two more matches to be added to our annual Women of Wrestling Year-End Awards. This is definitely candidate. Click Here To Vote For The 2009 Match Of The Year.

Cast Your Votes!

Click Here, for the most detailed headline hitting the net. Also on the show is Rod Blagojevich, Curtis Stone, Bill Goldberg, Summer Sanders, Sinbad, Carol Leifer, Sharon Osbourne, Darryl Strawberry, Bret Michaels and Cyndi Lauper.